Conformal, Light-Weight&Load-Bearing Antennas Based on Conductive Textile Threads

ABSTRACT: NextGen Aeronautics Inc. proposes use of CNT yarn to weave antenna elements into composite fabric used on Unmanned Vehicles. Use of highly conductive materials, which have previously demonstrated performance at least as good as copper at the desired frequencies, woven into the structural materials will enable antennas to be more simply mounted on a UAV. This ease of integration will also reduce the required structural modifications, weight of the antenna system, and drag on the vehicle. Additionally, by using different mounting points the antenna performance can be improved. This will lead to fewer antennas or more capability for the vehicle. By using structural excitation technology, which team members have worked on previously, the antenna size can be quite small compared to the frequency, enabling lower frequency capabilities on small vehicles. The team will review multiple conductive materials to ensure that the one with optimal performance in the desired frequency band is used. The final material will be woven into a demonstration article and tested to validate performance simulations. BENEFIT: Currently small UAVs are not able to have low frequency antennas at the commonly used UHF and VHF frequencies do to the size of the antenna required to pick up the transmissions. By using structural excitation technology, the whole vehicle can be used as an exciter for the antenna, allowing the actual element and associated hardware to remain much smaller and lighter for these low frequencies. Enabling these vehicle to access the VHF and UHF frequencies will greatly improve their capabilities and usefulness to the warfighter on the front lines. In addition to providing improved performance for new vehicles, integrating conductive materials into existing composite structures will allow these structural excitation antennas to readily replace existing antennas or be added to a vehicles existing EM suite. Simply replacing some of the skin panels with ones incorporating the highly conductive material will allow any vehicle to use the structural excitation technology and effectively operate much larger antennas covering much lower frequencies than is possible now.