High-Performance, Low-Profile Antennas Utilizing Advanced Engineered Materials

ABSTRACT: PaneraTech, Inc., in collaboration with The Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory (OSU-ESL), is proposing a wideband conformal aperture based on Tightly Coupled Metamaterial Array concept (TCMA). This technology has a transformational capability to achieve the requirements of (1) conformalityonly millimeters thick; (2)high bandwidth (12.5-50GHz) more than 4:1 and up to 30:1; (3) extremely simple and of low weight; (4) multifunctional capability and applicable to many missions with different bandwidth and scanning requirements;(5) low cost feed design; (6) low angle beam steering. We will demonstrate feasibility of a thin (several mm) low-profile conformal wideband antenna that employs (TCMA) that is optimized to cover the required bandwidth. A key component of the proposed wideband aperture is that it can also scan low angles that are critical to achieving uninterrupted communication on the move. We will also employ broadband feed techniques along with characteristic mode analysis to identify optimal locations for feeding for each required frequency band. BENEFIT: The proposed research and development offers a new design paradigm in developing conformal wideband low-profile antennas. We anticipate that the proposed technology will lead to low-cost and low-profile antenna solutions for high-speed data communication links on aircrafts. It will enable low-drag and light-weight solutions in addition to increased antenna performance. It's anticipated that the proposed antenna technology also has significant potential in the commercial airborne platforms due to its low-cost and light-weight characteristics in addition to increased performance over legacy antenna systems.