Dielectric Resonator Antenna

Currently, naval aircraft are covered with many antennas for VHF/UHF LOS communications, UHF satellite communications, L-band and GPS functions. Some of these antennas are of the blade type whose bandwidths are difficult to extend and whose form factor can impact the flight characteristics of the aircraft. Other, low profile, designs are usually cavity-backed requiring significant hull penetration inside the aircraft. Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRAs) provide a low profile and compact form factor as they can exploit the potential of high contrast materials and material gratings. Traditionally DRAs are designed for low loss, narrow band applications. So far reported bandwidths of DRAs have been up to mere 2:1 compared to 10: 1 or 100:1 bandwidths reported for other broadband antennas such as cavity-backed spirals. Applied EM along with its team members is proposing innovative concepts to substantially increase the bandwidth of DRA-type antennas. Indeed, our goal is to expand our current experience on cavity-backed antennas to DRA-type configurations. During Phase I, we will develop and demonstrate novel wideband DRA designs via full-wave numerical tools, with specific antennas to be optimized and constructed/tested in Phase II.