Design and Manufacture of a Structurally Integrated Metamaterial Antenna (1000-122)

SI2 Technologies, Inc. (SI2) will use its Direct Write and metamaterial technologies to continue development of an electrically small, structurally integrated, conformal metamaterial antenna. The Phase I effort successfully demonstrated the feasibility of an electrically small antenna with an increased efficiency/bandwidth product. A structurally integrated Direct Write printed metamaterial antenna will minimize the space and weight impact to the platform by eliminating the parasitic packaging and structure associated with conventional antenna systems. The proposed Phase II base and option efforts will leverage the Phase I results to design and manufacture an efficient wideband antenna, such that it can be structurally integrated with advanced composites used on Navy platforms such as N-UCAS. The proposed concept utilizes several novel metamaterial miniaturization technologies and leverages SI2’s proprietary conformal electronics manufacturing technology to structurally integrate the metamaterial antenna system. Electromagnetic performance of the metamaterial antenna will be demonstrated through state of the art modeling and simulation. Manufacturability and structural integration of the engineered materials and antenna will be established through the design and manufacture of hardware demonstrators. Testing of the demonstrators will validate the simulation and the metamaterial antenna’s performance.