Efficient Wideband Antenna for JTRS Ground Mobile Radio (GMR) Communications Systems

The JTRS program is changing the future of radio communications by providing access to unprecedented spectral bandwidth and exploiting new developments in software-defined radio. To match these developments in radio technology, a significant improvement over the current state-of-the-art in antenna technology is required. Specific performance criteria that must be addressed include efficiency, gain, ease of integration, power handling, size, environmental durability, and user safety. While these objectives represent new challenges for antenna systems for communications, they must be satisfied without sacrificing affordability or practical operation. FIRST RF Corporation has evaluated these requirements and is proposing the use of two breakthrough antenna technologies that use innovative design techniques to meet the needs of the JTRS program. These concepts pair proven development approaches that have been demonstrated in FIRST RF’s antenna technologies with new antenna concepts from FIRST RF’s internal research and development (IR&D) efforts. Fundamentally, the volume required for a wideband antenna to maintain efficient performance across a desired band of interest is proportional to its gain and bandwidth. In order to accommodate real-world integration considerations, it is important to maximize the efficient use of this volume and provide a practical form-factor for the antenna.