Metamaterial Antennas for Army Platforms

In this SBIR project, we propose to investigate the application of three types of metamaterial that have been recently developed at the University of Michigan to antenna miniaturization on military vehicular platforms. These include embedded circuit electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) metamaterial, reactive impedance surface (RIS) substrates and magneto-dielectric metamaterials. The Phase I feasibility study will involve design, characterization and development of equivalent circuit models of these metamaterials for the HF-VHF-UHF bands using both computer simulation and experiment. A limited number of miniaturized planar antennas on such substrates will be fabricated and tested. The effects of the platform on the performance of the antenna will be investigated.