Innovative Low-Profile, Wideband Antennas for Radio Receivers on Mobile Air and Ground Platforms

There is a definite need for low-profile conformal antenna designs to replace the commonly used quarter-wavelength whip antenna for wideband (covering 0.3 – 3.0 GHz) systems on Army’s airborne and ground mobile platforms. Wang Electro-Opto Corporation (WEO) has been conducting research for such antennas for 15 years, and has developed antennas that are highly promising in achieving the general requirements of this SBIR A08-011 program. WEO proposes to develop a low-profile wideband antenna by modifying its existing well-established low-profile conformal antennas having a 10:1 instantaneous bandwidth. In Phase-I WEO will seek inputs from the Army technical monitor for specific performance and physical goals. Depending on the specific requirements, one of the following three WEO antenna technologies will be applied: the Spiral-Mode Microstrip (SMM) antenna, the Slow-Wave (SW) antenna, and the Traveling-Wave (TW) antenna. A ½-scale breadboard model that can best adapt to Army’s airborne and ground mobile platforms will be designed, fabricated, and tested in Phase-I. The test results are to demonstrate antenna performance similar to that of a whip antenna, yet having an instantaneous bandwidth over 0.6 – 6.0 GHz and with a low-profile feature suitable for Army’s needs, thus its adequacy for full-scale (0.3-3.0 GHz) brassboard development in Phase-II.