Low Cost Planar Antennas for Phased Array Radars

Under STTR Topic MDA07-T011, "Low Cost Planar Antennas for Phased Array Radars," Wang Electro-Opto Corporation (WEO) proposes to develop a low-cost planar array element antenna for integration into a beamsteering array panel. The planar array antenna should operate over the entire X-band for MDA's specific radar application, and achieve a 50% reduction in life-cycle costs from current arrays. The STTR effort will be supported by the Ohio State University (OSU) (primary) and Georgia Institute of Technology (GT). The technical approach will be focused on three baseline designs: (1) WEO's Integrated Antenna Phase-Shifter (IAPS), (2) OSU's Current Sheet Antenna (CSA), (3) GT's Fragmented Aperture (FA). These three baseline designs will be investigated and compared in Phase-I. The proposed research will leverage WEO's IAPS technology, OSU's CSA, and GT's FA, which are top candidates for low-cost broadband planar phased arrays. This STTR program will benefit from WEO's fifteen years' experience in developing ultra-broadband conformal antennas for the US Armed Forces. It will have a significant payoff, since the ElectroScience Laboratory of OSU has been the world's most renowned university laboratory in antenna research, including phased arrays, and GT is among the top university laboratories in antenna and radar technologies.