Ultra-wideband Antenna Elements for Aircraft Applications

There is an increasing need for novel antenna apertures and surveillance components to address the network-centric environment envisioned for future Navy combat operations. Given the lack of available real-estate, the only viable approach is to reduce antenna size and increase aperture bandwidth to consolidate multiple antennas within a single aperture. This proposal focuses on developing a single miniature aperture that operates from 0.1 and 4 GHz with a minimum gain of -10dB at low frequencies. Our approach is based on a new aperture that incorporates several novel concepts to maintain gain while concurrently reducing size. Among them is the use of a novel magnetic ground plane, emerging volumetric materials and in-line circuits for wave slow down and impedance matching. Initial integration of these concepts has already been demonstrated. The proposed work will therefore focus on optimization among the components, maintaining the best gain across the bandwidth and achieving the best compromise in terms of gain, size and cost.