Miniature GPS Antenna System

MetaMaterials with new advancements such as fragmented aperture antenna arrays may offer additional significant advantages in the drive to provide reduced size, high efficiency controlled radiation pattern antennas (CRPAs). The Spectra Research team proposes to apply fragmented aperture and MetaMaterials technology to develop a lightweight small antenna solution capable of receiving both the L1 and L2 GPS bands necessary for military applications. Previous DARPA-sponsored programs in MetaMaterials have lead to the development of materials directly applicable to reducing patch antenna size while other DARPA-sponsored initiatives fragmented aperture technology has resulted in a toolset readily equipped to allow these antennas to receive both GPS bands. This combination can be manufactured using planar circuit board fabrication and solves the anti-jam problem without the need for esoteric textured LTCC materials. Furthermore, these antennas are made with very flexible dielectrics presenting the potential for future application to conformal surfaces.