Advanced Radiating Apertures for Reduced Signature Platforms

Through execution of AOE’s Phase I SBIR effort, AOE was able to achieve the primary objective of assessing the technical viability of AOE’s proposed bandwidth-tunable radiating element architecture concept toward the realization of an advanced technology ultra-wideband dual-polarized array capability that could conceivably support multiple high-power Electronic Warfare functionalities. This objective was achieved through a rigorous electromagnetic-simulation investigation using commercial and AOE’ proprietary 3D infinite scanning array FEM field solver software. Under AOE’s proposed Phase II SBIR effort, AOE will continue to refine and optimize the radiating element performance to achieve a greater than 25:1 (goal 36:1) bandwidth with continuous, efficient operation over the entire frequency band. AOE will then fabricate several radiating element test parts to completely refine and power test critical components of the tunable radiating element architecture. Following successful demonstration of the radiating element components, AOE will fabricate a nominal 16x16 element array antenna to demonstrate the overall radiating element performance.