Small Multi-Decade Communication Antenna

JEM Engineering has demonstrated the technical feasibility of applying Inhomogeneous Lightweight Artificial Dielectric (ILIAD) technology to spiral antennas to achieve size and weight reductions in a multi-decade communications antenna, via computational modeling. The lightweight and low loss ILIAD material is based on frequency selective surface technology, where a homogeneous block of dielectric material can be replaced with an electrically equivalent lamination of circuit boards and foam, to achieve independently controllable dielectric permittivity in three orthogonal axes. The proposed Phase II program will apply this technology, to build a Broadband Multifunction Spiral antenna covering the 225-2500 MHz band, for use in UHF Satcom and other CNI applications. This reduced-size antenna will be 7” x 7” x 2” deep or smaller, compared to a conventional spiral for this band which would be about 14” square. It will be possible to use this antenna on a tactical Naval aircraft without significant structural modifications. JEM also proposes to develop a linearly-polarized CNI antenna for tactical Naval aircraft using the same technology.