Super-Efficient Omni-Directional Antennas for Low Power Wireless Ammunition

The objective of this effort would be to investigate several candidate designs for a Super-Efficient Omni-Directional Antenna for Low Power Wireless Ammunition "Health" Monitoring Systems, and to explore the use of dielectric materials, including metamaterials, for the purpose of size reduction without compromising the antenna performance. The design will be carried out by using a new antenna modeling tool for handling complex structures, viz., the CFDTD and it parallel version, developed by RMA for the DoD. The advantages of using the code is that is very versatile and that it has been validated by the Navy over a two-year period during which they have thoroughly tested the code for a wide variety of antenna designs. Typically, the monopole is a good candidate for omni patterns. However, the monopole design is not conformal and, hence, we would need to investigate alternate configurations for the sensor that meet the specifications given above. Recently, under an SBIR subcontract, RMA has developed a number of antenna designs that are low-profile in nature, and our plan is to explore the possibility of tailoring some of these proven designs for the problem at hand.