Techniques to Remove Surface Wave Effects in Conformal Printed Arrays

Pharad LLC proposes to design printed antenna arrays and develop antenna design techniques that have suppressed surface wave characteristics, thereby minimizing interactions between the antenna and the mounting platform. The principal structures we will utilize will be strategically located High Impedance Ground Planes (HIGP) that prevent the propagation of the surface waves. All proposed HIGP structures and printed arrays will be accurately modeled using full-wave analysis tools developed at Pharad as well as commercial software tools such as HFSSTM. Alternatives to printed antennas with HIGPs will also be theoretically analyzed and the results will be compared with our novel HIGP based antennas. The proposed antenna solutions will have enhanced radiation performance, thereby reducing the dependency of the antennas on the environment in which they are mounted. The main focus of our work will be to develop HIGP structures that minimize surface wave effects without compromising the other characteristics of the antenna, including the bandwidth and manufacturability of the proposed phased array. Pharad will experimentally verify the suppression characteristics of surface waves in each antenna structure.