Miniaturized GPS Antenna Array Using High Dielectric Materials

The low power of the GPS satellite makes these signals particularly susceptible to jamming. The best anti-jamming (A/J) performance demonstrated with a GPS receiver to date has been through the use of nulling antennas. Adaptive nulling electronics have been designed that can support J/S margins of up to 98 dB.Because of physical size limitations, the use of antenna arrays have been restricted to date to large vehicles such as aircraft. There is widespread interest in using GPS on small "smart" munitions which have been demonstrated to be highly effective in programs such as JDAM and LOCAAS. In this proposal, an innovative high-dielectric antenna array is proposed that will reduce the array size to within a 6" diameter.NAVSYS are currently under contract to ARPA to develop a miniaturized GPS antenna to be embedded in a cellular handset. Under Phase I, an antenna array design will be developed and demonstrated using this miniaturized patch as antenna elements. Under Phase II, the antenna array will be integrated and tested with the A/J adaptive electronics currently being developed for the USAF by our partner, ENSCO.