Reconfigurable Nested Plasma Antennas and Reconfigurable Stacked Plasma Antenna Arrays as Wideband Apertures and Uses in the JTRS

In this Phase I SBIR project for the US Navy integrated antenna set for software radios, Haleakala Research and Development, Inc., proposes to analyze, perform experiments on, and build prototypes of a set of wideband apertures that covers 2 to 2000 MHzsuch that these airworthy apertures can be used in conjunction with the JTRS with applicability.This problem is worth working on because current airborne and ground vehicular antennas do not provide adequate gain to the links provided by the JTRS. Plasma (ionized gas) conducts current like a metal and one can create an antenna from plasma. Theadvantage of the plasma is that it can be created on demand and one plasma antenna can be reconfigured in time or space to a variety of beam widths, bandwidths, directivities, and radiation patterns. Furthermore plasma antennas and plasma arrays cantransmit through one another whereas metal antennas cannot. We will meet the technical challenge by theoretically predicting and experimentally building wideband plasma antennasIn Phase II, Haleakala will implement the complete design package produced in Phase I. Our goal in Phase III is develop to provide a flexible single or multi-beam forming plasma antenna for both military and civilian use.