ElectronicTextile Antennas

Long-duration wide-area surveillance missions increasingly are space-based. MEO orbits offer space-based radar systems more time on station, but require very large array apertures on the order of 100m in diameter. Achieving larger apertures with smaller,lighter launch packages and stable on-orbit pointing is a challenge that E-Textiles promises to meet. Textile processes can be used to achieve a low-cost, lightweight array capable of being stowed in a launch vehicle and deployed in orbit. During Phase I,we demonstrated the feasibility of E-Textile antennas by constructing and testing an assortment of multilayer antenna and feed modules. Copper wire and stainless steel yarns were hand-embroidered onto codura, vinyl coated canvas and fiberglass and stitchedtogether with foam and knit spacer fabrics to form textile-based microstrip patch antennas. Our Phase II work will build this E-textile technique using computer-controlled industrial embroidering machines to build up more sophisticated arrays withtolerances and repeatability afforded bya a computer-automated textile process. We will also investigate alternative E-textile methods such as nonwovens and custom metallic knits for building space-based antennas. The design will culminate in theconstruction of a 1m x 1m subarray that can be used to form a 4m x 100m array in a tile-architecture.