VHF/UHF Laminated Antenna

STAR-H Corporation has extensive experience designing, building and testing VHF and UHF laminated antennas. For this Phase I effort we will produce a set of innovative concepts for ultra-lightweight, low-cost laminated antennas (a) for adhesion(appliqu¿ing) to air and ground vehicles, to tentage and to other structures, and (b) for integration into textiles worn by dismounted soldiers, as well as for tentage. From this initial set of concepts candidate designs will be down-selected forprototyping, evaluation and delivery, leading to development in a Phase II effort. From previous work done by the Company, we are confident that the laminated antennas we produce will perform as well as or better than legacy antennas and, in addition,these laminated antennas will be significantly lighter in weight, lower in cost and totally covert. Acting as subcontractors to STAR-H will be Penn State University, with its world-class antenna design software, who will carry out electrical design workand Philadelphia University, with its leading-edge textile engineering capabilities, who will carry out the textile design and integration work. The commercial benefits of this work will be the replacement of heavy, unwieldy and expensive legacy antennas with ultra-lightweight, low-cost and simple laminated designs. Applications include body-borne antennas for firefighters, emergency workers andworkers in hazardous situations. Additional applications include vehicles ground and air vehicles and structures of various sorts (e.g., mountaineers' tents) where protruding, unwieldy and potentially hazardous antennas can be replaced with appliqu¿dantennas or antennas that protrude very little above the surface.