Omni-Directional MIcrostrip Antenna on a Soldier's Helmet

Omni-directional microstrip antenna system integrally located on a soldier's helmet for secure and reliable communications in the battlefield is the subject matter of this proposed innovative research. The antenna system consist of (N+1) circular microstrip patch elements integrally located on the soldier's helmet to provide omni-directional coverage with acceptable antenna gain for all positions for operational movement by the soldier. In one configuration, there is one microstrip element at the top of the helmet surrounded by N other elements in a ring at certain angular distance off the top element of the ring are staggered. Determination of the correct number of elements N and their positional arrangement s by analytical and computational means with suitable modeling is main trust of the PHase research. Communication link analysis for reliable secure communication will provide the center frequency, band width and the minimum required antenna gain profile. The design results from the modelling analysis will be experimentally iterated in PHase II to arrive at the optimum useful design.