Next-Generation Electrically Small Antennas for Long-Range Communications

Before the advent of long-range Satellite Communications (SATCOM) in the 1960’s and 1970’s, High-Frequency (HF) band communications were a proven and reliable method for beyond line-of-sight communications. For a time, SATCOM systems proved to be more reliable and easier to implement, which relegated HF communications to military, disaster relief, amateur radio, and other more esoteric uses. Despite the popularity and advances in SATCOM, HF band communications have seen a resurgence in recent years. This renewed interest in the HF band has sparked much research into HF antenna designs, with a desire to be low-profile, electrically small, and still have electrical performance similar or better than proven solutions.  The Verus Research team proposes to develop an electrically small HF band antenna based on a conformal metasurface implementation. The compact, low profile, and conformal aspects of the design will allow for use on a wide variety of land, air, and marine vehicles, as well as base stations and man carried HF systems. The proposed design will be able to propagate Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS), local, medium, or long distance. Furthermore, the goal of the proposed antenna will be to outperform more traditional HF towel bar antennas currently used on rotor craft. The comparative performance metrics will be size, weight, VSWR, and gain.