Engineered RF Metamaterials for Electrically Small HF Antenna

Beyond line of sight (BLOS) communication is a type of communication that does not require a direct or unobstructed path between the transmitter and the receiver. BLOS communication is essential for military and civilian uses, especially in scenarios where traditional line of sight (LOS) communication is not feasible or reliable, such as in remote areas, mountainous regions, urban environments, or contested domains.  Depending on the frequency and power of the output, HF radiation can reflect off the ionosphere and cover great distances (hundreds of miles). As a backup in the event satellite communication channels are lost, current and future missions require aircraft to communicate at High Frequencies (HF) for BLOS communications. HF-BLOS is complicated by the size requirements for antennas operating at 2-30 MHz which are much too large for aircraft deployment. Novel, metamaterial-based antenna substrates are a new approach to overcoming these limitations in traditional antenna design.  In this SBIR project, TDA will demonstrate a high permeability, low loss tangent substrate for HF antenna that allows their miniaturization to the size where aircraft deployment is feasible.