Electrically Small VLF Transmit Antenna for Airborne Applications Using Time-Varying Tuning

The field of time-varying tuning to enable ultra-wideband antenna operation is new. There are many academic papers examining potential approaches to enabling use of electrically small antennas using such time-varying impedance matching. However, no practical embodiments have been developed, let alone fielded. The specific operational use case that would benefit greatly from such a development is transmission of Very Low Frequency (VLF) signals from airborne platforms. VLF is used to transmit strategic military and governmental signals in a national emergency. Current conventional antenna designs are cumbersome to operate. However, this VLF band and low data rate use case is the perfect application for moving the research to application. During this Phase I feasibility study, the AntennaSys and UMass team will research existing publications and relevant applications and will characterize the solution space and development challenges in the areas of efficiency, speed of matching, and power handling with respect to the VLF use case. We will design, build, and demonstrate a best effort proof-of-concept scale prototype system to confirm the feasibility of applying time varying matching to enable the use of an electrically small transmit antenna for low frequency.