SBIR-STTR Award

In this program, Spectra Research will investigate issues related to the design and development of aircraft-mounted communication antennas that do not cause significant aerodynamic drag and do not require structural penetration of the aircraft hull, while providing vertically polarized coverage to the horizon and circular polarization the zenith within a frequency band of 30-2000MHz. Concepts will be explored that can be utilized for conformal application of new antennas onto curved surfaces. As a consequence, new antenna concepts that will provide for multiple functions in a common pliable aperture will be explored and optimized. When antennas are being designed around these new concepts, advanced tools and techniques are required to accurately simulate the antenna structure and optimize the antenna performance, while exploiting the advantages of a complicated electromagnetic environment that may include custom materials such as metamaterials (including electronic bandgap structures) as well as artificial dielectrics and artificial magnetics. The objective of the proposed research program is to demonstrate new computational tools and design methodologies for optimizing antenna performance while demonstrating advanced antenna constructs that may be utilized to reduce antenna profile and size, and to increase radiation efficiency in an ultra broadband, common aperture configuration.

Benefit:
The Spectra Research commercialization strategy will take advantage of the clear market pull for advanced antennas for both military electronics and the commercial broadband communications arena. The key features offered by common aperture antennas are extremely low cost and versatility over a wide range of frequencies by virtue of the wide tunability 0x9D of the devices. We are confident that this antenna project can help achieve an instant market through numerous applications in the Military, Homeland Security, and commercial markets. Spectra Research and its team members collaboratively plan to continue to pursue other markets for compact, wideband common aperture antennas and are currently developing Phase II and Phase III product insertion plans for the navigation, telecommunications and SATCOM markets.

Keywords:
L-band, L-band, metamaterials, Communication Antennas, conformal, UHF, VHF, wideband antennas, Common Apertures

Leveraging the Phase I program results, Spectra Research will investigate issues related to the design and development of aircraft-mounted communication antennas that do not cause significant aerodynamic drag and do not require structural penetration of the aircraft hull, while providing vertically polarized coverage to the horizon and circular polarization toward the zenith, within a frequency band of 30-2000MHz. Concepts will be explored that can be utilized for conformal application of new antennas onto curved surfaces. As a consequence, new antenna concepts that will provide for multiple functions in a common pliable aperture will be explored and optimized. When antennas are being designed around these new concepts, advanced tools and techniques are required to accurately simulate the antenna structure and optimize the antenna performance, while exploiting the advantages of a complicated electromagnetic environment that may include custom materials such as metamaterials (including electronic bandgap structures) as well as artificial dielectrics and artificial magnetics. The objective of the proposed Phase II research program is to advance the results of the Phase I design to ensure coverage over the full frequency range, and spatial coverage.

Benefit:
The Spectra Research commercialization strategy will take advantage of the clear market pull for advanced antennas for both military electronics and the commercial broadband communications arena. The key features offered by common aperture antennas are extremely low cost and versatility over a wide range of frequencies by virtue of the wide tunability 0x9D of the devices. We are confident that this antenna project can help achieve an instant market through numerous applications in the Military, Homeland Security, and commercial markets. Spectra Research and its team members collaboratively plan to continue to pursue other markets for compact, wideband common aperture antennas and are currently developing Phase II and Phase III product insertion plans for the navigation, telecommunications and SATCOM markets.

Keywords:
L-band, conformal, UHF, VHF, metamaterials, wideband antennas, Common Apertures, Communication Antennas