Surface Mounted Communications Antennae using Microstructure

In the Phase I program, the Spectra Research team demonstrated that fragmented aperture antenna designs can be utilized to great advantage in meeting the requirement of developing a surface mounted tunable communications antenna. We further demonstrated new computational tools and design methodologies for optimizing antenna performance of electrically small antennas and antenna arrays. We utilized these advanced approaches to develop innovative tuning concepts that can be utilized with fragmented arrays to efficiently reconfigure the array for beam steering and polarization diversity. In the proposed Phase II program we plan to utilize the results from the Phase I program to develop an ultra wide bandwidth extended array in a specified format for direction finding purposes for numerous ELINT, SIGINT, and surveillance applications. Simultaneously, we will further develop the innovative capabilities for polarization control and beam steering.