A broadband directional circularly polarized spiral antenna on EBG structure

ABSTRACT

A new low profile broadband directional spiral antenna design on a planar EBG structure is introduced which is suitable for aircraft structural integration. The proposed antenna has the (greater than 4 dBiC) gain and axial ratio (less than 3-dB) bandwidth of 400–800 MHz (except for a narrow frequency range of 505–530 MHz) within a total thickness of one tenth of the wavelength. Meausured peak gain is 7.5 dBiC while gain at 400 and 500 MHz are 6 and 7.2 dBiC, respectively.

Abbreviations: EBG: Electromagnetic Bandgap; HIS: High Impedance Surface; SATCOM: Satellite Communications; UHF: Ultra High Frequency; CP: Circularly Polarized; BW: Bandwidth; AR: Axial Ratio

KEYWORDS:

• Conformal antenna
• broadband
• circularly polarized (CP)
• structural
• EBG
• HIS

Acknowledgement

This work was supported in part by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright Patterson Air Force Base, OH. Cleared for Public Release - Case Number: 88ABW-2019-3995.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Zeppettella

David Zeppettella is an Electronics Engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory where he leads research on multifunction structures. His research focuses on dual-purpose composite structures for structural state sensing and RF applications. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Carolina in 2018. Previously he received his M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Dayton and his B.E. degree also in Electrical Engineering from Youngstown State University. Dr. Zeppettella has over 20 years of engineering and R&D experience.

Mohammod Ali

Mohammod Ali received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 1997 from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Prior to that he received his B.Sc. and M.A.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka Bangladesh and the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, respectively. Dr. Ali is currently a program director under IPA assignment at the National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA, USA. He is also a professor in the department of electrical engineering at the University of South Carolina (USC), Columbia, USA. Prior to his employment at USC Dr. Ali worked for Ericsson Inc. in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina from 1998-2001. He spent a year on sabbatical in 2013-2014 at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB), Ohio. In the summers of 2010 and 2011 he was a Summer Faculty Fellow at the AFRL. Prof. Ali also held a visiting appointment at the Motorola Corporate EME Research Laboratory in Plantation, Florida in the summer of 2004. He is the recipient of the 2003 National Science Foundation Faculty Career Award. Prof. Ali was the Technical program Co-Chair of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society's International Symposium in Charleston, SC in 2009. He was an Associate Editor for the journal IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters from 2008–2013. He is the author/coauthor of over 200 publications and 8 granted US patents.