Dynamically Reconfigurable, Conformal, Metasurface Apertures for Communications and Sensing Applications in Aerospace Platforms

Abstract

The goal of this program was to investigate the use of waveguide-fed metasurface antennas in the context of conformal array antennas. During this report period, the team has completed the major tasks of developing the design and calibration frameworks, arriving at a passive prototype conformal antenna array that made use of the developed tools and demonstrated the key concepts. One key result is the completion of the coupled-dipole formalism modified for arbitrary conformal metasurface antenna geometries. This fast, quasi-analytical modeling tool enables the prediction not only of the directivity and field patterns associated with a given metasurface antenna design, but also of the efficiency, gain, reflection and other system parameters necessary to fully assess the potential performance of a conformal metasurface array antenna. As a complement to the dipole modeling, a quasi-analytical perturbative method has been developed to predict the guided mode associated with an arbitrarily curved waveguide. Given that the dipole modeling tool requires accurately computed waveguide fields, the perturbative provides an important component of the completed framework.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 07, 2022
Accession Number
AD1230294

Entities

People

  • David R. Smith
  • Matthew S. Reynolds
  • Vesna Radisic

Organizations

  • Duke University
  • Northrop Grumman
  • University of Washington

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Housing Policy Studies in Military Families with Privatization and Telomerase Allowance Units, Multi-Family Housing, and Telomere Lengths.
  • Phased Array Antenna Design.

Technology Areas

  • Space