Physically Adaptive Antennas.

Abstract

A reconfigurable antenna concept, consisting of a semiconductor illuminated by an optical or electron source, was studied. With appropriate-illumination, mobile charge carriers excited from the valence band to the conduction band can form a conducting antenna pattern in the semiconductor material. Calculations of gain and radiation resistance for linear dipole and "bow-tie" layouts were completed to estimate source power requirements and practical wavelength limits for such an antenna. Significant findings were that source power for writing a reconfigurable antenna increases as the square of the radiation wavelength; and that semiconductor material permittivity limits antenna efficiency to about one-tenth that of a comparable free-standing antenna. Frequency agility in the antenna may be possible using an electronically controllable liquid crystal display, semiconductor laser array, or electron emitter tips.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1995
Accession Number
ADA300070

Entities

People

  • Ping-tong Ho

Organizations

  • University of Maryland

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Charge Carriers
  • Conduction Bands
  • Dielectric Permittivity
  • Electrons
  • Energy Bands
  • Frequency
  • Laser Arrays
  • Lasers
  • Light Sources
  • Materials
  • Radiation
  • Radiation Patterns
  • Radiation Resistance
  • Refractive Index
  • Repetition Rate
  • Semiconductor Lasers
  • Semiconductors

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.
  • Phased Array Antenna Design.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics