Conformal Antennas and Integrated Design Procedures
Abstract
At present radio communications and radio assistance services aboard aircrafts and helicopters are generally scattered among a number of antennas and sensors across the whole airframe. This policy, which is probably convenient from the point of view of equipment procurement, inevitably causes installation problems on medium/small aircraft, helicopters and UAVs, where only a reduced portion of the airframe surface is usually available for antenna location. Consequently, performance reductions have to be accepted, both due to antenna pattern distortion from the aircraft structures and to EMI among the sensors. This problem will probably become even more serious on multi-role vehicles, where different requirements have to be satisfied depending on the mission goal. A possible solution to the problem of antenna proliferation could be found in the field of conformal and multi-band antennas. An activity of analysis, modelling and evaluation has been performed and has dealt with the following main items: (a) system level analyses aimed at identifying possible synergies between radio services; (b) identification of multi-band antennas suitable for working with standard avionic equipment; (c) identification of possible conformal radiating structures; (d) modelling and performance evaluation of some possible solutions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA480020
Entities
People
- Aldo Citriniti
- Antonio Guidoni
- Mauro Bandinelli