Wideband Metamaterial Antennas Integrated into Composite Structures Navy STTR FY2010.A Sol No.: Navy STTR FY2010.A Topic No.: N10A-T021 Topic Title: Wideband Metamaterial Antennas Integrated into Composite Structures Proposal No.: N10A-021-0299 Firm: NextGen Aeronautics 2780 Skypark Drive Suite 400 Torrance, California 90505 Contact: Rob Bortolin Phone: (310) 626-8353 Web Site: www.nextgenaero.com Abstract: A team led by NextGen Aeronautics Inc., and working with San Diego State University proposes the development of redundant wideband antennas that are embedded in composite armor structures The planned work builds upon the team's extensive prior experience in conformal load-bearing antenna structures (CLAS), antenna design, and metamaterials. The proposed antenna is a combination of concepts that have already been designed and tested for different purposes, and have proven their capacity to operate under the determined conditions while meeting solicitation requirements. At the end of Phase I base period, we will have simulations of various antenna designs, configurations, and materials pointing to a combination that works optimally with the baseline composite structure chosen, as well as a list of different materials and their impact on the design. This research will also determine the frequencies, bandwidth and waveforms to which this technology is most applicable. Further efforts in the Phase I option will include fabricating and testing a mockup antenna. Benefits: Next generation armored vehicles and ships may require multiple antennas covering a broad frequency range for multiple functionalities including communication, sensing and EW. Currently, many of these antennas are extended from the body of the vehicles. It is known that those protruding parts of the antennas on ground vehciles are vulnerable to attacks such as gunfire and reduces vehicle aerodynamic performance, which will lower the effectiveness of the whole system. To solve this problem, many methods have been proposed including conformal antennas. Due to their low-profile property, conformal antennas can be embedded into vehicle armor so that the survivability of the antenna is increased greatly. In the mean time, it is known that the available places for the antennas on the armored vehicles are limited. While ships have more available space, there is limited space available for the prime location on the ships superstructure. Therefore, the reduction of the antennas size becomes important. Recently, metamaterials have been proven to be an effective way to shrink antenna size. In terms of these facts, it is meaningful to design an embedded metamaterial enabled conformal antenna. Return