STUDY & DEVELOPMENT OF CONFORMAL ANTENNAS FOR

ULTRA WIDE BAND

Mr. EBENEZER ABISHEK.BResearch Scholar Department of ECEVELS UNIVERSITY

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF Dr. Arun Raaza

Director, Centre For Advanced Research and Development,

Vels University, Chennai.

Background• Conformal antenna is an antenna which conforms to the surface whose

shape is mainly determined by considerations other than electromagnetic.

E.g. Aerodynamic considerations.• Another possible purpose for using these antennas is making them less

disturbing and less visible to the human eye since they are integrated on the structure.

• Conformal antennas can be almost any geometry, although the main structures investigated so far are cylindrical, spherical and conical.

• Today High-tech luxury sedans carry 18 or more antennas and the number of antennas aboard cars is expected to increase further with the spread of wireless broadband services.

• Conforming the antenna to the surface saves space and is often essential for structural reasons.

Background-Cont

• Aerodynamic drag is the force on an object that resists its motion through air.

• Drag increases with density of the medium and speed.• Drag increases with area (cross sectional area projected

in the direction of motion).• Drag is influenced by shape, texture, viscosity, boundary

layer separation, etc.• Aerodynamic drag affects the performance of the

antenna.• Since conformal antennas are structurally integrated

there is no drag.

Abstract• The problem of hiding multiple antennas and the degradation of

antenna performance due to aerodynamic drag will be completely eliminated by using conformal antennas.

• The choice of structure in terms of materials , size, shape, orientation, single layer and multi layer which may contribute to the better radiation characteristics of the conformal radiating system for automobiles , operating at frequencies in Ultra Wide Band will be studied and the most effective design will be fabricated.

• An automobile application will be implemented with the designed conformal antenna to show its performance enhancement over existing whip , shark tail and other planar antennas.

Problem Statement

The first part of the research problem is to study and develop conformal antennas with radiation characteristics suited for the various UWB applications and find places to install the antennas in automobiles with minimum visibility.

The second part of the research problem is to

create a prototype for automatic speed control and collision avoidance using the developed antenna.

Objectives

• To design, simulate and study the radiation characteristics of conformal antennas for automobile applications in UWB band.

• To fabricate the most effective design in hardware and test using vector network analyzer.

• To compare and validate the simulated results with synthesized results.

• To develop a prototype for automobiles using the fabricated conformal antenna.

Work Methodology

Design and test the conformal antenna in a

simulated environment

Fabricating the antenna as hardware

Testing the antenna using

vector network analyzer

Validate the simulation

results with synthesized

results

Develop prototypes for

various automobile applications

using the fabricated antenna

System Overview

Block Diagram of the Prototype

Literature Survey

11.

S.No Year Summary Performance Metrics1 2015 Design of an X-Band Conformal Antenna using

Microstrip Patches:This paper presents designing of a conformal antenna using a number of microstrip patches in X band frequency range i.e. 7GHz to 11.2 GHz.

The conformal antenna designed results in higher beamwidth.

2 2013 A Wideband Conformal End-Fire Antenna Array Mounted on a Large Conducting Cylinder:

The radiation characteristics of a wideband conformal end-fire antenna array mounted on a large conducting cylinder are investigated in this communication.

By employing balanced Vivaldi antenna element, the antenna array has ultra-wide bandwidth, low cross-polarization levels, and wide 3 dB beam-width.

3 2013 A Hybrid IWO/PSO Algorithm for Pattern Synthesis of Conformal Phased Arrays:This communication introduces a hybrid invasive weed optimization and particle swarm optimization (IWO/PSO) algorithm dedicated to pattern synthesis of conformal arrays.

The proposed algorithm achieved the best searchresults by regulating the interaction between the dispersion method of the IWO algorithm and the evolution velocity of the PSO algorithm.

Literature Survey

11.

S.No Year Summary Performance Metrics4 2012 A Novel Broad Beamwidth Conformal Antenna on

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle:This letter proposes a novel broad beamwidth low profile conformal antenna on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).The antenna adopts the structure of an L-shaped monopole loaded by a shorted pin and realizes characteristics of low profile and vertical polarization.

The proposed antenna has advantages wide beamwidth and has a broad application prospect in the field of conformal antenna on a UAV.

5 2012 Optimisation method on conformal array element positions for low side lobe pattern synthesis:An optimisation method for antenna element positions in conformal arrays is proposed in this study. The element layout is optimised by the particle swarm optimisation (PSO) method. For each layout, the array excitations are obtained by the robust convex optimisation method.

This proposed method is demonstrated through an optimisation on a cylindrical-parabolicconformal array

6 2011 Synthesis of Conformal Phased Arrays With Embedded Element Pattern Decomposition:A novel embedded element pattern decompositionmethod is proposed to synthesize conformal phased antenna arrays. This method decomposes the embedded element patterns as a product of a characteristic matrix and a Vandermonde structured matrix.

The results show the advantages of the new method in achieving a low peak side lobe, accurate main lobe scanning, and low cross-polarization.

Literature Survey

11.

S.No Year Summary Performance Metrics

7 2011 Analysis Of Distributed Conformal Antennas On A Moving Platform:This paper presents the far field radiation pattern analysis of conformal suspended microstrip patch antennas mounted on a moving platform. Optimized location for mounting the antennas on car for desired Omni directional pattern was investigated by changing the number of antennas, its orientation and its position both in lower and higher band of frequencies.

From the analysis results it is proposed that 8 antennas which are mounted at 15 apart λlengthwise, 6 apart λwidth wise and 8 from λthe ground produces a desired Omni directional pattern of gain 5dB with ±3dB null depth throughout the coverage range.

8 2011 Antenna element design for a conformal antenna array demonstrator This paper presents conformal antenna array with active vibration compensation using piezo actuators.The designed antenna if integrated into the surface of the front nose of a fighter aircraft to eliminate the traditional mechanically rotating phased array antenna.

This leads to more available space for additional electronic equipment.

9 2009 A New Low Profile Antenna with Improved Performance for Satellite On-the- Move Communications This paper discussed design of antenna which is operating at Ku band which provide a hybrid scanned phased array antenna.

Provides good low elevation angle coverage down to 10° elevation above the horizon

Literature Survey-Cont.

11.

S.No Year Summary Performance Metrics

10 2003 A broadband ship based electronically steered L- band SATCOM antenna. A broadband ship based electronically steered L-band SATCOM antenna. An antenna for L-band satellite communication system (INMARSAT). It was mainly used for data and voice communication between ship offshore and mainland therefore they made mechanically steerable antenna

They got gain around 22dB

Output

Software and Hardware Requirements

FEKO(Suite 7.0)

HFSS (Suite15.0)

MATLAB(R2015a)

Vector Network Analyzer

Fabricated Antenna

Arduino Controller and

GPS module

Next Six month’s plan

Course Work.

Design and Study the radiation characteristics of

the conformal antenna in a FEKO Suite.

Publication in Annexure II Scopus Indexed Journal.

Gantt Chart & Milestones

References1) Chopra, P., & Bhandari, M. (2015). Design of an X-Band Conformal Antenna Using Microstrip Patches, 83–87.2) Wang, P., Wen, G., Zhang, H., & Sun, Y. (2013). A Wideband Conformal End-Fire Antenna Array Mounted on a

Large Conducting Cylinder, 61(9), 4857–4861.3) Bai, Y., Xiao, S., Liu, C., & Wang, B. (2013). A Hybrid IWO / PSO Algorithm for Pattern Synthesis of Conformal

Phased Arrays, 61(4), 2328–2332.4) Zhao, K. Y. Z., & Nie, J. O. Z. (2012). Optimisation method on conformal array element positions for low sidelobe

pattern synthesis, 6(July 2011), 646–652. http://doi.org/10.1049/iet-map.2011.03305) Liu, Z., Zhang, Y., Qian, Z., Han, Z. P., & Ni, W. (2012). A Novel Broad Beamwidth Conformal Antenna on

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, 11, 196–199.6) Yang, K., Zhao, Z., Nie, Z., Ouyang, J., & Liu, Q. H. (2011). Synthesis of Conformal Phased Arrays With Embedded

Element Pattern Decomposition, 59(8), 2882–2888.7) Division, A. (2011). ANALYSIS OF DISTRIBUTED CONFORMAL, (1), 5–8.8) Loecker, C., Knott, P., Sekora, R., & Algermissen, S. (2012). Antenna design for a conformal antenna array

demonstrator. Proceedings of 6th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EuCAP 2012, 151–153. http://doi.org/10.1109/EuCAP.2012.6206004.

9) Jiang, Y., Foti, S. J., Sambell, A., & Smith, D. (2009). A new low profile antenna with improved performance for satellite on-the-move communications. Proceedings - 2009 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Microwave, Antenna, Propagation and EMC Technologies for Wireless Communications, MAPE 2009, 59–62. http://doi.org/10.1109/MAPE.2009.5355557

10) Ferendeci, A. M. (2009). Conformal wide bandwidth antennas and arrays. Proceedings - 2009 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Microwave, Antenna, Propagation and EMC Technologies for Wireless Communications, MAPE 2009, 9–12. http://doi.org/10.1109/MAPE.2009.5355917

11) Knott, P. (2007). Design and experimental results of a spherical antenna array for a conformal array demonstrator. INICA 2007 International Conference on Antennas - Proceedings, 120–123. http://doi.org/10.1109/INICA.2007.4353945

12) Pivit, F., Lbffler, D., & Wiesbeck, W. (2003). A broadband , ship based , electronically steered L-band SATCOM antenna. Ieee, 456–459.

THANK YOU