Conformal Impulse Receive Antenna Arrays

Abstract : This report addresses the design and fabrication of a prototype transient multi-element planar array operating in an impulse regime. The objective is to develop a conformal impulse "timed-array" antenna, operating in a transient regime and covering a wide frequency band spanning an approximately 200 MHz-2 GHz range. Under this Phase-I effort, we have analytically formulated the receiving characteristics of a hyperband antenna array. In addition, a mock-up four element conformal antenna was built and evaluated. The antenna utilizes a nylon substrate. The results indicate that the theoretical basis for the antenna is valid and that some simple improvements can be done to substantially improve the performance.