Low-profile military antennas could replace current models

‘One of the problems that many military communications systems have is that they use low frequencies — anywhere from 2MHz to less than 1GHz,’ said Nader Behdad, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ‘As a result, very often you see huge antennas sticking off of their vehicles.’

Behdad’s proposed approach to antenna design would see large dipole antennas replaced with a more compact and conformal multi-mode radiator.

He has been awarded a three-year, $510,000 (£325,000) research grant from the US Office of Naval Research to develop the next-generation antennas for its vehicles.

Behdad’s concept involves tuning multiple parts of the same antenna structure to radiate at different frequencies, using synthetic meta-materials to shape their radiation patterns so that they won’t interfere with one another.

Composed of metals, dielectrics and other materials, meta-materials react to electromagnetic waves differently, based on their index of refraction, making it possible to manipulate two competing radiation patterns and make them work in tandem within one antenna.