Overview
Because of the increasing demand for high-volume and covert information transmission on the battlefield and the extraordinary development of signal processing and wireless communication algorithms, antennas have become the limiting system component in many of the DoD's radar, electronic warfare, and communication systems. Not surprisingly, the development of antennas that are conformal to the host platform and with capabilities that significantly transcend those of today's state-of-the-art systems is considered by many a critical research frontier.
Future multifunctional arrays on aircraft, ships, and land-based vehicles are required to efficiently radiate/receive wideband signals into/from multiple directions, to be physically compact, and to allow for conformal mounting. The design of antenna systems meeting the above requirements is impeded by the myriad of multispectral/directional electromagnetic interactions that occur in their feeds and on their radiating elements. Coupling between antenna elements through space/surface waves and by scattering from nearby objects often reduces element isolation below levels required to accurately steer beams or for separate (co-located) transceive antennas to co-function. Moreover, because of the stringent performance specifications on today's and future advanced antenna systems, their design through purely experimental means has become very time consuming and expensive. To reduce turn-around times and development costs, one must resort to computer aided analysis and design (CAD) tools to systematically iterate through, and thereby optimize, designs. Unfortunately, at present, there exist no computational schemes that permit the accurate and speedy CAD of modern advanced antenna systems.
The development of an integrated CAD environment enabling the synthesis of next generation conformal antennas and arrays is the principal focus of the proposed effort. Indeed, the proposed research targets the development of novel algorithms and simulation tools for analyzing/designing/optimizing multifunctional, conformal antennas/arrays involving complex/nonlinear materials/devices that reside on large and complex platforms. New higher-order accurate and rapidly convergent frequency and time domain solvers permitting the joint analysis of small geometric details and large platform effects will be developed. These solvers will be hybridized with array-specific first principle domain decomposition and asymptotic techniques enabling computational savings through the reuse of antenna models and the efficient analysis of very large host platforms. Furthermore, these solvers will interface with new error-controllable tools that accurately model nonlinear feed modules and engineered ground planes/superstrates involving novel electronic materials as well as with signal processing and generalized quadrature algorithms to synthesize and optimize conformal arrays. Finally, all tools developed as part of this effort will be integrated, verified, and validated through application to model and government-provided installed antennas and arrays.
The proposed research effort will result in an integrated environment for analyzing/designing/optimizing advanced conformal antennas and arrays for defense applications. First, the ability to accurately model finely textured/nonlinear geometries and active systems will spawn new antenna/array designs that, contrary to today's systems, optimally rely on engineered surfaces and materials to control impedances and patterns. Second, the proposed error-controllable capability to assess these antennas' wideband properties will permit the synthesis of novel, densely packed multifunctional systems occupying minimal real estate. And third, the ability to accurately analyze radiation from and coupling between these antennas when mounted conformally to large and complex platforms will impact vehicle design by allowing for new communication modes without sacrificing stealth performance.