Crazy Antennas

[摘要] Everyone here is familiar with traditional antennas, time-honored favorites like dipoles and solid parabolic reflectors. But occasionally, circumstances call for something peculiar. This paper will describe a number of unusual antennas for particular communications scenarios that have been developed at the NASA Glenn Research over the past decade or so. The list includes: a K-band scanning ferroelectric reflectarray; a UHF "Vivaldi" for cellular connectivity to unmanned aerial vehicles; a Ku-band array that develops a top-hat pattern to feed a zone plate antenna; an active antenna that toggles between Iridium and GPS bands; a VHF hybrid spiral/dipole for orientation determination on Venus; and a Ku-band deployable reflector that strongly resembles a giant beach ball. Design strategy and performance results will be included, and trends towards cognitive antennas will be discussed.

[发布日期] 2019-03-22

[学科分类] 工程和技术（综合）

[关键词] ANTENNA ARRAYS;RADIO ANTENNAS;MICROWAVE ANTENNAS;EXTREMELY HIGH FREQUENCIES;SPIRAL ANTENNAS;COGNITION;TELECOMMUNICATION;NASA PROGRAMS