Carbon fibre reinforced plastic slotted waveguide antenna

Abstract

Ten-slot slotted waveguide antennas manufactured from aluminium and carbon fibre reinforced plastic were designed, manufactured and tested. The carbon fibre reinforced plastic was commercially available aerospace grade prepreg tape and metallic lining was not used in the waveguides. The antennas operated at X-band with uniform aperture distribution a uniform aperture distribution. The only difference in antenna performance was an additional 2dB ohmic loss in the carbon fibre reinforced plastic antenna, which was caused by the low conductivity of that material. Otherwise, the two antennas were fully interchangeable. This work demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating slotted waveguide antennas into structures manufactured from CFRP.