Conformal Phased Array Antenna for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle With ±70° Scanning Range

Abstract

Conformal antennas are practicable candidates to the aerodynamic platforms. A wide-angle scanning conformal phased array antenna for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform is designed and presented in this article. An eight-element linear phased array loaded with frequency selective surface (FSS) operating in S-band is investigated. The horizontally polarized antenna element is designed based on a tapered slot feeding dipole. The antenna aperture can be easily conformed to the front wing airframe of the UAV due to the flexibility of the employed polyimide film. To fulfill the requirement of the airborne communication system, two kinds of FSSs are loaded on the dipole antenna to enhance the gain and reduce the 3 dB beamwidth of the main lobe in the elevation plane. To improve the active impedance matching when the beam scans to the large angles, a novel parasitic structure is proposed. Finally, a 1 ×8 linear conformal array prototype is simulated, fabricated, and measured. The experimental results indicate that the antenna array achieves a fractional bandwidth of 22.1% with ±70° scanning along the E-plane. The measured results validate the performance of the proposed conformal array and the design.