A FLUSH-MOUNTED MONOPOLAR PATCH ANTENNA FOR UAV APPLICATIONS

Abstract

A flush-mounted monopolar patch antenna for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications is proposed. To establish vertical monopole-like radiation characteristics with a low-profile on the fuselage of a UAV, a TM21 higher-order mode circular patch antenna (HMCPA) was proposed. For practical installation on the UAV, the HMCPA was embedded into a round recess within the UAV fuselage and was covered by a 3D printed radome with polycarbonate nuts and bolts. The flush-mounted HMCPA had an aperture radius of only 0.23 lambda(0) and a height of 0.02 lambda(0) at 700 MHz. To verify the practicability and performance of the antenna, characteristics of the proposed HMCPA were compared with those of a lambda(0)/4 monopole via simulation. Additionally, antenna performance was analyzed when attached to a full scale UAV model. The proposed HMCPA featured monopole-like radiation characteristics with a low-profile at 700 MHz. The measured fractional -10 dB reflection coefficient bandwidth and peak gain were 6.46% and 1.86 dBi, respectively. (C) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.