In high-performance aircraft, spacecraft, satellite and missile applications, where size, weight, cost, performance, ease of installation, and aerodynamic profile are constraints, low profile antennas are not only desirable, but are required in many applications. Presently there are many government and commercial applications, such as mobile radio and wireless communications that have similar specifications. To meet these requirements, microstrip antennas, or microstrip patch antennas are widely used. These antennas exhibit low profile, lightweight, and conformity, in addition to low radiation loss, and smaller dispersion. The antennas can also be conformed to planar and nonplanar surfaces and are simple and inexpensive to manufacture using modern printed-circuit technology. These patch and aperture antennas, in most cases, are very flexible in achieving specific design in terms of resonant frequency, polarization, pattern and impedance. In this project, more complex geometrical shapes are investigated for related applications.

New configurations of coplanar patch antennas (CPA) and coplanar aperture antennas (CAA) and combinations are proposed for use as an element of a phased array antenna, specifically designed for radar, aircraft, missile, and satellites systems, as well as space stations. These proposed new designs are to be fabricated from thin light-weight, material consisting of conducting sheets on both, or on one side, of a thin microwave substrate material as shown in the accompanying figures. These structures can be used to configure a wide variety of radiating elements conveniently fed with the very versatile coplanar-waveguide (CPW), that should result in a light weight antenna element having high radiation efficiency, that is essential for large phased arrays for radar, airborne, and space applications. Design modifications of the CPA and CAA geometrical shapes can be made to optimize the antenna operational bandwidths, a characteristic that is essential for modern high speed communication systems and high resolution radar and remote sensing applications.

For design considerations in this research, numerical simulation is performed for antenna analysis using the Advanced Design System (ADS) software package of Agilent Technologies. Antenna performance is tuned, or optimized, by using slots, shorts, and by mitering sharp corners on the antennas and feeding element for enhanced antenna characteristics.

The primary disadvantage of the patch or aperture antenna is the narrow operational bandwidth. Researchers have made major efforts to overcome this problem, and many configurations have been presented to extend the bandwidth. Recent related investigations based on a rectangular patch surrounded by thin slot or aperture in a conducting plane reported a bandwidth of no more than 10% at 10 GHz. However, our preliminary research findings indicate that much larger bandwidths can be attained.