Novel Low Profile Wideband Monopole Antenna for Avionics

Applications 2014-2015
CHAP TER- 1:
INTRODUCTION
Wideband monopole antennas have been exploited in many applications from mobile
communications to avionics systems. Vertical polarization and omnidirectional radiation
coverage of monopoles in azimuth plane make them very attractive for wireless communications.

The conventional monopoles tend to have a large height (lambda/4) particularly in VHF and
UHF frequency ranges and this isn’t practical in applications where the physical size of the
antenna is a concern. One way to reduce the height of monopole in particular at low frequencies
is dielectric coating. This method can reduce the height to (lambda/6).Another way to reduce the
height of the monopole is the top loading of the antenna by a metallic disk. However, this does
not allow significant reduction of the antenna height due to deterioration of the impedance
matching. To further reduce the antenna height, shorting pins can be incorporated into the top
loaded monopole structures. Using this method leads to a decrease of the height to about
0.1lambda, but it limits the bandwidth of the impedance matching to 2–3%.

The bandwidth of the antennas depends on the total size of the structure including its total height
and width as well as the shape of the feeding pin. Though some of these antennas provide very
wideband performances, they can be heavy and difficult to build in particular due to their feed
pin shapes. For example, in avionics systems small height and width are desired due to limited
available space and the need to reduce aerodynamic drag.

In this communication, a novel low profile antenna which fulfills the size and bandwidth
required by some of the systems used on aircrafts is introduced. In this report to decrease the
height of the top loaded monopole, a new method is introduced in which the antenna is loaded
with a shorted radial transmission line. In the proposed narrowband low profile monopole
antenna, shorting pins are removed from the antenna structure.

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Novel Low Profile Wideband Monopole Antenna for Avionics
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CHAP TER- 2:

LITERATURE SURVEY

Monopole antennas are attractive for present wireless communication systems because they can
provide uniform radiation fields across all azimuthal planes. The monopole antennas have been
largely studied to yield high gains and small size relative to the wavelength. For broadband
applications, monopoles antennas are twofold: planar structures and three-dimensional
structures. Planar structures have been largely investigated for the ultra wideband (UWB), and a
wide range of shapes has been proposed such as square monopoles with or without bevels,
circular, elliptical, trapezoidal, or pentagonal monopoles. As required by UWB standard, all
these structures provide broad impedance bandwidths and are small relative to the wavelength.
Three-dimensional monopoles such as discones do not display any such defect, but their major
drawback is their bulky structures.

Figure 1

A monopole (left) and dipole (right) antenna, with the quarter-wavelength dimensions shown in
Figure 1.

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Novel Low Profile Wideband Monopole Antenna for Avionics
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Radiation Pattern
The radiation pattern is a graphical depiction of the relative field strength transmitted from or
received by the antenna. Antenna radiation patterns are taken at one frequency, one polarization,
and one plane cut. The patterns are usually presented in polar or rectilinear form with a dB
strength scale. Patterns are normalized to the maximum graph value, 0 dB, and directivity is
given for the antenna. This means that if the side lobe level from the radiation pattern were down
-13 dB, and the directivity of the antenna was 4 dB, then the side lobe gain would be -9 dB.

Figure 2
Radiation Pattern of Monopole antenna is shown in Figure 2.

The radiation pattern of a monopole antenna above a ground plane is also known from the dipole
result. The only change that needs to be noted is that the impedance of a monopole antenna is
one half of that of a full dipole antenna. Monopole antennas are half the size of their dipole
counterparts, and hence are attractive when a smaller antenna is needed. Antennas on older cell
phones were typically monopole antennas, with an infinite ground plane approximated by the
shell (casing) of the phone.

In practice, monopole antennas are used on finite-sized ground planes. This affects the properties
of the monopole antennas, particularly the radiation pattern. The impedance of a monopole
antenna is minimally affected by a finite-sized ground plane for ground planes of at least a few
wavelengths in size around the monopole. However, the radiation pattern for the monopole
antenna is strongly affected by a finite sized ground plane. The resulting radiation pattern
radiates in a "skewed" direction, away from the horizontal plane.

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Novel Low Profile Wideband Monopole Antenna for Avionics
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Directivity
The half-power (-3 dB) beam width is a measure of the directivity of the antenna. The directivity
of a monopole antenna is directly related to that of a dipole antenna. If the directivity of a dipole
of length 2L has a directivity of D1 [decibels], then the directivity of a monopole antenna of
length L will have a directivity of D1+3 [decibels]. That is, the directivity (in linear units) of a
monopole antenna is twice the directivity of a dipole antenna of twice the length. The reason for
this is simply because no radiation occurs below the ground plane; hence, the antenna is
effectively twice as "directive".

Gain

The gain is assumed to mean directional gain of the antenna compared to an isotropic radiator
transmitting to or receiving from all directions. Typical gain of Monopole Antenna is 2-6 dB.

Polarization

Polarization, which is the direction of the electric (not magnetic) field of an antenna, is another important
antenna characteristic. This may be a consideration for optimizing reception or jamming. Polarization of
Monopole Antenna is Vertical. Polarization changes to Horizontal if rotated to Horizontal.

Bandwidth

The bandwidth is a measure of how much the frequency can be varied while still obtaining an
acceptable VSWR (2:1 or less) and minimizing losses in unwanted directions. The bandwidth of
Monopole Antenna is 10% or 1.1:1.

Impedance

Antenna impedance relates the voltage to the current at the input to the antenna. For an antenna
to work properly, its impedance must not be too large or too small. It turns out that this is one of
the fundamental design parameters for an antenna, and it isn't always easy to design an antenna
with the right impedance - particularly over a wide frequency range.

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Novel Low Profile Wideband Monopole Antenna for Avionics
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Effective Height
The effective height h (meters) of an antenna is another parameter related to the aperture.
Multiplying the effective height by the incident field E (volts per meter) of the same polarization
gives the voltage V induced. Thus,

V = hE (1)

Accordingly, the effective height may be defined as the ratio of the induced voltage to the
incident field or

h = V/E (m) (2)

To reduce the height of the antenna we have different methods such as dielectric coating, top
loading of the antenna by metallic disk, shorting pins incorporated in the antenna etc.

2.1: BASICS OF AVIONICS

Avionics are the electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial satellites, and spacecraft. Avionic
systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems,
and the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to perform individual functions. These can
be as simple as a searchlight for a police helicopter or as complicated as the tactical system for
an airborne early warning platform. The term avionics is a portmanteau of the words aviation and
electronics. The cockpit of an aircraft is a typical location for avionic equipment, including
control, monitoring, communication, navigation, weather, and anti-collision systems. The
majority of aircraft power their avionics using 14- or 28-volt DC electrical systems; however,
larger, more sophisticated aircraft (such as airliners or military combat aircraft) have AC systems
operating at 400 Hz, 115 volts AC.

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Novel Low Profile Wideband Monopole Antenna for Avionics
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BLOCK DIAGRAM OF AVIONICS SYSTEMS

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CHAP TER- 3: WORK CARRIED OUT

3.1: METHODOLOGY ADOPTED

In this communication, a novel low profile antenna which fulfills the size and bandwidth
required by some of the systems used on aircrafts is introduced. To decrease the height of the top
loaded monopole, a new method is introduced in which the antenna is loaded with a shorted
radial transmission line. This new approach can be used to design narrowband and wideband
antennas with small sizes. In the proposed narrowband low profile monopole antenna, shorting
pins are removed from the antenna structure. The elimination of the pins is advantageous to
facilitate the fabrication process of the narrowband antenna. To design the antenna with a
wideband property, the shorting pins are included in the structure of the proposed narrowband
antenna. The use of the pins enables to keep the antenna size intact, while the bandwidth is
increased by almost 8 times. The use of two different types of loadings including shorting pins
and inductive loading of the radial stub creates two resonances. A proper separation of the two
resonance frequencies leads to a wideband performance. The proposed novel antenna provides
a bandwidth of 17% while its height and width remain significantly small (0.03 lambda x 0.23
lambda).
3.2: ANTENNA DESIGN

INDUCTIVE LOADING
Inductive loading of the antenna can help to reduce the antenna height significantly. In a simple
top-loaded monopole case, this can easily be accomplished by adding a lumped inductance in the
vertical section of the monopole connected to the top disk. The bandwidth of the antenna will be
increased if the added inductive structure is also contributing into the radiation. One possibility
to realize the inductance is to create a circular groove on the ground plane around the monopole.
The depth of the groove in the direction perpendicular to the ground plane can be adjusted to
make it behave as a series shorted stub. Meanwhile, the groove acts as an annular slot antenna
and contributes to radiation. Such a cylindrical vertical stub would however increase the antenna

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Novel Low Profile Wideband Monopole Antenna for Avionics
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Volume as a thick ground plane, at least equal to the length of the stub, would be required. The
volume can be reduced if the stub is realized in the horizontal direction.

Figure 3

The above figure shows the Low profile monopole antenna loaded with the shorted transmission
line, (a) side view, (b) 3D view. hm = 6mm , h0 = 2mm , Wm = 52mm , ht = 8mm , r g = 180mm.
A structure implementing this approach is illustrated in Fig. 3 (a) in which a radial stub of radius
Wm/2 is implemented by adding a metallic disc between the monopole top plate and the ground
plane at a height h0. In order to realize the short circuit at the end of the stub, this disc is
connected to the outer conductor of the feeding coaxial line. The length of the shorted stub being
smaller than lambda/4, it has a positive reactance.
A circuit that approximately models the operation of the proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 4.
The series combination of Ls and Cs is the equivalent circuit of the top loaded monopole and
provides a resonance at frequency fs . The series inductor and capacitor are attributed to the sizes
of the feed pin and the top plate, respectively. The loading of the antenna with an inductive radial

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Novel Low Profile Wideband Monopole Antenna for Avionics
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Stub mentioned in the previous paragraph, adds an extra parallel RLC resonance, fp , to the
circuit. The reactance originating from the shorted transmission line is in parallel with the
fringing fields at the open end of the shorted radial transmission line. Indeed, the shorted
transmission line part is responsible for the antenna radiation, as the radiation resistance (Rs) of
the series RLC is very small at fs . These two resonators are coupled through the fringing electric
fields from the top plate to the edge of the middle plate. This coupling can be modeled by a
capacitance, Cp, in the circuit. The coupling capacitance determines the amount of the currents
flowing into the shorted radial stub formed by the middle plate, the ground plane and the outer
conductor of the coaxial cable.

Figure 4

Figure 4 shows the equivalent circuit of the antenna structure shown in Figure 3.

In the proposed structure, the antenna can radiate effectively at its second resonance frequency
(fp) which is primarily determined by the diameter (Wm) of the middle plate and its height from
the ground plane (h0 ). The total height of the antenna (ht ) and the top plate diameter (W) do not
affect (fp) significantly and they mainly contribute in the input impedance matching of the
antenna at this frequency.

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Figure 5

Fig.5 Simulated Input Impedance of the Antenna Structure Shown in Fig.3 for Various Values of
the Top Load Diameter W.

Fig.5 shows an example of the effect of varying on the input impedance and of the antenna.
These simulations were done with the commercial software CST Microwave Studio. A port
impedance of 50 ohms was assumed, with a feed point located at the junction of the coaxial line
and the middle plate. In the reactance curves, the first zero crossing corresponds to a series

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resonance (at frequency). The reactance behavior for different values of W suggests that
increasing the top plate diameter lowers. In comparison, the effect on, the frequency of the
parallel RLC resonance occurring near 1.4 GHz, is insignificant, in spite of the sharp change of
both resistance and reactance with the increase of W. Enlarging the size of the top plate leads to
stronger coupling into the radial stub. As shown in Fig. 3, a proper choice of the top plate
diameter results in close series and parallel resonance frequencies, this in turn leads to a S11
below -10 dB.

Figure 6

Fig.6 (a) Antenna loaded with Shorted transmission line with the length of lm,(b) Simulated input
impedance-Imaginary part for different lm, (c) Simulated input impedance – real part for different
lm.

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Length of Shorted Transmission Line: It was found that the most sensitive parameter in the
proposed antenna is the length of the shorted transmission line, lm shown in Fig. 6(a). In order to
investigate the effect of lm on the antenna input impedance, the thickness of the shorting
Wall, t, was varied within a few millimeters while was kept constant. As is depicted in Fig. 6(a),
the increase of leads to a reduction of. The simulated input impedance for various values of is
shown in Fig. 6(b) and (c). Clearly, this parameter plays an important role in determining the
resonance frequency

Increasing from 21 mm to 24.5 mm can change by almost 0.5 GHz. It is worth adding that a
variation of can be done by the change of the width of the middle plate, too. Though in both
ways reducing leads to the increase of, the enhancement of shifts up the frequency
more. The reason is that the shorting wall located between the ground plane and the lower plate
acts as an inductive load at the end of the radial stub, and any change in its thickness can change
the load value.

SHORTING PIN LOADING

As can be seen in Fig. 5(c), the use of a shorted transmission line in the antenna structure gives
rise to the antenna radiation in a small bandwidth, while preserving the antenna size small. One
way to increase the bandwidth is to change the non-radiating series resonance to a radiating
parallel resonance. To do this, shorting pins are incorporated in the antenna structure, as shown
in Fig. 5. In general, shorting pins connecting the monopole top plate to the ground plane lower
the resonance frequency of the antenna considerably. Hence, the total size of the antenna can
remain small. The shorting pins can be modeled as inductors parallel to the top- loaded monopole
capacitance. The number of pins, their radius and the distance between them and the feeding pin
determines the resonance frequency and the input impedance of the antenna. Increasing the
number of pins and their radius augments the resonance frequency significantly due to the
decrease of the total inductance in the circuit model.

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Figure 7

Fig.7 shows the effect of the number of pins on the input impedance of the antenna,(a) Imaginary
part, (b)Real part.

Fig.7 shows the effect of the number of pins on the input impedance of the antenna when the
distance between pins from the coaxial inner conductor (d) and radius of the pins are fixed at the
values given in Fig.6. Decreasing the number of pins from three to one lowers the first resonance
frequency from 1.16 GHz to 0.76 GHz. Meanwhile, the level of both inductance and resistance is
increased. Adding more pins, or equivalently more inductors in parallel with each other,
increases the resonance frequency.

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3.3: Antenna Design for Avionics Application
Having identified the parameters allowing the tuning of fp and fs makes it possible to address the
design of a wideband antenna targeted for avionics applications. The intended system which
exploits monopole antenna is the VHF communication system operating in the 116–138 MHz
band. In this system, a VSWR smaller than 3 is required (S11 below -6dB). To enable the
fabrication and testing in our facilities, the frequency range of this system was scaled by ten. To
achieve S11 below -6dB over 1.16–1.38 GHz bandwidth, a parametric study was performed and
the dimensions shown in Fig. 1 and 6 were obtained. Some of the antenna dimensions were
varied in order to optimize the S11 characteristics. During this optimization, a maximum
envelope having a diameter of 30.25 mm and height of 8 mm was assumed for the antenna
volume. The radius of the pins and thickness of the plates were fixed to values available during
fabrication.

A Global optimization based on genetic algorithm was run first, and the solution was then
optimized locally with a quasi-Newton algorithm. For all the parameters included in the
optimization, the optimal values were within fraction of a millimeter from the values indicated in
the preceding paragraphs, and they led to a very marginal improvement of the highest magnitude
of S11 over the frequency band of interest. To demonstrate the independent operation of the
resonators formed by the pins and the addition of the middle plate, the antenna input impedance
was simulated in two configurations. In the first configuration, there are no pins but the middle
plate is present. In the second configuration, the middle plate was removed from the model while
the shorting pins were added. The simulated input impedance of these two structures is plotted in
Fig.8. The results clearly demonstrate the independent performance of the two resonances which
are attributed to the shorting pins and the inductive loading resonances. For comparison, the
simulated input impedance of the final antenna including both the pins and the middle plate is
also presented in the same figure. To understand the independent behavior of these two
resonances, the currents on the feed pin and the shorting pins were compared. To do this, the
antenna was simulated with four ports, including three 50-ohms discrete ports assigned at the
grounded end of the shorting pins plus one coaxial line feeding. For further investigations, the Z-
parameter matrix of the four-port structure was then analyzed to calculate the coupled current on
the pins.

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As it is well known, the relationship between port input currents and voltages of a 4-port network
has the following form:
[V]= [Z][I] (1)
Where elements I2, I3, and I4 of vector [I] are the currents in the ports located on 3 shorting pins,
and I1 is the current in the feed port. By setting the voltage of the feed, to 1 V and V2, V3 and V4
the voltages of the three shorting pins 0V, the [I] can be calculated. The ratio of the current on
one of the shorting pins to the current on feed port Ipin/I1 was calculated at the two resonance
frequencies visible in Fig. 7, namely 1.16 and 1.39 GHz and the results are listed in Table I. The
coupled current magnitude on the shorting pins at the lower frequency is more than three times
the current magnitude on the feed pin. Moreover, comparing the current signals on the pins with
the feed port reveals that they are almost 85 degrees out of phase. This indicates that the shorting
pins intensify the radiation at that frequency. At the other resonance frequency namely at 1.39
GHz, the coupled current magnitude compared to the current magnitude on the feed is reduced
significantly. This implies that the shorting pins have a small contribution I the radiation of the
antenna at this frequency.
TABLE I
CURRENT RATIO OF SHORTING PINS TO FEED PORT
Frequency (GHz) 1.16 1.39
Ipin/I1 3.5 0.5
850 -490
Arg(Ipin)- arg(I1)

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CHAPTER- 4:
RESULTS AND OBSERVATION
A scaled prototype of the proposed antenna was built and measured. The antenna is shown in
Fig. 8. The top plate and the middle plate with respective radii and of 30.25 mm and 26 mm were
made of Copper with a thickness of 0.5 mm. To reduce the weight of the structure arising from
the large size of the ground plane, a single layer FR4 is used as a ground plane instead of a solid
copper plate. The metallic coating of the substrate acts as a ground plane, while the FR4 layer
faces the underneath of the structure and does not influence the antenna performance. To build
the middle plate as discussed earlier, the 50-ohms coaxial cable was extended 2 mm above the
ground plane and its outer conductor with a radius of 1.098 mm was soldered to both the ground
plane and the middle metallic plate. The inner conductor with a radius of 0.255 mm passed
through a hole created in the middle plate and soldered to the top plate.

Figure 8

Fig.8 Fabricated antenna, (a) 3D view, (b) Side view.

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The S11 response of the fabricated antenna was measured and it is compared to the simulation
result in Fig. 9(a). The measured S11 is lower than -6dB across a bandwidth of 17%. Although
the measurement and simulation results behave similarly, there are some differences. In
particular, the second resonance frequency is slightly shifted down and hence the measured S11
bandwidth is reduced compared to the simulation. To investigate the reason of this difference, a
few antenna parameters were studied in the simulation environment. Fig. 9(b) shows the
variation of S11 the for small changes of ht , when the other parameters of the antenna is fixed at
the values given in Fig. 1. The results suggest that the second resonance of the antenna is
sensitive to the height variation and increasing ht from 2.1 mm to 2.2 mm lowers the resonance
frequency by almost 10 MHz In this case, because the two resonances of the antenna are closer, a
better matching is achieved between these resonances, i.e., between 1.2 GHz and 1.35 GHz. It is
worth adding that the size of the ground plane can change the behavior. The simulation results
suggest that the change of the ground plane size does not affect the antenna resonance
frequencies. However the input impedance of the antenna varies depending on the size of the
ground plane.

Figure 9

Fig.9. (a) Measured and simulated S11 of the antenna, (b) Simulated S11 for different Middle
plate height h0.

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Figure 10

The variation of the antenna input impedance which leads to fluctuation of the S11 , becomes
insignificant when the size of the ground plane width is larger than 1.5 .
Fig. 10 shows the measured realized gain pattern of the monopole antenna in the plane and plane
corresponding to the E- and H-plane of the antenna, respectively. The radiation pattern of the
antenna was measured at several frequencies within the bandwidth of the interest, including 1.16,
1.26 and 1.36 GHz, in a Satimo Starlab System. The antenna provides an omnidirectional
radiation pattern in the H-plane which is not affected by the 3-fold rotation symmetry of the
shorting pins. The level of the cross-polarization in both the E- and H- planes at all the tested
frequencies is almost 28 dB smaller than maximum co-polarization. The measured realized gain
shown in Fig. 11 varies between 1 and almost 4 dBi in the desired bandwidth over a ground
plane with a radius of 18 cm. Also, the gain calculated from the accepted power (labeled IEEE
Gain) has been plotted in the same figure. As it can be seen, the gain variation becomes smaller
when impedance mismatch is not taken into account.

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Fig.10. Measured realized gain pattern of the wideband monopole antenna at 1.16, 1.26 and 1.36
GHz, (a) E-plane (b) H-plane

Figure 11

Fig.11 measured maximum realized and IEEE gain.

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CHAP TER- 5:
ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES & APPLICATIONS
5.1: ADVANTAGES
∑ Increased safety
∑ Operable in all weather condition
∑ Less in fuel consumption
∑ Improved aircraft performance and control and handling and reduction in maintenance
costs
∑ Reduced size & weight
∑ Less power consumption
∑ Portability & reuse
∑ Reliable & secure
∑ Seamless connectivity

5.2: DISADVANTAGES
∑ Complex Integration Process
∑ Expensive

5.3: APPLICATIONS

∑ Communications

Communications connect the flight deck to the ground and the flight deck to the
passengers. On-board communications are provided by public-address systems and
aircraft intercoms. The VHF aviation communication system works on the air band of
118.000 MHz to 136.975 MHz VHF is also used for line of sight communication such as
aircraft-to-aircraft and aircraft-to-ATC. Amplitude Modulation (AM) is used, and the
conversation is performed in simplex mode. Aircraft communication can also take place
using HF (especially for trans-oceanic flights) or satellite communication.

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∑ Navigation
Navigation is the determination of position and direction on or above the surface of the
Earth. Avionics can use satellite-based systems (such as GPS) ground-based systems.
Navigation systems calculate the position automatically and display it to the flight crew
on moving map displays.

∑ Weather systems
Weather systems such as weather radio and lightening detectors are important for aircraft
flying at night or in instrument meteorological conditions where it is not possible for
pilots to see the weather ahead. Heavy precipitation (as sensed by radar) or
severe turbulence (as sensed by lightning activity) is both indications of strong
convective activity and severe turbulence, and weather systems allow pilots to deviate
around these areas.
∑ Mission or tactical avionics
Military aircraft have been designed either to deliver a weapon or to be the eyes and ears
of other weapon systems. The vast array of sensors available to the military is used for
whatever tactical means required.

∑ Military communications
While aircraft communications provide the backbone for safe flight, the tactical systems are
designed to withstand the rigors of the battle field.

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CHAP TER- 6:
CONCLUSIONS
This communication presents a new wideband low profile monopole antenna. The antenna
provides a monopole like radiation pattern while its height is reduced to 0.03 , where is the
wavelength of the lowest operating frequency. To achieve the height reduction of the antenna, a
new method of inductive loading is introduced. It was shown that, this method can be exploited
in both wideband and narrowband antennas. The antenna performance was studied by the use of
its equivalent circuit model. The model provides a good insight into the antenna performance and
illustrates that the two resonances associated to the shorted transmission line and shorted pins
incorporated into the antenna structure are key elements in achieving a broadband operation. It
was shown that a proper design of the antenna can bring these resonances close to each other
which in turn lead to a wideband performance. The designed antenna was built and its and far
field radiation pattern were measured. The impedance bandwidth of 17% from 1.16 GHz to 1.38
GHz with a 1.26 GHz center frequency was achieved in the measurement. The bandwidth of the
measured result slightly reduced compared to the simulated one which is around 18%. It was
shown that this small discrepancy happens due to the sensitivity of the structure to the height of
the middle plate from the ground plane. This antenna can find application in cases where low-
profile is a requirement. For example, with proper scaling of dimensions it can be an interesting
low-drag alternative to blade antennas currently used for VHF aircraft communications.

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CHAP TER- 7:
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Novel Low Profile Wideband Monopole Antenna for Avionics
Applications 2014-2015
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