Developing a Compact, Planar, Ultra-Wideband Antenna

Sponsor
Trivec Avant / Cobham
Year
2012 – 2013
Advisor
  • John Molinder
Team
Douglas Michael Hu (’14)
Diana Yee Mar (’14)
Brett D. Mills (’14)
Trevor Earl Apple (’13)
Matthew T. Goodwin (’13)
Parker Kauffman Martin (’13)

Most antennas with wideband range and high directionality are three dimensional in shape, with spiral and bicone antenna geometries as notably useful and common examples.  A three-dimensional shape makes antennas non-ideal for aerospace applications.  Trivec Avant asked the Clinic team to develop a planar, ultra-wideband antenna (225 MHz–2000 MHz) with return loss below –5 dB and directivity at azimuth above –6 dBi across the entire frequency band.

The Physics Clinic program presents opportunities for students to work on practical projects relevant to industrial work. Students work on teams of 3–5 on a sponsored research or development project.