Design and development of conformal antenna composite structure

In the manufacturing process of the common smart skin antenna, the adhesive covered on the radiating elements of the antenna led to severe deviation of the resonant frequency, which degraded the electromagnetic performance of the antenna. In this paper, a new component called package cover was adopted to prevent the adhesive from covering on the radiating elements of the microstrip antenna array. The package cover and the microstrip antenna array were bonded together as packaged antenna which was then embedded into the composite sandwich structure to develop a new structure called conformal antenna composite structure (CACS). The geometric parameters of the microstrip antenna array and the CACS were optimized by the commercial software CST microwave studio. According to the optimal results, the microstrip antenna array and the CACS were manufactured and tested. The experimental and numerical results of electromagnetic performance showed that the resonant frequency of the CACS was close to that of the microstrip antenna array (with error less than 1%) and the CACS had a higher gain (about 2 dB) than the microstrip antenna array. The package system would increase the electromagnetic radiating energy at the design frequency nearly 66%. The numerical model generated by CST microwave studio in this study could successfully predict the electromagnetic performance of the microstrip antenna array and the CACS with relatively good accuracy. The mechanical analysis results showed that the CACS had better flexural property than the composite sandwich structure without the embedment of packaged antenna. The comparison of the electromagnetic performance for the CACS and the MECSSA showed that the package system was useful and effective.