Sustainable radome

Abstract

Antenna enclosure (e.g casing, radome fig 4.400) comprising a wall formed from fibre resin composite material and comprising plant fibre or animal based fibre, preferably configured to have a dielectric constant (relative permittivity) between approximately 2.5 and 3 (at 10GHz). The resin may also comprise a plant based resin (e.g sugar based resin). The fibre resin composite material may comprise between approximately 30 & 45% resin by weight. The animal based fibre may comprise: wool, silk, alpaca, camel, cashmere, mohair and spider, and / or silk fibre, whilst the plant based fibre may comprise: nettle, flax, cotton, hemp, abaca, coir, bamboo, jute, sisal, ramie, and / or kenaf (kenauf) fibre. The fibre-resin composite material may comprise reinforcement material comprising cloth, wherein the fibre is woven into the cloth. The wall may be constructed from these materials to provide a loss pattern over the intended electromagnetic frequency range of -3dB or less. The wall may comprise multiple layers of fibre resin composite material and whereby the outer layers (802a, 802b) layers may be separated by a wall core layer 804. A radio system is also disclosed comprising the antenna and enclosure to operate in the range 0.5GHz and 90GHz. Method of manufacturing also disclosed. Antenna enclosure (radome) is preferably bio-degradable, compostable, and manufactured from sustainable materials.

Images