Multi-Tap Antenna With Combiner For Compact Broadband Gain
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing antennas face challenges in achieving a balance between size reduction and maintaining efficiency, often requiring trade-offs between gain and bandwidth, leading to either low gain or large size, with dissipative losses compromising performance.
Innovation Solution
The development of a multi-tap antenna system that uses a plurality of conductors and loads with specific impedance, connected in line, and a combiner to combine power received from these loads, allowing for improved gain and bandwidth without the need for resistive materials that introduce losses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If antenna size is reduced to meet physical space constraints, then the antenna can be made compact for aircraft installation, but dissipative losses increase and efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The antenna is divided into multiple discrete conductive elements (first conductor, second conductor, third conductor, fourth conductor) arranged in a specific geometry. Each element acts as a separate tap that samples the electromagnetic field independently, allowing the overall antenna to achieve broadband performance while maintaining a compact form factor without excessive dissipative losses in any single element.
Solution Approach 2:
The antenna structure serves multiple functions simultaneously: it operates across a broad frequency range (broadband operation), maintains compact dimensions for aircraft installation, and achieves adequate gain through the cooperative interaction of multiple conductive elements. The combination of multiple taps with specific impedance matching enables the antenna to fulfill multiple performance requirements that would otherwise require separate antenna elements.
2Adaptability or versatility
If bandwidth is increased to operate across multiple frequencies, then a single antenna can replace multiple frequency-specific antennas, but gain is reduced due to efficiency losses
Solution Approach 1:
The broadband antenna is segmented into multiple discrete conductive elements (taps) rather than using a single continuous structure. Each tap is designed with specific dimensions and spacing to resonate at different frequency ranges. By combining the signals from these segmented elements through proper impedance matching and phasing, the antenna achieves wide bandwidth operation while maintaining adequate gain across the operating spectrum.
Solution Approach 2:
The antenna employs a composite structure combining multiple conductive materials or configurations (different conductor lengths, widths, and arrangements) to achieve broadband performance. This composite approach allows each element to contribute to different frequency ranges, and their combined effect produces an antenna that operates efficiently across a wide bandwidth without the gain penalties typically associated with broadband designs.
3Volume of moving object
If antenna size is reduced to a fraction of wavelength, then the antenna becomes compact, but radiation pattern becomes fixed and gain is directly limited by efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The compact antenna is divided into multiple discrete conductive elements (first conductor, second conductor, third conductor, fourth conductor) arranged in a specific geometry. Each element acts as a separate tap that samples the electromagnetic field independently. This segmentation allows the overall antenna to achieve broadband performance while maintaining a compact form factor without excessive dissipative losses in any single element.
Solution Approach 2:
The antenna combines multiple conductive elements (first conductor, second conductor, third conductor, fourth conductor) with specific impedance values into a unified structure. By merging these elements with carefully controlled spacing and orientations, the antenna achieves a radiation pattern that is more flexible than a single small element, and the combined effect produces adequate gain despite the compact overall size.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the creation of compact, broadband antennas with enhanced gain and reduced size, maintaining efficiency by recovering power through the combiner, thus overcoming the limitations of traditional antennas.
Implementation Method 1
As a receiver, an antenna converts electromagnetic waves into an electrical current
Implementation Method 2
The plurality of loads connects the plurality of conductors to each other in line. The plurality of loads has an impedance equal to a desired impedance for the output port
Data Source
AI summary
An antenna system comprises a plurality of conductors, a combiner, and a plurality of loads. The combiner has an output port. The plurality of loads connects the plurality of conductors to each other in line. The plurality of loads has an impedance equal to a desired impedance for the output port. The combiner combines power received by the plurality of loads at the output port of the combiner.