University of Illinois

Other

United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force

Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development

Gregory Hilding Huff

Darren Hartl

Jennifer T Bernhard

Geoffrey J Frank

Jeffery W Baur

Hong Pan

Susan Carol Hagness

Khalid Ali Qaraqe

Hassan Mohamed El-Sallabi

Mohamed Mahmoud Abdallah

Shenghui Zhang

Jean-Francois Chamberland-Tremblay

Robyn L Bradford

Debra Laefer

Garvin Cung

A method of making a reconfigurable antenna comprises the steps of applying one or more first layers of a prepreg laminate fabric to a form having a desired contour; applying a pattern corresponding to an antenna shape to the first layers of prepreg fabric; applying one or more second layers of the prepreg laminate fabric atop the pattern to form a laminate stack; curing the laminate stack; and removing the pattern to form channels in the antenna shape. The desired contour may be an aircraft skin panel or an airfoil panel. The pattern may be a polymer sheet with an applied cPLA antenna design. The curing step may be performed in a vacuum bag under the application of vacuum and heat. The removing step may be performed by heating the cured laminate stack to remove the pattern.

Physically reconfigurable structurally embedded vascular antenna and method of making

A reconfigurable antenna comprises a panel having a liquid metal pump coupled to a power supply; a liquid metal reservoir in fluid communication with the pump; one or more channels for transporting the liquid metal, each of the one or more channels having a proximal end in fluid communication with the pump, each of the one or more channels having a vent at a distal end, wherein application of power to the pump moves the liquid metal into or out of the channels thereby reconfiguring the antenna. The pump may be a pneumatic pump or a magnetohydrodynamic pump, and a layer of a phosphonic acid may be included on the liquid metal-bearing surfaces of the channels. The phosphonic acid may be decylphosphonic acid (DPA), fluorobenzylphosphonic acid (FPA), or difluorobenzylphosphonic acid (DFPA), and one or more sensors may be coupled to the panel for determining the position of the liquid metal in the channels.

Physically reconfigurable structurally embedded vascular antenna

The reconfigurable radio direction finder system and method uses a reconfigurable antenna to electronically cycle through a plurality of different antenna configurations to determine a signal direction. Specifically, the reconfigurable antenna is cycled through N different antenna configurations, where N is an integer greater than one, where each antenna configuration has a pointing direction associated therewith defined by an elevation angle &#x3b8;of an n-th antenna configuration, where n is an integer between 1 and N, and an azimuthal angle &#x3c6;of the n-th antenna configuration. A received signal strength of the radio signal is measured for each of the antenna configurations as a power output of the n-th antenna configuration, P. A spherical weighted directional mean vector (X, Y, Z) is then estimated for the radio signal as 

Reconfigurable radio direction finder system and method

One embodiment of the present invention provides several electromagnetic radiation reflectors within a volume that contains solid portions subject to movement relative to one another. At least a portion of the reflectors are positioned beneath one or more of the solid portions and move in response to movement of at least some of the solid portions. The volume is irradiated with electromagnetic radiation having one or more frequencies in a range from one kHz through one THz, and a reflection is detected of at least a portion of the electromagnetic radiation from each of the reflectors in response to this irradiation. Movement among the solid objects is evaluated from the reflection of each of the reflectors, which includes determining a spatial orientation of each one of the reflectors as a function of at least one of polarization selectivity and frequency selectivity.

Material movement sensing techniques

An antenna device includes a dielectric layer, an electrical ground layer carried on one side of the dielectric layer, and an antenna arrangement carried on another side of the dielectric layer. This arrangement includes two parasitic microstrip elements and a microstrip signal element. The signal element is structured to radiate an electromagnetic signal in response to application of a corresponding electrical communication signal. The parasitic antenna elements extend along opposing longitudinal sides of the signal element and each includes an adjustable component operatively connected between two microstrips. The adjustable component is structured to selectively adjust operable length of a selected one of the parasitic antenna elements to change a maximum radiation direction of the antenna device.

Reconfigurable, microstrip antenna apparatus, devices, systems, and methods

Growing community of inventors

College Station, TX, United States of America

Gregory Hilding Huff