Recently there has been considerable interest toward designing and developing `smart skins' for aircraft. The smart skin is a composite layer which may contain conformal radar, conformal microstrip or spiral antennas for electromagnetic applications. These embedded antennas will given rise to very low radar cross section or can be completely `hidden' to tracking radar. In addition, they can be used to detect, monitor or even jam other unwanted electromagnetic field signatures. The conformal electronically steerable antenna may find useful as a communication link between sensors, actuators and controllers in future `smart' aircraft. The smart skin structure containing the antenna should not only compensate for unwanted structural vibration but also maintain the electromagnetic beam steering and power density (beam shaping). This paper is designed to address some technical advances made in the design and development of thin, wideband, conformal antenna architecture that is structurally integratable and both structurally and electronically tunable using multifunctional piezo, ferroelectric and chiral materials.

Date Published: 19 June 1997
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 3046, Smart Structures and Materials 1997: Smart Electronics and MEMS, (19 June 1997); doi: 10.1117/12.276632

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3046:
Smart Structures and Materials 1997: Smart Electronics and MEMS
Vijay K. Varadan; Paul J. McWhorter, Editor(s)