CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION 1.

1 INTRODUCTION In high performance aircrafts, spacecrafts, satellites, missiles and other a e r o s p a c e applications where size, weight, performance, ease of installation and aerodynamics profile arethe constraints, a low or flat/conformal profile antenna may be required. In recent years varioustypes of flat profile printed antennas have been developed such as Microstrip antenna (MSA),strip line, slot antenna, cavity backed printed antenna and printed di pole antenna. When thecharacteristics of these antenna types are compared, the micro strip antenna is found to be moreadvantageous.M i c r o s t r i p a n t e n n a a r e c o n f o r m a b l e t o p l a n a r o r n o n p l a n a r s u r f a c e , s i m p l e a n d inexpensive to manufacture, cost effective compatible with MMIC designs and when a particular p a t c h s h a p e a n d e x c i t a t i o n m o d e s a r e s e l e c t e d , t h e y a r e v e r y v e r s a t i l e i n t e r m s o f r e s o n a n t frequency, polarization, radiation patterns and impedance.In this work Design, Fabrication and Testing of linear polarized co-axial fed microstriprectangular patch antenna for aerospace applications is presented. Microstrip antennas haveseveral advantages compared to conventional microwave antennas and therefore have manyapplications over the broad frequency range from 100MHz to 50GHz. 1.2 Definition of Antenna An antenna (or aerial) is a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagneticwaves. In other words, antennas convert electromagnetic waves into electrical currents and vice-versa. They are used with waves in the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum, that is, radiowaves, and are a necessary part of all radio equipment. Antenna has many uses : communication,radar, telemetry, navigation etc. 1 Figure 1.1 shows the output from a coherent source (e.g. an oscillator) is directed out intof r e e space using an antenna. The signal source is linked to the antenna b y s o m e k i n d o f waveguide (microwave guide, light fibre, etc).T h e a n t e n n a a c t s a s a s o r t o f t r a n s f o r m e r . I t t a k e s t h e e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c f i e l d p a t t e r n , moving along the guide and transforms it into some other pattern, which is radiated out into freespace