Phased Array for UAV Communications at 5.5 GHz

Author

Inclan Alonso, Jose Manuel ; Sierra Perez, Manuel

Author_Institution

Signal, Syst. & Radiocommun. Dept., Tech. Univ. of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Volume

14

fYear

2015

fDate

2015

Firstpage

771

Lastpage

774

Abstract

This letter presents the design and manufacturing of a phased array at 5.5-GHz band. The antenna application is the communications with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a wildfire. The antenna is controlled through a WiMAX station. The vertical radiation pattern is a shaped beam. This shaped beam has the maximum at broadside and a smooth gain decay in positive θ. This way, the differences in the free-space losses of the UAVs are compensated. The antenna is steered in the horizontal plane through phase shifters. It also includes amplifiers and digital attenuators to calibrate the antenna performance. A calibration method is also proposed in the letter.

Keywords

antenna phased arrays; antenna radiation patterns; microwave antenna arrays; phase shifters; UAV communications; WiMAX station; calibration method; digital attenuators; free-space losses; frequency 5.5 GHz; horizontal plane; phase shifters; phased array; unmanned aerial vehicles; vertical radiation pattern; wildfire; Antenna radiation patterns; Arrays; Cavity resonators; Gain; WiMAX; Array calibration; WiMAX; phased array;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1536-1225

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LAWP.2014.2379442

Filename

6979229