Design and fabrication of composite smart structures with high electric and mechanical performances for future mobile communication

Abstract

In this paper, we have developed a load-bearing outer skin for antennas, which is termed a composite smart structure (CSS). The CSS is a multilayer composite sandwich structure in which antenna layers are inserted. A direct-feed stacked patch antenna is considered. A design procedure including the structure design, material selection, and design of antenna elements in order to obtain high electric and mechanical performances is presented. An optimized honeycomb thickness is selected for efficient radiation and impedance characteristics. High gain conditions can be obtained by placing the outer facesheet in the resonance position, which is at about a half wavelength distance from the ground plane. The measured electrical performances show that the CSS has a great bandwidth (over 10%) and a higher gain than an antenna without a facesheet and has excellent mechanical performances, owing to the composite laminates and honeycomb cores. The CSS concept can be extended to give a useful guide for manufacturers of structural body panels and for antenna designers.