A PLANAR PRINTED ANTENNA ARRAY EMBEDDED IN THE WING STRUCTURE OF A UAV FOR COMMUNICATION LINK ENHANCEMENT

In this work a 12-element patch planar antenna array is designed, fabricated and tested along with its radio frequency (RF) feed network at 2.45 GHz. The array is designed to be embedded in the wing structure of a fixed wing hobby-type UAV. The planar array allows for beam steering with two degrees of freedom ([θ.sub.b], [φ.sub.b]). The maximum mutual coupling between antenna elements was -25 dB. The RF combiner was phase compensated to minimize the phase imbalance between its branches. The maximum measured antenna gain was 21.4 dB. The 3D radiation pattern at several steering angles was measured at an outdoor antenna range facility. Measured and simulated values were in good agreement.