An ITAR-free Dual Frequency Antenna Array in the ARINC Footprint for Robust Aeronautical Navigation

Veenu Kamra, Wahid Elmarissi and Stefano Caizzone

Abstract:	In today’s era, modernization of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) signal has brought to enhancement of navigation performance in different fields, varying from mapping geographies to social networking, automobiles to aeronautics, spacecraft to marine boats and ships. This is especially true for aeronautical navigation, where the upcoming of dual frequency multiconstellation systems has fostered the development new standards for the avionic navigation equipment. A key role in the new equipment will be played by the capability of providing robust navigation while operating at dual band (i.e. covering L1/E1 and L5/E5a bands). In order to achieve interference suppression capabilities, multi-antenna arrays are the most powerful method: they had till now also major drawbacks, the most prominent being that the size was not really fitting for integration in legacy avionic antenna footprints (such as the worldwide used ARINC 743A footprint). This need for efficient multi-antenna receivers with very compact antenna designs has led to R&D activities aiming at array designs that can easily integrate into the aerial vehicle and still allow the reception of GNSS signals in severe interference environment. In particular, an array of miniaturized antenna elements fitting into the current footprint of single element avionic antenna would be strongly advantageous, thanks to its superior compatibility with previous installations. The present work introduces a new ITAR-free Antenna array which is right-hand circularly polarized, operating at dual frequency, i.e., L1/E1 and L5/E5a and in compliance with the ARINC 743A size requirement. Due to the reduced dimension of the ARINC footprint (120 mm x 74 mm), the mutual distance between the elements is minimal, hence producing strong mutual coupling among them. To overcome this disadvantage in the proposed design, metallic fences are introduced in between the L1 band antenna elements. In this paper, we introduce first results of the new miniaturized multiband antenna design.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 33rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2020) September 21 - 25, 2020
Pages:	3686 - 3696
Cite this article:	Kamra, Veenu, Elmarissi, Wahid, Caizzone, Stefano, "An ITAR-free Dual Frequency Antenna Array in the ARINC Footprint for Robust Aeronautical Navigation," Proceedings of the 33rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2020), September 2020, pp. 3686-3696. https://doi.org/10.33012/2020.17682
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