A Reduced Size CRPA (R-CRPA) for GNSS Receivers

Inder Gupta, John Volakis, and Chi-Chih Chen

Abstract:	We have developed a novel reduced size, controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) for GNSS receivers with excellent gain characteristics and RCP (right-hand circular polarization) performance for all GNSS frequency bands. The developed CRPA is approximately 4.25” in diameter, and is 0.6” thick. It consists of six antenna elements, each being a tightly wound triangular spiral, shaped like a “pizza’ slice. The six elements are arranged in a circular fashion to create an array that occupies a circular aperture 4.25” in diameter. The spiral has continuous gain of more than 0dB over the entire L frequency band, and can thus cover all navigation satellite bands. Though each individual antenna element within the antenna array does not provide complete upper hemispherical coverage, the desired upper hemispherical coverage can be readily obtained by combining the signals received by the individual elements. The upper hemispherical coverage is obtained by fixed weights without any beam steering. Thus, the reduced size CRPA (R-CRPA) can be used with the current antenna electronics. In this paper, we present the new antenna concept along with measured data to compare the antenna performance with the design data. We also discuss how the antenna can be used to obtain the upper hemispherical coverage, and spatial nulling of the interfering signals using current antenna electronics.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2007 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 2007 The Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	675 - 680
Cite this article:	Gupta, Inder, Volakis, John, Chen, Chi-Chih, "A Reduced Size CRPA (R-CRPA) for GNSS Receivers," Proceedings of the 2007 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2007, pp. 675-680.
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