Cobham Technical Services has always been known for its innovative and creative engineering designs. A recent novel antenna design was selected by SES ASTRA as a winner of the ASTRA Innovation Contest in the Research Laboratory category. This contest is aimed at stimulating innovative concepts to further increase the consumer attractiveness and features of direct-to-home (DTH) satellite reception.
Cobham Technical Services was awarded a €150,000 prize for its proposal for a novel transparent satellite TV antenna. The technology, which results in a planar antenna, was originally developed for mobile satellite communications applications. The innovative concept uses advanced materials, combined with patent-pending antenna technology, which will enable future antennas to be incorporated into windows.
The design is based on the usage of transparent plastic materials with good electrical and mechanical properties (eg. plexiglass) and thin metal transparent film (generally aluminium supported on a thin film of dielectric) which is currently used nowadays for thermal insulation of windows and glass.
The antenna is flat and offers beam-scanning capability in one plane in order to place the antenna in a fixed surface such a wall or a window. Two alternative antenna technologies are proposed. The first one is an antenna array design which includes active elements placed at the antenna edge to feed and scan the antenna beam. The second technology is based on broadband parallel plate lenses which can offer a broad angle capability leading to a transparent multilayer structure where a beam can be scanned by mechanically adjusting the feeding point or by RF switches.
This antenna technology will reach parts of the consumer market which are deterred by the aesthetic or planning impact of reflector-based TV satellite antennas and help to avoid the increasing pressure from governments regarding the ‘visual pollution’ caused by the deployment of these antennas in urban centres. The technology also has the potential to create new applications in aerospace and defence markets.