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Aircraft/traffic alert and collision avoidance system (ACAS/TCAS) is an airborne system which is designed to provide the service as a last defense equipment for avoiding mid-air collisions between the aircraft. In the existing system, four monopole stub-elements are used as ACAS directional antenna and one blade type element is used as ACAS omnidirectional antenna. The existing ACAS antenna has some drawbacks such as low gain, large beamwidth, frequency and beam tuning/scanning issues etc. Antenna issues like unwanted signals reception may create difficulties to identify the possible threats. In this paper, the focus is on the design and development of a unit element microstrip antenna which can be used for ACAS application and to overcome the possible limitations associated with the existing techniques. Two proposed antenna models are presented here, which are single feed and dual feed microstrip dual patch slotted antenna. These are designed and simulated in CST Microwave Studio tool. The performance and other antenna characteristics have been explored from the simulation results followed by the antenna fabrication and measurement. A good reflection coefficient, Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR), narrow beamwidth, perfect directional radiation pattern, high gain and directivity make this proposed antenna a good candidate for this application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TCAS/ACAS (Traffic/Aircraft Collision Avoidance System) is an airborne system designed to increase cockpit awareness of nearby aircraft and to service as a last defense against mid-air collisions between the aircrafts. In the existing system, four monopole stub elements are used as TCAS directional antenna and one blade type element is used as TCAS Omni-directional antenna. The transmission and reception frequencies of the TCAS antenna are 1.03G Hz and 1.09G Hz respectively. The existing TCAS antenna has some drawbacks such as low gain, large beamwidth, frequency and beam tuning/scanning issues etc. Antenna issues like unwanted signals reception may create difficulties in identifying the possible threats. In this paper, the focus is on the design and development of a novel Microstrip Antenna Array which can be used for TCAS/ACAS application. Two proposed antenna models are presented here – a Unit Element Dual Feed Microstrip Dual Patch Slotted Antenna and a Compact Microstrip Antenna Array. These are designed in CST tool to meet the current needs of aircraft Collision Avoidance System and to overcome the possible limitations associated with the existing techniques. The performance and other antenna characteristics have been explored from the simulation results followed by the antenna fabrication and measurement. A good Reflection Coefficient and VSWR with proper 50 Ω Impedance Matching, narrow Beamwidth, perfect Directional Radiation Pattern, high Gain and Directivity at the operating frequencies make this proposed antenna a good candidate for TCAS application. The proposed antenna would be expected to meet the requirements of the advanced avionics standards in terms of design simplicity, lightweight and high performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a simple parasitic decoupling structure integrated compact dual-band quad-element Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) configuration with improved isolation is proposed for 3.5 and 5.8 GHz bands of Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) applications. The lower and higher frequency bands accomplish an impedance bandwidth of 400 MHz (3.35 – 3.75 GHz) and 450 MHz (5.6 – 6.05 GHz), respectively. A slot integrated curve-shaped compact (11 × 20 mm2) dual-band monopole antenna is explored to implement the proposed compact MIMO configuration. A parasitic decoupling structure comprising T and inverted L-shaped thin metal strips is introduced between the orthogonally placed antenna elements. It exhibits dual stopband characteristics to enhance the isolation significantly at the targeted frequency bands despite the compact footprint (34 × 34 mm2) of the MIMO geometry. The optimized decoupling structure improves the isolation between the elements by 31.5 and 32 dB in the lower and higher bands than the MIMO geometry without decoupling elements. The antenna provides good radiation characteristics with peak gains of 4.18 and 3.62 dBi within the bands. The computed diversity metrics, such as envelope correlation coefficient (< 0.01), diversity gain (> 9.93 dB), mean effective gain ratio (-0.13 to 0.16 dB), channel capacity loss (< 0.4 b/s/Hz), and total active reflection coefficient (< -10 dB), ensures good diversity performance. The fair agreement between the simulated results using HFSS EM solver and the measured results on the fabricated prototype validated the proposed MIMO configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]