RF & Microwave Technology

Airborne Antenna Considerations for C-Band Telemetry Systems

It is fairly well known within the aerospace community that telemetry is moving from the traditional L-band and S-band frequency ranges up to C-band. It is widely understood that the reason for this push to C-band is two-fold. First, traditional L and S frequency bands have been greatly reduced through reallocation for a variety of reasons by different markets, and second, the bandwidth required for most applications has seen exponential growth. This has not only been seen in military applications, but in civilian aerospace platforms as well.

Conformal antennas come in a variety of different shapes, sizes, and configurations, from discrete radiators such as a Flexislot™ (Figure 1a) or a patch antenna (Figure 1b), to arrays such as a Wraparound™ (Figure 1c). The Flexislot, or patch-style antennas, provide hemispherical coverage, while the Wraparound provides omnispherical.