Plasma
Antennas

Plasma antennas do apply plasma discharges either
as an Electromagnetic reflector or as radiating elements,
and introduce reconfigurable capabilities that are not achievable
by conventional antennas
our product

PLASMA
ANTENNA

Plasma antennas do apply plasma discharges either as an Electromagnetic reflector or as radiating elements, and introduce reconfigurable capabilities that are not achievable by conventional antennas.

KEY FEATURES
BENEFITS
Pattern control
A plasma can afford multi-beam operation, beam-steering, and better directivity without any mechanical element
Variable gain
Gain can be electronically controlled
Multiple frequency
The antenna can operate at multiple frequencies by changing plasma parameters.
Anti-jamming
A plasma reflector can be exploited to reduce sensitivity to Omni directional jamming
Stealth
Plasma antennas are mainly composed by dielectric part, when they are turned off the radar cross section drastically reduces.

APPLICATIONS

Telecommunication, navigation in the L band.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Numerical code able to simulate a plasma antenna elements have been implemented and validated. An antenna mock-up has been manufactured and tested both in open field and in anechoic chamber. Current TRL is 4.

DEVELOPMENT

An internal development is currently ongoing to target TRL 5.

OUR background

Researches on plasma antennas started in 2012 exploiting competences matured in the development of plasma thrusters. We firstly developed code suitable to simulate wave propagation within plasma elements and antenna coupling. We designed and developed several prototypes, which, after having overcome several criticalities due to power coupled to plasma, have been successfully tested in an open field and on an anechoic chamber. Experimental results match very well numerical results.

10+ years of experience

FULL PROCESS SERVICES

PROBLEM SOLVING

founded projects

The research and development took place through
different research internal and external programs as:

Paladin funded by EC and
coordinated by Alma-Sistemi.
Starlet funded by ASI
and coordinated by Elital.

capabilities

We carry out research and development activities
through a combined numerical/experimental investigation.

We design, develop and test different antenna configurations in the UHF frequency band.
We apply numerical code to optimize antenna performances.
We have expertise in characterizing the scattering parameters of plasma antennas by means of VNA, the transmitted/received fields by means of open field and anechoic chamber measurements.

PLASMA ANTENNA
TECHNOLOGY

Plasma antennas do apply plasma elements to interact with the electromagnetic field to obtain unconventional effects. We developed two types of antennas. The first is a plasma reflector antenna that is able to electronically focus and steer the beam of an intrinsically-omnidirectional feed. The second is a plasma dipole in the UHF band.

Steerable

Plasma technology enables antenna steering.

Broad frequency range

Changes in plasma elements density allow the antenna to operate within a rather broad frequency band width.

Variable radar cross section

Once plasma is turned off the radar cross section of the system becomes very small.