A flush‐mounted monopolar patch antenna for UAV applications

A flush‐mounted monopolar patch antenna for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications is proposed. To establish vertical monopole‐like radiation characteristics with a low‐profile on the fuselage of a UAV, a TM 21 higher‐order mode circular patch antenna (HMCPA) was proposed. For practical installation on the UAV, the HMCPA was embedded into a round recess within the UAV fuselage and was covered by a 3D printed radome with polycarbonate nuts and bolts. The flush‐mounted HMCPA had an aperture radius of only 0.23 λ 0 and a height of 0.02 λ 0 at 700 MHz. To verify the practicability and performance of the antenna, characteristics of the proposed HMCPA were compared with those of a λ 0 /4 monopole via simulation. Additionally, antenna performance was analyzed when attached to a full scale UAV model. The proposed HMCPA featured monopole‐like radiation characteristics with a low‐profile at 700 MHz. The measured fractional −10 dB reflection coefficient bandwidth and peak gain were 6.46% and 1.86 dBi, respectively. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 59:1202–1207, 2017