S Band Monopole Plasma Antenna Design and Beam Forming Application by Plasma Columns

Abstract

Although plasma-based antennas were first proposed a few decades ago, they have been increasingly attracting researchers in recent years with the developments in plasma technology. The biggest reasons for this are the advantages of plasma-based antennas compared to equivalent conductor antennas. One of these advantages is that the plasma tubes are almost transparent in the off state and have a very low weight compared to a conductive antenna of the same dimensions. In the literature it seems that most of the research has focused on applications where plasma tubes are used as a reflector, while studies have increased, and plasma-based structures have been proposed for various purposes in various frequency regions. Studies using mechanisms that directly feed the plasma tubes have mostly focused on the low frequency region. In this study, commercially available T5 fluorescent tubes were used as plasma column for its low cost and easy finding. It was fed with a coupler which has been designed for this purpose and an antenna operating for 3.2GHz with a directivity of about 6.3 dBi was obtained. With this feature, the study aimed to shed light on a new area by obtaining an active plasma monopole operating in a relatively high frequency region. In the second part of the study, around this monopole, plasma tubes without RF feed were used as reflectors and/or suppressors, and beam forming was obtained. It is thought that the study will pave the way for new studies in areas where reducing the radar cross section area value is important, especially in military technologies.