Technology Opportunity
Florida International University (FIU) is seeking a business partner to develop and commercialize foldable, deployable and reconfigurable origami antennas made using fabric, textile or other material encapsulation and/or scaffolding.
Axial mode conventional helical antennas are widely used in satellite communications and global positioning systems due to their high gain and circular polarization. Segmented helical antennas, such as square cross section helical antennas provide approximately equivalent performance compared to the conventional helical antennas. Advantages of using a segmented helical antenna include ease with which they can be supported on a dielectric structure, and low cost of designing and manufacturing such antennas. Although there are advantages to using these kind of antennas, it is not easy to move them and they require a large height.
To address this problem, FIU inventors have designed antennas that are foldable and have two encapsulation layers that house multiple origami substrates. This design allows the foldable antenna to be deployable and also reduce the volume of the foldable antenna while remaining a helical antenna. The antennas can fold and unfold to correspondingly collapse and deploy. The antennas can also reconfigure their performance. Reconfigurable antennas, arrays, and frequency selective surfaces can be developed using fabric, textiles, or other materials to encapsulate thick origami substrates. The materials of the antennas can also be integrated with actuation mechanisms, scaffolding, RF connectors, and origami folding mechanisms.
Applications
- Tactical, portable and field antennas
- Airborne and space borne antennas
Advantages
- Antenna can change fold and unfold to correspondingly collapse and deploy.
- Antenna can also reconfigure its performance.
Brochure