Dual Band GNSS Antenna with High Back Lobe Suppression

Abstract

This paper presents the study of a novel design of a miniaturized GNSS antenna for E5a and E1 bands (i.e. at the central operating frequencies of 1.176 and 1.575 GHz) with high gain and very low back lobe for multipath reduction in high end static (e.g. geodesy) or dynamic (e.g. UAV) environments. The antenna itself is 56 mm in diameter and has a vertically stacked appurtenance of approximately 160 mm diameter that forces the cancellation of electromagnetic fields underneath the ground plane, thereby drastically improving the cross polarization discrimination and allowing for multipath suppression in both bands of operation.

A Miniaturized All-GNSS Bands Antenna Array Incorporating Multipath Suppression for Robust Satellite Navigation on UAV Platforms

“…Moreover, mitigation of the back-lobe is desirable to reduce the impact of the platform itself on which the antenna is installed. For this purpose, this work is building on the investigation of the all-metal vertical choke ring design in [7].…”

“…However, their weight and bulky size render them useless when considering small body mobile platforms like UAVs. In a recent development [7], a novel choke-ring design composed of vertical layers was presented, which drastically reduces back lobe radiation while obtaining a compact size and lower weight than a similar horizontal choke design. Nevertheless, further miniaturization of these vertical chokes is required for them to be utilized on platforms with stringent size constraints, such as UAVs.…”