A 14-element printed planar antenna array embedded within a UAV structure

A 14 elements planar antenna array of printed patches is designed and fabricated to be embedded inside the structure of an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) to enhance its communication link with the ground station. The array operates in the ISM band with a center frequency of 2.45 GHz and has measured operating bandwidth of approximately 40MHz. A beam steering algorithm is applied to aid in directing the beam towards the base station. The half power beam width (HPBW) and array gain as a function of the azimuth and elevation angles below the UAV have been characterized and studied.