Microstrip-fed cylindrical slot antennas for GPS avionics applications

The commercial GPS user antenna for aircraft networks requires a right-hand circular polarization and a uniform pattern coverage over approximately the entire upper hemisphere. It also demands a mechanical configuration that has no appreciable drag and needs no elaborate structural modification to the aircraft. The printed cylindrical slot antennas presented in this paper are useful in this application where low-profile installation is required on a high dynamic aircraft. These new printed GPS antennas provide compact size, low cost, ease of mass production.