Origami Antennas
Stavros V. Georgakopoulos, Constantinos L. Zekios, Abdul-Sattar Kaddour, Muhammad Hamza, Akash Biswas, Brooklyn Clark, Collin Ynchausti, Larry L. Howell, Spencer P. Magleby, Robert J. Lang
Abstract
The field of foldable and physically reconfigurable antennas has recently attracted significant interest from diverse scientific communities, including researchers on antennas, material science, mechanical engineering and numerical modeling. Deployable, packable and multifunctional systems are very important for many applications, including satellite communications, UAVs, CubeSats as well as airborne and spaceborne communication systems. Foldable and physically reconfigurable antennas, particularly origami-based antennas, can provide new capabilities for the aforementioned applications. In this work, we present emerging research on foldable and physically reconfigurable antennas. Such antennas morph their shape to adapt and reconfigure their EM performance (e.g., frequency of operation, bandwidth, polarization, beamwidth, etc.). Also, origami antennas provide ultra-compact stowage, easy deployment, reduced weight, enhanced EM performance and multifunctional utility.