Automotive conformal antenna research at the Ohio State University

There has been a global trend toward more communications, navigation, and sensing applications in the automotive industry in the last few years. Modern automobiles have systems for AM radio, FM radio (with diversity), TV (with diversity), cellular (high and low bands), GPS, keyless entry, and roadside telecommunications. Coupled with this trend is the trend toward conformal or invisible antennas. The automobile manufacturers (and the buyers) want the systems to as be as unobtrusive as possible. New antenna designs are increasingly becoming conformal and imbedded. This means that new antenna designs are much more interdependent on the automobile body shape and material. These new conformal designs couple tightly to the body shape and each new body style requires that the antennas must be redesigned. All this is in an environment of decreasing time to market for new body styles. This paper discusses the conformal antenna research being done at the Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory. It discusses on-glass concepts and other hidden antenna concepts. The emphasis is on design techniques and measurement techniques. The use of new material for building the antenna, such as transparent conductive film is also shown.