A UHF band compact conformal PIFA array

A compact conformal planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) array, working at UHF band, is presented in this paper. This array consists of four PIFA elements. The parallel feeding network has been designed to drive the elements. The size of the proposed array is 100.5 mm × 48 mm. The proposed antenna is fabricated on a very thin substrate with a thickness of 0.254 mm, which is benefit for conformal structure. For the prototype, this array is assembled around a 16 mm diameter cylinder. The antenna has been successfully simulated, fabricated and measured, and the simulated and measured results show a good agreement with each other. The antenna has an omni-directional radiation pattern and a good gain in a very compact structure. The measured peak gain is -0.2 dBi at 432 MHz, and the bandwidth of the conformal antenna is 6 MHz.