UHF Wideband Antenna Design for AUV Applications

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) gain increasing popularity in the underwater domain. They are particularly suitable for carrying out surveys in areas where manned operation is too dangerous or too expensive, examples being deep sea environments or naval mine clearing operations. However, to make full use of their capabilities, a communication link between AUV and its host platform is necessary. This paper proposes a design for an ultra high frequency (UHF) wideband antenna that can be mounted on mid-sized AUVs. The antenna covers the entire naval UHF frequency band from 225MHz to 400MHz with a reflection coefficient lower than −10dB and an omni-directional radiation pattern. Water effects are taken into account in both, simulations and measurements indicating a stable antenna performance.