Beacon antenna for harsh environment

A beacon antenna is proposed using in beacon device of digital flight data recorder for harsh environment. The antenna has a simple structure and works at the center frequency of 2.645 GHz. Its fabrication employs a low-cost and planar printed technique. The antenna contains a main patch and 3 derivative elements, act as radiators. The proposed antenna is designed by employing the genetic algorithm (GA). A prototype antenna is fabricated and measured. The measurement results agree with the simulation data and show that this antenna possesses encouraging features. For example, it has a well-formed radiation pattern with a high gain level of 6dBi, the antenna achieves an impedance bandwidth of 2.3% of the center frequency (2.613 GHz ∼2.675 GHz) for S11 < −10 dB and 3 dB gain-drop bandwidth of 95°.