Southwest Antennas has introduced their new small form factor Turbo Cloverleaf family of circularly polarized (CP) Omni antennas that operate from 1.98 - 2.2 GHz and 2.3 - 2.5 GHz. These new and innovative antenna products deliver a substantial increases in data rate throughput and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in a very compact, rugged radome that measures two inches less on each side. Each antenna in this new family of products also features an integrated three inch RF coaxial gooseneck assembly with ruggedized non-rotating RF connector options that allows for flexible antenna mounting and positioning with other closely located equipment or co-located antennas.
These antennas were designed with radio users in mind who are in need of the performance that only a Cloverleaf style circularly polarized Omni-directional antenna can offer, but in a new compact form factor. The resulting design delivers the smallest cloverleaf style antenna offering robust performance with modern radio systems that are increasingly seeing operation in the wireless broadcast TV / wireless video and live sports markets, UAV / drone video systems, vehicle-mounted radios, and tactical law enforcement and military radios that are utilizing MIMO/MANET system architectures for improved video, voice, and data transmission.
According to Benjamin Culver, President, Southwest Antennas - Typical L/S licensed band and 2.4 GHz ISM band Cloverleaf antennas currently available on the market have many inherent design flaws that make them ineffective for unmanned systems applications and applications requiring two or more co-located antennas.
He added - The Cloverleaf antennas currently available on the market do not typically have a ruggedized Radome or any Radome. They use exposed wiring to create the antenna cloverleaf radiating element structure that is covered with plastisol or similar insulated coating, leaving the antenna easily susceptible to damage. Second, these antennas measure well over 6” in outside diameter making them impractical for installation on a UAV or drone platform. Third, they have poor and improper impedance matching at the antenna feed point and finally they have poor radiation pattern control over frequency due to inadequate RF choking on the antenna’s cable feed.
The Turbo Cloverleaf antenna design by Southwest Antennas solves all of these challenging design problems with the implementation of the proprietary design approach which reduces the size of the cloverleaf antenna drastically by over 3X in outside diameter without adversely affecting antenna gain or efficiency. This design uses SMT components inside the Radome located on the antenna element to tune the antenna performance perfectly right at the antenna feedpoint which is a critical factor in the design of high performance cloverleaf antennas. Other proprietary design techniques are used to maintain excellent radiation pattern control over the entire operational frequency band.
This proprietary Turbo Cloverleaf antenna designs offer over 40 dB of isolation between two co-located antennas with opposite circular polarizations which is a significant improvement over two co-located vertical or opposite slanted polarized antennas. This new design has shown over 50% improvement in data rate throughputs and over 30% improvements in SNR.
