Plasma antenna technology looks to be very interesting, with a number of
advantages over normal antennas. There are also other very interesting
applications for plasma conductors, such as EM shields (Time Selective
Surfaces?!). However, at the moment it is unclear for me to see all the
disadvantages. Ofcourse there is the issue with noise, however Markland
states that there is very little noise after the gas is ionised and it
does not have to be problematic for transmit antennas. And there is the
temperature issue, as remarked by Erik, but presumably also cost, total
system weight (not of the aerial), reliability and maintenance are worse
than for a simple metal antenna.
I have retrieved some information on plasma antennas from the various
patents on the subject and from Markland's website. Does anyone have
more (better) sources in which some of the issues with plasma antennas
are addressed?
Also: how mature is the technology at the moment? The pictures on
Markland's site show a number of antennas (which presumably work?). On
the other hand, the technology is still listed under the subject
"emerging technologies" of their website. Does anyone know if there are
companies actually offering plasma antennas for sale? Currently most of
the research and application looks to be US DoD only!
best regards,
Jasper van der Graaff
-- Jasper van der Graaff Thales Naval Nederland B.V. Environmental Competence Center P.O. Box 42, 7550 GD Hengelo The Netherlands Tel.: +31 (0)74 - 248 3655 Fax : +31 (0)74 - 248 4037 E-mail : Jasper.vanderGraaff_at_nl.thalesgroup.com ------------------------------------------------ This e-mail contains Unclassified information. -- The NEC-List mailing list <nec-list_at_gweep.ca> http://www.gweep.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/nec-listReceived on Wed May 12 2004 - 16:36:08 EDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Sat Oct 02 2010 - 00:10:44 EDT