Southwest Antennas unveils small-form-factor circularly polarized Cloverleaf Omni antennas for HD video and high-speed data sharing

SAN DIEGO, 1 June 2016. Southwest Antennas in San Diego, California, is introducing its new, small-form-factor Turbo Cloverleaf family of circularly polarized (CP) Omni antennas in 1.98 to 2.2 gigahertz (GHz) and 2.3 to 2.5 GHz frequencies designed to deliver substantial increases in data throughput and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in a compact, rugged radome that measures two inches or less on each side. Each antenna in the new family of products also features an integrated three-inch, radio-frequency (RF) coaxial gooseneck assembly with ruggedized non-rotating RF connector options for flexible antenna mounting and positioning with other closely located equipment or co-located antennas.

The new Turbo Cloverleaf antennas were designed with radio users in mind who are in need of the performance that only a Cloverleaf-style CP Omni antenna can offer, but in a new compact form factor, company officials describe. The resulting design delivers “the world’s smallest cloverleaf style antenna offering robust performance with modern radio systems that are increasingly seeing operation in the wireless video, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)/unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) 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,” officials say.

“Typical L/S licensed band and 2.4GHz ISM band Cloverleaf antennas currently available on the market have many inherent design flaws that make them ineffective at best for unmanned systems applications and applications requiring two or more co-located antennas,” explains Southwest Antennas President Benjamin Culver.

“First, the Cloverleaf antennas currently available on the market do not typically have a ruggedized radome or any radome at all and they just 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,” Culver adds. “Second, these antennas measure well over 6 inches 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 new Southwest Antennas Turbo Cloverleaf antenna design solves all of these challenging design problems by the implementation of the proprietary new Southwest Antennas design approach which reduces the size of the cloverleaf antenna drastically by over 3X in outside diameter without adversely affecting antenna gain or efficiency,” Culver continues. “The new 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. In short, Southwest Antennas has solved some huge antenna industry problems with the new Turbo Cloverleaf design and we expect this new design to receive industry wide adoption in a large number of diverse applications where status quo Cloverleaf antenna products will just not meet the system requirements.”

The proprietary Southwest Antennas Turbo Cloverleaf antenna designs offer more than 40 decibels (dB) of isolation between two co-located antennas with opposite CP polarizations which is a significant improvement over two co-located vertical or opposite slant polarized antennas. This new design has shown over 50 percent improvement in data rate throughputs and over 30 percent improvements in SNR, officials say.

These new antenna products are now available for purchase in both right-hand and left-hand circular polarizations from the Southwest Antennas website, inside sales representatives, authorized sales reps, and distributors.

Southwest Antennas Part # 1032-021, Turbo Cloverleaf RHCP Omni Antenna, 1.98-2.2GHz

Southwest Antennas Part # 1032-022, Turbo Cloverleaf LHCP Omni Antenna, 1.98-2.2GHz

Southwest Antennas Part # 1032-024, Turbo Cloverleaf RHCP Omni Antenna, 2.3-2.5GHz

Southwest Antennas Part # 1032-025, Turbo Cloverleaf LHCP Omni Antenna, 2.3-2.5GHz

Southwest Antennas specializes in the design and manufacture of rugged, high-performance RF and microwave antennas, accessory products, and customized antenna solutions built for today’s demanding communication environments. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in San Diego, California, Southwest Antennas offers over 1,000 standard products for aerospace, military/defense, homeland security, surveillance, oil and gas, broadcast video, law enforcement, and M2M markets.