Measurement of a biomimetic antenna in the shape of a bat's ear

This paper presents a series of measurements of a novel antenna that physically resembles the ear of a bat. The antenna consists of a circular ground plane with a central monopole element. An equilateral triangular conducting plate is curved around the ground so that the base of the triangle is electrically connected to the perimeter of the circle and is of the same length. The input characteristic is reminiscent of a simple monopole above a circular ground, providing there are a sufficient number of modes in the triangular plate at the frequency of interest. In contrast to the plain monopole, certain frequencies yield a high gain and a radiation pattern with low side lobes. Measurements presented in this paper suggest that the antenna performance is broadly comparable with its acoustic analogue, although there are differences between the acoustic and electromagnetic implementation which have yet to be resolved.