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HRL Scientists Recognized with Best Paper Award from IEEE

MALIBU, Calif. April 13, 2009—A team of HRL researchers was recognized by the IEEE's Antennas and Propagation Society with the Piergiorgio L.E. Uslenghi Letters Prize Paper Award for their paper "A Method for Improving the Efficiency of Transparent Film Antennas," published in the society's Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters in 2008.

The award, established in honor of the founding editor of the publication, is given out annually for the best paper published in the preceding calendar year.

Lead author and HRL scientist Jae Song received congratulations from the Society's awards committee and president in a letter announcing the paper's selection.

In the paper, Song and colleagues discuss a method for improving the efficiency of antennas made of transparent conductor films and incorporated into optical displays and window glass. "Antennas made from transparent conductor film are not efficient because of the high sheet resistance, which is one of the major obstacles to the widespread application of transparent antennas," the authors report.

The HRL researchers proposed to enhance the current density of transparent antennas using a highly conductive coating. They applied a layer of this coating in the form of narrow strips at locations of high current density on transparent antennas made from silver coated polyester film. A three-dimensional electromagnetic model was then used to identify areas on the antenna with high current density and also to measure the effects of the strips on antenna efficiency.

The researchers found their proposed method could improve antenna efficiency from 38% to 68% while preserving the optical transparency of the antenna.

Co-authors on the paper, which was originally published in IEEE's Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters on October 31, 2008, include HRL researchers Tsung-Yuan Hsu, Daniel Sievenpiper, Hui-Pin Hsu, and James Schaffner, and Eray Yasan from General Motors.

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HRL Laboratories, LLC, Malibu, California (www.hrl.com) is a corporate research-and-development laboratory owned by The Boeing Company and General Motors specializing in research into sensors and materials, information and systems sciences, applied electromagnetics, and microelectronics. HRL provides custom research and development and performs additional R&D contract services for its LLC member companies, the U.S. government, and other commercial companies.