Vorbeck Materials and Bluewater Defense (a leading manufacturer of protective clothing, uniforms and equipage for the United States Department of Defense) recently exhibited at AUSA 2016 their graphene-enhanced next-gen, high performance wearable antennas for military, tactical and commercial use in apparel and equipment, featuring multiple communication bands including LTE capabilities.
Bluewater and Vorbeck partnered to offer robust, high-gain, low-cost, and discrete conformal printed graphene antennas embedded in military apparel and backpacks. Its reported benefits include:
- Increase existing cell phone coverage by up to 200%
- Significant improvements of upload and download speeds
- Omni-directional coverage through the deployment of an array of antennas
- Supports wide frequency range from 800-3000 Mhz
- Durable, flexible, washable and non-corrosive -- environmentally friendly
- Increased battery life by reducing operating power
Vorbeck's CEO stated that "We expect that our military and defense leaders will appreciate a high performance wearable antenna with little or no silhouette, therefore better protecting the warfighter". "Two additional benefits of this technology are that it delivers real-time, 'on-the-go' communication capabilities because there is no need to deploy an external antenna, and they also interface with traditional electronics, making them very easy to field."