A New Electromagnetic Jamming System for

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Huaifeng Zhang Hao Zhang Xing Liu T.Aaron Gulliver
College of Information Science College of Information Science College of Information Science Department of Electrical and
and Engineering and Engineering and Engineering Computer Engineering
Ocean University of China Ocean University of China Ocean University of China University of Victoria
Qing Dao, China Qing Dao, China Qing Dao, China Victoria, BC Canada
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—In this paper, a new electromagnetic jamming

system (EJS) is presented to interfere with the signals of
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In particular, the remote
control and global positioning system (GPS) signals required for
UAV flight are jammed by the EJS which leads to a loss of UAV
control. A saw tooth wave is employed and the bandwidth and
center frequency can be adjusted to satisfy different
requirements. To evaluate the performance of the system, several
experiments were conducted in an outdoor environment. The (a) (b)
results obtained show that the system is robust and practical.
Fig. 1. The spectrum of a ground station signal and a jamming signal.
Keywords—electromagnetic jamming system; unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV); saw tooth wave II. SYSTEM DESIGN
The jamming system has four parts, the sweep-generation
I. INTRODUCTION circuit, the voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) circuit, the RF
In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have amplifier circuit, and the antenna. The first part is the sweep-
become commonplace due to their simple operation and low generation circuit. The NE555 and NE5532 chips are used to
cost. However, they create safety and security risks, as many generate a saw tooth wave which has an adjustable frequency
people have been injured by UAVs, and they have flown over and amplitude [5]. The frequency can be adjusted between 30
military and other sensitive installations [1]. UAVs have kHz and 60 kHz, and the amplitude can be adjusted between 0
become a nuisance at airports, and are used to transport illegal V and 5 V.
drugs. In response to these problems, defensive measures have The second part is the VCO circuit. The VCO input is the
been developed such as shooting and jamming. However, the tuning voltage signal, and the output is the RF signal. The saw
accuracy with shooting is very poor because UAVs fly at tooth wave is the input, and the output is the jamming pulse at
speeds of 50 to 72 km/h [2], and the target is quite small. a specific frequency. The output frequency is linearly related to
Conversely, electromagnetic jamming sends a signal in the the input tuning voltage V(t) by
UAV frequency band to interfere with its operation and cause
loss of control [3]. The challenges with this approach are long f = kV ( t ) , t ∈ [ 0, T ] ˄1˅
distances which require significant transmit power and the
generation of signals at suitable frequencies [4]. To address where k is a constant and T is the pulse duration [6]. Thus, the
these issues, a solution is presented here which has an RF frequency can be adjusted by varying k. The Shenzhen
adjustable bandwidth and center frequency so that most UAV FLYSTEN VCO chip which is a frequency modulation
remote control signals can be jammed. oscillator [7] is used in the circuit.
Most UAVs communicate with the ground station via a 2.4 The third part is the RF amplifier circuit which amplifies
GHz controller, and are located using the global positioning the VCO output pulse. The Hitachi PF04110B MOS amplifier
system (GPS) L1 signal at 1.57542 GHz. Thus, the jamming chip is used in this circuit. The spectrum of the RF signal
system must transmit signals at these frequencies with a higher before amplification is shown Fig. 2(a), and the corresponding
power level than the ground station. In this case, the UAV will signal after amplification is given in Fig. 2(b).
not be able to establish a connection with the ground station, so
that control is lost. The spectrum of a ground station signal and The fourth part of the system is the antenna.
a jamming signal are shown in Fig. 1. A log-periodic antenna is used for the 1.5 GHz signal and a
Yagi antenna for the 2.4 GHz signal. Plate antennas at both
frequencies are used as a reference.

‹,(((
 (a) (b)
Fig. 2.The signal spectrum before and after amplification.

A. Design of the Sweep-generation Circuit

A saw tooth wave was chosen for two reasons. First, these
signals are widely employed and there are many chips Fig. 4. The NE555 chip internal structure.
available to meet the system requirements. Second, a saw tooth
wave has better continuity and periodicity than other waves B. Design of the VCO Circuit
such as the triangle wave, and a sine wave has only a single
frequency. Noise and interference can degrade the system A Shenzhen FLYSTEN VCO is a good choice because it
performance [8], so the NE5532 low-noise high-speed provides a stable output power with good flatness. The
operational amplifier [9] was chosen to adjust the amplitude of FVCO2400 chip was selected for this application. The circuit
the saw tooth wave. design is shown in Fig. 5. Note that the peripheral circuit is
simple. Pin 1 is the saw tooth wave input, and Pin 5 is the RF
An auxiliary circuit is used to vary the frequency and signal output.
amplitude of the saw tooth wave [10] which adjust the
bandwidth and center frequency of the RF signal [11]. The
amplitude of the saw tooth wave determines the frequency
range of the RF signal which is used to overcome the
frequency hopping of the UAV signal. Fig. 3 shows the saw
tooth wave circuit. Potentiometer R4 is used to adjust the
frequency and potentiometer R8 is used to adjust the amplitude
[12]. Fig. 4 shows the internal structure of the NE555 chip. It is
divided into two voltage comparators, a voltage divider, an RS
flip-flop, a discharge transistor, and a power output stage.

Fig. 5. The voltage-controlled oscillator circuit.

C. Design of the RF Amplifier Circuit

The Hitachi PF04110B amplifier chip was chosen because
of the three-stage amplification, small package, high efficiency,
high gain, and wide frequency range [14]. This chip has 8 pins
as shown in Fig. 6. The RF signal output from the voltage
controlled oscillator is input at Pin 1 and the tuning voltage is
input at Pin 2. Pin 4 is the amplified signal output.

Fig. 3. The sweep-generation circuit.

Fig. 6. The RF amplifier circuit.

D. Antenna
The amplified RF signal is transmitted via matching
antennas. A Yagi antenna is used for the 2.4 GHz signal and a
log-periodic antenna for the 1.5 GHz signal [15]. Plate
antennas are also used for comparison purposes.

III. PCB DESIGN

The schematic diagram was drawn using the Altium
Designer software and is shown in Fig. 7. This diagram was
then used to construct the PCB shown in Fig. 8. The following
points were considered in the PCB design [16].
(a) (b)
• A 50 ȍ microstrip line is used as it provides a good Fig. 8. The completed PCB.
balance between attenuation and fabrication of the
coaxial line, which has become an industry standard IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
[17]. A line width of 2 mm is used based on the plate
and required frequencies. A 5 V regulated DC source is used to power the module.
To ensure proper operation and temperature control, the PCB
• The main power line is located along the bottom edge was installed in a metal card slot and placed in a heat sink. The
and is divided for individual voltage pins. The main Phantom 3 and Phantom 4 UAVs produced by Dà-JiƗng
power line should not exceed the RF line width, so it Innovations Science and Technology (DJI) were used in the
has a width of 1 mm. The individual signal line width is experiments. They were chosen because they are widely
0.5 mm. deployed and thus are representative of UAVs on the market.
• The output of the VCO is a high frequency signal which They operate at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. For protection, they
is sensitive and easily affected by interference [18]. were designed to return and land when the signal is lost. This
Thus, the VCO circuit should be separated by coupling makes it easy to judge if the control signal has been
capacitors. 0.1 uf and 10 uf capacitors are used as successfully jammed.
bypass capacitors and are placed in parallel as shown in
Fig. 7. The 0.1 uf capacitor suppresses high frequency A. Indoor System Tests
interference and the 10 uf capacitor suppresses low The SMA plug on the PCB was connected to a spectrum
frequency interference. Decoupling capacitors are used analyzer through a 20 dB attenuator. A 2.4 GHz signal was
to reduce the switching noise and are typically chosen generated in these experiments to evaluate the system. The
to be 1/100 to 1/1000 of the value of the bypass result obtained indicate that the center frequency is near 2.4
capacitors. Thus, 100 pf and 1000 pf capacitors are used GHz with a bandwidth up to 360 MHz and a power of almost
here. 47 dB. By adjusting potentiometer R4, the amplitude of the
saw tooth wave was changed which adjusts the bandwidth of
• Via-holes should be used where possible to help with the RF signal as shown in Fig. 9. The bandwidth of the signal
grounding to reduce interference and improve heat in Fig. 9(a) is approximately 360 MHz, while the bandwidth of
dissipation. the signal in Fig. 9(b) is approximately 180 MHz, so the
bandwidth difference is a factor of 2.

(a) (b)
Fig. 9. Varying the bandwidth of the RF signal.
Fig. 7. The schematic diagram of the system.
Adjusting potentiometer R8 changes the frequency of the
saw tooth wave which changes the center frequency of the RF
signal as shown in Fig. 10. The center frequency is close to
2.45 GHz in Fig. 10(a) while in Fig. 10(b) it is near 2.65 GHz.
 the EJS and UAV remote control were placed in different
locations. The distances are shown in Table III. In all cases, the
EJS was able to successfully jam the UAV, even when the
remote control was much closer to the UAV. Further, the
received EJS signal is stronger than the remote control signal
even when the relative distance is 1800 m.
TABLE. I. OUTDOOR DISTANCE TEST AT 2.4 GHZ
Distance Power (dBm) 2.4 GHz
(a) (b) (m) Yagi antenna Plate antenna
Fig. 10. Varying the center frequency of the RF signal.
100 -34 -34
B. Outdoor UAV Operation Tests 200 -52 -48
The Yagi and log-periodic antennas were connected to the 300 -48 -53
PCB output using SMA plugs and manually pointed in the 400 -49 -53
direction of the UAV. Both the Phantom 3 and Phantom 4
UAVs were interfered with successfully as they exhibited 500 -52 -51
uncontrollable behavior such as return and land. 600 -51 -52
The indicator light can also be used to judge if the UAV 700 -59 -53
has lost control. If the UAV is in the normal state, the indicator
800 -59 -50
light is green and flashing slowly. If control is lost, the light is
yellow and flashes quickly. The jamming tests resulted in the 900 -57 -55
indicator lights of the Phantom 3 and Phantom 4 UAVs turning 1000 -56 Too low
yellow.
The loss of UAV control can also be determined through TABLE. II. OUTDOOR DISTANCE TEST AT 1.5 GHZ
the image transmission interface. A real-time image in the
normal state is shown in Fig. 11(a). When UAV control is lost, Distance
Power (dBm) 1.5 GHz
it cannot establish a connection with the ground station, so the Log-periodic
(m) Plate antenna
image signal is lost and a gray image is shown as in Fig. 11(b). antenna
100 -38 -46
200 -54 -58
300 -49 -50
400 -52 -58
500 -54 -56
(a) (b) 600 -59 -58
Fig. 11. Images from a normal UAV and an uncontrolled UAV. 700 -57 Too low
800 -59 Too low
C. Outdoor Distance Test
In this experiment, the EJS and UAV remote control were 900 -59 Too low
placed together and the UAV was moved away from them. If 1000 Too low Too low
the UAV receives the remote control signal it will operate
normally, but if the UAV receives the EJS signal, it will lose
control. The distance reflects the received power, so these TABLE. III. OUTDOOR RELATIVE DISTANCE TEST
results can be used to determine if the EJS transmit power Distance between the EJS and UAV (m) 300 400 600 800 1000 2000
meets the system requirements. Tests were conducted at Distance between the UAV remote
60 70 160 110 150 200
control and UAV (m)
distances a multiple of 100 m. For each distance, it was Relative distance between the EJS and
determined if control was lost and the received power was UAV remote control (m)
240 330 440 690 850 1800
obtained using the spectrum analyzer. The results obtained are
shown in Tables I and II. UAV control was lost at all distances. V. CONCLUSION
A module was designed which can produce high-power RF
D. Outdoor Relative Distance Tests signals at 1.5 GHz and 2.4 GHz. These signals were used to
The outdoor distance test results given above showed that interfere with the operation of a UAV and cause it to lose
the EJS signal is effective when the EJS and remote control are control. Indoor and outdoor field tests were conducted which
in the same location. To verify the effectiveness of the EJS in showed that a UAV can be successfully. This is the first step in
more realistic conditions, relative distance tests were the development of a commercial product. In the future, market
conducted. In this experiment, the UAV position was fixed and
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Guangdong Agric. Sci, vol. 14, pp. 185-189, Apr. 2013.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
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