Metamaterial-Inspired Efficient Electrically Small Antennas

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 56; no. 3; pp. 691 - 707
• Main Authors: Erentok, A., Ziolkowski, R.W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-03-2008; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antenna design; Antenna efficiency; Antenna feeds; Antenna measurements; Antennas; Antennas and propagation; Applied sciences; Construction; Design engineering; electrically small antenna (ESA); Exact sciences and technology; Frequency; Impedance matching; Metamaterials; Networks; Optical reflection; Power engineering and energy; Radiocommunications; Reflector antennas; System testing; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Three dimensional; Two dimensional; Performance evaluation; Three dimensional model; Impedance matching; Scalability; antennas; electrically small antenna (ESA); metamaterials; Two dimensional model; Metamaterial; Antenna efficiency; Antenna; Antenna radiation patterns
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2008.916949

Planar two-dimensional (2D) and volumetric three-dimensional (3D) metamaterial-inspired efficient electrically-small antennas that are easy to design; are easy and inexpensive to build; and are easy to test; are reported, i.e., the EZ antenna systems. The proposed 2D and 3D electrical- and magnetic-based EZ antennas are shown to be naturally matched to a 50 source, i.e., without the introduction of a matching network. It is demonstrated numerically that these EZ antennas have high radiation efficiencies with very good impedance matching between the source and the antenna and, hence, that they have high overall efficiencies. The reported 2D and 3D EZ antenna designs are linearly scalable to a wide range of frequencies and yet maintain their easy-to-build characteristics. Several versions of the 2D EZ antennas were fabricated and tested. The measurement results confirm the performance predictions. The EZ antennas systems may provide attractive alternatives to existing electrically-small antennas.