Achieving Wide Bandwidth Electrically Small Antennas Using Internal Non-Foster Elements

Achieving Wide Bandwidth Electrically Small Antennas Using Internal Non-Foster Elements
Author: Ryan Thomas Cutshall
Publisher:
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

Electromagnetic equations pertaining to electrically small dipole antennas and electrically small monopole antennas with small circular ground planes are reviewed. Two electrically small antenna designs are analyzed numerically and the results are compared. The first is a frequency agile version of the two-dimensional (2D) planar Egyptian axe dipole (EAD) antenna. The second is its three-dimensional (3D) counterpart. The frequency agile performance characteristics of both the 2D and 3D EAD designs are studied and compared. The potential for non-Foster augmentation to achieve large instantaneous fractional impedance bandwidths is detailed for each antenna. In addition, details are given on how to run frequency agile simulations in both ANSYS HFSS and Agilent's ADS. Details are also provided on how to generate an antenna's non-Foster.

Analysis and Design of Electrically Small Antennas for Non-line-of-sight Communications

Analysis and Design of Electrically Small Antennas for Non-line-of-sight Communications
Author: Sungkyun Lim
Publisher:
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2007
Genre: Antennas (Electronics)
ISBN:

As the demand for compact, portable communication electronics increases, the technology of miniaturization has made great progress. A beneficiary of that progress has been research into new concepts for the antenna, one of the essential components in wireless communications. As the size of an antenna becomes smaller, however, the antenna suffers from high Q and low radiation resistance. The results are narrow bandwidth, poor matching, low efficiency, and, more generally, poor performance throughout the communication system. First, the design of a small antenna for HF/VHF communications is described. As the operating frequency of an antenna decreases, for example, into the HF and low VHF regions, the physical size of the antenna becomes a critical issue. It is desirable to design a truly electrically small antenna by reducing the ground plane size. Moreover, when the antenna size is very small, the bandwidth of the antenna is extremely narrow, which is critical to various deployment variances and propagation effects such as multi-path fading. The new design, which is an inductively coupled, top-loaded, monopole structure optimized by a genetic algorithm (GA), maximizes transmission of HF/VHF waves. Electrically small, spiral ground planes for the monopole and the electrically small antenna are designed for HF ground-wave transmission. In addition, a tunable small antenna is investigated that overcomes the narrow-bandwidth limitation of electrically small antennas. Second, new design methodologies for electrically small antennas are discussed. Use of an inductively coupled feed is one of the well-known methods for boosting input resistance. As the antenna size becomes smaller, however, it is found that the efficiency of an antenna using an inductively coupled feed is lower than an antenna using multiple folds. After a comparison of the two methods, the design of a thin, multiply folded, electrically small antenna is proposed for achieving high efficiency in a physically compact size. The GA is used to assess the effect of geometry on the performance (in terms of efficiency and bandwidth) of the electrically small antennas, including the folded conical helix and folded spherical helix. Finally, the prospects of using the new Yagi antennas to achieve small size are explored. Yagi antennas are used widely to obtain high gain in a simple structures. The antenna is composed of the driven element and the parasitic elements, which include a reflector and one or more directors. Typically, sufficient spacing on the order of 0.15[lambda] to 0.4[lambda] between the driven element and the parasitic elements is needed for the Yagi antenna to operate well. For some applications, however, it is desirable to reduce the spacing and the length of the elements to achieve a physically more compact size. In this dissertation, closely spaced, folded Yagi antennas in both three dimensions and two dimensions are investigated, and a design for an electrically small Yagi antenna is suggested.

Bandwidth Enhancement and Miniaturization Techniques for Small Antennas

Bandwidth Enhancement and Miniaturization Techniques for Small Antennas
Author: Ting-Yen Shih
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:

The HF/VHF frequency bands (3-300 MHz) are used by various long-range wireless communication systems in both military and commercial applications. Due to the large wavelengths in these bands, the antennas used in such applications are often electrically-small. While wide bandwidth is desired for high data rates, the electrically-small antennas (ESAs) tend to have very small bandwidth since there is a trade-off between small antenna size and wide bandwidth. For each ESA, the upper bound of its bandwidth can be calculated. Despite the fact that fundamental limitations restrain the performance of small antennas, the growing need of compact and broadband wireless devices for communication and sensor systems has tremendously stimulated the demand for small antennas with performance levels approaching, or even exceeding, these limitations. To address this need, I pursue novel bandwidth enhancement and miniaturization techniques for small antennas. In this dissertation, three parallel approaches that I took to investigate bandwidth enhancement and miniaturization techniques for small antennas are presented. The first method employs a novel loading structure to allow antennas to achieve compact and miniaturized dimensions while maintaining a wide bandwidth. The second method involves utilizing the presence of metallic objects that are in the vicinity of the ESAs-more specifically, the platforms (e.g. vehicles, airplanes) on which the ESAs are mounted. In this method, the platforms are considered as the main radiators, and the ESAs act mainly as coupling elements. The third method is to design highly-efficient active non-Foster matching circuits to bypass the gain-bandwidth limitations of the ESAs and achieve wide impedance bandwidth. All three methods have been experimentally validated.

Antennas with Non-Foster Matching Networks

Antennas with Non-Foster Matching Networks
Author: James T. Aberle
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
Total Pages: 54
Release: 2007
Genre: Antenna radiation patterns
ISBN: 1598291025

Most antenna engineers are likely to believe that antennas are one technology that is more or less impervious to the rapidly advancing semiconductor industry. However, as demonstrated in this lecture, there is a way to incorporate active components into an antenna and transform it into a new kind of radiating structure that can take advantage of the latest advances in analog circuit design. The approach for making this transformation is to make use of non-Foster circuit elements in the matching network of the antenna. By doing so, we are no longer constrained by the laws of physics that apply to passive antennas. However, we must now design and construct very touchy active circuits. This new antenna technology is now in its infancy. The contributions of this lecture are (1) to summarize the current state-of-the-art in this subject, and (2) to introduce some new theoretical and practical tools for helping us to continue the advancement of this technology.

Electrically Small, Near-Field Resonant Parasitic (NFRP) Antennas Augmented with Passive and Active Circuit Elements to Enhance Their Functionality

Electrically Small, Near-Field Resonant Parasitic (NFRP) Antennas Augmented with Passive and Active Circuit Elements to Enhance Their Functionality
Author: Ning Zhu
Publisher:
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

Metamaterials have drawn considerable attention because they can exhibit epsilon-negative (ENG) and/or mu-negative (MNG) properties, which in turn can lead to exotic physical effects that can enable interesting, practical applications. For instance, ENG and MNG properties can be engineered to yield double negative (DNG) properties, such as a negative index of refraction, which leads to flat lenses. Similarly, their extreme versions enable cloaking effects. Inspired by such metamaterial properties, a promising methodology has been developed to design electrically small antennas (ESAs). These ESAs use unit cells of metamaterials as their near-field resonant parasitic (NFRP) elements. This new metamaterial-inspired antenna miniaturization method is extended in this dissertation by augmenting the antenna designs with circuits. A rectifying circuit augmentation is used to achieve electrically small, high efficiency rectenna systems. Rectennas are the enabling components of power harvesting and wireless power transmission systems. Electrically small, integrated rectennas have become popular and in demand for several wireless applications including sensor networks and bio-implanted devices. Four global positioning system (GPS) L1 frequency (1.5754 GHz) rectenna systems were designed, fabricated and measured: three resistor-loaded and one supercapacitor-loaded. The simulated and measured results will be described; good agreement between them was obtained. The NFRP ESAs are also augmented with active, non-Foster elements in order to overcome the physical limits of the impedance bandwidth of passive ESA systems. Unlike conventional active external matching network approaches, the non-Foster components are incorporated directly into the NFRP element of the ESA. Three 300 MHz non-Foster circuit-augmented broadband, ESA systems were demonstrated: an Egyptian axe monopole (EAM) antenna, an Egyptian axe dipole (EAD) antenna, and a protractor antenna. The simulated and measured results will be described; reasonable agreement between them was obtained. Moreover, a deeper practical engineering understanding of how lumped components with tighter tolerances, more accurate transistor models, and integrated circuit-based implementations will lead to more satisfactory performance characteristics of the non-Foster circuit-augmented ESAs was accomplished and is also reported.

Compendium On Electromagnetic Analysis - From Electrostatics To Photonics: Fundamentals And Applications For Physicists And Engineers (In 5 Volumes)

Compendium On Electromagnetic Analysis - From Electrostatics To Photonics: Fundamentals And Applications For Physicists And Engineers (In 5 Volumes)
Author:
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 2064
Release: 2020-06-15
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9813270187

The five-volume set may serve as a comprehensive reference on electromagnetic analysis and its applications at all frequencies, from static fields to optics and photonics. The material includes micro- and nanomagnetics, the new generation of electric machines, renewable energy, hybrid vehicles, low-noise motors; antennas and microwave devices, plasmonics, metamaterials, lasers, and more.Written at a level accessible to both graduate students and engineers, Electromagnetic Analysis is a comprehensive reference, covering methods and applications at all frequencies (from statics to optical). Each volume contains pedagogical/tutorial material of high archival value as well as chapters on state-of-the-art developments.

Design Methodology for Wideband Electrically Small Antennas (ESA) Based on the Theory of Characteristic Modes (CM)

Design Methodology for Wideband Electrically Small Antennas (ESA) Based on the Theory of Characteristic Modes (CM)
Author: Khaled A. Obeidat
Publisher:
Total Pages: 104
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN:

Abstract: Emerging broadband applications with market pressures for miniaturized communication devices have encouraged the use of electrically small antennas (ESA) and highly integrated RF circuitry for high volume low cost mobile devices. This research work focuses on developing a novel scheme to design wideband electrical small antennas that incorporates active and passive loading as well as passive matching networks. Several antennas designed using the proposed design technique and built and measured to assess their performance and to validate the design methodology. Previously, the theory of Characteristic Modes (CM) has been used mostly for antennas analysis. However; in this chapter a design procedure is proposed for designing wide band (both the input impedance bandwidth and the far field pattern bandwidth) electrically small to mid size antennas using the CM in conjunction with the theory of matching networks developed by Carlin. In order to increase the antenna gain, the antenna input impedance mismatch loss needs to be minimized by carefully exciting the antenna either at one port or at multiple ports and/or load the antenna at different ports along the antenna body such that the Q factor in the desired frequency range is suitable for wideband matching network design. The excitation (feeding structure), the loading of the antenna and/or even small modifications to the antenna structure can be modeled and understood by studying the eigenvalues and their corresponding eigencurrents obtained from the CM of the antenna structure. A brief discussion of the theory of Characteristic Modes (CM) will be presented and reviewed before the proposed design scheme is introduced. The design method will be used to demonstrate CM applications to widen the frequency bandwidth of the input impedance of an electrically small Vee shape Antenna and to obtain vertically polarized Omni-directional patterns for such antenna over a wide bandwidth. A loading technique based on the CM to either design frequency reconfigurable antennas or broaden their bandwidth by Non-Foster loading will also be discussed as part of the design methodology. In the Appendix, a brief discussion of the fundamental limits of electrical small antennas is presented and then followed by a discussion of the fundamental limits of the impedance bandwidth of the ESA when a passive matching network is used. Matching network implemented using Non-Foster matching is also discussed in the appendix.

Non-foster Circuit Design and Stability Analysis for Wideband Antenna Applications

Non-foster Circuit Design and Stability Analysis for Wideband Antenna Applications
Author: Aseim M. N. Elfrgani
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

In recent years, there has been a great interest in wide-band small antennas for wireless communication in both ground and airborne applications. Electrically small antennas; however, are narrow bandwidth since they exhibit high a quality factor (Q). Therefore, matching networks are required to improve their input impedance and radiation characteristics. Unfortunately, due to gain-bandwidth restrictions, wideband matching cannot be achieved using passive networks unless a high order matching network is used. Fortunately, the so-called non-Foster circuits (NFCs) employ active networks to bypass the well-known gain-bandwidth restrictions derived by Bode-Fano. Although NFCs can be very useful in numerous microwave and antenna applications, they are difficult to design because they are potentially instable. Consequently, an accurate and efficient systematic stability assessment is necessary during the design process to predict any undesired behavior. In this dissertation, the design, stability, and measurement of two non-Foster matching networks for two different small monopole antennas, a non-Foster circuit embedded within half loop antenna, a combination of Foster and non-Foster matching network for small monopole antenna are presented. A third circuit; namely, a non-Foster coupling network for a two-element monopole array is also presented for phase enhancement applications. It all examples, the NFCs substantially improve the antenna's performance over a wide frequency band.

Modern Small Antennas

Modern Small Antennas
Author: Kyohei Fujimoto
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 491
Release: 2013
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0521877865

If you are involved in designing and developing small antennas, this complete, cutting-edge guide covers everything you need to know. From fundamentals and basic theory to design optimization, evaluation, measurements and simulation techniques, all the essential information is included. You will also get many practical examples from a range of wireless systems, whilst a glossary is provided to bring you up to speed on the latest terminology. A wide variety of small antennas is covered, and design and practice steps are described for each type: electrically small, functionally small, physically constrained small and physically small. Whether you are a professional in industry, a researcher, or a graduate student, this is your essential guide to small antennas.

Electrically Small, Superdirective, and Superconducting Antennas

Electrically Small, Superdirective, and Superconducting Antennas
Author: R. C. Hansen
Publisher: Wiley-Interscience
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006-06-30
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9780471782551

A seminal reference to electrically small antennas for today's wireless and Wi-Fi world This book is dedicated to the challenges posed by electrically small antennas and their solutions. Electrically small antennas have characteristics that limit performance: low radiation resistance, high reactance, low efficiency, narrow bandwidth, and increased loss in the matching network. Most of these limitations are shared by two other classes of antennas: superdirective and superconducting antennas. All three classes of antennas are thoroughly treated in three interrelated parts: * Part One, Electrically Small Antennas, begins with a discussion of the fundamental limitations of bandwidth and matching, then provides detailed design information on loaded whips and dipoles, ferrite loops, patches with unusual substrates, and dielectric resonator antennas. In addition to exploring designs that work, the author sets forth antenna designs that are based on good physics yet are poor performers, as well as designs with both poor underlying physics and poor performance. * Part Two, Superdirective Antennas, sets forth basic capabilities and limitations of superdirective antennas, both apertures and arrays, and investigates bandwidth, efficiency, and tolerances. The author explores the magnification of intrinsic matching circuit loss due to a large mismatch and evaluates the recent and promising non-Foster matching circuits. * Part Three, Superconducting Antennas, reviews superconductivity concepts and new principles for dipole, loop, and patch antennas. The author concludes with a discussion of superconducting delay lines for wideband phased array steering. Throughout the book, the author provides readers with a historical perspective, setting forth what has been investigated, what works, and what does not. Each part has its own author index and a list of references to help readers continue their explorations of particular topics.With the explosive demand for wireless and Wi-Fi, this seminal reference is essential reading for all antenna professionals and is recommended as a graduate-level course book.