E-tenna Corporation

Atlantic Aerospace Electronics Corporation

David T Auckland

William E McKinzie, Iii

James D Lilly

Andrew Humen, Jr

An antenna consisting of a thin strip bent-wire monopole disposed on an artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is loaded at the end opposite to the feed point with a distributed or lumped capacitance to achieve an electrically small antenna for use in handheld wireless devices. The capacitive load reduces the length of the antenna to smaller than one-quarter of a wavelength at a given frequency of operation without suffering a substantial loss of efficiency. This results in an easier integration into portable devices, greater radiation efficiency than other loaded antenna approaches and longer battery life in portable devices, and lower cost than use of a chip inductor.

Capacitively-loaded bent-wire monopole on an artificial magnetic conductor

An artificial anisotropic dielectric material is used as a microstrip patch antenna substrate and can achieve dramatic antenna weight reduction. The artificial dielectric is comprised of a periodic structure of low and high permittivity layers. The net effective dielectric constant in the plane parallel to the layers is engineered to be any desired value between the permittivities of the constituent layers. These layers are oriented vertically below the patch to support electric fields consistent with desired resonant modes. Substrates may be engineered for both linearly and circularly polarized patch antennas. Substrate weights can be reduced by factors of from 6 to 30 times using different types of high permittivity layers. This concept has numerous applications in electrically small and lightweight antenna elements, as well as in resonators, microwave lenses, and other electromagnetic devices.

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Silver Spring, MD, United States of America

David T Auckland