Performance analysis of spinning magnet as mechanical antenna

Abstract

Long wavelength results in the low radiation efficiency of a portable conventional antenna operating at very low frequency (VLF) and below. This has motivated one to develop an innovative approach to design an electrically small antenna in a frequency band lower than VLF. The time-varying electromagnetic fields can be generated by spinning a permanent magnet. In this way, the mechanical energy is converted to the electromagnetic energy, and the impedance matching networks with nonnegligible insertion loss are not required. Therefore, this mechanical antenna with spinning magnet can improve radiation efficiency in a low frequency band. In this paper, we give the detailed analysis procedure for the spinning magnet, which is seldom discussed in other published reports. In order to analyze the electromagnetic characteristics of the spinning magnet, in this paper we use the ampere return circuit theorem to investigate the equivalent relation between a spinning magnet and the orthogonal magnetic dipole. We introduce an initial spinning angle of the magnet into the dyadic green’s function. With this modification, we provide the rigorous analytic formula for field computation of the orthogonal magnetic dipole. Thus the electromagnetic characteristics of the spinning magnet and spinning magnet array can also be analyzed. For a spinning NdFeB magnet with a magnetization of <i>B</i>_r = 0.8 T and a volume of <i>V</i>_r = 270 cm³ as well as 9600 revolutions per minute, the simulation results reveal that the magnetic field of 15 fT at 1 km in air space can be obtained. But the magnetic field of the spinning magnet decreases quickly to 1 fT at 250 m in sea water. Considering the potential demand for increasing the field strength in the near field region, we recommend to use a magnet array with small-sized elements. The magnet array can be used to control the near field pattern. We take two magnets as an example for studying the performance. It can be found from the simulation results that the magnetic near field is increased by 3 dB with the linear magnet array consisting of two elements. With the initial spinning angle of the magnet element adjusted, the near field pattern of the magnet array can be controlled. This is analogous to beam steering of traditional phased array for high band operation. It can be concluded from our study that the spinning magnet is a possible alternative solution for low frequency small transmitter antenna.