Metamaterial-inspired electrically small antenna for microwave applications

Abstract

Electrically small antennas are becoming more important to compete with the rising modern civilization. Hence, this study presents a new approach of electrically small antenna inspired by a metamaterial structure which creates an impact by achieving a multi-band property that can be applied for different microwave applications. A high-frequency electromagnetic simulator was utilized to design, simulate, and analyze the antenna performance. About 58% reduction was achieved due to the incorporation of the modified electric field-driven capacitor-driven metamaterial. The initial length of the antenna was 0.61λ0 × 0.58λ0 × 0.12λ0; however, after embedding metamaterial, 58% reduction was achieved and the size of the electrical length of the reduced antenna becomes 0.254λ0 × 0.207λ0 × 0.013λ0, where λ0 denotes free-space wavelength. The electrical limitation factor (ka) of the antenna that was 0.94 (below 1) satisfied the conditions of electrically small antenna. The antenna achieved the highest measured gain of 4.79 dB. Due to its compact miniaturized size and resonance characteristics, the proposed antenna is compatible for broad spectrum of applications in the field of microwave communication.