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

Abstract

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.