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

Abstract

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 |S₁₁| and radiation efficiency curves using HFSS, and how to generate an antenna's non-Foster |S₁₁| curve using ADS.