High Performance Super-Miniaturized Antennas Using Low Loss Engineering Conductors

越来越多的技术依赖于小型化天线的进步和成长，而由于缺乏超小型化天线，大量新技术无法实现。这是因为电子设备的物理尺寸现在可以缩小到可以忽略不计的尺寸，但为了获得良好的性能，天线仍然要保持较大的尺寸，并按其工作波长的顺序排列。在一些应用中，如小型卫星或空中平台，它们可以占到系统尺寸的99%，而且不能做得更小。在便携式通信设备中，这个问题变得更加严重，需要先进的电子设备，如多输入多输出（MIMO）通信系统，以提高性能，需要几个天线，从而占用更大的空间。因此，迫切需要进一步的天线小型化。然而，由于内部损耗和设计不良，天线小型化降低了其增益和效率。这些可以通过开发低损耗天线材料和改进设计来克服，以防止其性能下降，从而允许超小型化。

An increasing number of technologies depend on miniaturized antennas for advancement and growth, and a large number of new ones cannot be implemented, due to the lack of super-miniaturized antennas. This is because of the fact that the physical dimensions of electronics can now be reduced to negligible size, but antennas for good performance remain large and in order of their operating wavelength. They can contribute to as much as 99% of the system size in some applications such as small satellites or aerial platforms, and cannot be made small. The problem becomes more severe in portable communication devices necessitating advanced electronics such as multiple input - multiple output (MIMO) communication systems for enhanced performance that require several antennas, thus occupying even larger space for them. Therefore, there is an urgent need for further antenna miniaturization. However, antenna miniaturization degrades its gain and efficiency, due to the internal losses and poor designs. These can be overcome by developing lower loss antenna materials and improved designs to prevent their performance degradation, and thus allow for super-miniaturization. The proposed research is aimed to address both these problems and achieve antenna super-miniaturization. Suitable design techniques for miniaturization of planar directive, omnidirectional and aperture type antennas will be developed, investigated and optimized. Configurations with internal resonance features will be incorporated to eliminate external impedance matching circuits, and improve their performance, while reducing the antenna size. In addition, we will develop low loss engineered Metal-Dielectric composite materials, to replace solid conductors, thereby reducing the antenna internal losses and improve the efficiency. Different microfabrication approaches will be investigated to develop suitable techniques for fabrication of these low loss materials. Low cost fabrications using inkjet and 3D printing will also be developed, to facilitate industrial applications by the supporting partner.