Small Antenna Design

Preface

Miniaturization of electronic systems has accelerated over the last few decades and this process feeds expectations for even smaller components and systems in each new generation of equipment. Antennas have not been exempt from this pressure to be made smaller. Often, the result has been the use of antennas that are reduced in size without regard to their performance. This has led to needlessly poor system efficiency and reduced range. In this text we discuss the limitations on small antenna performance, possible trade-offs, recent developments, detailed design and optimization.

Antenna performance is fundamentally a function of size measured in wavelengths at the operating frequency. “Electrically small” antennas are those that are ...