Advances in the Design of Electrically Small Antennas
5:30-6:00pm, reception at 5:00.
Location: Marcus Hall, Room 132
Optimization of the performance properties of electrically small antennas represents a challenging design problem for the antenna engineer. As wireless devices decrease in size, there is an increasing demand for physically smaller antennas, yet the performance requirements are rarely relaxed.
This lecture provides a detailed discussion on the theory, challenges and performance trade-offs associated with the design of electrically small antennas. The lecture begins with an overview of the basic theory and concepts associated with electrically small antennas. This segment of the presentation provides an understanding of antenna performance limitations in terms of impedance, radiation patterns, bandwidth, efficiency, and quality factor. Techniques used to design self-resonant electrically small antennas are described and compared. These include dielectric loading, linear loading (increasing wire length), top-loading, and "folded" configurations. The relationship between the antenna's performance characteristics and its physical properties is discussed. Issues such as the significance of antenna geometry are considered. The performance of the small antenna on small finite ground planes is considered with a particular emphasis on how the antenna's location on the ground plane affects impedance, pattern and polarization properties. The lecture concludes with a discussion on recent advances made in the design of low profile, conformal and integrated device antennas.
Steven R. Best
MITRE
202 Burlington Road
M/S S230
Bedford, MA 01730
steven.best@mitre.org
(781) 271-8879
Steven R. Best received the B.Sc.Eng and the Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick, Canada in 1983 and 1988, respectively. He has over 20 years of experience in business management and antenna design engineering in both military and commercial markets. He is currently a Principal Sensor Systems Engineer with the MITRE Corporation in Bedford, MA where he is involved in supporting a number of government programs. Prior to joining MITRE, he was with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/SNHA) at Hanscom AFB from 2002 to 2005, where his research interests included electrically small antennas, wideband radiating elements, conformal antennas, phased arrays, communication antennas and the application of novel materials in antenna design. Prior to joining AFRL, he was President of Cushcraft Corporation from 1997 to 2002. He was Director of Engineering at Cushcraft from 1996 to 1997. Prior to joining Cushcraft, he was co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Parisi Antenna Systems from 1993 through 1996. He was Vice President and General Manager of D&M/Chu Technology, Inc (formerly Chu Associates) from 1990 - 1993. He joined Chu Associates as a Senior Electrical Engineer in 1987.
Dr. Best is an Adjunct Professor at Tuft’s University and UMass-Lowell. He is the author or co-author of over 100 papers in various journal, conference and industry publications. He frequently presents a 3-day short course on antennas and propagation for wireless communications and he is the author of a CD-ROM series on antennas for wireless communication systems. He was the 2004 and 2005 recipient of the AFRL Sensors Directorate Chief Scientist Award. He was formerly a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and an Associate Editor for the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. Dr. Best is a frequent reviewer for several IEE and IEEE journals. He is the APS Editor-in-Chief Electronics Communications, an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, a member of the IEEE APS AdCom and Junior Past Chair of the IEEE Boston Section. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of ACES.
