Metamaterial antenna

Metamaterial antennas are a class of antennas which use metamaterials to increase performance of miniaturized (electrically small) antenna systems. Their purpose, as with any electromagnetic antenna, is to launch energy into free space. However, this class of antenna incorporates metamaterials, which are materials engineered with novel, often microscopic, structures to produce unusual physical properties. Antenna designs incorporating metamaterials can step-up the antenna's radiated power. Metamaterial antennas are a class of antennas which use metamaterials to increase performance of miniaturized (electrically small) antenna systems. Their purpose, as with any electromagnetic antenna, is to launch energy into free space. However, this class of antenna incorporates metamaterials, which are materials engineered with novel, often microscopic, structures to produce unusual physical properties. Antenna designs incorporating metamaterials can step-up the antenna's radiated power. Conventional antennas that are very small compared to the wavelength reflect most of the signal back to the source. A metamaterial antenna behaves as if it were much larger than its actual size, because its novel structure stores and re-radiates energy. Established lithography techniques can be used to print metamaterial elements on a PC board. These novel antennas aid applications such as portable interaction with satellites, wide angle beam steering, emergency communications devices, micro-sensors and portable ground-penetrating radars to search for geophysical features. Some applications for metamaterial antennas are wireless communication, space communications, GPS, satellites, space vehicle navigation and airplanes. Antenna designs incorporating metamaterials can step-up the radiated power of an antenna. The newest metamaterial antennas radiate as much as 95 percent of an input radio signal. Standard antennas need to be at least half the size of the signal wavelength to operate efficiently. At 300 MHz, for instance, an antenna would need to be half a meter long. In contrast, experimental metamaterial antennas are as small as one-fiftieth of a wavelength, and could have further decreases in size. Metamaterials are a basis for further miniaturization of microwave antennas, with efficient power and acceptable bandwidth. Antennas employing metamaterials offer the possibility of overcoming restrictive efficiency-bandwidth limitations for conventionally constructed, miniature antennas. Metamaterials permit smaller antenna elements that cover a wider frequency range, thus making better use of available space for space-constrained cases. In these instances, miniature antennas with high gain are significantly relevant because the radiating elements are combined into large antenna arrays. Furthermore, metamaterials' negative refractive index focuses electromagnetic radiation by a flat lens versus being dispersed. The earliest research in metamaterial antennas was an analytical study of a miniature dipole antenna surrounded with a metamaterial. This material is known variously as a negative index metamaterial (NIM) or double negative metamaterial (DNG) among other names. This configuration analytically and numerically appears to produce an order of magnitude increase in power. At the same time, the reactance appears to offer a corresponding decrease. Furthermore, the DNG shell becomes a natural impedance matching network for this system.