Ultra-compact mechanical antennas

Significant effort has been put into the antenna miniaturization. Electrically small antennas still suffer from various issues, such as a relatively large physical size. Hence, antenna designs based on different radiation mechanisms have attracted more attention, and the mechanical antenna is one feasible solution. A review of the conventional antenna miniaturization and developments in miniaturization methods is presented in this paper. The topic of focus is on mechanical resonance and magnetoelectric (ME) coupling within the piezoelectric/ferromagnetic ME composite. This Perspective discusses the challenges and possible solutions for employing mechanical antennas for practical applications; it concludes an up-to-date discussion of current ME antenna applications for commercial and military communication devices and future applications.