Compact Small Magnetic Antennas

An Efficient Technique to Reduce Dimensions

without Affecting the Efficiency
Luca Cisoni, Daniele Trinchero
iXem Labs - Electronics Department
Politecnico di Torino
Torino, Italy
info@iXem.polito.it
AbstractThe use of small radiators is growing in importance for
applications related to wireless sensor networks, RFIDs, personal
and body communications. In these context, the antenna must be
compacted in a very narrow space, and the bandwidth of the
signal is typically small. Under these conditions, radiating
elements smaller (even much smaller) then the wavelength,
appear as the best solution. Thanks to a compact design and a
small size, these antennas can be embedded in a narrow space,
with extremely limited spatial dimension. On the contrary, small
antennas have limited radiating characteristics, with a light
efficiency and a high mismatch. The paper introduces a design
approach that reduces the overall antenna dimensions by
selecting an efficient geometrical shape and embedding the
matching circuit inside the antenna. The return loss has a 0.6%
bandwidth at -10 dB, larger in comparison to other realizations
than can be found in the literature. Although several realizations
s have been carried out, two solutions working 900 MHz with
simulations and measurements is presented. For their shape, they
have been baptized, respectively, Smiley and Hair Antennas.
Keywords-component; Wireless Sensors, Wireless Sensor
Networks, Small Antennas, RFID Antennas, VHF antennas, UHF
antennas

I. INTRODUCTION
When an antenna is intended to work in a harsh, narrow
environment, several constraint must be observed. The
radiator should be:
magnetic, to favor the radiation through the conductive
medium;
small in size, to favor the TAG insertion within objects
(or pipes) of narrow dimensions;
working at the lower identifiable frequency, to
minimize attenuations caused by losses;
efficient, to optimize the transmission of the power
generated by the transmitter, which is typically low;
omnidirectional in the plane containing the antenna, to
guarantee stability to the transmission link,
independently from the antenna rotations (in case of
mobility, e.g. in a bottle of water, in a pipe or in an
aquarium) .

978-1-4244-9561-0/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

1020

Among all possible solutions, the antenna that better

matches the whole set of the listed properties, is the
elementary magnetic dipole, and its practical implementation,
the electrically small loop. These antennas are characterized
by very short dimensions with respect to the wavelength [1]; it
is known from the literature that their input impedance is very
small, since the antenna is completely mismatched from the
feeding circuit [2]. Efficient methods to evaluate the Q-factor
are available [3]. Intrinsic limitations of small antennas have
been extensively studied in the past [4], [5] and they can be
shortly summarized from a microwave point of view,
analyzing the graph reported in Fig.1, where the real and
imaginary parts of the input impedance of a circular loop with
growing circumference (up to 0.43 ) are reported. In that
range, both real and imaginary parts grow from zero to infinite,
so when the real part equals 50 Ohm, the imaginary one is 100
times larger, with a strong mismatch. Any matching circuit
inserted in series with the antenna, to cancel the imaginary
part of its impedance, would be effective on a very narrow
band, since the input impedance of a transmission line grows
with the frequency, while a larger bandwidth would be
guaranteed by a non-physical decrease. To overcome these
drawbacks, some solutions have been proposed and proved,
making use of metamaterials [6] or spherical antennas with
ferrite core [7]-[9].

Figure 1: Real and Imaginary Parts of the input loop's impedance

versus its circumference normalized to the wavelenght (C/)

AP-S/URSI 2011

Figure 2: Smiley antenna geometry with its matching circuit

Figure 3: Hair antenna geometry with its matching circuit

II. DESIGN TECHNIQUE

In our work, the antenna design has been based on two
major constraints: the minimization of the space occupation
and an extreme simplification of the radiofrequency circuits.
For this reason, more complex antenna configurations have
been discarded and a planar solution that implements the
whole set of matching circuits inside the loop, has been
identified.
The design of the antenna has been carried out by choosing
the dimension for which the real part of the impedance is
equal to 50 Ohm. The imaginary part has been subsequently
modified by inserting a series of one or more stubs whose
input reactance cancels the antenna one. The insertion of the
stubs introduces an electromagnetic coupling that slightly
modifies the overall impedance of the antenna, and
consequently the stubs position and dimension must be readapted, following an iterative algorithm similar to a one that
these authors have recently published and which will be
referenced in the final version of the paper. The procedure is
very efficient, converges in no more than three steps, and
avoids any need for optimization algorithms.
The presence of the stubs must introduce a minimal
electromagnetic coupling that should not (or slightly) modify
the radiative characteristics of the antenna. Among all possible
solutions that have been investigated, a series of two
curvilinear stubs parallel to the loop wire has been chosen, as
shown in Fig.2. As an auxiliary result, the input impedance of
curvilinear transmission lines grows more slowly, compared to
straight ones; hence, the matching bandwidth is increased.
Furthermore, varying position and thickness of the lines, it is
possible to improve the bandwidth increment. The form and
shape of the resulting antenna are very similar to a smiling
face; hence, we have added two small metallizations, and
baptized the antenna Smiley Antenna.

Finally, to reduce the radius of the antenna, allowing an

extended minimization of space occupation, more complex
loop geometries have been investigated. In this way, it has
been possible to synthesize small antennas, having radiuses
down to 60% of a standard circular loop with the same
behavior. To this purpose, a geometrical shape similar to a
flower, with a variable number of petals, has been defined. Fig.
3 shows an example, with its matching circuit. With this shape,
the smiley has grown his hairs, and we have baptized the
antenna Hair Antenna.
In the following, the proposed antennas will be designed
and measured in the free-space, even if under certain
circumstances the radiator could be deployed in a more
complex environment. According to a procedure that we have
recently introduced, it is possible to carry out a precharacterization of the coupling introduced by the presence of
the dissipative medium, allowing to design the antenna in an
simpler environment [10]. Hence, the results reported in the
following are not limited to the free space case, but they can
be easily extended to any other scenario.
III. EXPERIMENTAL REALIZATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS
Two prototypes, one Smiley Antenna working at 433 MHz
and one Hair Antenna working at 900 MHz, have been
designed, realized and measured. The choice of the bandwidth
is related to possible applications in the field of Wireless
Sensor Networks (at 433 MHz) and RIFDs (at 900 MHz).
They are respectively reported in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. At 433
MHz, the wavelength is equal to 69 cm, and the radius of the
loop is approximately 0.36 / (2 ), i.e. 3.9 cm. A fullwavelenght loop would have a radius equal to 11 cm.At 900
MHz, the wavelength is equal to 33.3 cm, and the radius of the
loop is approximately 0.36 / (2 ), i.e. 1.9 cm. A fullwavelength loop would have a radius equal to 5.3 cm.
Material Properties and Antenna Type

1021

To strengthen the antenna and simplify its realization, it has

been decided to construct it on a substrate, by de-metallization
techniques. The characteristics of the chosen material are
listed in Table 1. The Smiley Antenna shown in Fig. 1, has
been designed with radius of 1.6 cm, thickness of the ring 2
mm, thickness of the lines 2 mm.
Table 1
Dielectric Constant
(over the band of interest)
Surface Resistivity [M]
Thickness [cm]

2.9 0.05
2.5 x 108
0.16

B. Simulation Results
The return loss (RL) of the whole antenna, simulated by
means of commercial software (HFSS), exhibits a -10 dB
bandwidth equal to 4 MHz (0.3 %). The result is aligned to
what reported in the technical literature [2].
The matching technique does not affect the radiation pattern,
which remains sufficiently omnidirectional in the plane
containing the antenna (Fig.6).
At 900 MHz, to reduce the radius of the antenna, the Hair
Antenna solution has been considered. The geometrical
configuration allows a reduction of the external loop radius,
down to 1.35 cm, with a 40% reduction of the dimensions,
maintaining the same frequency behaviour and a 74.52%
reduction, compared to the full wavelength solution. In this
case the bandwidth is 0.22%, with a performance decrement,
compared to the Smiley Antenna.
Fig.8 shows the radiation pattern of the Hair Antenna,
compared to the unmatched flower. As it can be seen, the
presence of the transmission lines does not affect the radiation
properties of the antenna.
C. Measurements Results
As a first realization, a Smiley Antenna has been realized

Figure 5: Prototype of the Hair Antenna

and measured at 433 MHz. The prototype is shown in Fig.4.

Subsequently, a Hair Antenna prototype has been constructed
at 900 MHz, as shown in Fig. 5.
The balun has been realized by constructing an equivalent
microstrip transmission line formed by the outer conductor of
the coaxial cable, a dielectric material identical to the one that
supports the antenna, and a ground plane.
Measurement were carried out in our anechoic chamber.
The comparison between simulated and measured results
shows a good agreement (see Fig. 8 and Fig. 9), where
measured results (continuous line) evidence an improved
bandwidth, compared to the predicted ones, thanks to a
variation of the matching stubs thickness that allowed the
realization of an antenna with 0.6% bandwidth. Under the
design constraints, this represents a result in line with the
technical literature [8] where single resonator antennas with
0.3% to 0.4 bandwidths can be found.
IV. CONCLUSION
The paper introduces alternative configurations for the
realization of compact small magnetic antennas. The key
characteristic is given by the possibility to reduce the radius of
the circumference where the antenna is virtually embedded
and the capability to insert the matching circuits within the
antenna radiating plane, without increasing the space
occupation. Simulations and measurements testify the
possibility to obtain interesting results, compared to the one
proposed by the literature. For this reason, our Lab is now
involved in the development of antennas with enhanced
characteristics, primarily a bandwidth extension, by means of
transmission lines realized by means of metamaterials.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research was supported by the Qatar National Research
Fund under the National Priority research Programme.

Figure 4: Prototype of the Smiley Antenna

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2
2

Directivity [dBi]

Directivity [dBi]

1.5
1
0.5
0

-2
-4

-0.5
-1
-1.5
0

-6
0

100
200
300
Observation Angle [Deg]

40

80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360

Observation Angle [Deg]

Figure 8: Radiation Pattern in the plane containing the

antenna of the matched Hair (solid line) and the unmatched
one (dotted line).

Figure 6: Radiation Pattern in the plane containing the

antenna of the matched Smiley (solid line) and the unmatched
one (dotted line).

0
-2
-4

-5
|S|dB

|S|dB

-6
-8
-10

-10

-12
-14
-16

-15
420 422 424 426 428 430 432 434 436 438 440
f [MHz]

-18
880 885 890 895 900 905 910 915 920
f [MHz]

Figure 9: Reflection Loss of the Hair Antenna. Simulation

(dotted line) versus measurement (solid line)

Figure 7: Reflection Loss of the Smiley Antenna. Simulation

(dotted line) versus measurement (solid line)

[6]

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[3]

[4]
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