Analysis of Multi-Antenna Proximity on Performance of Electrically Small Antennas

Abstract

Of great interest in the many fields of communication is the requirement to place many small antenna elements in close proximity for diversity or muti-band usage. This work aims to describe in detail the effects of such adjacency in terms of physical distance and operating frequencies as a function of the volume overlap of circumscribing Wheeler-Chu spheres. We investigate any potential bandwidth advantage due to this shared near-field space and define trade-offs between space minimization and acceptable degradation.