Gain enhancement of an electrically small antenna array using metamaterials

Abstract

This paper presents the enhancement of radiated power ratio of a two-dipole array of infinitesimal dipole elements, separated by an infinitesimal distance. It is shown that a properly constructed metamaterial shell configuration with optimized material parameters surrounding the dipole can cancel both the self- and the mutual reactances of the array system. Simultaneously, a very high radiated power ratio is realized for the array system even in the presence of strong mutual coupling between the array elements. This potentially leads to the development of highly efficient ultra-compact antenna arrays. In addition, by using a material of non-unity permittivity surrounding the array system, uniform radiated power ratio characteristics can be achieved with the variation in the metamaterial shell thickness. This removes the major drawback in the practical design of the metamaterial shell proposed earlier for the radiated power ratio enhancement of a single dipole. Very good matching characteristics are obtained for the antenna configuration demonstrating almost complete cancelation of the reactive power of the array system. The frequency dispersive behavior of the antenna configuration is investigated using the lossless and lossy Drude models.