A Strongly Miniaturized and Inherently Matched Folded Dipole Antenna for Narrowband Applications

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel miniaturized folded dipole antenna with inherent impedance matching, achieving significant size reduction and improved performance for narrowband sensing applications, validated through experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a systematically engineered, inherently matched folded dipole antenna with 75% miniaturization and enhanced gain and efficiency, eliminating the need for external matching networks.

Findings

Approximately 75% size reduction compared to traditional designs.

Over 24 dB higher realized gain than unloaded dipole.

Excellent agreement between experimental results and simulations.

Abstract

A novel miniaturized printed folded dipole antenna has been designed for narrowband sensing applications. It is shown that the antenna may be systematically engineered to achieve matching to a practical source impedance at frequencies well below its half-wavelength resonance using series-LC loading and asymmetrical arm widths. This approach is used to design an inherently well-matched antenna that does not require an external matching network and demonstrates approximately 75% miniaturization, excellent co- to cross-polarization separation, over 24 dB higher realized gain, and strongly improved radiation efficiency relative to an unloaded folded dipole of the same electrically small size. Experimental validation of a fabricated prototype demonstrates excellent agreement with simulations.