Development of Novel 3-D Cube Antennas for Compact Wireless Sensor Nodes

3-D antennas for narrow band, wireless sensor node applications are described herein. The antennas were designed on the surface of a cube which makes available the cube interior for sensor electronics placement. The layout of each antenna consists of a dipole fabricated on two sides of the cube and connected to a balanced-to-unbalanced line transition on the third side. The base of the cube serves as a ground plane for the microstrip feed line. The first cube antenna was designed for an operating frequency of 2.4 GHz and its 10 dB return loss bandwidth is 2%. Ka of the proposed design is 0.55 and its measured gain is 1.69 dBi with 78% measured radiation efficiency. The second cube antenna is similar to the first one but it was loaded with high dielectric constant superstrates. Ka of the second proposed antenna is 0.45, its measured gain is 1.25 dBi with 73% measured radiation efficiency and the bandwidth is 1.5%. The designs compare well with high efficiency, electrically small antennas that have been described in the open literature. A Wheeler Cap was used to measure the efficiency and the 3-antenna method was used for measuring the gain.

[1]  Thomas A. Milligan,et al.  Modern Antenna Design: Milligan/Modern Antenna Design , 2005 .

[2]  Beza Negash Getu,et al.  The MIMO cube - a compact MIMO antenna , 2002, The 5th International Symposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications.

[3]  Kenneth Church,et al.  High speed non-contact printing for solar cell front side metallization , 2010, 2010 35th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference.

[4]  Gwiy-Sang Chung,et al.  Design and Optimization of Reconfigurable Inset-Fed Microstrip Patch Antennas with High Gain for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2009, 2009 IEEE-RIVF International Conference on Computing and Communication Technologies.

[5]  R.D. Murch,et al.  Experimental results for a MIMO cube , 2006, 2006 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[6]  L. Ukkonen,et al.  Dual UHF RFID band miniaturized multipurpose planar antenna for compact wireless systems , 2010, 2010 International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT).

[7]  Wonbin Hong,et al.  Design of low-profile omnidirectional antenna for ground sensor networks , 2007, 2007 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[8]  Randy Bancroft.  Fundamental Dimension Limits of Antennas Ensuring Proper Antenna Dimensions in Mobile Device Designs , 2004 .

[9]  S..  A Re-Examination of the Fundamental Limits on the Radiation Q of Electrically Small Antennas , 2008 .

[10]  S.R. Best,et al.  Low Q electrically small linear and elliptical polarized spherical dipole antennas , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[11]  Moon-Que Lee,et al.  Design of Compact Quadruple Inverted-F Antenna With Circular Polarization for GPS Receiver , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[12]  J. Czyżewski,et al.  Rapid prototyping of electrically conductive components using 3D printing technology , 2009 .

[13]  Chi Yuk Chiu,et al.  Design of a 24-port MIMO cube , 2007, 2007 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[14]  T. Milligan.  Modern Antenna Design , 1985 .

[15]  Thomas M. Weller,et al.  Tunable harmonic re-radiator for sensing applications , 2009, 2009 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[16]  K. Sarabandi,et al.  Optimization of low-profile antennas for applications in unattended ground sensor networks , 2006, 2006 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[17]  M. Tentzeris,et al.  Design and Development of a Novel 3-D Cubic Antenna for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and RFID Applications , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[18]  Hosung Choo,et al.  On the Wheeler cap measurement of the efficiency of microstrip antennas , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[19]  L. Nagy,et al.  MIMO Cube Formed of Slot Dipoles , 2007, 2007 16th IST Mobile and Wireless Communications Summit.

[20]  H. A. Wheeler.  The Radiansphere around a Small Antenna , 1959, Proceedings of the IRE.

[21]  Anja K. Skrivervik,et al.  PCS antenna design: the challenge of miniaturization , 2001 .

[22]  A. Monorchio,et al.  Parametric Design of Compact Dual-Frequency Antennas for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[23]  Kin-Lu Wong,et al.  Planar Antennas for Wireless Communications , 2003 .

[24]  T.M. Weller,et al.  High efficiency diode doubler with conjugate- matched antennas , 2007, 2007 European Microwave Conference.

[25]  P. Constantinou,et al.  Co-design of Antenna Element and Ground Plane for Printed Monopoles Embedded in Wireless Sensors , 2008, 2008 Second International Conference on Sensor Technologies and Applications (sensorcomm 2008).

[26]  Junji Yamauchi,et al.  Shortening ratios of modified dipole antennas , 1984 .

[27]  Philip Constantinou,et al.  Compact Antennas with Reduced Mutual Coupling for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2009 .

[28]  Cynthia Furse,et al.  Inexpensive fabric antenna for off-body wireless sensor communication , 2010, 2010 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[29]  G. Whyte,et al.  An Omnidirectional, Low Cost, Low Profile, 2.45 GHz Microstrip Fed Rectaxial Antenna For Wireless Sensor Network Applications , 2006 .

[30]  Philip Constantinou,et al.  Small square meander-line antennas with reduced ground plane size for multimedia WSN nodes , 2009, 2009 3rd European Conference on Antennas and Propagation.