Capacitively Loaded Loop Antenna Fed with Metamaterial Balun

This paper presents a balun consisting of a T-junction, a Right/Left Handed Transmission line(RLH-TL), and a conventional Right Handed(RH) line. It is assumed that the RLH-TL consists of N unit-cells. We provide closed-form solutions and design a very compact wideband(80 %) balun using CPW lines based on the obtained solutions. Then, we propose a capacitively loaded loop antenna designed for a uniform current distribution. The antenna resistance of the proposed antenna at resonance is about 204 ohms. The length of the unit cell is about (total length: ). The magnetic field generated from the proposed antenna is stronger than that of the conventional one by as much as 20 dB. We used a coplanar strip line(CPS) to combine the loop antenna and balun. The proposed antenna may be used as a near field UHF RFID reader antenna.