From a British Patent here:
There are some PDF artifacts in the quote below (columns become out of order paragraphs) but I don’t think it matters enough to unwind them. Download the PDF for the straight text and images. There’s a patent drawing of the antenna in the pdf, but it is hard to figure out just what it is showing. It is flat and the text talks about diameter, so maybe it’s a 2D projection of a cylinder?
In any case, a very compact very wide band antenna with interesting ideas in it.
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
Licensing opportunityA compact wideband antenna
Applications
The antenna is suitable for small, low cost or
rugged devices which need to operate across a
wide frequency band (e.g. 4G) or across multiple
frequency bands where multiple antennas or
complex solutions are undesirable or where
space is at a premium – for example smart
watches, toys, sensors, and internet enabled
devices. Examples include 4G mobile phones,
wireless communication, environmental sensors,
and medical systems, as well as devices needing
to use more than one of 3G, WIFI, RFID, GPS,
HD TV, Digital Radio, Radio Frequency Remote
Control, MIMO etc.When utilised along with GB2471012 to achieve
extremely wide bandwidth it is more useful for
monitoring unwanted interference, for example
in electromagnetic susceptibility testing, or on
aircraft or for scientific or criminal investigations.IP status
Patent title – Ultra-Wideband Antenna
Patent abstract – An antenna arrangement
for use in instantaneous ultra-wideband
applications, the arrangement using a coaxial
to coaxial aperture connection which increases
matching bandwidth with reduced lossy effect.
Beneficially the antenna arrangement uses a
top loaded disk to increase its capacitive effect.
The arrangement is physically small making
it useful for use within mobile handsets and
computer networks.[…]
Overview
The technology is a small wideband antenna
made by layering a substrate. The technology
has been implemented to construct a compact
antenna that operates across a wide frequency
range, for example 2GHz – 5GHz with 95%
transmission efficiency was achieved with a
2cm^2 surface area. It offers good performance
relative to its size and is simple to manufacture.
The invention involves a ground plane
separated from a cylindrical “shorted coaxial”
antenna using a dielectric (e.g. PTFE), with
the distance between the two being important.
Top loading the antenna element increases its
capacitance effect so that the physical structure
can be reduced in height. This allows the core
of the antenna to act as a monopole feed at less
than a quarter wave length in height but does
not have the detrimental effect of generating
out of phase reflections normally associated
with reducing the height below that of λ/4.
If combined with Dstl’s related technology
GB2471012 very wide bandwidth can be
achieved, e.g. 100Mz – 6GHz (the majority
of all communications systems) with a 10cm
radius package, albeit with reduced transmit
efficiency.Key benefits
• The technology provides a compact
antenna (e.g. with dimensions no greater
than a tenth of the wavelength) which
operates across a wide frequency range
(e.g. ultra-wideband), and which is
lightweight, robust and low cost.• This solution is more simple and easy to
manufacture than competing approaches
(for example clustered and time-stepped
monopoles).
Musings from the Chiefio 