Space-filling miniature antennas
First Claim
1. An antenna in which at least one portion of the antenna is shaped as a space-filling curve (hereafter SFC), the SFC including at least ten connected straight segments, wherein said segments are each smaller than a tenth of the operating free-space wavelength of the antenna and the segments are spatially arranged such that no two adjacent and connected segments form another longer straight segment, wherein none of said segments intersect with another segment other than to form a closed loop, wherein each pair of adjacent segments forms a corner, and wherein any portion of the curve that is periodic along a fixed straight direction of space is defined by a non-periodic curve that includes at least ten connected segments in which no two adjacent and connected segments define a straight longer segment, wherein said SFC has a box-counting dimension larger than one, wherein the box-counting dimension is calculated as the slope of a straight portion of a log-log graph, wherein the straight portion is a straight segment over at least an octave of scales on the horizontal axes of the log-log graph.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A novel geometry, the geometry of Space-Filling Curves (SFC) is defined in the present invention and it is used to shape a part of an antenna. By means of this novel technique, the size of the antenna can be reduced with respect to prior art, or alternatively, given a fixed size the antenna can operate at a lower frequency with respect to a conventional antenna of the same size.
114 Citations
23 Claims
- 1. An antenna in which at least one portion of the antenna is shaped as a space-filling curve (hereafter SFC), the SFC including at least ten connected straight segments, wherein said segments are each smaller than a tenth of the operating free-space wavelength of the antenna and the segments are spatially arranged such that no two adjacent and connected segments form another longer straight segment, wherein none of said segments intersect with another segment other than to form a closed loop, wherein each pair of adjacent segments forms a corner, and wherein any portion of the curve that is periodic along a fixed straight direction of space is defined by a non-periodic curve that includes at least ten connected segments in which no two adjacent and connected segments define a straight longer segment, wherein said SFC has a box-counting dimension larger than one, wherein the box-counting dimension is calculated as the slope of a straight portion of a log-log graph, wherein the straight portion is a straight segment over at least an octave of scales on the horizontal axes of the log-log graph.
- 10. An antenna in which at least one portion of the antenna is shaped as a space-filling curve (hereafter SFC), the SFC including at least ten connected straight segments, wherein said segments are each smaller than a tenth of the operating free-space wavelength of the antenna and the segments are spatially arranged such that no two adjacent and connected segments form another longer straight segment, wherein none of said segments intersect with another segment other than to form a closed loop, wherein each pair of adjacent segments forms a corner, and wherein any portion of the curve that is periodic along a fixed straight direction of space is defined by a non-periodic curve that includes at least ten connected segments in which no two adjacent and connected segments define a straight longer segment, wherein the antenna is a patch antenna comprising at least a conducting or superconducting ground-plane and a conducting or superconducting patch parallel to said ground-plane, in which the perimeter of the patch is shaped as a SFC.
Specification