Thermal loss in high-Q antennas

• Published in: Electronics letters Vol. 50; no. 13; pp. 917 - 919
• Main Authors: Caporal Del Barrio, S, Bahramzy, P, Svendsen, S, Jagielski, O, Pedersen, G.F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Stevenage The Institution of Engineering and Technology 19.06.2014; Institution of Engineering and Technology; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Antennas; Antennas and propagation; Applied sciences; Bands; Circuit properties; Copper loss; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronics; Equipments and installations; Exact sciences and technology; frequency 700 MHz; high‐Q antennas; Lead (metal); loss 2 dB; metal conductivity; Microwave circuits, microwave integrated circuits, microwave transmission lines, submillimeter wave circuits; mobile communication; mobile communications; Mobile radiocommunication systems; Noise levels; Quality factor; Q‐factor; Radiocommunications; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; thermal loss; tunable antennas; UHF antennas; Q-factor; mobile communication; tunable antennas; thermal loss; mobile communications; UHF antennas; high-Q antennas; copper loss; loss 2 dB; frequency 700 MHz; quality factor; metal conductivity; Mobile radiocommunication; Tunable circuit; High value; Q factor; Microwave antenna; Conductivity; Copper; Heat sink
• ISSN: 0013-5194; 1350-911X; 1350-911X
• DOI: 10.1049/el.2014.1222

Tunable antennas are very promising for future generations of mobile communications, where antennas are required to cover a wide range of operating bands. This reported work was aimed at characterising the loss mechanism of tunable antennas. Tunable antennas typically exhibit a high quality factor (Q), which can lead to thermal loss due to the conductivity of the metal. The investigation shows that copper loss is non-negligible for high-Q values. In the proposed design, the copper loss is 2 dB, for a Q of 260 at 700 MHz.