Broad-Bandwidth, Electrically Small Antenna Augmented With an Internal Non-Foster Element

A broad-bandwidth, electrically small, near-field resonant parasitic (NFRP) dipole antenna has been designed, analyzed, and measured. Unlike conventional active external matching network approaches, a non-Foster component with a negative reactance slope was incorporated into the NFRP element of an Egyptian-axe dipole antenna to significantly increase its bandwidth. The measurement results showed approximately a 25.3 MHz 10 dB bandwidth around 300 MHz for the active system (ka = 0.49), which is 6.02 and 3.89 times greater than, respectively, the simulated and measured values of the original passive design.