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Re: [TowerTalk] Fwd: Much Smaller Antennas Possible?

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fwd: Much Smaller Antennas Possible?
From: Erich <cq.n6fd@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2015 15:49:20 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
My first thought on this is "there is no free lunch". I have not yet read the paper, and do not understand what they call "symmetry breaking". However, there are two things that limit the performance of physically small antennas. First, power density is defined as power per unit area. This means a small capture area will capture a small amount of power. Second, physically small antennas usually mean small impedances. That means high currents and high I^2*R losses. Superconducting antennas can get around some of these losses at the cost of high complexity.

The basic concept of an antenna is matching an electrical circuit to free space impedance. Dielectric antennas are well known and often used in UHF and above antennas. The purpose of the dielectric is to make the wavelength physically smaller for a given frequency by a proportionality constant known as the dielectric constant. This tends to concentrate the field in the dielectric, making the loss tangent of the material important.

Since the time of Newton, we have known that differing dielectric constants bend photons at interfaces between different dielectric constants. (Radio is just long wavelength photons.) So changes in dielectric constant tend to reflect and refract the waves unless carefully engineered to pass them efficiently.

This concept appears to be trying to apply some quantum effects to radio wavelengths. We already do this with lasers. Light is emitted at a specific wavelength when an electron transitions from one energy level to another. This appears to be a mechanical analog of this process. This would allow a physically small device to emit coherent energy.

I will follow up after I have read the paper to see if there is anything useful here.

73, Erich
N6FD, DM15dp

On 4/10/2015 9:07 AM, Mickey Baker wrote:
An interesting phenomenon called "symmetry breaking" unlocks the
possibility of gain antennas much smaller than traditionally thought and
seems to explain some of the quantum v. particle theory inconsistencies.

Thoughts on this article?

http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2015/apr/antenna-chip.cfm
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