Application of gain-bandwidth bounds on loaded dipoles

Physical limitations based only on antenna volume, form factor and material parameters are applied to electrically small antennas in the form of single dipoles. The upper bound on the gain-bandwidth product is solely determined by the polarisability matrix that characterises the antenna when it is immersed in a uniform applied static field. The polarisability, and hence the bandwidth, is increased by loading the dipole arms close to their ends. The half-power impedance bandwidth is increased from 5 to 13% by moving the coils from the centre to the ends of the dipole arms. The introduction of a stub-matching further improves the bandwidth but the physical limit is not reached. Finally, a dual-resonance dipole antenna is analysed. It is observed that a second resonance hardly reduces the bandwidth of the first resonance if the resonances are separated more than 1.7 times in frequency.