Low cost compact active integrated antenna with a reactive impedance surface

This contribution presents the design and implementation of a voltage controlled oscillator active integrated antenna for applications in the industrial scientific medical band (2.4 + 2.4835 GHz). The proposed antenna is designed to be mounted on a PCMCIA card and exploits a two-layer reactive impedance ground plane to minimize the dimensions and increase the gain. The analysis and the design of the component are based on a hybrid employment of rigorous full wave formulations (used to model the antenna and its reactive ground plane) and nonlinear computer aided design techniques (used for the design of the linear and non linear modules of the antenna circuitry). Some results are presented to show the main features of the low cost active integrated antenna here proposed.