Design and measurement of antennas within lossy materials for IoT applications

Internet of Things (IoT) technology for asset tracking in the transportation and logistics industry relies on wireless electronic communicating devices, often encapsulated with lossy filler materials which cause issues for the embedded antennas. This thesis studies methods of enhancing antenna radiation efficiency in such situations along with an improved, low-cost way of measuring radiation efficiency. Multiple modified Wheeler caps are compared to a conventional design to obtain improved accuracy of the calculated radiation efficiency. The proposed adjustable-length Wheeler cap was verified in simulation and experimentally to significantly reduce the average error over a typical IoT antenna’s operating bandwidth. Furthermore, artificial magnetic conductors in conjunction with 1 cm3 air gaps are examined as methods of improving the radiation efficiency of both directional and omni-directional antennas placed near metal and encapsulated in resin, yielding up to 18% improvement in radiation efficiency.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Howorth, Joshua

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Wang, Ying
• Roy, Langis

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10155/1885

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ontariotechu.scholaris.ca:10155/1885