Magnetic current source using metamaterial composed of multi-layer ceramic capacitors

In recent years, metamaterials are strongly expected to be useful for antenna miniaturization. In general, to be used in small antennas, metamaterials must have a small size and a compact structure for each unit cell. In this report, metamaterial resonators composed of multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) excited by small loop antenna are investigated. The configuration of interior electrodes is similar to the well-known split ring resonators. The MLCC has the loop resonant mode different from the self resonance. Therefore, the MLCC metamaterial resonators operate as the magnetic current source. The number of interior electrodes and periodic length affect the resonant frequency and gain. The gain increase of 15.4 dB is confirmed in comparison with the small loop antenna.