A novel element and feed configuration for a dipole very closely spaced to a PEC ground plane

A novel element and feed design are presented that allow a dipole to exhibit high radiation efficiency and gain when it is very closely spaced (< 0.05λ) to a PEC ground plane. The dipole element configuration has impedance matching and a balanced feed built within the antenna structure so that external matching and balun are not required. It is shown that high Q and correspondingly narrow bandwidth are the fundamental performance limitations when a dipole is very closely spaced to a PEC ground.