916 MHz F-Inverted Compact Antenna (FICA) for Highly Integrated Transceivers

Ultra small smart sensor network transceivers, such as Smart Dust, have a total volume of a few cubic millimeters to one cubic centimeters, including transceiver integrated circuit (IC), battery, sensor, antenna and ground plane. The millimeter or centimeter scale dimensions (including the size of the ground plane) are often a small fraction of a quarter wavelength at the operating frequency. This letter shows a novel low profile 916 MHz F-inverted Compact Antenna (FICA) with a volume of 0.024 lambdatimes 0.06 lambdatimes 0.076 lambdatimes , ground plane included. The radiation efficiency is 48.53% and the peak gain is -1.38 dBi. The designed antenna can be easily scaled to higher operating frequencies, such as the 2000 to 2500 MHz bands with comparable performance whereas the volume is significantly reduced.