Low-Frequency Dual-Driven Magnetoelectric Antennas With Enhanced Transmission Efficiency and Broad Bandwidth

Low frequency (LF) dual-driven magnetoelectric (i.e., DDME) antennas are proposed, which include a pair of self-biased magnetoelectric (ME) heterostructures (i.e., Ni/Metglas/ [Pb(Zr,Ti)O
₃
]
₅
/Metglas/Ni) wrapped with small coils. For the DDME transmitter, the [Pb(Zr,Ti)O
₃
]
₅
layers are designed as a piezoelectric transformer. This enhances the transmitted magnetic field significantly due to the dual-driven mode: the generated magnetic field of transmitting coils driven by the transformer at the magneto-mechanical resonance (MMR) and magnetization oscillation of magnetostrictive layer driven by the mechanical stress of inverse piezoelectric effect. Meanwhile, the DDME receiver consists of a self-biased ME heterostructure wrapped with search coils, whose signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is improved due to the synergistically induced voltage of Faraday law's induction and ME effects. The nonmonotonic inductance of search coils near MMR broadens the bandwidth (1904 kHz) due to the LC resonances at multiple frequencies. The letter indicates that the DDME antenna achieves a communication distance of 11 m with power consumption of 212.7 mW, whose operation distance and channel capacity (12.54 kbit/s) are 1.69 times and 10.62 times larger than that of ME antenna (i.e., Ni/Metglas/[Pb(Zr,Ti)O
₃
]
₅
/Metglas/Ni). The communication distance can be further increased to 170 m with a larger DDME antenna. Furthermore, the DDME antenna can realize more robust ASK modulation compared to ME antenna.