A Low-Profile, Electrically Small Ferrite Core-Loaded Grounded Split Ring Resonator Antenna for Military VHF/UHF Communication

This study proposes a low-profile, electrically small military VHF/UHF communication ferrite-loaded antenna for an integrated mast (IM). We realized a relatively lighter weight antenna that is advantageous for IM mounting by utilizing a minimum number of ferrite cores. The proposed antenna is in the form of a ferrite-loaded split ring resonator-shaped grounded loop structure that exhibits exceptional radiation performance at an electrically small size. The size of the proposed antenna with the assembled housing for IM mounting is
$970\times 429\times47.5$
[mm3], representing a very small electrical size ka of 0.34 with respect to the lowest operating frequency of 30.4 MHz, with a criterion VSWR of less than 3. The entire profile is extremely thin as
$0.005\lambda $
. The minimum measured realized gain is -14.5 dBi, indicating an upward trend along the matched frequency of up to 500 MHz.