Antennas miniaturization by means of optimized EBG materials

Advances in sensor technology and wireless communications have made networked micro-sensors possible, where each sensor individually gathers and transmits informations from the natural environment. This work aims to present an overview of the benefits and of the most recent advances in antenna technologies, investigating the possibility of integrating enhanced solutions in a large distributed wireless sensor network for the environmental monitoring. The goal of the work covered in this paper is in fact to investigate the possibilities of developing a radiating structure featuring low cost, reconfigurability and scalability for other frequency bands, adoptability in different communication systems, reproducibility and at the same time incorporating wide functionality. The antenna in fact is the key element in order to fully integrate a wireless microsystem on a single chip. The integration requires a small antenna on a low-loss substrate material compatible with the microelectronic devices. EBG structures are typically two or three dimensional periodic media characterized by the capability to inhibit the electromagnetic wave propagation for each angle and each polarization in a specific frequency band. These optimized synthetic materials can represent an opportunity for the development and design of innovative electromagnetic devices. The EBG structures, being complex structures, present different degrees of freedom, that can be used to optimize the performances of the application they are used for, e.g. printed antennas. An integrated design technique of the wireless device, built with printed patches on a complex dielectric substrate is here presented.