Electrically small antennas are of interest in a variety of applications,
particularly where the antennas must be unobtrusive. The performance properties
considered in the design of small antennas typically include impedance, radiation
efficiency, pattern shape, polarization and particularly operating bandwidth and
quality factor (Q). In this paper, we compare the performance properties of several
fundamental small antenna designs as a function of overall height and size (ka).
Antennas studied here include the multi-arm folded helix, the matched disk loaded
dipole, the matched spherical-cap dipole and the multi-arm spherical resonator.
The antennas are compared to determine which configuration offers the best
performance in terms of pattern shape, radiation efficiency, and 1/2-power and 2:1
VSWR bandwidths.
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