To The Editor:
The article in the January 2010 issue
of Microwaves & RF entitled “Match
Loop Antennas Via Mutual Inductance”
is a rehash of the old loop-coupled loop.
This was invented by Dunlavy and patented
in 1971. Both loops have small
radiation resistances and individually
low efficiencies. The overall efficiency
is essentially the product of the two
loop efficiencies, and this number will
be very small. A loop-coupled loop was
manufactured for some time by Antenna
Research Associates (ARA), but no
longer. A careful analysis of the loopcoupled
loop is given by R. C. Hansen
in section 1.5.3 in the engineering text,
i, published
by John Wiley & Sons in 2006.
R. C. Hansen
Consulting Engineer
R. C. Hansen, Inc.
P. O. Box 570215
Tarzana, CA 91357
(818) 345-0770
FAX: (818) 345-1259
Internet: www.rchansen.com
Editor's Note:
Mr. Hansen’s work in antennas is certainly
well known in this industry, and
we would like to express our appreciation
for his taking the time to actually
pen a letter to the magazine to express
his thoughts on this matter. The article
in question, written by Alan Bensky of
Ateret Radio Engineering and appearing
on p. 78 of the January 2010 issue of
Microwaves & RF, was a short exercise
in designing loop antennas for frequencies
between 300 and 1000 MHz,
notably for compact portable wireless
products. The designs are not new, nor
presented as new. The article intended to
help simplify the impedance matching of
miniature printed-circuit loop antennas
and to design and manufacture these
antennas as simply and inexpensively
as possible. An example fabricated for
the article shows a loop antenna with
resonance at 318 MHz using mutual
inductance coupling.