IEEE MAGNETICS LETTERS, Volume 4 (2013) 5000104

Soft Magnetic Materials

Role of Small Permeability in Gigahertz Ferrite Antenna Performance

Jaejin Lee1 , Yang-Ki Hong1 , Woncheol Lee1 , Gavin S. Abo1 , Jihoon Park1 ,
Won-Mo Seong2 , and Seok Bae3
1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and MINT Center, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
2 Research and Development Center, EMW Company Ltd., Seoul 153-803, Korea
3 Research and Development Center, LG Innotek Company Ltd., Gyenggi-do 426-791, Korea
Member, IEEE
Student Member, IEEE

Received 14 November 2012, revised 26 December 2012, accepted 26 December 2012, published 31 January 2013.

AbstractWe demonstrate that even small relative permeability (r < 2) is effective enough in the improvement of gigahertz
(GHz) antenna performance. Based on antenna performance simulation results, a 1.57 GHz small permeability (r =
1.97) hexaferrite antenna (8 mm 5 mm 1.5 mm) was fabricated and characterized for antenna miniaturization factor,
fractional bandwidth (FBW), and radiation efficiency (RE). Return loss and FBW were 13 dB at the resonance frequency
fr of 1.57 GHz and 7% at voltage standing wave ratio of 2.5:1, respectively. On the other hand, antenna simulation results
show that an alumina (r = 9.4) antenna with tan of 0.01 and 0.05 resonates at fr of 1.65 GHz and has FBW of 4.1%
and 6.0%. The hexaferrite antenna volume was 30% of the alumina dielectric antenna volume. The experimental RE of the
hexaferrite antenna was 66% at 1.57 GHz, which is much higher than the simulated RE of 55.4% for the lossy dielectric
antenna (r = 11; tan = 0; tan = 0.05), even though ferrite has tan = 0.05 and tan = 0.008. The antenna
performance simulation results confirmed that the RE of the ferrite antenna can be increased to 80% at tan of 0.01.
Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate that even small permeability of GHz hexaferrite greatly contributes
to miniaturization, FBW, impedance matching, and RE.

Index TermsSoft magnetic materials, gigahertz hexaferrite antenna, radiation efficiency, Snoek limit, small permeability.

I. INTRODUCTION 28 000 Oe of H and 155 Oe of H , and 13 000 Oe of H and

112 Oe of H , respectively. These anisotropies correspond to
Ferrite possesses both frequency-dependent permeability r
f FMR of 5.8 and 3.4 GHz, respectively. Recently, GHz Y-type
and permittivity r . The wavelength of incident wave in fer-
hexaferrite has been investigated to achieve small form factor
rite decreases by = 0 /(r r )0.5 , where 0 is the free-space
and broadband of antenna for mobile communications [Cheon
wavelength. Therefore, miniaturization of antenna and electro-
2012, Lee 2012].
magnetic scaling are realized [Lee 2011a, Moon 2012]. Further-
It was, however, reported that the hexagonal ferrites have
more, the permeability can increase the bandwidth of antenna
permeability smaller than 2.5 and permittivity smaller than 13
[Mosallaei 2007]. However, the ferrite ferromagnetic resonance
in the low end of the GHz range [Cheon 2012, Lee 2012, Lee
frequency f FMR needs to be higher than the antenna opera-
2011b]. Therefore, a specific question arises as to whether such
tion frequency, and high permeability is desired for gigahertz
small permeability of the GHz hexaferrites is effective enough
(GHz) antenna application. This is because the magnetic loss
for improving antenna miniaturization, impedance matching,
tangent ( / ) of ferrite significantly increases near the f FMR ,
and bandwidth as compared to high-permittivity dielectrics.
and bandwidth and miniaturization factor increase with perme-
In this paper, we report experimental and simulation results
ability. In addition, high permeability is desired to achieve good
of a 1.57 GHz Z-type hexaferrite chip antenna (permeability <2)
impedance matching. On the contrary, permeability decreases
and simulated results of a high-permittivity (9.4 or 11) dielectric
with increasing f FMR , according to the Snoek limit [Smit 1959].
chip antenna to assess the effectiveness of small permeability.
4
f FMR (r 1) = Ms (1)
3
where is the gyromagnetic constant and Ms is saturation mag- II. HEXAFERRITE SUBSTRATE
netization. Therefore, high permeability of ferrite is difficult to
obtain in the GHz frequency range. GHz Co2 Z hexaferrite-glass composite was prepared by com-
One way to achieve high f FMR is to use a high magnetocrys- pacting a mixture of Co2 Z hexaferrite powder and 2 wt% borosil-
talline anisotropy hexaferrite. This can be understood by the icate glass into a rectangular or toroidal ring mold for use in
relation f FMR = ( /2 ) (H H )0.5 , where H is the out-of-plane an antenna substrate or dynamic magnetic and dielectric mea-
anisotropy field and H is the in-plane anisotropy field. Y-type surement. The composite body was sintered at 950 C for 1 h,
(Co2 Ba2 Fe12 O22 ) and Z-type (Ba3 Co2 Fe24 O41 ) hexaferrites show machined and grinded. The Co2 Z hexaferrite powder was pro-
duced by a ceramic process [Lee 2011b]. The sintered hexa-
ferrite composite toroidal ring was precisely polished with the
Corresponding author: Y.-K. Hong (ykhong@eng.ua.edu). dremel tool and abrasive sand papers to fit into the airline fix-
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/LMAG.2012.2237163 ture having 7 mm outer diameter and 3 mm inner diameter. A

1949-307X/$31.00 
C 2013 IEEE
5000104
Fig. 1. Measured complex permeability and permittivity of the Co2 Z
hexaferrite-glass composite.
Fig. 2. Designed antenna geometry and structure of the hexaferrite-
glass composite chip antenna.
network analyzer (Agilent N5230A) with a coaxial airline fixture
(Agilent 85051-60007) was used to measure permeability and
permittivity dispersion. Fig. 1 shows the measured complex per-
meability ( j ) and permittivity ( j ) of the hexaferrite
composite. The real part of permeability and permittivity was
1.97 and 7.36 at 1.61 GHz, respectively. Magnetic loss tangent
(tan ) of 0.054 and dielectric loss tangent (tan ) of 0.008
were obtained at 1.61 GHz. It was found that tan increased
with frequency and was less than 0.1 up to 2.7 GHz. The mea-
sured magnetic and dielectric properties were used to design a
GHz mobile hexaferrite chip antenna.
III. SIMULATION OF A GHz HEXAFERRITE
CHIP ANTENNA
A hexaferrite chip antenna was designed and simulated to in-
vestigate the effectiveness of small permeability in GHz antenna
performance. Fig. 2 shows the designed hexaferrite antenna. A
conductive spiral radiator was disposed on a ferrite substrate
(8 mm 5 mm 1.5 mm). FR4 board (100 mm 50 mm) with
ground size of 80 mm 50 mm was employed as a system
IEEE MAGNETICS LETTERS, Volume 4 (2013)
Table 1. Simulated resonance frequency, VSWR, and fractional band-
width for hexaferrite (tan = 0.05 and tan = 0.008) and dielectric
antennas.
Fig. 3. Simulated VSWR of the designed hexaferrite and dielectric
antennas.
board. This design was applied to both hexaferrite and dielec-
tric antennas for performance comparison. The ANSYS high-
frequency structure simulator (HFSS v11) was used to simulate
antenna performance. In the simulation, various small perme-
ability values (r = 1.4, 1.6, 1.97, 2.2, and 2.5) of the hexaferrite
were used. These small values were chosen because the hex-
aferrite possesses small permeability value in the GHz range
due to the Snoek limit as previously described.
Also, the following permittivity and loss values were used in
the antenna performance simulation: experimental r of 7.36 for
hexaferrite; 9.4 for alumina; experimental tan of 0.05 and tan
of 0.008 for hexaferrite; and tan of 0.01 for alumina [Jean-
Charles 2009]. In addition, an artificial alumina with high tan
of 0.05 was simulated for the effect of large dielectric loss tan-
gent on voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) and bandwidth.
Fig. 3 shows the simulated VSWR of the designed hexafer-
rite antenna in comparison with the high-permittivity antenna.
Table 1 summarizes the simulated resonance frequency fr ,
VSWR, and fractional bandwidth (FBW) of the hexaferrite and
dielectric antennas. It was found that even small permeability
(r > 1.6) of the GHz hexaferrite substrate had greater contri-
bution to lowering of the antenna fr than the high-permittivity
antenna. At experimental r of 1.97 and r of 7.36, the hexa-
ferrite antenna showed the fr of 1.58 GHz, while the alumina
antenna resonated at 1.65 GHz. Further simulation showed that
IEEE MAGNETICS LETTERS, Volume 4 (2013) 5000104

Fig. 4. Simulated RE of the hexaferrite (closed symbol) and dielectric

(open symbol) antennas in terms of magnetic or dielectric losses.

the 8 mm 5 mm 5 mm alumina antenna resonates at the

same 1.58 GHz as the 8 mm 5 mm 1.5 mm ferrite antenna
does. This demonstrates a 70% reduction of GHz antenna vol-
ume when the hexaferrite substrate is used. Furthermore, the
VSWR and FBW of the hexaferrite antenna were found to be
lower and wider than the dielectric antenna, respectively. This
suggests that the VSWR and bandwidth can be enhanced with
even small permeability (<2) and relatively high loss tangent
of the hexaferrite substrate. It is noted that, as given in Table
1, the VSWR decreased and the FBW of the artificial alumina
antenna also increased as tan increased to 0.05. However,
the FBW of the hexaferrite antenna decreased from 6.3% to
5.9% as its dielectric constant increased from 7.36 to 9.4 at
constant r of 1.97 and tan of 0.05. This is attributed to an
Fig. 5. (a) Fabricated Co2 Z hexaferrite-glass composite chip antenna
increase in capacitive property due to high permittivity of ferrite and (b) measured and simulated return losses.
[Ikonen 2006]. Consequently, the quality factor (Q = 2W/Prad ,
where W is stored energy and Prad is radiated power) increased,
thereby decreasing bandwidth. having tan of 0.01, and 87.8% for the dielectric antenna with
Radiation efficiency (RE) is another antenna performance tan of 0.002. The hexaferrite antenna showed a significant
characteristic. It is known that relatively high magnetic loss of increase in RE from 66% to 80% as tan decreased from
ferrite decreases antenna RE. Therefore, RE in terms of the 0.05 (experimental) to 0.01. It is noted that much higher RE
magnetic loss tangent was simulated to gain insight into radi- of 66% was obtained for the hexaferrite antenna having tan
ation performance improvement with smaller permeability than of 0.05 and tan of 0.008 than the RE of 55.4% for the
2 at GHz. The experimental r of 1.97 (tan = 0.05, 0.03, lossy dielectric antenna (r = 11; tan = 0; tan = 0.05)
and 0.01) and r of 7.36 with experimental tan of 0.008 were despite both magnetic and dielectric losses of ferrite. This is
used in the simulation. On the other hand, the dielectric con- because the hexaferrite antenna has low electromagnetic (EM)
stant r for the high-permittivity antenna was chosen to be 11 energy concentration around the antenna substrate, leading to
by parametric simulation to resonate at the same frequency of radiation of EM energy [Mosallaei 2007]. It is also noted that
1.58 GHz of the hexaferrite antenna. Various dielectric tan broader frequency range of high RE was observed for the hex-
values of 0.002, 0.008, and 0.05 were used in RE simulation. aferrite antenna than the dielectric antenna. Simulation results
Antenna RE can be expressed by [Balanis 2005] demonstrate that small permeability (<2) of GHz hexaferrite
significantly contributes to antenna RE and bandwidth.
Prad
RE = (2)
Prad + Ploss
IV. FABRICATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS
where Prad is radiated power and Ploss is power loss associated
mainly with loss tan and tan of the antenna substrate. A GHz hexaferrite chip antenna was fabricated based on the
Fig. 4 shows the simulated RE of the hexaferrite antenna in the designed structure in Fig. 2 to confirm the simulated antenna
GHz range in comparison with high-permittivity antenna. The performance. Performance of the fabricated antenna was char-
simulated maximum RE was 80% for the hexaferrite antenna acterized in terms of return loss, RE, and three-dimensional
5000104
Fig. 6. Measured (closed symbol) and simulated (open symbol) 3-D
peak- and average-gains and RE of the fabricated hexaferrite composite
antenna.
(3-D) gains. Fig. 5(a) presents a photo image of the fabricated
hexaferrite antenna. Conductive copper tape (3M copper foil
tape 1181) was disposed on the Co2 Z hexaferrite-glass com-
posite substrate having a volume of 8 mm 5 mm 1.5 mm.
The double-sided copper clad laminate (CCL) FR4 board was
used as a testing board and fabricated by chemical etching pro-
cess. The hexaferrite composite chip antenna was mounted on
the 100 mm 50 mm CCL FR4 board and fed by a semirigid
50
coaxial cable. Fig. 5(b) shows the measured and simu-
lated return losses of the hexaferrite antenna. The return loss of
13 dB at 1.57 GHz and bandwidth of 110 MHz (1.511.62 GHz)
at VSWR of 2.5:1 were obtained. The measured return loss was
in good agreement with the simulated result.
The hexaferrite antenna was characterized in an anechoic
chamber system (volume: 10 m 7 m 7 m; shielding:
105 dB; ripple <1 dB in 0.173 GHz) with a network ana-
lyzer (Agilent ENA5070B) for the radiation performance. Fig. 6
shows the experimental and simulated RE, and 3-D peak- and
average-gains in the range of 1.511.63 GHz. The experimental
RE values were in good agreement with the simulation results.
The maximum RE was measured to be 66% at 1.57 GHz. This
low RE is attributed to relatively high magnetic loss tangent (tan
= 0.05) of the hexaferrite composite substrate. However, the
simulated RE suggests that the RE can be increased to 80%
with a low tan of 0.01. The fabricated hexaferrite antenna
showed an insignificant change in RE in the range of 1.53
1.6 GHz. Regarding 3-D gains, the hexaferrite antenna had the
maximum peak gain of 2.56 dBi at 1.53 GHz and average gain
of 1.81 dBi at 1.57 GHz.
Our simulation and experimental results demonstrate that
even small permeability (<2) of the GHz hexaferrite substrate
IEEE MAGNETICS LETTERS, Volume 4 (2013)
significantly contributes to antenna miniaturization, bandwidth,
and impedance matching. Since both domain-wall motion and
spin rotation are involved in the permeability dispersion [Rado
1950], magnetic loss can be reduced by controlling grain size
or applying a small static magnetic field. Therefore, low-loss
hexaferrite is under development.
V. CONCLUSION
A GHz hexaferrite antenna was designed and fabricated to
assess the effectiveness of small permeability in the improve-
ment of GHz antenna performance. Both antenna performance
simulation and experimental results demonstrate that small per-
meability (<2) of hexaferrite is sufficiently effective in antenna
miniaturization, impedance matching, and bandwidth. It was
found that the RE can be increased to 80% at tan of 0.01
from experimental 66% at tan of 0.05. Therefore, small per-
meability and low-loss hexaferrite will impact future advanced
miniature and high-efficiency GHz mobile antennas.
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