Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials (2022) 5:410–418

https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-022-00431-4

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Dual‑band piezoelectric artificial structure for very low frequency

mechanical antenna
Jinqing Cao1 · Huiming Yao1 · Yachen Pang1 · Jianchun Xu1,2 · Chuwen Lan1,2 · Ming Lei1 · Ke Bi1,2

Received: 13 December 2021 / Revised: 30 January 2022 / Accepted: 1 February 2022 / Published online: 9 February 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

Abstract
Very low frequency (VLF) (3–30 kHz) communication systems are widely used in remote and underwater scenarios due to the
low propagation loss. However, the antenna size and complex impedance matching network restrict the development of portable
VLF transmitters. Here, we demonstrate a compact dual-band piezoelectric artificial structure for very low frequency mechani-
cal antenna for the enhancement of electromagnetic radiation. The mechanical antenna consisted of piezoelectric ceramic rings
operating at 25.61 kHz and 35.79 kHz. A VLF communication system is designed to verify the radiation efficiency of the pro-
posed mechanical antenna. At 25.61 kHz and 35.79 kHz, the measured magnetic field intensity can reach 0.118 nT and 0.084
nT at a distance of 5.4 m. Due to the piezoelectric artificial structure, the radiation enhancement of the proposed antenna has
been experimentally demonstrated within the range of 20–40 kHz. This mechanical antenna has great potential in applications
of portable, low-cost, and high-performance VLF wireless communication devices.

Keywords Piezoelectric · Artificial structure · Very low frequency · Mechanical antenna

1 Introduction
In decades, the number of portable wireless and the need for
remote communications devices have increased dramatically.
Very low frequency (VLF) electromagnetic
� (EM) waves have
√ �
a relatively large skin depth 𝛿 𝛿 ∝ 1∕f , where f is the
wavelength, resulting in low attenuation in rocks, soils, and
water [1–6]. In addition, VLF antennas use the waveguide
formed between the earth’s surface and ionosphere to realize
transcontinental communication with very low atmospheric
attenuation [7–9]. Based on these merits, the VLF band has
been widely applied in underwater communication, earth-
quake prediction, ionospheric remote sensing, and other
fields [10–13]. The conventional VLF antenna is based on
EM resonance. To maintain high radiation efficiency, the
antenna size is kept on the wavelength scale. Corresponding
* Ke Bi
bike@bupt.edu.cn
1
State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical
Communications, School of Science, Beijing University
of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
2
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Research Institute, Shenzhen 518057, China
VLF antennas generally have large size, poor mobility, and
high cost [14]. The development of low-power and portable
VLF antennas has become an urgent desire in long-wave
communication.
A variety of VLF antenna studies have emerged in recent
years [15]. To date, several VLF mechanical antennas based
on permanent magnets, electrets, or piezoelectric materials
have been proposed for miniaturization [16–21]. In 2018,
a 3 ­c m 3 permanent magnet-based mechanical antenna
was experimentally demonstrated to generate the time-
varying magnetic fields by the physical rotation [18]. Then
mechanical antennas consisting of magnetic pendulum
arrays were proposed to achieve a high quality factor and
transmission efficiency in 2019 [19]. It is also verified that
the magnetic or electric dipoles can be generated by the
mechanical motion of the electret and permanent magnet
mechanical antennas [20, 21]. A piezoelectric acoustically
resonator based on lithium niobite (LN) crystal was pro-
posed to achieve 300 × higher radiation efficiency than con-
ventional passive antennas with a similar radiation quality
factor [22]. In 2020, researchers presented a lead zirconate
titanate acoustic transmitter with ring electrodes to improve
both radiation efficiency and data rate [23]. The resonant
frequencies of those two acoustically driven piezoelectric
mechanical antennas are up to five orders of magnitude

13
Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials (2022) 5:410–418
smaller than conventional electrical small antennas (ESA)
[24, 25]. The portability has been significantly improved
without the complex impedance matching network. In the
field of wireless communication, broadband and multi-band
antennas that can expand usage scenarios have always been
an important research topic [26, 27]. However, dual-band
piezoelectric mechanical antennas are rarely reported. Most
mechanical antennas only operate in a narrow band due to
the high quality factor.
In this work, the piezoelectric artificial structure is applied
in the design of mechanical antennas for achieving dual-
band characteristics and radiation enhancement [28–31].
These characteristics are demonstrated by simulations and
experiments performed by a practical wireless communi-
cation system. All the results demonstrate that this design
provides a new way of constructing mechanical antennas for
portable wireless devices in VLF communication.
2 Experimental
2.1 Preparation of PZT ceramic rings
PZT-8 ( Pb0.95 Sr0.05 (Ti0.48 Zr0.52 )O3 ) piezoelectric ceram-
ics were prepared by the conventional solid-state reaction
method [31–34]. Commercial lead oxide ­(Pb3O4, 99.9%),
titanium oxide ­(TiO2, 99.0%), zirconium dioxide ­(ZrO2,
99.5%), and strontium carbonate ­(SrCO3, 99.0%) were used.
Due to the volatility of PbO, 10% excess P ­ b3O4 was added.
The raw materials were ball milled with ethanol as the
medium for 24 h, dried, and held at 800 ℃ for 4 h. Then the
PZT powders were pressed into designed shapes after being
mixed evenly by ball milling using 3% polyvinyl alcohol as
a binder. Then the PZT was sintered at the temperature of
1000–1250 ℃. The sizes of the piezoelectric ceramic rings
were designed for desired resonant frequencies. After the
preparation was completed, the upper and lower surfaces
were coated with 20 μm silver electrodes and polarized
along the thickness direction. The impedance curves of PZT
ceramics were characterized by the Agilent E4445A series
spectrum analyzer.
2.2 Test system setup
Modulation signals of the test system were generated by a
Tektronix AFG3152C function generator, which was con-
nected with an Aitek ATA-214 high-voltage amplifier (50
times magnification) to feed the piezoelectric mechanical
antenna. The function signal generator generated sine AC
signals with an adjustable peak voltage of 0–5 V. An AH-
Systems SAS-565L 24″ shielded loop antenna was used
to measure the magnetic field intensity. The loop antenna
was connected to the Keysight N9320B spectrum analyzer
411
to obtain the peak power curves. In the far-field radiation
measurement, the loop antenna was connected to a Stanford
Research System SR865A lock-in amplifier (LIA) for detect-
ing weak signals. This amplifier has the same reference fre-
quency as carrier waves, and a 24 dB/octave band-pass filter
was used to filter the environment noise.
3 Results and discussion
Piezoelectric ceramic is widely applied in acoustically driven
devices. Among them, PZT-8 is a typical piezoelectric
ceramic. The ring structure is convenient to install and main-
tain device stability. The morphology and elemental analysis
of materials are shown in Fig. 1. The SEM analyses show
that grains are uniformly distributed over the entire surface of
samples in Fig. 1a. The ceramic structure is compact and has
no porosity. Such a surface structure is beneficial to fabricate
stable piezoelectric resonant units for constructing mechanical
antennas. As can be seen from the results of energy dispersive
analysis (EDS), desired elements are detected in the ceramic
sample, as shown in Fig. 1b. The elements are evenly dis-
persed without segregation, which further verifies the homo-
geneity of the synthesized piezoelectric ceramics.
Piezoelectric ceramic rings made by PZT-8, as shown
in Fig. 2a, are used as resonant units in the design of the
mechanical antenna. The piezoelectric ceramic materials
are fabricated by the traditional solid-state sintering pro-
cess. Piezoelectric ceramic rings are covered with electrodes
on the upper and lower surfaces. It is worth noting that the
polarization direction of the ceramic material is along the
thickness direction. Under the excitation of alternating cur-
rent (AC) signals, the piezoelectric ceramic ring generates
resonance due to the inverse piezoelectric effect. Time-
varying dipoles are generated by periodic deformation dur-
ing vibration and then produce EM radiation. To predict
their EM properties, numerical simulations for the proposed
antenna are implemented by using the commercial software
COMSOL Multiphysics V5.6. For convenience, two PZT
rings with different sizes are, respectively, named PZT-1 and
PZT-2. The outer diameter, inner diameter, and thickness
of PZT-1 are set to 60 mm, 30 mm, and 10 mm for desired
resonant frequencies. The outer diameter, inner diameter,
and thickness of PZT-2 are 50 mm, 17 mm, and 6.5 mm.
The simulation details of the proposed mechanical
antenna with the finite element method (FEM) are illustrated
in Fig. 2b. The mechanical antenna is modeled using the
FEM Multiphysics software COMSOL Multiphysics V5.6
with the “Piezoelectric” toolbox. This toolbox solves the pie-
zoelectric constitutive equations either in its stress–charge or
strain–charge forms, as shown in Eqs. (1) and (2). These two
forms are related to each other, and the conversion relation-
ship is given by Eq. (3):
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412 Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials (2022) 5:410–418

Fig. 1  Morphology and elemen-

tal analysis of the prepared
PZT-8. a Scanning electron
microscope (SEM) images and
b scanning mapping energy
dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)
images of the prepared piezo-
electric ceramics

{
S = sE T + dT E ⎡ 0 0 0 0 330 0 ⎤
(1) d=⎢ 0 0 0 330 0 0 ⎥pC∕N (5)
D = dT+𝜀0 𝜀Tr E ⎢ ⎥
⎣ −100 −100 225 0 0 0 ⎦
{
T = cE S − eT E
(2) ⎡ 11.5 −3.7 −4.8 0 0 0 ⎤
D = eS+𝜀0 𝜀Sr E ⎢ −3.7 11.5 −4.8 0 0 0 ⎥
⎢ ⎥
−4.8 −4.8 13.5 0 0 0 ⎥ 2
sE = ⎢ pm ∕N (6)
⎢ 0 0 0 31.9 0 0 ⎥
⎧ ⎢ 0
⎪
cE = s−1E 0 0 0 31.9 0 ⎥
(3) ⎢ ⎥
⎨ e = dcE ⎣ 0 0 0 0 0 30.4 ⎦
⎪ 𝜀0 𝜀Sr = 𝜀0 𝜀Tr − dcE dT
⎩
𝜂sE = 0.005 (7)
where S is the strain, T is the stress, E is the electric field,
and D is the electric displacement field. The material param- The coupling between the structural and electrical
eters sE , d , and 𝜀Tr correspond to the material compliance, domains can be solved with the solid mechanics interface
coupling properties, and relative permittivity at constant and the electrostatics interface. Air boundary has been
stress. 𝜀0 is the permittivity of free space. The material added to calculate the electric field distribution around
parameters cE , e , and 𝜀Sr correspond to the material stiff- the antenna. The solid mechanics interface is applied to
ness, coupling properties, and relative permittivity at con- piezoelectric ceramics, while the electrostatic interface is
stant strain. Additionally, 𝜂sE representing the loss factor for applied to piezoelectric ceramic and air boundaries. To
sE is added to the simulation to represent mechanical damp- simplify the calculations, the axisymmetric space dimen-
ing. Relevant PZT material parameters in the simulation are sion is employed. In addition, a circuit interface containing
given below: an AC voltage source and a 50 Ω resistor is added to the
simulation as an excitation source.
⎡ 1290 0 0 ⎤
Based on the above piezoelectric constitutive relations
𝜀Tr = ⎢ 0 1290 0 ⎥ (4)
⎢ ⎥ and material parameters, multiphysics calculations can
⎣ 0 0 1180 ⎦
be performed. The simulated electric field distribution is

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Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials (2022) 5:410–418
Fig. 2  Piezoelectric ceramic transmitter. a Schematic of the piezo-
electric resonant units and the dipole moment in the section view. b
Boundary setting in the simulations. c Simulated potential distribu-
illustrated in Fig. 2c. The fringing electric field in the sur-
rounding air is represented by the black arrows. From this
figure, the proposed mechanical transmitter is surrounded by
electric fields like a dipole antenna, which demonstrates the
generation of EM radiation. The resonance modes that deter-
mine the resonance frequency can be obtained by eigen-
frequency simulation, and the induced stress/strain can be
obtained in the frequency domain simulation using piezo-
electric constitutive equations. Under the excitation of the
circuit interface, impedance curves are obtained by extract-
ing the voltage and current signals between two electrodes
of the piezoelectric ceramic. According to the simulated
results illustrated in Fig. 2d, these two PZT rings have reso-
nant frequencies at 25.61 kHz and 35.79 kHz, respectively.
Measurement results obtained by impedance analysis con-
firm the simulated results. At the resonant frequencies, the
impedance of piezoelectric ceramic rings reach is naturally
close to 50 Ω, which demonstrates that the ceramic transmit-
ter can get rid of the dependence of a complex impedance
matching network.
According to the above findings, a piezoelectric artificial
structure is introduced by piling up PZT rings for radiation
413
tion of the resonant units. Simulated and measured impedance curves
of d PZT-1 and PZT-2
enhancement. With the same feed signals, the double-layer
resonant units have a significant enhancement within the
frequency range of 20–40 kHz. A magnetic loop antenna is
used to measure and record the wireless transmission spec-
trum of the proposed mechanical antenna with the help of a
spectrum analyzer and an oscilloscope. The loop antenna is
arranged at a distance of 60 cm away from the mechanical
antenna. Two superimposed piezoelectric ceramics with dif-
ferent sizes are named PZT-1/1 and PZT-2/2, respectively.
And subsequent nomenclatures follow this rule. As shown
in Fig. 3, the enhancement effect is diminished in the vicin-
ity of the resonance frequency. The mechanical vibration
interaction between the components and the damping caused
by the strong resonance leads to the slight enhancement
of 0.5 dB. In the rest range of 20–40 kHz, the superim-
posed piezoelectric ceramic rings have significant radiation
enhancement of beyond 5 dB.
A piezoelectric artificial structure consisting of multi-
layer ceramic rings, as depicted in Fig. 4a, is introduced by
combining resonant units with different resonant frequen-
cies. The dual-band piezoelectric mechanical antenna can
be achieved by the combination of these two transmitter unit
13
414
Fig. 3  Radiation enhancement
of the piezoelectric mechani-
cal antenna by employing the
piezoelectric artificial structure.
Peak power curves of a PZT-1,
PZT-1/1, b PZT-2, and PZT-2/2
cells. The structure of the dual-band mechanical antenna is
composed of a PZT-1 and a PZT-2. The electrical connec-
tion of the mechanical antenna is shown in Fig. 4b. An input
signal applied across the common end couples power into
the transmitters, and other ends are grounded. To understand
the operating mechanism of mechanical antennas with the
piezoelectric artificial structure, COMSOL is used to obtain
the stress distributions at two resonant frequencies. The
simulated results are depicted in Fig. 4c. At the resonance
frequency of 25.61 kHz, the stress generated in PZT-1 is
significantly higher than the one in PZT-2, which indicates
that PZT-1 is the main resonance unit at 25.61 kHz. Simi-
larly, PZT-2 is the main resonance unit at 35.79 kHz. These
results illustrate the coupling effect of piezoelectric ceramics
Fig. 4  Dual-band mechanical antenna design with the piezoelectric
artificial structure. a 3D view and b schematic of the proposed antenna.
c Simulated resonant modes and stress distributions of the antenna
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Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials (2022) 5:410–418
at different frequencies. At the same time, simulated and
measured impedance curves of mechanical antennas with
the piezoelectric artificial structure are obtained as shown in
Fig. 4d. The two peaks in the impedance curve correspond
to the resonance frequencies of two different sizes of piezo-
electric ceramics at 35.79 kHz and 25.61 kHz, respectively.
Peak radiation power curves of the single-layer structures
and combined dual-band mechanical antenna are depicted
in Fig. 4e. The combination of two working frequency bands
endows the mechanical antenna with dual-band characteris-
tics. These experimental results show good agreement with
the numerical predictions, which demonstrates the reason-
ability of mechanical antenna design with the piezoelectric
artificial structure.
excited by a voltage resource with amplitude of 6 V at 25.61 kHz and
35.79 kHz, respectively. d Impedance curve of PZT-1/2. e Peak power
curves of the PZT-1, PZT-2, and PZT-1/2
Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials (2022) 5:410–418
Fig. 5  Comparison of enhancement effects of piezoelectric mechani-
cal antennas with different structures. a 3D schematic diagram and
electrical connection of the multi-layers piezoelectric mechanical
To further explore EM characteristics of piezoelec-
tric artificial structure mechanical antennas, the peak
power curves of PZT rings with different layer structures
are measured. The structure of the mechanical antenna is
shown in Fig. 5a, which consisted of multi-layers piezoelec-
tric ceramic rings of different sizes. Through the selection
of the circuit connection, the free combination of antenna
units can be realized. In addition, the received spectrums of
multi-layers piezoelectric mechanical antennas with differ-
ent structures are measured separately, and the results are
Fig. 6  Actual measurement
setup of the designed VLF com-
munication system. a Trans-
mitting terminal. b Receiving
terminal. c Overview of the
system
415
antenna. b Received power curves of the PZT-1/2, PZT-1/1/2, PZT-
1/2/2, and PZT-1/1/2/2
shown in Fig. 5b. Here, the measurement setup is the same
as before. The feed signals used in the measurement have a
voltage amplitude of 2 V and then are magnified 50 times by
a power amplifier. And the distance between the mechanical
antenna and the loop antenna is kept at 60 cm. The tendency
is coincident with Fig. 3, and the characteristics of dual-band
and radiation enhancement are simultaneously achieved.
A communication system in an open environment, as
shown in Fig. 6, is designed to verify the transmission per-
formance of the proposed piezoelectric mechanical antenna.
13
416
Fig. 7  Wireless communication behavior with the amplitude shift key-
ing (ASK) modulation scheme. a Schematic of the communication
system. b The modulated signals and demodulated signals. c X and Y
At the transmitting terminal which is shown in Fig. 6a, a
function generator and the power amplifier are used as the
excitation source to provide feed signals for the piezoelec-
tric mechanical antenna. Generated signals can be custom-
ized and edited from the function signal generator to meet
the communication requirements. The receiving terminal
consists of a loop antenna and a lock-in amplifier (LIA), as
shown in Fig. 6b. The EM waves radiated by the piezoelec-
tric mechanical antenna are received by the loop antenna and
the LIA is used to detect weak signals. An overview of the
communication is shown in Fig. 6c.
From Fig. 7, the signal modulation process is performed
using the amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation scheme.
The carrier signals and the modulated signals received by
the loop antenna are shown in Fig. 7a. The resource signals
modulate the switching state of the carrier signals, trans-
mitting binary information to the receiver. As the carrier
is turned off, the measured amplitude in LIA is at a low
level due to the environmental noise, which demonstrates
the logic signal of 0 is detected. Based on the same prin-
ciple, the logic signal of 1 is received when the carrier is
turned on. The signal processes and demodulation results are
illustrated in Fig. 7b. The X and Y components and phase of
the received signal are shown in Fig. 7c. These components
illustrate the generation of rectangle wave that represents
periodic 01 information. As shown in Fig. 7d, the meas-
ured magnetic field intensity can reach 0.118 nT and 0.084
nT at a distance of 5.4 m, while the operating frequency is
25.61 kHz and 35.79 kHz, respectively.
13
Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials (2022) 5:410–418
components and phase of the demodulated signals. d Measured mag-
netic field versus distance at 25.61 kHz and 35.79 kHz
4 Conclusion
A new strategy for the piezoelectric VLF mechanical antenna
design is proposed for expanding the operational frequency
band. The antenna consists of low-cost PZT rings of dif-
ferent sizes and operates at frequencies of 25.61 kHz and
35.79 kHz. By varying the ring sizes, the desired resonant
frequencies can be obtained. In addition, radiation enhance-
ment of this dual-band mechanical antenna is also achieved
by utilizing the ceramic ring based multilayer structure. Sim-
ulations and measurements of impedance and wireless spec-
trum verify these characteristics. The practical capabilities
of the proposed antenna are explored by wireless communi-
cation experiments with the ASK modulation scheme. All
results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed mechani-
cal antenna in VLF communication. Therefore, it is believed
that the proposed dual-band mechanical antennas with the
piezoelectric artificial structure antenna have great potential
for applications of portable, low-cost, and high-performance
VLF wireless communication devices.
Funding This work was financially supported by the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2021XD-
A06-1), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
Nos. 51972033, 61905021, 61976025, 51802023, and 51802021),
the Beijing Youth Top-Notch Talent Support Program, Key Area
Research Plan of Guangdong (Grant No. 2019B010937001), and
the Science and Technology Plan of Shenzhen City (Grant No.
JCYJ20180306173235924, JCYJ20180305164708625).
Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials (2022) 5:410–418 417

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