Characteristic Mode Theory is one of the very few numerical methods that provide a great deal of physical insight because it allows us to determine the natural modes of the radiating structure. The key feature of these modes is that the total induced antenna current, input impedance/admittance and radiation pattern can be expressed as a linear weighted combination of individual modes. Using this decomposition method, it is possible to study the behavior of the individual modes, understand them and therefore control the antennas behavior; in other words, control the currents induced on the antenna structure. This dissertation advances the topic of antenna design by carefully controlling the antenna currents over the desired frequency band to achieve the desired performance specifications for a set of constraints. Here, a systematic method based on the Theory of Characteristic Modes (CM) and lumped reactive loading to achieve the goal of current control is developed. The lumped reactive loads are determined based on the desired behavior of the antenna currents. This technique can also be used to impedance match the antenna to the source/generator connected to it. The technique is much more general than the traditional impedance matching. Generally, the reactive loads that properly control the currents exhibit a combination of Foster and non-Foster behavior. The former can be implemented with lumped passive reactive components, while the latter can be implemented with lumped non-Foster circuits (NFC). The concept of current control is applied to design antennas with a wide band (impedance/pattern) behavior using reactive loads. We successfully applied this novel technique to design multi band and wide band antennas for wireless applications. The technique was developed to match the antenna to resistive and/or complex source impedance and control the radiation pattern at these frequency bands, considering size and volume constraints. A wide band pat (open full item for complete abstract)

In this dissertation, the Theory of Characteristic Modes is used as a framework for the design, optimization, and benchmarking of electrically small radiating systems. The foundation of this work is in the theory of Characteristic Modes, an eigenvalue equation of the Method of Moments impedance matrix [Z], that leads to derive the fundamental radiation modes of arbitrary-shaped bodies. After an overview of small antenna theory, we derive a new method for computing the Q factor of arbitrary-shaped radiating bodies using CMs using only the Method of Moments impedance matrix [Z]. Following this derivation, we present a new method for computing the fundamental limits on Q (and thus bandwidth) for arbitrary-shaped antennas. As a by-product of this method, we extract the optimal current distribution as a function of antenna shape for design guidelines. We further extend this theory to find the Q limits of arbitrary-shaped antennas and antenna-platform systems, subject to specific radiation pattern requirements. In the second part of the thesis, we use the Theory of Characteristic Modes to optimize the location and excitation of single and multiple in-situ ESAs mounted on finite, sub-wavelength platforms as relates to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). By properly analyzing the CMs of the supporting platform, we show that a complex, multivariate optimization problems can by radically simplified using CMs. Based on this capability, we present a new, systematic design methodology for location optimization of small antennas on-board finite platforms. The approach is shown to drastically reduce the time, computational cost, and complexity of a multi-element in-situ antenna design, as well as providing significant performance improvements in comparison to a typical single-antenna implementations.