Q Factor-Based Electrically Small Antenna Radiation Efficiency Measurement Using the Wheeler Cap

In this letter, a small antenna radiation efficiency measurement method is presented. The method utilizes the antenna quality factor, where it is a modification of the original Q factor method, amended by the loss Q factor of the antenna instead of the radiation Q factor. The method is verified for two kinds of antennas: the first is designed to operate at 868 MHz having a series resonance input impedance, and a second at 433 MHz having a parallel resonance input impedance. The method shows very high accuracy and prevent errors that may occur when using the conventional Wheeler cap method if the stored energy is not treated explicitly, which is considering the same imaginary part of the input impedance or input admittance for series resonance or parallel resonance, respectively.