Anyone know anything about the "technology" in the article below?

http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/?id=2659

Chuck...K1KW

Article text below


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Department of Communications/News Bureau
22 Davis Hall, 10 Lippitt Road, Kingston, RI 02881
Phone: 401-874-2116 Fax: 401-874-7872
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URI physics employee invents new antenna technology
Media Contact: Jan Wenzel, 401-874-2116

KINGSTON, R.I. -- June 2, 2004 -- Rob Vincent, an employee in the University
of Rhode Island's Physics Department, proves the adage that necessity is the
mother of invention.

An amateur radio operator since he was 14, Vincent has always lived in
houses situated on small lots. Because he couldn't erect a large antenna on
a confined property, he has been continually challenged over the years to
find a way to get better reception.

"I was always tinkering in the basement. Thank goodness, my parents were
tolerant. I can still remember my poor father driving up our driveway after
a hard day's work to see wires wrapped around the house," Vincent recalls.

"The Holy Grail of antenna technology is to create a small antenna with high
efficiency and wide bandwidth," explains Vincent. "According to current
theory, you have to give up one of the three-size, efficiency, or
bandwidth-to achieve any one of the other two."

After decades of experimentation, combined with a 30-year engineering career
and Yankee ingenuity, Vincent has invented a revolutionary antenna
technology. The distributed loaded monopole antennas are smaller, produce
high efficiency, and retain good to excellent bandwidth. And they have
multiple applications.

With this technology it will be possible to double, at minimum, the range of
walkie-talkies used by police, fire, and other municipal personnel. Naval
ships, baby monitors, and portable antennas for military use are other
applications. An antenna could be mounted on a chip in a cell phone and be
applied to wireless local area networks. Another application deals with
radio frequency identification, which is expected someday to replace the
barcode system.

"It could even make the Dick Tracy wrist radio with all the features, such
as Internet access, a possibility," Vincent says.

The inventor pursued his quest to build a better antenna in earnest eight
years ago when he and his significant other moved into a house situated on a
50-foot by 100-foot lot in Warwick. There was nothing on the commercial
market that could fit the lot that would provide the performance Vincent
needed to be heard in distant lands and that would be acceptable to his
neighbors. All the small antennas being sold were inefficient and lacked
bandwidth, which resulted in low performance and high frustration.

Vincent looked at the techniques that were currently used to reduce antenna
size and realized something was missing in the way everyone was approaching
the problem.

He began to model various combinations into a computer program called
MathCad. His first attempt produced a 21 MHz band antenna that was 18 inches
high. Normally, antennas for this band are 12 to 24 feet high.

Vincent installed the antenna in his back yard. The legal limit that
amateurs can operate is 1,000 watts with the norm being 100 watts. The
amateur radio operator experimented with 5 to 10 watts. He reached a station
in Chile and made contacts in various European countries. Meanwhile he kept
adding power until it reached 100 watts. That's when things suddenly went
bad. Walking outside in the backyard, he understood why. The antenna had
melted.

After examining the molten matter, Vincent wasn't discouraged. This was only
a small model and not designed to handle much power. The part of the antenna
that failed proved to be the key to the design. After analyzing the failure,
Vincent realized that he was able to transform a lot of current along the
antenna with even relatively low power.

"Antennas radiate by setting up large amounts of current flow through
various parts of their structure," he says. "The larger the current the more
radiation and the better the output of the antenna."

Vincent went back to the drawing board and continued to improve the
technology. Relying on his nearly 30 years at Raytheon Co. and at KVH
Industries in Middletown R.I which provided him with a diversified
background in electronics and electronic systems, Vincent overcame a myriad
of problems and succeeded.

He established three test sites for various prototypes. Antennas were placed
in Westport, Mass. in a salt marsh, the best ground for transmission and
reception. Another set of antennas were placed on rocky ground in
Cumberland, R.I., the worst kind of site, and at a Warwick site which is in
between the two. The antennas, which resemble flagpoles, worked well at all
locations.

Tests confirmed that Vincent has created antennas at one third to one ninth
of their full size counterparts. Normally smaller antennas are only 8 to 15
percent efficient. Vincent's antennas achieved 80 to 100 percent efficiency
as compared to the larger antennas.

A patent is pending on Vincent's technology. The inventor has made the
University of Rhode Island and its Physics Department partners that will
benefit from any revenue his invention earns. "The University and its
Physics Department has been very supportive and given me time and space to
work on this project," says Vincent who was recently presented the 2004
Outstanding Intellectual Property Award by URI's Research Office. "I couldn'
t have done this without the University's support. It's only fair that it
share in the profits."