This invention relates to antennas.
In the field of consumer electronics, for example, antennas are used to transmit and receive signals across a very broad range of frequencies including AM and FM radio, VHF and UHF TV, cellular telephone, CB radio, and other applications.
Antenna designers aim to achieve an appropriate combination of bandwidth, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR), directionality, mechanical strength, and visual unobtrusiveness for the application involved. A wide variety of techniques have been used to achieve good performance in each of these areas. Broad bandwidth, for example, may be achieved in some cases using so-called tapered loading of the antenna element. Unobtrusiveness, in the case of a car, for example, has been achieved by embedding the antenna in the windshield.