Enhanced Magnetic Communications

Magnetostrictive electroactive (ME) composite element as magnetic receiving antenna for near-field magnetic communication is proposed. ME element is comprsed of lamination of a magnetostrictive material and piezoelectric material. Magnetrostrictive material exhibits magnetstriction that strains under magnetic field. In a ME element, magnetrostrictive material is mechanically coupled to piezoelectric material, thus resulting a superior mutual magnetic-electrical coupling. The ME element, similar to quartz crystal oscillator, also resonate when driven at its resonance frequency from electrical or magnetic excitations. Coupled mode theory was used to revile the fundamentals of the proposed technique. The theoretical results shows that if the transmit (inductive loop coil) and receive antennas (ME element) are tuned to the same resonance frequency, it would potentially great enhance the signal strength and increase communication distance. Further, using back-scattering of the ME element to communicate to the loop antenna is proposed for applications where the battery life is critical. through coupled resonance mode to achieve longer communication distance, faster data rate and smaller size of the equipment. In addition, the ME device is totally passive; the power consumption of the system is expected to be very low.