NIST engineers are working with scientists from the University of
Arizona (Tucson) and Boeing Research & Technology (Seattle, Wash.) to
design antennas incorporating metamaterials — materials engineered
with novel, often microscopic, structures to produce unusual
properties. The new antennas radiate as much as 95 percent of an input
radio signal and yet defy normal design parameters. Standard antennas
need to be at least half the size of the signal wavelength to operate
efficiently; at 300 MHz, for instance, an antenna would need to be
half a meter long. The experimental antennas are as small as one-
fiftieth of a wavelength and could shrink further.

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