Stored electromagnetic energy and antenna Q

Decomposition of the electromagnetic energy into its stored and radiated parts is instrumental in the evaluation of antenna Q and the corresponding fundamental limitations on antennas. This decomposition is not unique and there are several proposals in the literature. Here, it is shown that stored energy defined from the difference between the energy density and the far field energy equals the energy expressions proposed by Vandenbosch for many but not all cases. This also explains the observed cases with negative stored energy and suggests a possible remedy to them. The results are compared with the classical explicit expressions for spherical regions where the results only differ by the electrical size ka that is interpreted as the far-field energy in the interior of the sphere.QC 20130422. Updated from manuscript to article in journal.