Frequency-recongurable two-port antenna for mobile phone operating over multiple service bands

J. Cho, C.W. Jung and K. Kim

A frequency-recongurable antenna for a mobile phone with small volume is proposed. The proposed antenna consists of a planar inverted F-antenna (PIFA) with volume of 4 36 5 mm3 and a monopole antenna embedded in the same space. The two antennas are excited by two separate feeds with a common ground plane. A switch is used in the PIFA for frequency-recongurable operation. The PIFA can cover either LTE (698 806 MHz) or GSM900 (880 960 MHz) depending on the state of the switch. The monopole antenna can cover either PCS1900 (1.85 1.99 GHz) and m-WiMAX (3.4 3.8 GHz) or WLAN 802.11a (5.15 5.35 GHz) depending on the state of the switch. The antenna gain is in the range of 21.99 0.61 dBi over 700 MHz 2 GHz bands and 2.39 4.62 dBi over the bands higher than 3 GHz. The proposed antenna is shown to have good radiation characteristics.

respectively. A meander-shaped PIFA antenna structure is chosen for antenna miniaturisation. The size of the antenna is 4 36 5 mm3 or 720 mm3. The PIFA is printed on a 0.03 mm-thick polyethylene terephthalate (PET) lm and folded as shown in Fig. 2c. FR-4 panels with 0.07 mm thickness are attached to the PET for rigidity. The monopole antenna is folded as shown in Fig. 2d to make the antenna stable as well as taking less volume. The monopole and the PIFA are fed separately by ports 1 and 2, respectively. A switch, which is used for frequency-recongurable operation, is located on the back side of the PIFA, as shown in Fig. 2c. The distance between the shorting line and feed port 2 is determined to be 8 mm to match the PIFA impedance to a 50 V feed line. In Figs. 2c and d, dashed and dash-dot lines indicate forward and backward folding, respectively. Note that a similar design is presented in [5]. However, the results in [5] are wrong because the ports are driven at the same time. In this Letter, the errors are corrected, and the antenna design is signicantly improved. Thus, this Letter presents completely new results.
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Introduction: The transition of TV broadcasting services from analogue to digital is beginning in many countries. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the 700 MHz band (698 806 MHz), which had been previously used by TV broadcasters, is reclaimed for use by safety services and commercial communications [1]. Long term evolution (LTE) is one of the next generation mobile communication technologies that are supposed to utilise the 700 MHz band. The LTE service is expected to provide better mobile communication quality than existing services, such as GSM850 (824 894 MHz), GSM900 (880 960 MHz), DCS1800 (1.71 1.88 GHz), and PCS1900 (1.85 1.99 GHz). However, it is desirable that mobile phones be able to cover at least a few of the existing service bands and LTE bands at the same time, especially before the widespreading of LTE services. In this Letter, we propose a new antenna consisting of a planar inverted F-antenna (PIFA) and a monopole antenna, which can cover LTE channels 13 and 17 (746 787 and 704 746 MHz) and four existing services bands. PIFAs have been applied widely to small mobile phones as an internal antenna for multi-band operation. The size of the antennas inside a mobile phone is desired to be small. However, small PIFAs suffer from the disadvantages of low efciency and narrow bandwidth, which appear especially at bands under 800 MHz. In addition, it is difcult for a single PIFA to cover a wide band for communication services [2 4]. To overcome these problems, in this Letter, a PIFA is combined with a monopole within space taken by the PIFA, and a switch is used in the PIFA for frequency reconguration. The combined antenna can cover a few tens of megahertz more than the PIFA alone. In addition, the switch on the PIFA enables the combined antenna to cover more service bands, especially LTE (698 806 MHz), and GSM900 (880 960 MHz). Fig. 1 shows the concept of frequency-recongurable operation for the proposed antenna. The PIFA covers LTE when the switch is in on state and GSM900 when the switch is in off state. The monopole covers PCS1900 and m-WiMAX when the switch on the PIFA is in on state and m-WiMAX and WLAN 802.11a when the switch is in off state.
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Fig. 2 Geometry of proposed antenna

a Geometry of proposed antenna with accompanying ground planes b Three-dimensional view and equivalent connection diagram of proposed antenna c Dimensions of PIFA with switch d Dimensions of monopole

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Antenna conguration and design: Fig. 2a shows the geometry of the proposed antenna with accompanying ground planes, which model a folder-type mobile phone. Ground planes 1 and 2 are 0.8 mm-thick FR-4 with sizes 40 75 mm2 and 40 70 mm2, respectively. The antenna consists of a PIFA and a monopole antenna and is mounted on the top side of the ground plane. Fig. 2b shows the three-dimensional view and equivalent connection diagram of the proposed antenna. Figs. 2c and d show the dimensions of the PIFA and monopole,

Measurement results: The proposed antenna has been implemented and measured. For this implementation, the switch is hard-wired simulating the ideal switch. The return losses of the proposed antenna are presented in Fig. 3. Fig. 3a shows simulated return losses of the PIFA for both switch states. For this Figure, the monopole antenna is not included in the simulation. The Figure shows that the antenna covers the GSM900 band, but other services are not covered. Other service coverage is achieved by inclusion of the monopole antenna within the space taken by the PIFA. The resonant behaviour of an antenna can be modied by placing a metal object close to it. The resonant frequency is also dependent on the electrical shape of the nearby object. Thus, inclusion of the monopole within the PIFA changes the resonant behaviour of the PIFA. The resonant frequency of the monopole, in turn, is affected by the PIFA, the electrical shape of which changes depending on the state of the switch. Figs. 3b and c show measured return losses of the proposed antenna consisting of both the PIFA and the monopole. The Figure shows that the proposed antenna covers LTE, PCS1900, and m-WiMAX bands

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when the switch is in on state, and GSM900, m-WiMAX, and WLAN 802.11a bands when the switch is in off state. In addition, the bandwidth covering GSM900 is increased from 85 to 167 MHz after inclusion of the monopole antenna. Here, the coverage is dened by a voltage standing-wave ratio less than 3. Note that the proposed antenna is seen to resonate over GPS and DCS1800 bands, also. These bands, however, may not be operable because of low gain.
0 5 return loss, dB 10 0.875 0.96 15 20 25 30 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 frequency, GHz 5.0 6.0 1.0 2.0 4.0 3.0 frequency, GHz 5.0 6.0 switch on switch off switch on PIFA monopole 0.695 0.805 1.81 1.575 1.995 3.12 4.1

Fig. 4a and those for the off-state in Fig. 4b. In the Figures, the graphs on the left- and right-hand side represent the patterns in xy and y-z planes, respectively. The antenna is seen to have good radiation characteristics. Fig. 5 shows the measured absolute gain of the antenna at the centres and edges of the covered service bands. The gain varies from 21.99 to 0.61 dBi for LTE, GSM900, and PCS1900 bands and from 2.39 to 4.62 dBi for m-WiMAX and WLAN 802.11a bands.
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Conclusion: A small frequency-recongurable antenna consisting of a PIFA and a monopole is presented for mobile phone applications. The PIFA, with the use of a switch, can cover LTE and GSM900, and the monopole can cover PCS1900, m-WiMAX, and WALN 802.11a. The proposed antenna is applicable to multi-band mobile communications. Acknowledgment: This work was supported by the Center for Distributed Sensor Network at GIST. # The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2009 15 May 2009 doi: 10.1049/el.2009.1378
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Fig. 3 Return losses of proposed antenna

a Simulated return losses of PIFA without monopole b Measured return losses of proposed antenna when switch in on state c Measured return losses of proposed antenna when switch in off state
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J. Cho (Samsung Thales Corporation, Seoul, Republic of Korea)

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C.W. Jung (Graduate School of NID Fusion Technology, Seoul National University of Technology, Seoul, Republic of Korea) K. Kim (Department of Mechatronics, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju, Republic of Korea) E-mail: mkkim@gist.ac.kr References

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1 Federal Communications Commission: 700 MHz second report and order, available online athttp://fjallfoss.fcc.gov, 2007 2 Hsiao, F.R., Chen, H.T., Lee, G.Y., Chiou, T.W., and Wong, K.L.: A dual-band planar inverted-F patch antenna with a branch-line slit, Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., 2002, 32, pp. 310 312 3 Rowell, C.R., and Murch, R.D.: A compact PIFA suitable for dual frequency 900/1800-MHz operation, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., 1998, 46, pp. 596 598 4 Wong, K.L., Su, W.C., and Chang, F.S.: Wideband internal folded planar monopole antenna for UMTS/WiMAX folder-type mobile phone, Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., 2006, 48, pp. 324 327 5 Cho, J., and Kim, K.: A frequency-recongurable multi-port antenna operating over LTE, GSM, DCS, and PCS bands. IEEE Int. Symp. Antennas Propagation, 2009

In Fig. 4, measured total radiated powers are plotted at the centres of the covered service bands. The patterns for the on-state are shown in

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