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Single Open-Slot Antenna for LTE/WWAN Smartphone Application

Horng-Dean Chen, Hui-Wen Yang, and Chow-Yen-Desmond Sim

Abstract—A single open-slot antenna for LTE/WWAN operation is

proposed for smartphone applications. To achieve dual-band operation,
the narrow open-slot is fed by a simple 50 ohms vertical feedline with two
horizontally protruded feeding structures. To further attain good
impedance matching for these two operating bands, an L-shaped metallic
plate is used. From the measured results, good antenna efficiencies of more
than 40% are demonstrated across the LTE/WWAN operation in the 698–
960 MHz and 1710–2690 MHz bands.
Index Terms—Open-slot antenna, LTE/WWAN antenna, smartphone
antenna

I. INTRODUCTION
Designs of open-slot antenna have been widely studied for mobile
devices such as cell phone or smartphone, because it can operate in
1/4 wavelength resonant mode instead of a traditional 1/2
wavelength resonant mode (for general closed-ended slot antenna).
Therefore, it enables the total antenna size to be reduced. In general,
increasing the width of open-slot will enhance the operating
bandwidth [1]. However, a single open-slot with narrow opening
width is a preferred solution for mobile devices, but it usually has a
(a)
narrow impedance bandwidth operated in 1/4 wavelength resonant
mode. To achieve good wideband wireless wide area network
(WWAN) operation in the 824–960 MHz and 1710–2170 MHz
bands, a number of techniques that involve the use of open-slot have
been investigated [2, 3]. In [2], the technique of loading two
dissimilar open-slots (also known as monopole slot) into the ground
plane has been studied, in which a simple vertical microstrip feedline
is used. Even though the two open-slots in [2] have been reduced to
only one, a C-shaped vertical strip is still required to connect
orthogonally to the bottom edge of the ground plane, so that good
impedance matching and dual-band operation can be achieved [3]. In
addition to that, the feedline used in this case is an L-shaped type.
To further improve the operating bandwidth so that both
LTE2300/2500 bands can be included along with the WWAN bands,
hybrid slots technique that combines a closed-ended slot with three (b)
Fig. 1. Configuration of the proposed open-slot antenna for LTE/WWAN
open-slots has been reported [4]. Besides combining with closed- smartphone application. (a) Overall view. (b) Feedlines.
ended slot, hybrid antenna design that involves the combination of
monopole antenna and open-slot antenna has also been investigated, improvement of impedance matching.
and wide operating bandwidth of 22% (1.85–2.31 GHz) was In this paper, instead of employing two open-slots and two feeding
measured [5]. Nevertheless, the works with open-slot reported in ports [6], [7], a much simple single open-slot antenna design for
[2]–[5] cannot fully cover the LTE/WWAN operation in the 698– LTE/WWAN operation is proposed for smartphone applications.
960 MHz and 1710–2690 MHz bands. Therefore, recently, the Here, a vertical feedline with two horizontally protruded feeding
methods of applying dual open-slots (DOS) have been studied to structures is applied to a narrow (2 mm) open-slot for achieving
achieve LTE/WWAN operation [6], [7]. Here, two linear open-slots dual-band operating. To further excite an additional slot mode in the
[6] and two L-shaped open-slots [7] were applied, and both reported lower operating band, a series capacitor is loaded into one of the
works required two different feeding ports for the DOS. To achieve protruded feeding structures. For improving the impedance matching
good impedance matching, additional LC matching circuits were of the two operating bands, the technique of connecting an L-shaped
also loaded into the two feeding lines. In addition to that, vertical and metallic plate to the top edge of the ground plane is also applied [7].
L-shaped edge metallic plates connected to the system ground are
also observed in [6] and [7], respectively, which are for achieving
II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION
good excitation of the slot modes, thereby results in further
The configuration of the proposed open-slot antenna with an L-
This work was supported in parts by the Ministry of Science and shaped metallic plate is shown in Fig. 1(a), and its detailed
Technology of Taiwan under Contract MOST 104-2221-E-017-001.
dimensions are shown in Fig. 1(b). The antenna is built on a thin 0.8
H.D. Chen and H.W. Yang are with the Optoelectronics and
Communication Engineering, National Kaohsiung Normal University, mm FR4 substrate with planar ground size of 140 × 75 mm2 (printed
Kaohsiung 82444, Taiwan. (e-mail: hdchen@nknucc.nknu.edu.tw) on the back side of the FR4 substrate), and the connected L-shaped
C.Y.D. Sim is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Feng Chia metallic plate has a vertical height 7 mm and horizontal width w = 7
University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan. (e-mail: cysim@fcu.edu.tw). mm. A narrow open-slot of size 66 × 2 mm2 is etched on the ground

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plane and excited by a feeding network printed on the front side of 250
the FR4 substrate. The feeding network is composed of three Ref1
mode 2 Ref2
sections, namely, the main 50- vertical feedline #1 (path A-B), 200
horizontal protruded feedline #2 (path D-E), and bend protruded proposed
mode 3

Resistance ()
feedline #3 (path A-G-H). The lengths of the feedlines #1 and #2 are 150 mode 4
10 mm and 50 mm, respectively, and their corresponding widths are mode 1
1.5 mm and 1 mm. The feedline #2 is printed centrally along the 100
open-slot, and terminated (shorted) at point D with a series capacitor
C = 1.5 PF. As for the feedline #3, it has a total length of 32.3 mm,
50
and the widths of (path A-G) and (path G-H) are 0.5 mm and 0.8 mm,
respectively.
0
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
III. ANTENNA DESIGN EVOLUTION AND ANALYSIS Frequency (GHz)
The design of the proposed antenna was studied via the HFSS (a)
(High Frequency Structure Simulator) simulation tool. The design 150
evolution of the proposed open-slot antenna is described as follows. Ref1
Figs. 2 and 3 show the simulated input impedance and its 100 Ref2
corresponding return loss for the proposed antenna and two reference proposed
antennas (Ref1 and Ref2), respectively. Here, Ref1 antenna is the 50

Reactance ()
proposed one with only the 50- feedline #1 remained, and Ref2
0
antenna is the proposed one without feedline #2. From the figures, it
is seen that a single open-slot of length 66 mm excited by a 50- -50
feedline (Ref1 antenna) can generate a 1/4 wavelength fundamental
resonance at 720 MHz (mode 1). In addition to that, a higher-order -100
resonance at 2350 MHz (mode 4) is also observed, forming a dual-
band operation. Unfortunately, the impedance matching of mode 1 is -150
not desirable, and the two excited modes do not exhibit enough 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Frequency (GHz)
operating bandwidths (660–700 MHz and 1940–2410 MHz) to cover
the LTE/WWAN bands. Notably, the reason for achieving narrow (b)
impedance bandwidths for Ref1 antenna is mainly due to the narrow
open-slot width (2 mm), which is now a standard open-slot width Fig. 2. Simulated input impedance of the proposed antenna and two reference
requested by some mobile antenna industries. In order to improve the antennas (Ref1 and Ref2). (a) Input resistance, (b) Input reactance.
upper operating bandwidth, the technique of protruding the feedline
#3 from the 50- feedline #1 (Ref2 antenna) is proposed. By doing 0
so, an additional resonance at approximately 1730 MHz (mode 3) is
5
excited, and the two combined modes (modes 3 and 4) can achieve
an enhanced upper operating bandwidth (along 6-dB return loss) of
Return Loss (dB)

10
1790–2535 MHz. However, the achieved lower operating band of
632–750 MHz is still unable to fulfill the LTE/WWAN bands. 15
During the optimization process by using the HFSS simulation
software, it is later discovered that further loading a protruded 20 Ref1
feedline #2 in series with a capacitor C into Ref2 (proposed antenna) Ref2
can excite an additional resonance at 1010 MHz (mode 2), as shown 25 proposed
in Fig. 2. Because of the combination of modes 1 and 2, the lower
30
operating bandwidth is tremendously improved to 636–1001 MHz 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
and covers the LTE700/GSM850/900 bands in the frequency range Frequency (GHz)
of 698960 MHz. As for the upper operating band, the 6-dB
impedance bandwidth is as large as 986 MHz (17022688 MHz) Fig. 3. Simulated return loss of the proposed antenna and two reference
(except a bulged frequency band of between 1837–2055 MHz has antennas.
slightly less than 6 dB return loss), which almost covers the
GSM1800/1900/UMTS/LTE2300/2500 bands in the 17102690 resonance of the slot. Even though similar phenomena is also
MHz frequency range. observed in Fig. 4(d), an additional null is located between the
To further understand how the four characteristic modes (or feedline #1 and open-end of the slot; thus, it can be denoted that
resonant modes) are excited, it can be explained by observing the mode 4 (2430 MHz) is approximately a 3/4-wavelength resonance of
results shown in Fig. 4. In this figure, all the simulated electric field the slot. At 1010 MHz (mode 2), by observing the current
distributions in the open slot, and surface current distributions on the distribution on the ground plane shown in Fig. 4(b), it indicates that
ground plane of the proposed antenna at different excitation modes the strong electric current at the shorting point D is flowing along the
(720 MHz, 1010 MHz, 1730 MHz, and 2430 MHz) are shown. As feedline #2. Also, due to the coupling effects between the feedline #2
depicted in Fig. 4(a), at 720 MHz (mode 1), strong electric field is and ground plane, a new open-slot is formed, and thus leads to the
observed at the open-end of the slot, and very weak electric field excitation of mode 2. Notably, the excitation of mode 2 is also
(null) occurs at the shorted-end of the slot. Therefore, it can be dependent on C, which will be discussed in Fig. 5. As for mode 4
concluded that mode 1 is approximately a quarter-wavelength

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structure (feedline #3) was also investigated and reported in [8].

In this design, the technique of loading a series capacitor C into
the longer strip of the feedline #2, near to the closed end of the open-
slot, and terminated (shorted) it at point D is very helpful for good
excitation of higher-order mode (mode 2), in which two slot modes
(modes 1 and 2) can be combined to form a wide operating band. Fig.
5 shows the simulated return loss for tuning the C value from 0.5 to
2.5 pF (step increment of 0.5 pF). It is obvious that a higher-order
mode (mode 2) is excited at approximately 1250 MHz when C = 0.5
pF. By further increasing the C value, mode 2 is shifted to the lower
frequency and is integrated with mode 1 when C = 2.5 pF. Here, the
shift in frequency is mainly due to the intensified electric-field
distribution in the open slot when increasing the capacitor C value,
which results in increasing the effective slot length, followed by
decreasing the resonant frequency of the excited mode [8]. Here, the
null additional null optimum C value chosen is 1.5 pF, because it can give wide lower
operating band of 636–1001 MHz.
Fig. 6 shows the simulated return losses when varying the width w
of the L-shaped metallic plate. From the results, it is realized that the
L-shaped metallic plate has little effects on the resonant frequencies
Fig. 4. Simulated electric field distributions in the open slot, and surface current of four excited modes. However, removing this L-shaped metallic
distributions on the ground plane of the proposed antenna at different excitation plate (w/o metallic plate) will result in some degradation in the
modes, (a) 720 MHz, (b) 1010 MHz, (c) 1730 MHz, (d) 2430 MHz. impedance matching of all four excited modes. For the case of w = 0
(horizontal section of L-shaped plate removed, and the vertical
0 section is retained), the two lower modes can still achieve good
impedance matching. By further increasing w to 7 mm, optimum
5 impedance matching for modes 3 and 4 will also be attained.
Return Loss (dB)

10

15
C = 0.5 pF
20 C = 1 pF
mode 2
C = 1.5 pF
25
C = 2.5 pF
30
Fig. 7. Photo pictures of fabricated open-slot antenna (front and back).
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Frequency (GHz)
0

Fig. 5. Simulated return losses when tuning the values of capacitor C. 5

Return Loss (dB)

0 10

5 15
Return Loss (dB)

10 20
measured
15 25 simulated
w/o metallic plate 30
20
w=0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
25 w = 4 mm Frequency (GHz)
w = 7 mm
30 Fig. 8. Simulated and measured return losses of proposed antenna.
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Frequency (GHz)
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Fig. 6 Simulated return losses when varying the width w of the L-shaped To verify the proposed design, a prototype proposed open-slot
metallic plate. antenna was fabricated and measured. The photo pictures of the
fabricated antenna are presented in Fig. 7. Fig. 8 shows the simulated
(1730 MHz), as depicted in Fig. 4(c), strong current distribution is and measured return losses of the proposed antenna, and the two
observed along the ground plane that is in close proximity with results are well validated. The measured 6-dB return loss bandwidth
feedline #3, thus it can be denoted that feedline #3 is responsible for of the lower operating band is 45.5% (633–1006 MHz). As for the
the excitation of mode 3. Lastly, it is noteworthy that similar feeding measured 6-dB return loss bandwidths of mode 3 and 4, they are

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1703–1853 MHz and 2031–2690 MHz, respectively. Even though 0

 f = 1720 MHz 0 

the measured bulged frequency band is 1854–2030 MHz, it is still -10 dB -10 dB

well beyond the 5-dB return loss threshold. -20 dB -20 dB

The radiation patterns of the proposed slot antenna were measured

-90
270 -90
90270 90
in a standard SATIMO anechoic chamber. The simulated and (+x) (+y)
measured radiation patterns of the proposed antenna in three
principal-planes at 700, 950, 1720, and 2400 MHz are plotted in Figs.
9, 10, 11, and 12, respectively. The measured results agree well with 180 
0
90 
180
the simulated ones. In the lower operating band (700 and 950 MHz), x-z plane -10 dB
y-z plane
near-omnidirectional and bi-directional patterns are observed in the -20 dB
x-z and y-z planes, respectively. The main reason for achieving near-
omnidirectional patterns in the x-z plane is because the ground plane 270
180 90
0
(+x)
has also partially contributed to the radiation [6]. As for the upper
operating band (1720 and 2400 MHz), broadside patterns are
observed in the +x-axis direction of x-z plane and –y-axis direction
180
270
of y-z plane.
x-y plane
0 0 
 f = 700 MHz 
-10 dB -10 dB
Fig. 11. Radiation patterns of proposed antenna at 1720 MHz.
-20 dB -20 dB

0 0 
 f = 2400 MHz 
-90
270 90270
-90 90
(+x) (+y) -10 dB -10 dB

-20 dB -20 dB

-90
270 -90
90270 90
 (+x) (+y)
180 
0
90 180
x-z plane -10 dB
y-z plane
-20 dB

180 
0
90 180
270
180 90
0 x-z plane y-z plane
(+x) -10 dB
y
E (simulated) -20 dB
x
z
E (simulated)
270
180 0
90
E (measured) 180
270 (+x)
E (measured) x-y plane

270
180
Fig. 9. Radiation patterns of proposed antenna at 700 MHz. x-y plane

0 0 
 f = 950 MHz 
-10 dB -10 dB
Fig. 12. Radiation patterns of proposed antenna at 2400 MHz.
-20 dB -20 dB

-90
270 90270
-90 90
100
(+x) (+y)
Antenna efficiency (%)

80

180 
0
90 180 60
x-z plane -10 dB
y-z plane
-20 dB
40
270
180 90
0
(+x) 20 simulated
measured
0
180
270 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
x-y plane Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 10. Radiation patterns of proposed open-slot antenna at 950 MHz. Fig. 13. Simulated and measured antenna efficiencies of proposed open-slot
antenna.

Fig. 13 gives the simulated and measured antenna efficiencies over

the two desired operating bands of WWAN/LTE (698–960 MHz and
1710–2690 MHz). It can be observed that the measured antenna
efficiencies are 59%67% and 41%79% over the lower and upper

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operating frequency bands, respectively. Even though the upper

operating band has a bulged frequency section, the measured antenna
efficiencies have indicated that both operating bands have at least
40% efficiency, which is acceptable for practical applications [7].

V. CONCLUSIONS
A novel single open-slot antenna that has a single feedline (single
port) for applications in the LTE/WWAN smartphone has been
successfully investigated. Two additional feedlines were meticulously
designed to protrude from the main 50 ohms feedline for exciting
multiple resonances. Good antenna efficiencies of above 40% were
measured across the two operating bands that can cover the
LTE/WWAN bands. Because of its simple structure, this proposed
antenna is a good candidate for any smartphone applications.

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