A Quasi-Planar Miniature Broadband Antenna

Abstract

The antenna size is one of the main concerns in the design of mobile terminals for wireless applications, such as cellular phones, Bluetooth devices, and WLAN (wireless local area network) handsets (e.g., palm handhelds, pocket PCs, laptop computers, and PDAs) [1]. Numerous low-profile miniature antennas have been developed since last decades [2]-[6]. On the other hand, the demand for broadband antennas is becoming strong as nowadays wireless handhelds are required to possess a function of multi-mode/multi-band operations. The first generation cellular mobile communication systems around the world operate near the 1 GHz band with a bandwidth of more than 20% (i.e., AMPS 824-894 MHz in North America, GSP 880-960 MHz in Europe, and PDC 810-915 MHz in Japan). The second generation and future mobile communication systems, such as the emerging third generation systems or beyond [7], are allocated the frequency bands around 2 GHz (i.e., PCS 1850-1990 MHz, DCS 1710-1880 MHz, PHS 1895-1918 MHz, and UMTS 1920-2170 MHz). In addition to cellular mobile communications, the Bluetooth and WLAN systems may operate in the 2.4 GHz ISM band (2.400-2.485 GHz) [8]. This results in a total bandwidth requirement of near 40% around the 2 GHz band. In this paper, we develop a simple antenna structure whose bandwidth is more than 40% while its maximum size is only 0.12λ0. Also, this miniature antenna has quite high radiation efficiency. In addition, this antenna has a quasi planar structure; hence it is easy to integrate on a printed circuit board (PCB).