An analysis of the effective performance of a handset diversity antenna influenced by head, hand, and shoulder effects—A proposal for a diversity antenna gain based on a signal bit‐error rate and analytical results for the PDC system

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AbstractAn analysis of the effective performance of a handset diversity antenna, comprising a whip antenna and a planar inverted F antenna (PIFA), has been made by introducing a new figure‐of‐merit, the Diversity Antenna Gain (DAG). The analysis includes the electromagnetic interaction with a human operator. The DAG can take account of all of the effects associated with effective antenna gains, unequal median values, and correlations between diversity branches, and therefore can directly indicate the system gain in a multiple radio wave environment. By using the DAG, a direct performance comparison between diversity antennas with different effective gains and correlations can be easily made from the viewpoint of particular system criteria. This comparison is difficult to make from the respective performances only. The analysis has been made on π/4‐shift QPSK signals with the assumption of a PDC system with a postdetection two‐branch selection combining method or a maximum ratio combining method. The analytical results indicate DAG characteristics under various incident wave propagation environments with head‐to‐radio separation, whip length, and inclination of the radio from the vertical as variable parameters. The results demonstrate the structural and environmental requirements for designing a diversity antenna with a high effective performance in an actual talk situation. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 84(6): 10–23, 2001