IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

7, 2008

569

A Compact Tunable Internal Antenna for Personal Communication Handsets

Viet-Anh Nguyen, Manh-Tuan Dao, Yun Tack Lim, and Seong-Ook Park, Member, IEEE
AbstractThis letter presents a compact tunable internal planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) for personal communication handset applications. The antenna operates at following frequency bands: DCS, PCS, UMTS, WiBro, WiMax and/or WiBro phase 3, and WLAN. A single varactor diode is attached to the antenna in a proper location between the main patch and supplemental patch in order to get tuning over the wide frequency range around 2 GHz. The antenna was designed and optimized by using CST microwave studio program. Measured return losses (S11 ) and radiation patterns of the antenna were carried on Anritsu 37377C Vector Network Analyzer and in standard anechoic chamber room. The surface current distributions, the co-polarization and cross- polarization patterns of the antenna are given to demonstrate the antennas performance. Index TermsInternal planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA), multiband antenna, slot antenna, tunable antenna, varactor diode.

I. INTRODUCTION

ECENTLY, modern mobile handsets are miniature in size, and they are required to operate at multiple-frequency bands in order to provide the enhanced and multifunctional performances. Further, due to the device convergence trend in the mobile handset, very limited space is available for the antenna structure. The conventional passive multiband antennas often require large size of antenna dimension [1][5]. Moreover, passive multiband antennas might be less efciency in term of minimize or eliminate unwanted radio frequency interference and/or reducing the adverse effects of co-site interference and jamming. In contrast, active tunable antennas with frequency selectivity can overcome these disadvantages. Planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) is known as a very attractive for handset applications due to its low prole, light weight, and conformal structure [3]. Conventional PIFA has limited bandwidth, however, it is possible to realize novel PIFA structures that can support efcient bandwidth and can be electronically tuned to cover most of the wireless communication frequency bands. Tunable multiband antennas are becoming popular for use in the multifunctional handsets due to their signicant

advantages in terms of weight, volume and performance [6]. Many interesting PIFA and printed based tunable antennas for handset applications have been proposed with various switching techniques such as RF switches, MEMS switches, PIN diodes, and varactors [7][11]. In this letter, we present a compact PIFA tunable internal antenna for multi-functional wireless personal communication devices. An enhancement of bandwidth for each associated frequency band is improved comparison with the previous work [7]. Slots are created in the main PIFA patch element; a supplemental patch is put closed to the main patch in order to create multiple resonances. Varactor diode is then implemented in a proper location in the PIFA structure to get the tuning performance over the targeted frequency bands. This paper concentrates on tuning at the centered frequency of 2 GHz because there are a lot of wireless communications bands around 2 GHz. Then, a prototype antenna is fabricated using a copper sheet of 0.2 mm thickness. The antenna is designed to operate at following frequency bands: DCS (17101880 MHz), PCS (18501990 MHz), UMTS (19202170 MHz), WiBro (23002400 MHz), WLAN (5.2 GHz), and C-band (for WiMax, WiBro phase 3 and other MIMO applications, at 34.2 GHz). II. ANTENNA DESIGN A. Antenna Design The geometry of the proposed antenna is described in Fig. 1. The antenna is designed within a total volume of mm that makes it suitable for compact handset applications. The antenna is mounted on FR-4 substrate with dimension of mm , height of 1 mm, and the dielectric constant of 4.6. mm . Detailed dimensions of The ground plane size is the antenna are shown in Fig. 1 (b) and (c) and listed in Table I. Slots are created in the main patch, and a supplemental patch is put closed to the main patch to excite multiple resonances in the antenna [3], [6]. The antenna generated three frequency bands. GHz, while the second and First resonance occurs at third resonances occur at GHz and GHz, respectively. To reduce the total volume of the antenna, and enhance the bandwidth, we propose to attach a supplemental patch closed to the main patch antenna. The supplemental patch is connected to the main patch by two DC blocking capacitors. And then a varactor diode is proposed to attach between the supplemental patch and the main patch in proper location as shown in Fig. 1. The locations of varactor diode and the two DC blocking capacitors are optimized in CST program. By aiming to tune at 2 GHz, the location of varactor diode have been investigated carefully. By changing the capacitance of varactor, it will basically affect to change the electrical length of current path ow

Manuscript received April 08, 2008; revised May 15, 2008. First published July 15, 2008; current version published December 30, 2008. This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) through the Acceleration Research Program funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology under Contract R17-2007-023-61001-0. The authors are with the School of Engineering-Information, and Communication University, Daejon 305-714, Korea (e-mail: ngvanh78@yahoo.com; ngvanh78@icu.ac.kr; sopark@icu.ac.kr). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this letter are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/LAWP.2008.2001918

1536-1225/$25.00 2008 IEEE

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IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 7, 2008

TABLE I DETAILED DIMENSIONS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA

Fig. 2. DC bias circuit support for varactor.

able to recongure the length of slots related to achieve WLAN at 5.8 GHz instead of 5.2 GHz. B. Varactor Diode Selection and DC Bias Circuit

and

to

Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed antenna. (a) 3D view of the whole antenna and PCB board; (b) the 3D view of antenna itself; (c) planar view with dotted bending lines of proposed antenna.

through the slot between the supplemental patch and the main radiating patch. These effects result into changing the electrical length of current path corresponding to the tunable. The effects caused by and related to the designed different parameters, such as target frequencies. Moreover, in this design structure, we are

A typical varactor diode package of MA46H series used in previous work [7] is reused in this antenna structure design. The location of attaching the varactor diode was optimized in CST GHz. based on our desired to tune at the frequency of The measured characteristic of varactor by changing capacitance versus reverse voltage is already exposed in [7]. It offers a capacitance tuning range of 2.5 to 0.2 pF over a DC supply voltage of 1 to 22 V. High operating DC voltage requirements make this diode unsuitable for handset applications. Varactor diodes with same capacitance tuning ranges at lower DC voltage are available in the market. The DC bias for controlling the varactor is put in the back side of PCB board. The bias circuit used in this proposed antenna consists of two parts; one is DC voltage-regulator and the other is DC voltage-doublers circuit, as seen in Fig. 2. The DC voltage is isolated from the RF signal by a RFC (Radio-frenH and by two chip capacitor quency choke) with pF as shown in Fig. 1. DC blocking capacitors are used to connect the supplemental patch element with the main PIFA radiating element to avoid the DC shorting.

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NGUYEN et al.: COMPACT TUNABLE INTERNAL ANTENNA FOR PERSONAL COMMUNICATION HANDSETS

571

Fig. 3. Simulated return losses of the proposed antenna.

Fig. 5. Distributed surface currents at 2, 3.5, and 5.2 GHz.

Fig. 4. Measured return losses of the proposed antenna. Fig. 6. Measured radiation patterns of the proposed antenna at 1.71 GHz (left) and 1.9 GHz (right).

III. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The proposed antenna is simulated and optimized in CST of Microwave Studio program. Simulated return losses the proposed antenna at different value of control voltages are of this antenna, for the same shown in Fig. 3. The measured value of different bias voltages, are shown in the Fig. 4. As the capacitance is varied, tuning is exhibited over a wide frequency band around 2 GHz. The tuning range is about 0.8 GHz from 1.6 to 2.4 GHz under the return loss of 10 dB. The bandwidth of at certain value of varactors capacitance is about 200 MHz make it be efcient for most available commercial wireless communication bands around 2 GHz. The second resonance frequency occurs from 3.2 to 4.5 GHz, it covers most of applications in C-band. This band can be used for WiMax, WiBro phase 3, and other MIMO applications. The third resonance frequency occurs at 5.2 GHz (from 5.05 to 5.4 GHz). A comparison between Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, the discrepancies between the simulated and measured results are at and by 0.2 and 0.5 GHz shifted, respectively, and the return loss at in measured is higher than it is in simulated. These may caused by the effect of attaching the bias circuit to the antenna in real fabrication. Fig. 5 shows the surface current distribution at 2, 3.5, and 5.2 GHz to illustrate the radiation mechanism. As can be seen in Fig. 5, the current ow through the varactor diode distributed in the slot between the supplemental patch element GHz. and the main radiating patch corresponding to Thus, the current ow through varactor can alters the electrical length and makes it able to tune. The electrical length of the current path at each associated radiating element is approximately a quarter wave length. The current electrical path length of 2, 3.5, and 5.2 GHz are approximate 43, 19, and 12 mm, respectively. A prototype antenna and supplied DC voltage circuit are fabricated to validate the simulated results. The antenna is characterized for return loss and radiation performance. Anritsu 37377C Vector Network Analyzer is used to measure the return loss. Return losses are measured with DC bias varying from 1 to 22 V that corresponds to the required capacitance values to get resonance at that particular frequency point. Measured return

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IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 7, 2008

plane. The overall shapes of the cies were obtained in radiation patterns are suitable for modern slim handsets. IV. CONCLUSION In this letter, the WiBro phase 3 and Wimax bands at C-band frequency integrated to a small PIFA tunable internal is proposed for personal communication handset applications. The antenna has main characteristic is able to tune frequency around 2 GHz, where concentrate a lot of practical commercial wireless application bands for mobile handsets, while the other bands become stable. The antenna can cover these following 1880 MHz), PCS (1750 1870 MHz, bands: DCS (1710 1990 MHz), UMTS (1920 2170 MHz), Wibro 1850 (2.3 2.4-GHz), WLAN (5.2 GHz), WiMax and WiBro 4.5-GHz). Overall volume of the antenna is phase 3 (3.1 signicant small about 1.04 mm that makes it become attractive for compact and slim handsets. The return losses, radiation patterns, and bandwidths are efcient for all associated frequencies. REFERENCES
[1] R. A. Bhatti, N.-A. Nguyen, V.-A. Nguyen, and S.-O. Park, Design of a compact internal antenna for multi-band personal communication handsets, presented at the APMC, Bangkok, Thailand, 2007. [2] C. W. Chiu and F. L. Lin, Compact dual-band PIFA with multi-resonators, Electron. Lett., vol. 38, no. 12, pp. 538540, June 2002. [3] K.-L. Wong, Planar Antennas for Wireless Communications, ser. Microwave and Optical Engineering. New York: Wiley, 2003, ch. 2, pp. 2669. [4] H. S. Yoon and S.-O. Park, A new compact hexaband internal antenna of the planar inverted F-type for mobile handsets, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propagat. Lett., vol. 6, 2007. [5] J. Wu, C. J. Panagamuwa, P. McEvoy, J. C. Vardaxoglou, and O. A. Saraereh, Switching a dual band PIFA to operate in four bands, in Proc. IEEE Antennas Propagation Soc. Int. Symp., 2006, pp. 26752678. [6] C. Y. Chiu, K. M. Shum, and C. H. Chan, A tunable via-patch loaded PIFA with size reduction, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 6571, Jan. 2007. [7] V.-A. Nguyen, R. Ahmad, and S.-O. Park, A simple PIFA based tunable internal antenna for personal communication handsets, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propagat. Lett., vol. 7, pp. 130133, 2008. [8] C. R. Arrieta and L. de Haro, Experiences on tuned multiband fractal antennas, in Proc. IEEE Antennas and Propagation Soc. Int. Symp., Jul. 2005, vol. 2B, pp. 593596. [9] N. Behdad and k. Sarabandi, A varactor-tuned dual-band slot antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 54, no. 2, pt. 1, pp. 401408, Feb. 2006. [10] N. Behdad and K. Sarabandi, Dual-band recongurable antenna with a very wide tunability range, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 54, no. 2, pt. 1, pp. 409416, Feb. 2006. [11] S. Nikolaou, B. R. Lugo, C. Carrasquillo, Jr., I. Thompson, D. C. Ponchak, G. E. Papapolymerou, and J. Tentzeris, Pattern and frequency recongurable annular slot antenna using PIN diodes, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 54, no. 2, pt. 1, pp. 439448, Feb. 2006.

Fig. 7. Measured radiation patterns of the proposed antenna at 2.1 GHz (left) and 2.4 GHz (right).

Fig. 8. Measured radiation patterns of the proposed antenna at 3.6 GHz (left) and 5.2 GHz (right).

loss is better than 10 dB for over all the targeted frequency bands. Far eld radiation patterns of the proposed antenna are then plane and measured in a standard anechoic chamber with plane for both co-polarization and cross polarization. Radiation patterns at different frequencies are plotted in Fig. 68. Good omni-directional radiation patterns of associated frequen-

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