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A Fully Integrated Shark-Fin Antenna for MIMO-LTE, GPS, WLAN, and WAVE
Applications

Article  in  IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters · February 2018

DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2018.2805681

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600 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 17, NO. 4, APRIL 2018
A Fully Integrated Shark-Fin Antenna for
MIMO-LTE, GPS, WLAN, and WAVE Applications
Oh-Yun Kwon , Student Member, IEEE, Reem Song
Abstract—In this study, a three-dimensional compact antenna
solution for the automotive industry is proposed. The antenna so-
lution is designed to fit in a shark-fin case and is easily fabricated
from a printed circuit board and a metal sheet with low-cost pro-
cess and materials. The antenna solution covers Long Term Evo-
lution (LTE), GPS, WLAN, and Wireless Access in the Vehicular
Environment (WAVE) bands (850 MHz, 1575 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and
5.9 GHz, respectively). The planar inverted-F antennas are used as
multiple-input–multiple-output antennas for the LTE band due to
their low-profile structure. Modified planar monopoles are used to
obtain omnidirectional radiation patterns for WLAN and WAVE
bands. Antenna characteristics such as return loss, isolation, and
radiation pattern have been simulated and measured to confirm
the possibility for use in automotive applications.
Index Terms—Multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) an-
tenna, shark-fin antenna, vehicular communication.
I. INTRODUCTION
OR a better driving environment, future vehicles will be
F connected with each other and to a roadside infrastructure
to share traffic information in the upcoming intelligent trans-
portation systems and telematics. Recently, several cellular and
ad-hoc-based communication standards are under consideration
for offering a safe, efficient, and comfortable driving environ-
ment. A Wireless Access in the Vehicular Environment (WAVE)
protocol, IEEE 802.11p standard at 5.9 GHz band, can be a
great candidate for vehicle-to-vehicle communication due to
its real-time operation when anticollision messages and safety
information must be provided to vehicles [1].
For cellular communication between the vehicles, Long Term
Evolution (LTE) shows suitability for automotive applications
due to high data rates and scalability [2]. In this respect, future
vehicles will be heavily integrated with more communication
devices and systems. One of the main challenges is the antenna
integration in a small form factor such as shark-fin case on
the roof of a vehicle and its multiband behavior between an-
tenna elements. Each closely located antenna element should be
highly isolated within a small volume for covering simultaneous
Manuscript received December 13, 2017; revised January 8, 2018 and Febru-
ary 5, 2018; accepted February 8, 2018. Date of publication February 13, 2018;
date of current version April 5, 2018. This work was supported in part by the
Technology Innovation Program (10051928) funded by the Ministry of Trade,
Industry and Energy, and in part by the program for fostering next-generation re-
searchers in engineering of the National Research Foundation of Korea funded
by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (2017H1D8A2031628).
(Corresponding author: Byung-Sung Kim.)
The authors are with the College of Information and Communication En-
gineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, South Korea (e-mail:
kwonoy@skku.edu; reemsong@gmail.com; bskimice@skku.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2018.2805681
1536-1225 © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
, Member, IEEE, and Byung-Sung Kim , Member, IEEE
TABLE I
FREQUENCY PLANNING FOR ANTENNA INTEGRATION
Standard and Band Frequency (MHz)
LTE 3GPP Band 5∗ UL 824-849/DL 869-894
GPS L1 Band 1575.42
WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2400–2484
WAVE IEEE 802.11p 5850–5925
∗
Low-band in South Korea.
multiband operations. The design of low-band multiple-input–
multiple-output (MIMO)-LTE antenna is especially challenging
because the physical dimension of the antenna is limited by the
available volume of the plastic cover as well as by other radi-
ating elements in proximity operating at different frequencies.
Many types of multiband antenna solutions for automotive ap-
plications equipped with GPS, GSM, LTE, and WAVE bands
have been proposed [3], [4].
In this study, a new configuration for compact integrated
shark-fin antenna solution with two planar inverted-F antennas
(PIFAs) and two modified planar monopoles is proposed to cover
MIMO-LTE, GPS, and WLAN bands (850 MHz, 1570 MHz,
and 2.4 GHz, respectively) as well as the WAVE band (5.9 GHz)
as summarized in Table I for vehicular applications.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN AND FABRICATION
As mentioned in Section I, the design of MIMO anten-
nas in the low-frequency band for LTE application is a more
formidable challenge than the high-frequency counterpart due
to the physical size of the radiators. Good isolation and low
envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) between closely spaced
antennas must be addressed for LTE applications. Recently,
monopole antennas printed on a two-dimensional (2-D) sub-
strate for LTE low band have been successfully developed for au-
tomotive applications [5]. However, such antennas present prob-
lems in implementing MIMO antennas with good isolation char-
acteristics due to limited height and width of the plastic cover. To
use the available volume more efficiently, 3-D antenna solutions
have been introduced in [6]. Two LTE antennas were designed
and fabricated on the plastic cover by direct laser structuring
technology. However, the effect of antennas on the other radiat-
ing elements close to the LTE antennas has not been clarified in
those studies. To address the isolation issue, a PIFA can be a good
candidate for designing MIMO-LTE antenna since the PIFA is
one of the very low-profile antennas. In [7], two types of pla-
nar antennas, monopole and PIFA, arranged perpendicularly to
each other were used for MIMO-LTE application. Although the
antenna configuration shows good isolation between the MIMO
KWON et al.: FULLY INTEGRATED SHARK-FIN ANTENNA FOR MIMO-LTE, GPS, WLAN, AND WAVE APPLICATIONS
Fig. 1. Dimensions of shark-fin cover in millimeters.
Fig. 2. Simulation model. (a) Typical. (b) Modified. (c) Folded.
antennas due to the orthogonal polarization, it is only effective
at higher band, not lower band, and the design of other antennas
for different services can be limited by the available volume of
the shark-fin case. In this study, for better antenna integration,
two symmetrical PIFAs are adopted for automotive MIMO-LTE
application, and two modified monopole antennas are designed
for WLAN and WAVE application.
Fig. 1 shows the 3-D prototype of a shark-fin case and its
dimensions indicating the finite ground plane and the available
space inside the shark-fin cover. Low-profile PIFAs are placed
on the right and left corners of the shark-fin. After that, two
modified monopole antennas are placed between the two PIFAs
to use available space efficiently.
Fig. 2 shows the design evolution of PIFAs for MIMO-LTE.
All antennas have been designed by using the High-Frequency
Structure Simulator. The PIFA consists of a top metal plate
fed by a feeding strip and a shorting strip. The height of the
PIFA is determined by the height of corners inside the case, as
shown in Fig. 1. Input impedance of the PIFAs can be easily
matched to 50 Ω by an appropriate choice of space between
the short and feeding strip. Widths of the shorting and feeding
strip are adjusted to find optimum values since they are related
to the bandwidth of the antenna [8]. If the proposed PIFAs are
patterned on a high dielectric substrate instead of the metal plate,
the size of the antenna can be further reduced, which covers the
lower band while fitting in the cover.
In our previous study [9], the top plate that occupies the largest
volume in the PIFA structure has been modified according to
the shape of the shark-fin from the typical rectangular shape as
shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b) at the cost of isolation. In this study,
the volume of the PIFA has been further reduced by folding the
edge of the top plate from the modified structure as shown in
Fig. 2(c), which has improved the isolation as well. Fig. 3 shows
the simulated isolation (S21 ) for different top plate shapes. The
isolation of the folded model improved approximately by 0.5 dB
at 850 MHz as compared with the previous model due to the
increase in the distance gap between two top plates. The whole
dimensions of the PIFA were tuned with the aid of the 3-D
EM software considering the compactness and fabrication, as
shown in Fig. 4(b) and (c). The top plates were slightly inclined
for better impedance matching and compact integration.
601
Fig. 3. Simulation results of S 2 1 for different top plate of shapes.
Fig. 4. Geometries and dimensions of the proposed (a) PIFAs, (b) monopole
antennas, (c) antennas in the cover, and (d) fabricated antennas.
The PIFAs were made up of only one metal plate and formed
by slight cutting and bending for the ease of manufacturing and
low loss using a 1.5 mm thick nickel silver material. One of the
three protrusions as described in Fig. 4(b) at the bottom edge of
feeding strip is electrically connected to 50 Ω connectors. All an-
tennas are fed by U.FL connectors. The connectors are mounted
on the bottom layer of the ground plane and electrically con-
nected to antennas by soldering. The other two protrusions were
used only for mechanical fix to the ground plane. As mentioned
above, note that not only previously developed WAVE antenna
in [9] but also WLAN and GPS antennas were additionally inte-
grated in the shark-fin case in this study. The WLAN and WAVE
antennas are mounted in between the PIFAs for better use of the
available volume. The proposed WLAN and WAVE antennas
are chosen as a monopole type and have been modified to be
installed inside the shark-fin case. In terms of mutual coupling
between the antennas of different services, a monopole 1 for
WLAN that is for lower frequency band than the monopole 2
for WAVE has been positioned at the front side of the substrate
to guarantee electrical distance from the feed point of the lowest
band PIFAs.
Both antennas were designed on the 0.8 mm thick FR-4 sub-
strate with permittivity of 4.4 and loss tangent of 0.02. The
substrate depicted in Fig. 4(a) is shaped to be fitted in the
602 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 17, NO. 4, APRIL 2018
Fig. 5. (a) Current distribution on the proposed monopole antenna and
(b) simulated surface current distribution on the phase reversal section at
5.9 GHz.
Fig. 6. Simulated and measured return losses of the proposed (a) PIFAs and
patch antenna and (b) monopole antennas.
available space inside the plastic cover. A thin slot close to
the bottom of the monopole 1 has been introduced for tuning
input impedance. The vertically collinear antenna array with a
constructive radiation technique [11] was used as monopole 2 to
obtain high-gain radiation pattern in azimuth plane and reduce
sidelobes in elevation plane. As shown in Fig. 5(a), the total
length of the antenna is about two and quarter wavelengths. The
phase reversal sections of the total length were cancelled by
using the stub and the via on the printed circuit board. Fig. 5(b)
shows the simulated surface current distribution at 5.9 GHz for
the sections. The currents of the phase reversal section are suc-
cessfully suppressed by the proposed structures. A commercial
patch antenna on a ceramic substrate for GPS application is
placed in front of the monopoles. Fig. 4(d) shows the photo-
graph of the fabricated antennas.
III. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS
The simulated and measured S-parameters of the full antenna
system are presented in Fig. 6. Each antenna was measured while
the others were terminated at 50 Ω loads. A good agreement
between the simulation and the measurement is confirmed for
the whole operating bands except for a small frequency shift of
WLAN and WAVE bands, which is most likely caused by an
inaccurate characterization of the FR-4 permittivity. As shown
in Fig. 6(a), over the entire LTE low band, the return losses of
two PIFAs are better than 6 dB. The integrated patch antenna
covers GPS band. As shown in Fig. 6(b), the return losses of
the monopole 1 for WLAN band and the monopole 2 for WAVE
band are better than 10 dB.
For MIMO applications, the ECC is generally used to evaluate
channel capacity and cross-correlation performances. The ECC
of two antennas is given by
|S ∗ 11 S12 + S ∗ 21 S22 |
ECC = (1)
(1 − (|S11 | + |S21 |2 ))(1 − (|S22 |2 + |S12 |2 ))
2 ulated and measured gain patterns of the proposed antenna so-
Fig. 7. (a) Measured correlation coefficient of MIMO antenna and simulated
radiation efficiency of the proposed antennas depending on out-of-band port
impedance, and (b) measured mutual coupling (S 2 1 parameter) between differ-
ent antennas.
Fig. 8. Photographs of (a) radiation pattern measurement setup and (b) the
proposed antenna mounted on a metallic sheet.
where ∗ denotes complex conjugate. From Fig. 7(a), the mea-
sured ECC of the proposed MIMO antennas is always lower than
0.5 for the whole LTE low band, which is practically acceptable
for MIMO antenna diversity [10]. The acceptable ECC value of
the proposed MIMO antennas was successfully achieved with-
out additional isolation techniques. Fig. 7(b) shows measured
mutual coupling (S21 ) between different antennas. The mu-
tual coupling is below −20 dB in the operating band of the
monopole 1, and below −25 dB in the operating band of the
monopole 2. Although not shown in this figure, the measured
mutual coupling of the patch antenna is below −23 dB for the
whole operating bands. Mutual coupling between PIFA 1 and
the other antennas is below −20 dB except the LTE band. Values
at 850 MHz are −9.6 dB drawn in blue and −13 dB drawn in
red in Fig. 7(b), respectively.
Simulation results show that the radiation efficiency of PIFAs
is highly dependent on the mutual coupling and termination
impedance of the other band antennas. When we measure the
mutual coupling, all ports must be inevitably terminated with
a broadband 50 Ω, which most significantly degrades the effi-
ciency of PIFAs. However, at the resonant frequency of the PI-
FAs, the actual termination impedance of the other band antenna
is different from 50 Ω because of the bandpass characteristics
of the filter or low noise amplifier for the other band antenna. If
the out-of-band termination of the other band antenna is close to
short impedance or open impedance while the PIFA 2 is still ter-
minated with 50 Ω, the efficiency of PIFA 1 is greatly improved
as shown in Fig. 7(a). Because of the much smaller mutual cou-
pling, the efficiency of monopole 1 and monopole 2 is hardly
affected by the out-of-band termination impedance of PIFAs.
Finally, gain patterns were measured in an anechoic cham-
ber using a standard-gain horn antenna, far-field scanner, and a
vector network analyzer, as shown in Fig. 8(a). The proposed an-
tenna was mounted on a 51 cm × 41 cm metallic plane to include
the car roof effect, as shown in Fig. 8(b). Fig. 9 shows the sim-
KWON et al.: FULLY INTEGRATED SHARK-FIN ANTENNA FOR MIMO-LTE, GPS, WLAN, AND WAVE APPLICATIONS 603

TABLE II
PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF LTE ANTENNAS FOR
VEHICULAR APPLICATIONS.

LTE antenna Freq. Dimension ECC Coupling a Effi.

(MHz) (mm3 ) (dB) (%)

Monopole/ 830 65 × 62 × 73 NA −9.5 c NA

PIFA [7]b
Monopole 700 37.6 × 0.8 × 40 NA –6 65/5 c, e
[5]d
PIFA, This 850 59.5 × 44.3 × 21 <0.2 –10 30.7 f
workb

a
S 2 1 parameter between different antennas at LTE band.
b
MIMO antennas.
c
Estimated graphically.
d
Single antenna.
e
Impedance matching with lumped elements (capacitor/resistor).
f
Total efficiency.

IV. CONCLUSION
A new compact multiband antenna solution covering MIMO-
LTE, GPS, WLAN, and WAVE bands (850 MHz, 1575 MHz,
2.4 GHz, and 5.9 GHz, respectively) that is fully integrated in
the shark-fin case was proposed for automotive applications.
The solution consists of two PIFAs, two modified monopoles,
and a separate patch with easy and low-cost fabrication pro-
cess. The solution is designed to fit inside a shark-fin case
mounted on a finite ground plane. The simulation and the
measurement results show that the antenna system exhibits
good performances for return loss, radiation pattern, and iso-
lation characteristics without matching network or decoupling
techniques.

Fig. 9. Simulated (red solid line) and measured (blue line and symbol) gain
patterns at several frequencies of the proposed antennas. (a) PIFA 1 (850 MHz).
(b) PIFA 2 (850 MHz). (c) Monopole 1 (2.4 GHz). (d) Monopole 2 (5.9 GHz).
(e) Patch (1575 MHz).
lution integrated on the finite ground plane. An omnidirectional
radiation pattern of the PIFAs was observed in azimuthal plane
at 850 MHz. The vertical cuts of the patterns in xz and yz planes
are asymmetric. These are due to the asymmetrical shape of the
ground plane in the case of xz plane and the arrangement of PI-
FAs in the case of yz plane. Fig. 8(c) and (d) shows gain patterns
of two monopole antennas. The patterns of the monopole 1 and
2 in azimuthal plane are omnidirectional at 2.4 and 5.9 GHz, re-
spectively. The patterns in xz plane are asymmetric, whereas the
patterns in yz plane are symmetric. These results are due to the
shape of the ground plane. As shown in Fig. 9(e), it was observed
that the patch for the GPS is radiated maximally to +z-direction.
In conclusion, it is shown that the simulated and measured pat-
terns are in good agreement, and the omnidirectional radiation
patterns of the PIFAs and monopoles are successfully achieved
in horizontal plane for vehicular applications, although radiat-
ing elements including two low-band PIFAs are close to each
other and mounted on a finite ground plane. Performance of the
LTE antennas is compared with the previously reported data in
Table II. The proposed MIMO-LTE antennas have relatively low
profile and compact size within limited volume, and achieve
good isolation characteristics from other integrated antennas
compared to previous studies for vehicular applications.
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