2856 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO.

5, MAY 2014

VI. CONCLUSION A Multi-Broadband Planar Antenna for GSM/ UMTS/LTE

and WLAN/WiMAX Handsets
In this communication, an adaptive matching method to improve
WPT efficiencies using a multi-loop feed with a single operating fre- HanJiang Liu, RongLin Li, Yan Pan, XuLin Quan, Li Yang, and
quency is proposed. With only one operating frequency, the method can Liang Zheng
support a high efficiency close to that of simultaneous matching while
showing better WPT efficiencies than those of the frequency tracking
method. Furthermore, a simple realization of the adaptive matching Abstract—A compact multi-broadband planar antenna is proposed for
system is suggested. In combination, the proposed method can be an al- wireless handsets. The proposed antenna covers multiple broad frequency
ternative method to the frequency tracking method and would be useful bands, including the 900-MHz band with a bandwidth of 29% (790–1061
MHz), the 2-GHz band with a bandwidth of 51% (1650–2775 MHz), and
for simple WPT system design in practical applications. It is believed the 3.5/5-GHz band with a bandwidth of 68% (3132–6382 MHz). The
that this method will be used for 3-D WPT systems in the near future. multi-broadband antenna consists of a folded monopole coupling to an
S-shaped strip for the 900-MHz band, a C-shaped monopole coupling
with a C-shaped strip for the 2-GHz band, and a trapezoidal monopole
with an inverted-F monopole for the 3.5/5-GHz band. All these monopoles
REFERENCES with coupled strips are printed on a planar substrate with a compact size
of , suitable for emerging ultra-slim
[1] A. Kurs, A. Karalis, R. Moffatt, J. D. Joannopoulos, P. Fisher, and GSM/UMTS/LTE and WLAN/WiMAX handsets.
M. Soljacic, “Wireless power transfer via strongly coupled magnetic
Index Terms—Broadband antenna, multiband antenna, planar antenna,
resonances,” Science, vol. 317, no. 5834, pp. 83–86, 2007.
ultra-slim handset.
[2] B. Cannon, J. Hoburg, D. Stancil, and S. Goldstein, “Magnetic res-
onance coupling as a potential means for wireless power transfer to
multiple small receivers,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 24, no. 7,
pp. 1819–1825, Jul. 2009. I. INTRODUCTION
[3] Z. N. Low, R. Chinga, R. Tseng, and J. Lin, “Design and test of a high-
power high-efficiency loosely coupled planar wireless power transfer Over the last decade, a lot of multi-frequency broadband antennas
system,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 56, no. 5, pp. 1801–1812, have been developed for wireless handsets. However, most of these an-
May 2009. tennas cover two or three frequency bands. For example, a dual-band
[4] C. K. Lee, W. X. Zhong, and S. Y. R. Hui, “Effect of magnetic cou- printed loop antenna developed in [1] covers the 900-MHz band
pling of nonadjacent resonators on wireless power domino-resonator
(890–1050 MHz) for GSM900 operation and the 1900-MHz band
systems,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 1905–1916,
Apr. 2012. (1650–2250 MHz) for DCS/PCS/UMTS. A triple-band monopole
[5] W. Zhong, C. K. Lee, and S. Y. R. Hui, “General analysis on the use of antenna proposed in [2] covers the frequency ranges 870–970 MHz
Tesla’s resonator in domino forms for wireless power transfer,” IEEE for GSM900, 1685–2050 MHz for DCS1800/PCS and 2600–2670
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 261–270, Jan. 2013. MHz for S-DMB applications. In [3], [4], two printed dual-band
[6] J. H. Kim, B. C. Park, and J. H. Lee, “New analysis method for wire-
less power transfer system with multiple n resonators,” J. Electromagn. antennas were developed to cover two wider frequency bands
Engrg. Sci., vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 173–177, Sep. 2013. for GSM850/GSM900 (824–960 MHz) and DCS/PCS/UMTS
[7] J. Park, Y. Tak, Y. Kim, Y. Kim, and S. Nam, “Investigation of adaptive (1710–2170 MHz). A folded monopole antenna proposed in [5] also
matching methods for near-field wireless power transfer,” IEEE Trans. covers two broad bands, including the LTE700/GSM850/GSM900
Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 5, pp. 1769–1773, May 2011.
band (698–960 MHz) and GSM1850/GSM1900/UMTS2100 band
[8] T. P. Duong and J.-W. Lee, “Experimental results of high-efficiency
resonant coupling wireless power transfer using a variable coupling (1710–2170 MHz). A dual-broadband planar antenna developed in [6]
method,” IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 21, no. 8, pp. covers the frequency ranges 818–1190 MHz for the GSM850/GSM900
442–444, Aug. 2011. and 1710–3000 MHz for the GSM1800 (1710–1880 MHz), GSM1900
[9] A. P. Sample, D. A. Meyer, and J. R. Smith, “Analysis, experimental (1850–1990 MHz), UMTS (1920–2170 MHz), LTE2300 (2305–2400
results, and range adaptation of magnetically coupled resonators for
wireless power transfer,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 2, pp. MHz), and LTE2600 (2500–2690 MHz). A planar monopole antenna
544–554, Feb. 2011. presented in [7] also covers two broad frequency bands: 690–1180
[10] B. H. Waters, A. P. Sample, and J. R. Smith, “Adaptive impedance MHz and 1670–2890 MHz for LTE700/GSM/UMTS handsets.
matching for magnetically coupled resonators,” in Proc. PIERS, In recent years, there is a tendency for the state-of-the-art wireless
Moscow, Russia, Aug. 2012, pp. 694–701.
handsets, such as “smart phones”, to get multi- functional services,
[11] B.-C. Park, J.-H. Park, and J.-H. Lee, “High-Q spiral zeroth-order res-
onators for wireless power transmission,” J. Korean Inst. Electromag. e.g., wireless access through WLAN/ WiMAX, and to have an
Eng. Sci., vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 343–354, 2012. ultra-slim module. Therefore, it is desirable for antennas in the
[12] C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley-Inter- emerging wireless handsets to have a planar configuration and to cover
science, 2005. the WLAN/WiMAX frequency bands which may include the 2.4-GHz
band (2.4–2.5 GHz), the 3.5-GHz band (3.2–3.8 GHz), and the 5-GHz

Manuscript received December 25, 2012; revised August 19, 2013; accepted
February 16, 2014. Date of publication February 26, 2014; date of current ver-
sion May 01, 2014. This work was supported in part by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (61372009) and in part by the Fundamental Re-
search Funds for the Central Universities (2013ZP0022).
The authors are with the School of Electronic and Information Engineering,
South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China (e-mail:
[email protected]).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are avail-
able online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2014.2308525

0018-926X © 2014 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.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 5, MAY 2014 2857

Fig. 2. Return loss simulated when there is only a folded monopole coupling
with an S-shaped strip.

Fig. 1. Configuration of a multi-broadband planar antenna which consists

of a folded monopole for the 900-MHz band, a C-shaped monopole for the
2-GHz band, and a trapezoidal monopole with an inverted-F monopole for the
3.5/5-GHz band.

TABLE I
OPTIMIZED GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS FOR THE
MULTI-BROADBAND PLANAR ANTENNA

Fig. 3. Return loss simulated when a C-shaped monopole coupled with a

C-shaped strip is introduced to enhance the bandwidth for the 2-GHz band.

wireless handsets. The configuration of the multi-broadband planar

antenna is described in Section II and the operating principle of the
antenna is presented in Section III. Experimental results are presented
in Section IV.

II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION

The configuration of a multi-broadband planar antenna is illustrated
in Fig. 1. The development of the antenna is based on a TLY-5 substrate
which has a dielectric constant of and a thickness of
mils (0.508 mm). The multi-broadband antenna is composed of a
band (5.1–5.9 GHz) [8]–[10]. A quad-band planar inverted-F antenna folded monopole coupling to an S-shaped strip for the 900-MHz band,
(PIFA) proposed in [11] offers four frequency bands: 870–960 MHz a smaller C-shaped monopole coupling with a bigger C-shaped strip
for GSM900, 1150-MHz bandwidth for the 2-GHz band, 3400–3650 for the 2-GHz band, and a trapezoidal monopole with an inverted-F
MHz for 3.5-GHz WiMAX, and 5120–5900 MHz for 5-GHz WLAN. monopole for the 3.5/5-GHz band. All these monopoles are printed on
The PIFA antenna however has a narrow bandwidth for GSM900, the front side of the substrate while the coupled strips are etched on
thus cannot cover the frequency band for GSM850. In addition, the the backside of the same substrate and connected to a ground plane.
geometry of the PIFA is not full planar, not suitable for an ultra-slim The upper section of the folded monopole is surrounded by the upper
handset. The multi-band antenna proposed in [12] also has a nonplanar section of the coupled S-shaped strip, while the lower section of the
configuration and cannot cover the 3.5-GHz band. folded monopole overlaps with the lower section of the S-shaped strip,
In this communication, we propose a multi-broadband full planar an- forming a two-strip line to enhance the coupling between the folded
tenna for emerging ultra-slim GSM/UMTS/LTE and WLAN/WiMAX monopole and the S-shaped strip. The smaller C-shaped monopole
handsets. This antenna covers the 900-MHz band with a bandwidth is surrounded by the bigger coupled C-shaped strip. The trapezoidal
of 29% (790–1061 MHz), the 2-GHz band with a bandwidth of 51% monopole is branched from the C-shaped monopole with the in-
(1650–2775 MHz), and the 3.5/5-GHz band with a bandwidth of verted-F monopole extended from the bottom of the folded monopole.
68% (3132–6382 MHz). The multi-broadband antenna has a com- The folded monopole with the inverted-F monopole is connected to a
pact ultra-slim planar configuration, suitable for the state-of-the-art microstrip feed line through a narrower microstrip line at the
2858 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 5, MAY 2014

Fig. 4. Return loss simulated when a trapezoidal monopole is introduced to

enhance the bandwidth for the 5-GHz band. Fig. 6. A prototype of the multi-broadband planar antenna: (a) Front view;
(b) Back view.

Fig. 5. Return loss simulated when an inverted-F monopole is introduced to

enhance the bandwidth for the 3.5-GHz band.
Fig. 7. Measured return loss compared to simulated result for the multi-broad-
band planar antenna.
top edge of the ground plane while the C-shaped monopole with
the trapezoidal monopole is connected to the feed line through a
wider microstrip line. The widths (n2 and w2) of the two connecting C-shaped monopole also improves the impedance matching for the
microstrip lines are optimized by simulation for good impedance 900-MHz band due to the change of input impedance. To enhance the
matching. The multi-broadband planar antenna was simulated using impedance bandwidth for the 5-GHz band, we introduce a trapezoidal
Ansoft HFSS v13. The optimized geometric parameters are listed in monopole. Fig. 4 shows the simulated return loss as the trapezoidal
Table I. The optimized antenna height is 15 mm and the total size of monopole is introduced. The trapezoidal monopole generates an
the antenna with the ground plane is . additional resonance around 4.7 GHz; thus enhances the impedance
bandwidth for the 5-GHz band. The impedance matching for the
III. OPERATING PRINCIPLE 900-MHz and 2-GHz bands also slightly varies due to the change of
input impedance as the trapezoidal monopole is introduced. Note that
To understanding the operating principle of the multi- broadband a resonance around 3.5 GHz appears due to the combination of the
antenna, we begin our investigation with a folded monopole only cou- trapezoidal monopole and the high-order modes from the C-shaped
pling to an S-shaped strip. The simulated return loss is plotted in Fig. 2. monopole and the folded monopole; but the impedance bandwidth at
A broadband feature is observed for the 900-MHz band. The broadband 3.5 GHz is not wide enough to cover the 3.5-GHz WiMAX band.
performance is due to the coupling between the folded monopole and To enhance the bandwidth in the 3.5-GHz band, an inverted-F
the S-shaped strip. Note that there are a few resonances in the 2-GHz monopole is introduced to the folded monopole. The simulated return
band and the 5-GHz band due to the higher-order modes of the folded loss is depicted in Fig. 5, showing the bandwidth enhancement. The
monopole with the coupled S-shaped strip; but the bandwidths are not introduction of the inverted-F monopole also improves the impedance
wide enough to cover the whole frequency bands for GSM/UMTS/LTE matching for other frequency bands due to the change of input
and 5-GHz WLAN. impedance.
To enhance the bandwidth for the 2-GHz band, a C-shaped
monopole is introduced with a coupled C-shaped strip. The simulated
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
return loss is exhibited in Fig. 3. The C-shaped monopole with the
C-shaped strip creates a resonance around 1.6 GHz, thus increases the To verify the broadband performance of the multi-frequency planar
impedance bandwidth for the 2-GHz band. The introduction of the antenna, a prototype was fabricated and measured. The antenna was
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 5, MAY 2014 2859

Fig. 8. (continued) Measured and simulated radiation patterns of the multi-

broadband planar antenna at (c) 3.5 GHz, and (d) 5.5 GHz.
Fig. 8. Measured and simulated radiation patterns of the multi-broadband
planar antenna at (a) 900 MHz, (b) 2 GHz.
communications environment. (It is noticed that no simulated
appears in the x-y plane of Fig. 8(a) and (b) because the simulated
built on a 20-mil-thick TLY-5 substrate with loss tangent and
in this plane is smaller than .) The measured and simulated
0.5 oz copper on both sides. Fig. 6 shows two pictures of the antenna
gains are plotted in Fig. 9. The peak gain is about 1–3 dBi for the
prototype.
900-MHz band, 2–4 dBi for the 2-GHz band, 3–5 dBi for the 3.5-GHz
The measured return loss is compared to the simulated result in
band, and for the 5-GHz band. The measured radiation effi-
Fig. 7; good agreement is observed. It is seen that the bandwidths for
ciency is also plotted in Fig. 9. We can see that the antenna efficiency
return loss (or ) are 29% (790-1061 MHz) for the
varies between 65% and 85% in the 900-MHz, 2-GHz, and 3.5-GHz
900-MHz band, 51% (1650-2775 MHz) for the 2-GHz band, and 68%
bands while it is higher than 85% in the 5-GHz band. Similar antenna
(3132-6382 MHz) for the 3.5/5-GHz band, covering most frequency
efficiency was observed in [12].
bands for GSM/UMTS/LTE and WLAN/ WiMAX applications. The
radiation pattern, peak gain, and antenna efficiency were measured
using a SATIMO antenna measurement system SG24 at the Speed V. CONCLUSION
Communication Technology Corporation Ltd., Shenzhen, China. The A novel multi-broadband planar antenna has been developed for
radiation patterns measured and simulated at 900 MHz, 2 GHz, 3.5 GSM/UMTS/LTE and WLAN/WiMAX applications. The multi-band
GHz, and 5.5 GHz are demonstrated in Fig. 8. All radiation patterns antenna covers four broad frequency bands with a bandwidth of 29%
show nearly omnidirectional in the x-z plane, suitable for a mobile (790–1061 MHz) for GSM850/GSM900, 51% (1650–2775 MHz) for
2860 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 5, MAY 2014

[5] M. Zheng, H. Wang, and Y. Hao, “Internal hexa-band folded

monopole/dipole/loop antenna with four resonances for mobile de-
vice,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 60, no. 6, pp. 2880–2885,
Jun. 2012.
[6] T. Zhang, R. L. Li, G. P. Jin, G. Wei, and M. M. Tentzeris, “A
novel multiband planar antenna for GSM/UMTS/LTE/ZIGBEE/RFID
mobile devices,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 11, pp.
4209–4214, Nov. 2011.
[7] C.-T. Lee and K.-L. Wong, “Planar monopole with a coupling feed
and an inductive shorting strip for LTE/GSM/UMTS operation in the
mobile phone,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 7, pp.
2479–2483, Jul. 2010.
[8] R. L. Li, X. L. Quan, Y. H. Cui, and M. M. Tentzeris, “Directional
triple-band planar antenna for WLAN/WiMAX access points,” IET
Electron. Lett., vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 305–306, Mar. 2012.
[9] C.-T. Lee and K.-L. Wong, “Uniplanar printed coupled-fed PIFA with
a band-notching slit for WLAN/WiMAX operation in the laptop com-
puter,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 1252–1258,
Apr. 2009.
[10] J.-H. Lu and B.-J. Huang, “Planar compact slot antenna with multi-
band operation for IEEE 802.16m application,” IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propag., vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 1411–1414, Apr. 2013.
[11] R. A. Bhatti, Y.-T. Im, and S.-O. Park, “Compact PIFA for mobile ter-
minals supporting multiple cellular and non-cellular standards,” IEEE
Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 57, no. 9, pp. 2534–2540, Sep. 2009.
[12] S.-C. Chen and K.-L. Wong, “Small-size 11-band LTE/WWAN/WLAN
internal mobile phone antenna,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 52,
no. 11, pp. 2603–2608, Nov. 2010.

Dual-Band Loop-Dipole Composite Unidirectional Antenna

for Broadband Wireless Communications
Wen-Jun Lu, Gui-Mei Liu, Kin Fai Tong, and Hong-Bo Zhu

Abstract—The design of a novel dual-band loop-dipole composite unidi-

rectional antenna for broadband wireless applications is proposed. First,
design guidelines of the antenna are presented, and then, a step-by-step
derivation of the antenna geometry is drawn. The antenna’s operation prin-
Fig. 9. Peak gain and antenna efficiency of the multi-broadband planar antenna ciple is analyzed by carrying out parametric studies of surface current dis-
in (a) 900-MHz and 2-GHz bands, (b) 3.5/5-GHz band. tribution, impedance and radiation patterns. The reflection coefficient, ra-
diation patterns and gain of the antenna are numerically and experimen-
GSM1800/GSM1900, UMTS, LTE2300/LTE2600, and 2.4-GHz tally studied to verify the operation principle and the design approach. It
is demonstrated that two pass-bands, from 1.54 to 3.24 and from 4.88 to
WLAN, and 68% (3132–6382 MHz) for 3.5-GHz WiMAX, and 6.80 GHz, of reflection coefficient smaller than dB are obtained. The
5-GHz WLAN. The multi-broadband antenna has a full planar config- antenna has stable and unidirectional radiation pattern with low cross po-
uration and a compact size of , suitable larization within its pass-bands. The average gain of the antenna is 6.7 dBi
for the state-of-the-art ultra-slim wireless handsets. at low frequency band and 6.5 dBi at high frequency band.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Manuscript received December 05, 2013; revised January 08, 2014; accepted
The authors would like to thank the Speed Communication Tech- February 16, 2014. Date of publication February 20, 2014; date of current
nology Corporation Ltd., Shenzhen, China, for radiation pattern, version May 01, 2014. This work was supported in part by the National Natural
gain, and antenna efficiency measurement. They would also like to Science Foundation of China under grant no. 61001079, the Program for New
Century Excellent Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China
thank two anonymous reviewers for their careful review and valuable under grant no. NCET-12-0739, Jiangsu Natural and Science Foundation of
suggestions. Universities under grant no. 13KJA510002, the Research Project of State Key
Laboratory of Millimeter Waves under grant no. K201413, and in part by the
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vol. 57, no. 5, pp. 1373–1381, May 2009. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2014.2307343

0018-926X © 2014 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.