Wideband planar inverted-F antenna with meandering shorting strip

P.W. Chan, H. Wong and E.K.N. Yung

A new wideband planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) is introduced. The proposed antenna is based on a simple PIFA, where the shorting strip is modied into a meandering shape such that the antenna can have wideband characteristics. The antenna nds an impedance bandwidth of 45.2% for S11 , 210 dB from 1.565 to 2.48 GHz which can cover the GPS, DCS, IMT-2000, 2.4 GHz WLAN applications. The maximum antenna gains are 1.68, 1.83, 1.90 and 1.78 dBi correspondingly.

Fig. 2 Measured and simulated return losses against frequency of proposed antenna

Introduction: Planar inverted-F antennas (PIFA) are widely used in many recent portable and small wireless devices owing to their advantages such as low prole, small size and ease of fabrication. Many reports in the literature [1 3] study different PIFA designs for various wireless communication systems. However to meet the needs of wireless communications, the bandwidth of the traditional PIFA is too narrow to cover multi-frequency bands. Therefore, a PIFA that is capable of covering many operating bands is desirable. Several methods have been applied to broaden the bandwidth of a conventional PIFA. Some suggested raising the height of the radiating patch of PIFA [4], which leads to an increase in antenna size. Also, a T-shape ground plane PIFA has been proposed to obtain an impedance bandwidth of 16% [5], but the bandwidth is still too narrow and it is impractical to x the ground plane structure for the industrial product. Others proposed using different feed plates to achieve wide impedance bandwidth of the PIFA [6]; the maximum bandwidth achieved among the various methods is 24.1% (VSWR  2) for the bi-triangle feed plate. The above literature [4 6] proposed for the bandwidth enhancements are not more than 25% for S11210 dB. However, for an antenna to operate at DCS-1800 (17101880 MHz), IMT-2000 (19202170 MHz), WLAN (2400 2483 MHz) applications, the bandwidth required to accommodate these mentioned systems is about 40%. In this Letter, a simple wideband planar inverted-F antenna with 45.2% impedance bandwidth for S11 , 210 dB is proposed. It is realised by simply reforming the shorting strip of the PIFA into a meandering strip. The antenna nds potential applications in GPS (1570 1580 MHz), DCS1800 (1710 1.880 MHz), IMT-2000 (1920 2170 MHz) and 2.4 GHz WLAN (2400 2483 MHz) applications.

Fig. 3 Measured and simulated radiation patterns of proposed antenna in x-z and y-z plane
E-theta - - - - E-phi a 1.575 GHz b 1.8 GHz c 2.0 GHz d 2.4 GHz

Fig. 1 Geometry of proposed antenna

a 3-D view b Top view c Side view

Antenna description: To excite the antenna with wideband characteristics, we propose to modify the shorting strip of the conventional

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 13th March 2008 Vol. 44

No. 6

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PIFA into a meandering shape shorting strip, which is depicted in Fig. 1a. The main function of the proposed meandering shorting strip is to provide double resonances in the PIFA. The rst resonance is originated from the fundamental resonance of the PIFA; while the second resonance is present when the meandering shorting strip is employed. The occurrence of this second resonance is due to input impedance enhancement by the presence of the meandering strip. This strip gives a capacitive compensation and results in providing the impedance matching for the antenna. As a result, the impedance matching of the second resonant frequency is improved. Both resonant frequencies are close together so that a wideband characteristic is achieved. Fig. 1 shows the structure of the proposed antenna. This antenna consists of a top rectangular radiating patch made by the FR4 substrate with thickness of T 0.8 mm and relative permittivity of 4.6, with dimensions of L 23.5 mm, W1 15 mm, W2 2 mm and S1 7 mm. A coaxial feeding probe with a diameter of d 1 mm and a meandering shorting strip are connected to the patch. The copper-made meandering shorting strip has dimensions of H1 2 mm, H2 5 mm, H3 2 mm and S2 14 mm, with copper strip thickness of 0.3 mm. The width of the strip has a dimension of W3 2 mm. The shorting strip has one end connected to the edge of the patch surface and the other end is shorted to the side of the ground plane. The chosen ground plane has a width of W 62.5 mm and length of L 23.5 mm.

1.68 dBi in GPS band, 1.83 dBi at DCS band, 1.9 dBi at IMT-2000 band and 1.78 dBi at WLAN band, respectively. Conclusion: A new printed inverted-F antenna with wideband characteristics has been demonstrated. The proposed antenna shows the bandwidth enhancement for the PIFA can be done by modifying the shorting strip into a form of meandering shape. It nds an impedance bandwidth of 45.2% for S11  210 dB which can cover GPS, DCS, IMT-2000 and 2.4 GHz WLAN bands. The measured radiation patterns are in good agreement with conventional PIFA. # The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2008 23 December 2007 Electronics Letters online no: 20083688 doi: 10.1049/el:20083688 P.W. Chan, H. Wong and E.K.N. Yung (Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kolwoon, Hong Kong SAR) E-mail: pwchan@cityu.edu.hk References
1 Yun, G.: Planar inverted-F antenna with rectangular cap shape, Electron. Lett., 2007, 43, (12), pp. 656 657 2 Chen, H.-M., Lin, Y.-F., Cheng, P.-S., Lin, H.-H., Song, C.T.P., and Hall, P.S.: Parametric study on the characteristics of planar inverted-F antenna, IEE Proc., Microw. Antennas Propag., 2005, pp. 534 538 3 Abedin, M.F., and Ali, M.: Modifying the ground plane and its effect on planar inverted-F antennas (PIFAs) for mobile phone handsets, IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., 2003, 2, (1), pp. 226 229 4 Virga, K.L., and Rahmat-Samii, Y.: Low-prole enhanced-bandwidth PIFA antennas for wireless communication packaging, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., 1997, 45, (10), pp. 18791888 5 Wang, F., Du, Z., Wang, Q., and Gong, K.: Enhanced-bandwidth PIFA with T-shaped ground plane, Electron. Lett., 2004, 40, (23), pp. 15041505 6 Feick, R., Carrasco, H., Olmos, M., and Hristov, H.D.: PIFA input bandwidth enhancement by changing feed plate silhouette, Electron. Lett., 2004, 40, (15), pp. 921922

Experimental results: The performance of the proposed antenna was simulated by IE3D version 10.0. A prototype was constructed for measurement. An HP8510C network analyser and a compact range with an HP85103C antenna measurement system were used to measure return loss and the radiation patterns of the antenna. The measured and simulated return losses of the proposed antenna are plotted in Fig. 2. The measured impedance bandwidth (S11  210 dB) is 45.2% from 1.565 to 2.48 GHz, which can meet the bandwidth of GPS, DCS, IMT-2000 and 2.4 GHz WLAN applications. The measured radiation patterns of the antenna at 1.575, 1.8, 2.0 and 2.4 GHz are presented in Fig. 3. Compared with the conventional PIFA, the radiation patterns are in good agreement and approximately omnidirectional. The maximum measured gains at y-z plane are

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 13th March 2008 Vol. 44 No. 6

Authorized licensed use limited to: Bhadrak Institute of Engineering and Tech. Downloaded on August 17,2010 at 10:32:15 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.