Enhancing the Performance of Handset Antennas by Means of Groundplane Design

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Mobile devices are in a constant state of evolution given the increasing features and frequencies available worldwide. Today, global handset functionality is becoming an important consideration influencing customer purchasing habits. Industry dynamics have increased the drive for smaller and multi-functional wireless devices. Antenna technology has played a key role in influencing the end form factor of these mobile devices because without the antenna the device is not wireless. The present paper shows a conventional design for dual-band operation (GSM900-DCS1800) and how it can be improved for a quad-band design (GSM850-GSM900-DCS1800-DCS1900) through the FracPlane technique. This technique encapsulates both basic shaping of a groundplane to a more sophisticated space-filling and/or multilevel design for further size reduction and multi-band performance enhancement [1,4].