abstract: Antennas are required now to be compact and mobile. Traditional horizontally polarized antennas are placed in a quarter wave distance from a ground plane making the antenna system quite bulky. High impedance surfaces are proposed for an antenna ground in close proximity. A new method to achieve a high impedance surface is suggested using a metamaterial comprising an infinite periodic array of conducting loops each of which is loaded with a non-Foster element. The non-Foster element cancels the loop's inductance resulting in a material with high effective permeability. Using this material as a spacer layer, it is possible to achieve a high impedance surface over a broad bandwidth. The proposed structure is different from Sievenpiper's high impedance surface because it has no need for a capacitive layer. As a result, however, it does not suppress the propagation of surface wave modes. The proposed structure is compared to another structure with frequency selective surface loaded with a non-Foster element on a simple spacer layer. In particular, the sensitivity of each structure to component tolerances is considered. The proposed structure shows a high impedance surface over broadband frequency but is much more sensitive than the frequency selective surface structure. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Electrical Engineering 2010

An internal eight-band LTE/WWAN handset antenna integrated with a USB connector is presented. The proposed antenna comprises an antenna ground which faces a protruded ground extended from the main ground of the handset to accommodate a USB connector. The antenna ground is used as a shorting portion to short-circuit the antenna to ground such that the coupling between the antenna ground and the protruded ground is effectively suppressed. In this case, the proposed antenna can be integrated with a USB connector mounted on the protruded ground, leading to compact integration of the antenna inside the handset. Good radiation characteristics of the antenna are also obtained, and the proposed antenna occupies 60 ¡Ñ 12 ¡Ñ 4.8 mm3 (about 3.4 cm3) only. Effects of the user¡¦s head and hand on the proposed antenna are studied, and the simulated SAR and HAC results are also analyzed in this thesis.