Recently, the evolutions of wireless communication systems are growing rapidly to satisfy the personal communication requirements. Compact, small size, low cost, and multi-function are the major developing trends among these modern wireless communication devices. The use of ceramic materials with high permittivity can effectively reduce the sizes of microwave devices. This thesis consists of two parts: the research of microwave dielectric materials and the implementation of microstrip ceramic antennas. In the first part of the dissertation, the systematic investigations of the microstructure and microwave dielectric properties in respect of BiNbO4-based ceramics and MCAS glass-added Al2O3-TiO2 ceramics have presented. By the addition of CuO, V2O5, or CuO-V2O5 mixture, the BiNbO4 ceramics can be densified at lower sintering temperatures less than 940¢J. The excellent microwave dielectric properties are obtained as 0.5 wt% CuO or V2O5 are added as sintering aids. The exceeded additive amount or sintering temperatures will result in the appearance of abnormal grain growth and the increase of grain boundary inclusions, which will decrease the microwave dielectric properties including the quality factor (Q) and the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (£nf). The CuO-added BiNbO4 ceramics reveal a negative £nf value and V2O5-added BiNbO4 ceramics reveal a positive one. The £nf values can be reduced to near 0 ppm/¢J by controlling the weight ratio of CuO/V2O5. Another method to reduce the £nf values to near 0 ppm/¢J is the substitution of Sm for Bi. For the (Bi1-xSmx)NbO4 ceramics, the presence of the £]-form of (Bi1-xSmx)NbO4 ceramics will affect the grain growth, density, Q¡Ñf values and £nf values, but that has no apparent effect on £`r values. On the whole, a high permittivity, an acceptable quality factor, and the temperature stable BiNbO4-based ceramic can be obtained. As for (1-x)Al2O3-xTiO2 ceramics, the addition of MCAS glass can lower the sintering temperatures of (1-x)Al2O3-xTiO2 ceramics from 1500¢J to 1300¢J. And the £nf value can be adjusted to near zero by controlling the TiO2 content and sintering temperature. The appearance of Al2TiO5 phase, resulted from the consumption of TiO2, exhibits intense effect on the microwave dielectric properties of (1-x)Al2O3 -xTiO2 ceramics. The major contributions in this research would be the lower sintering temperatures and the near 0 ppm/¢J of £nf value. The 2wt%- MCAS-added (1-x)Al2O3-xTiO2 ceramics sintered at 1300¢J and x = 0.12 has a minimum £nf value of ¡V0.6 ppm/¢J. In the second part of the dissertation, the microstrip antennas with high permittivity BiNbO4 ceramics (£`r = 43) substrate are fabricated. The bandwidths obtained are narrow and insufficient for the WLAN application. The techniques of U-slots patch and stacked structure are used to enhance the bandwidth of the microstrip ceramic antennas by combining the two adjacent resonant modes. The results indicate that the impedance bandwidth can be enhanced from 2.3% to 5.3% by embedding double U-shaped slots in the rectangular patch, or to 4.5% by using stacked patches.

In this thesis, the study mainly focuses on developing multiband chip antennas for mobile handsets. Three possible solutions and their extended and integrated designs are presented. By using the dielectric material as the chip base, the chip antenna can be smaller in size and simpler in design. Most of the applications of the traditional chip antennas are rarely used as the mobile phone antenna and are commonly designed with a single operating band to cover GPS or WLAN operation only. Different types of the antennas are proposed in the thesis. The metal patterns of the monopole and loop antennas are manufactured inside the chip base with an occupied volume of generally less than 0.8 cc, some even as small as 0.3 cc. Electronic components like the lens of the embedded camera and the speaker can be integrated close to the chip antenna with little influences on the radiation characteristics. Consequently, the developed chip antennas are suitable for mobile communications and can cover not only GSM850/900/1800/1900/ UMTS bands but also WLAN/WiMAX bands.