yes / A novel miniaturized planar double inverted-F antenna is presented. The antenna design is based on the electromagnetic coupling of two air dielectric PIFA antennas, combined with a broadband rectangular plate feed structure to achieve ultra-wideband characteristics. The computed and experimental impedance bandwidths show good agreement over an UWB frequency band from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz for |S11| < -10dB. The antenna is electrically small, with size 0.31 x 0.16 x 0.09 wavelengths at 3.1 GHz and 1.06 x 0.55 x 0.31 wavelengths at 10.6 GHz. The simulated and measured gain and radiation patterns show acceptable agreement and confirm that the antenna has appropriate characteristics for short range wireless applications. / MSCRC

Several novel designs of printed monopole antennas are proposed and experimentally studied. These antennas have the advantages of low profile, light weight and easy construction and can be printed on dielectric substrates and integrated with associated circuitry on the same substrates, which not only reduces the manufacturing cost but also decreases the required size of the complete system. This dissertation mainly consists of four sections and several novel designs are introduced in each section. First, a novel dual-band antenna with two stacked inverted-F strips and a CPW-fed folded inverted-F strip antenna are proposed. Second, a novel printed dual-band double-T monopole antenna, comprising two stacked T-shaped monopoles, is discussed. Third, three diversity antenna designs obtained by protruding a ground plane with optimal dimensions between two printed monopoles for WLAN communication applications in the 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz bands are presented. Good dual-polarized radiation with an enhanced port decoupling (isolation less than ¡V27 dB) for the two feeding ports is obtained. Finally, a novel printed ultra-wideband diversity monopole antenna is shown. The operating bandwidth of the ultra-wideband antenna reaches about 5.4 GHz, covering the WLAN bands at 2.4, 5.2 and 5.8 GHz, and the antenna can provide spatial diversity to combat the multipath fading problem.

In this thesis, two novel antennas and three advanced design concepts for further studies are presented. Firstly, the design of diversity dual-band inverted-F monopole antenna using two back-to-back stacked metallic strips for operating in the 2.4 and 5.2 GHz WLAN band is presented. Secondly, the diversity dual-band inverted-F monopole antenna mounted vertically at the edge of a system circuit board is studied. Finally, three advanced design concepts are discussed to demonstrate the methods of controlling radiation patterns to achieve better radiation characteristics of the antenna.

Yes / A frequency tunable planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) is presented for use in the following bands: DCS, PCS, and UMTS. Initially, the tuning was achieved by placing a lumped capacitor, with values in the range of 1.5 to 4 pF, along the slot of the radiator. The final tuning circuit uses a varactor diode, and discrete lumped elements are fully integrated with the antenna. The antenna prototype is tunable over from 1850 MHz to 2200 MHz, with an associated volume of 21×13.5×5 mm3, making it suitable for potential integration in a commercial handset or mobile user terminal.

This thesis presents the analysis, design, and fabrication of a spherical inverted-F antenna (SIFA). The SIFA consists of a spherically conformal rectangular patch antenna recessed into a quarter section of a metallic sphere. The sphere acts as a ground plane, and a metal strip shorts the patch to the metallic sphere. The SIFA incorporates planar microstrip design into a conformal spherical geometry to better meet the design constraints for integrated wireless sensors. The SIFA extends a well-established technology into a new application space, including microsatellites, mobile sensor networks, and wireless biomedical implants. The complete SIFA design depends on several parameters, several of which parallel planar design variables. A modified transmission line model determines the antenna input impedance based on the sphere's inner and outer radii, the patch length and width, short length and width, and feed position. The SIFA can be tuned to the desired frequency band by choosing the proper outer radius, after which the antenna can be matched by tuning the short characteristics, patch dimensions, and feed position. The fabricated design was chosen to operate at the MICS band (402-405 MHz), a popular band for biomedically implanted devices. An initial design was constructed with Styrofoam (epsilon r approximately equal to 1) and copper tape. Simulation in HFSS corroborates that SIFA operation incorporates the MICS band, with resonant frequency of 404 MHz and 32 MHz (7.9%) bandwidth. The fabricated prototype performs similarly, with a resonant frequency of 407 MHz and 19 (4.7%) MHz bandwidth. Following fabrication, several modifications were implemented to miniaturize the SIFA and introduce additional functionality. Slot loading and dielectric coating were implemented to achieve SIFA miniaturization. Multiple elements were also introduced to achieve dual band operation and beam steering. A miniaturized SIFA was investigated in several biological media, and a lossy coating implemented to maintain impedance match in several different media, with the goal of retaining a matched impedance bandwidth in the MICS band.

The spherical inverted-F antenna (SIFA) is a relatively new conformal antenna design that consists of a microstrip patch resonator on a spherical ground. The SIFA resembles a planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) that has been conformally recessed onto a sphere. The basic design, simulation, and fabrication of a SIFA were recently reported. The aim of this thesis is to provide a three-fold improvement to the study of the SIFA: the fabrication of a dielectric-coated SIFA, a new analytical model based on the cavity method, and the analysis of a randomly oriented SIFA’s operation in a remote networking scenario. A key improvement to the basic SIFA design is the addition of a lossy dielectric coating to the outside of the sphere for purposes of impedance stability, bandwidth control, and physical ruggedization. The first contribution of this thesis is the fabrication of such a dielectric-coated SIFA. Two antennas are fabricated: a coated SIFA operating at 400 MHz, and an uncoated SIFA operating at 1 GHz for comparison. Both SIFAs are constructed of foam and copper tape; the coating is comprised of silicone rubber and carbon fiber. The fabricated designs perform with reasonable agreement to corresponding simulations, providing a basic proof of concept for the coated SIFA. The SIFA was previously studied analytically using a transmission line model. The second task of this thesis is to present a new model using the cavity method, as employed in microstrip patches. The SIFA cavity model uses a curvilinear coordinate system appropriate to the antenna’s unique geometry and is able to predict the antenna’s performance more accurately than the transmission line model. The final portion of this thesis examines the performance of the SIFA in a remote network scenario. Specifically, a line-of-sight link between two SIFAs operating in the presence of a lossy dielectric ground is simulated assuming that each SIFA is randomly oriented above the ground. This analysis is performed for both uncoated and coated SIFAs. A statistical analysis of the impedance match, efficiency, and power transfer between these antennas for all possible orientations is presented that demonstrates a design tradeoff between efficiency and predictability.

This thesis proposes a variety of antenna designs suitable for modern of mobile products, such as mobile phones, PDAs and so forth, on both the 2G and 3G communication systems according to the mobile communication development. Based on the integration of monopole or planar inverted-F antenna with the system ground planes, multi-frequency, broadband, and high radiation efficiency can be achieved, which is very promising to be adapted into communication products. Furthermore, an antenna capable of WLAN and UWB is proposed for future wireless communication applications.

This paper proposes novel PIFA and monopole designs for dual-band or multi-band wireless communications, especially for mobile phones and CF (compact flash) card. The dual-frequency designs for mobile phone mainly utilize one or more metal branch strips to excite two resonant modes. By tuning the dimensions of branch strips, the ratio of the antenna¡¦s first two resonant frequencies can be achieved to be about 2.0, which makes it very promising for 900/1800 MHz operations. In addition, the broadband and quad-band (AMPS/GSM/DCS/PCS) designs for mobile phone application are also proposed. The broadband antenna design, unlike the above-mentioned dual-frequency designs for operating at two separate resonant modes, is more suitable to cover several nearby communication bands (DCS/PCS/UMTS/WLAN 2.45 GHz). The quad-band antenna design utilizes a £k-shape matching bridge to achieve a wider bandwidth both in lower and higher bands. For CF Card application, the triangular chip antenna having one longer and one shorter strip lines can generate the lower and higher modes covering the WLAN 2.4 and WLAN 5.2/5.8 GHz bands. All the antenna designs proposed are very promising to be concealed within the housing of the mobile phones or CF card.

In this thesis the study mainly focuses on the trends in development of present-day mobile phones and provides a promising alternative for integrating various elements inside mobile phones. With the presence of a small ground plane protruded from the main circuit board of a mobile phone, the proposed antenna design is substantially different from the configuration of feeding the conventional internal patch or planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA), and the proposed antenna can be placed in close proximity to the RF shielding case in the mobile phone, with very small effects on the antenna performances. Thus, more flexibility in the integration between an internal antenna and other associated elements inside a mobile phone can be obtained. In addition, by making use of the space inside the shorting cylinder of the internal PIFA, which can be treated as a shielding wall, the lens module of an embedded digital camera or other possible practical modules can easily fit in the cylinder to satisfy the trends in development of the miniaturized and multi-function mobile phones.

Three novel wideband antennas suitable for DTV (Digital Television) signal reception in the 470 ~ 806 MHz band for Portable Media Playrer (PMP) applications are presented in this thesis. The antennas include a novel broadband planar monopole antenna in Chpater 2, a novel low-profile planar inverted-U monopole antenna in Chpater 3, and a novel internal planar inverted-F antenna in Chpater 4. These antennas all have wide impedance bandwidths, good radiation efficiencies, and good radiation patterns. In addition, we propose a one-layer simplified hand model for achieving efficient and reliable simulation study for PMP antennas. The studied antenna in Chapter 2 is selected to be the example to study the user¡¦s hand effect on the antenna for PMP application.