There are large groundplane variations for the folder-type mobile phone in the talk and idle conditions, which makes its embedded antennas not easy to maintain good radiation characteristics in the two states. The radiation efficiencies in the idle condition are often less than 15%. To solve this problem, two novel antennas for the folder-type mobile phone are proposed. The first antenna is the coplanar coupled-fed planar inverted-F antenna. The antenna can cover GSM850/900/DCS/PCS operation in the talk condition, and the radiation efficiencies over the desired operating bands in the idle condition is larger than 32%, which is acceptable for practical applications for the folder-type mobile phone. The second antenna is the ultra-wideband coupled-fed loop antenna. The antenna can cover GSM850/900/DCS/PCS/UMTS penta-band operation in the talk condition. In the idle condition, good performances over the five operating bands can still be obtained, and the radiation efficiencies are better than 53%. The effects of the housing and the user's hand and head on the antenna are also studied. From the obtained results, it is seen that the effects of the housing on the radiation efficiencies are small. However, since the user's hand and head are high-loss materials, large decrease in the radiation efficiencies is usually observed.

In this dissertation, a variety of novel mutiband WWAN loop antennas are presented. By designing proper coupled-fed mechanisms for the proposed loop antennas, the impedance bandwidth of the loop antenna can be greatly enhanced to achieve two wide operating bandwidths at antenna¡¦s lower and upper bands to easily cover GSM850/900/1800/1900/UMTS operation. With two wider operating bandwidths obtained, the tolerance of frequency detuning and the capability of bandwidth tuning of the loop antennas can be improved for practical applications. In addition, in order to find methods to meet the SAR and HAC criterions, the proposed small-size chip loop antenna studied in this dissertation which is suitable for both bar-type and folder-type mobile phone applications are simulated and analyzed for SAR and HAC issues.

Pour déployer la quatrième génération de téléphonie 4G/LTE ou « LTE advanced », les opérateurs mobiles sont confrontés à de fortes contraintes : d’une part assurer une bonne couverture géographique mais aussi une excellente qualité de service. Ceci nécessite une ingénierie du réseau qui dépasse largement ce qui a été mis en place pour les réseaux GSM ou 3G. L’industrie des télécoms a créé pour cela le concept de « small cells » ou petites cellules qui viennent en renfort des « macrocells » ou grosses cellules. Cette thèse cherche à apporter une solution à cette problématique à travers notamment le développement d'antennes pour « smart cells ». Cette étude, supportée par le projet FUI NETCOM, doit permettre aux opérateurs d’étendre la couverture et la capacité de leurs réseaux à moindre coût tout en préservant la qualité de service. Pour cela, l’objectif plus précis de cette thèse est de concevoir un système multi-antennaire multistandard MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) dédié à des noeuds relais pour le déploiement de la quatrième génération de téléphonie LTE. Cette conception doit être compatible avec 3 bandes de fréquences du LTE : (700-900 MHz) pour les bandes LTE 700 et LTE 800, (1710-1880 MHz) pour les bandes GSM 1800 / LTE 1800 et la dernière (2500-2690 MHz) pour le LTE 2600. Pour cela, nous avons étudié tout d’abord un système à 4 accès mono-bande, en nous concentrant uniquement sur la bande basse de 700 à 900 MHz. Dans une seconde étude, nous avons cherché à couvrir les deux autres bandes supérieures en nous servant d’éléments parasites pour constituer un système MIMO à 4 accès tri-bande. Nous avons ensuite étudié l’influence de l’environnement proche du système antennaire, avec la présence d’un radiateur métallique. Un problème important et fréquent dans les systèmes multi-antennes étant le couplage, nous avons également étudié et réalisé une technique de découplage. Celle-ci servira à isoler les éléments rayonnants à espacement réduit, conçus pour nos trois bandes LTE. / To deploy the fourth generation called 4G/LTE or "LTE advanced", mobile operators face strong constraints: they must ensure a good geographic coverage but also an excellent quality of service. This requires new methods that go far beyond what has been implemented for GSM or 3G networks. The telecom industry has created the concept of "small cells" that reinforce the "macrocells" deployed by the operators. This thesis tries to provide a solution to this problem and more particularly through the development of antennas for a product called "smart cell". This study, supported by the FUI project NETCOM, should enable mobile operators to extend the coverage and capacity of their networks at a lower cost while maintaining a good quality of service. To do that, the aim of this thesis more particularly is the design of a multi-band multi-antennas MIMO system (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) dedicated to relay nodes for the deployment of the fourth generation 4G/LTE or "LTE advanced". The antenna design considers the coverage of the three LTE operating frequency bands and must be compatible with them. The (700-900 MHz) frequency band is used for the LTE 700 and LTE 800 bands, (1710-1880 MHz) for the GSM 1800/LTE 1800 bands and the last (2500-2690 MHz) for the LTE 2600 bands. In our first study, a reference system with 4 access was studied in simulation and measured, for only the low band 700-900 MHz. In a second study, we tried to cover the other two higher bands to have a tri-band system using the parasitic elements to get a three-band MIMO system with 4 access. We studied then, the influence of the environment close to the antenna system, with the presence of a metallic radiator. As we often encounter a frequent problem in multi-antenna systems which is the coupling problem between the different access of a multi antenna system, so we have studied and realized a decoupling technique. This technique was used to enhance the isolation between the different access.

The ever increasing diversity in communication systems has created a demand for constant improvements in receiver components. This thesis describes the design and characterisation of front-end receiver components for various challenging applications, including characterisation of low noise foundry processes, LNA design and multi-band antenna design. It also includes a new theoretical analysis of noise coupling in low noise phased array receivers.In LNA design much depends on the choice of the optimum active devices. A comprehensive survey of the performance of low noise transistors is therefore extremely beneficial. To this end a comparison of the DC, small-signal and noise behaviours of 10 state-of-the-art GaAs and InP based pHEMT and mHEMT low noise processes has been carried out. Their suitability in LNA designs has been determined, with emphasis on the SKA project. This work is part of the first known detailed investigation of this kind. Results indicate the superiority of mature GaAs-based pHEMT processes, and highlight problems associated with the studied mHEMT processes. Two of the more promising processes have then been used to design C-band and UHF-band MMIC LNAs. A new theoretical analysis of coupled noise between antenna elements of a low noise phased array receiver has been carried out. Results of the noise wave analysis, based on fundamental principles of noisy networks, suggest that the coupled noise contribution to system noise temperatures should be smaller than had previously been suggested for systems like the SKA. The principles are applicable to any phased array receiver. Finally, a multi-band antenna has been designed and fabricated for a severe operating environment, covering the three extremely crowded frequency bands, the 2.1 GHz UMTS, the 2.4 GHz ISM and the 5.8 GHz ISM bands. Measurements have demonstrated excellent performance, exceeding that of equivalent commercial antennas aimed at similar applications.