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.

In this thesis, three small-size internal multiband antennas for laptop computer application for different wireless communication systems are proposed. In the first design, the coupling feed is incorporated to the planar inverted-F antenna to achieve a dual-resonance excitation in the lower band such that the obtained bandwidths can easily cover GSM850/900/DCS/PCS/UMTS operation. The effect of the user¡¦s hand on the antenna is also studied. In the second design, we introduce the T-shaped coupling feed used in the PIFA for successful excitation of two wide operating bands to cover WLAN operation in the 2.4 GHz band and 5.2/5.8 GHz band, and the size reduction is even larger than 50%. Finally, a multiband monopole antenna with a band-notching slit is proposed. By embedding the slit of length about a quarter-wavelength at about 4 GHz, a band-notching characteristic is obtained, which leads to an additional resonance at about 3.5 GHz. Hence, three wide operating bands for covering all the desired operating bands of WLAN/WiMAX systems are achieved for the proposed antenna.

No / A novel miniaturized planar inverted F-L antenna assembly is considered for UWB radio operations. The antenna design utilizes the electromagnetic coupling between an air dielectric planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) and a parasitic planar inverted-L (PIL) element, with broadband feeding from a rectangular plate. To improve the functionality of the channel, a simple notch filter has been introduced through a local modification to the broadband feed plate, this takes the form of a simple slotted rectangular spiral resonator which is etched directly onto the plate. This allows the proposed antenna to maintain its full band UWB coverage, with the HYPERLAN/2 band centered at 5.35 GHz to be effectively rejected over the sub-band 5.15–5.725 GHz, without the need for substantial re-optimization of its principal structure parameters. The impedance bandwidth operates over the full UWB band, with VSWR better than 2, this performance is not degraded by the presence of the band rejection. The observed gains, radiation patterns, and group delay confirm that the antenna has appropriate characteristics for short range wireless applications.

This paper proposes novel antenna designs for cellular phones and WLAN (Wireless LAN) applications. For cellular phones, a dual- frequency PIFA (Planar Inverted-F Antenna) loaded with a chip inductor is constructed. In order to decrease the construction cost, PIFAs without a loading chip inductor for GMS/DCS phones are devised. Besides, a PIFA-monopole antenna for GSM/DCS/PCS is also proposed. For WLAN application, a dual-band PIFA for 2.4/5.8 GHz and a dual-band integrated monopole antenna for 2.4/5.2 GHz are shown. Finally, a novel metal-plate WLAN antenna, having a simple structure and being easy to construct with low cost, is presented.

A variety of internal mobile phone antennas with a coupling feed are proposed. The antennas are suitable to be embedded in the mobile communication devices. At first, the coupling feed is incorporated to the conventional dual-band PIFA (planar inverted-F antenna) to achieve a dual-resonance excitation at about 900 MHz such that the obtained bandwidths can easily cover GSM850, GSM900, DCS and PCS operations. Then, the coupling feed is further applied to the PIFA with a single resonant path close to about one-eighth wavelength at 900 MHz. In this design, the large input impedance at 900 and 1900 MHz can be greatly decreased to allow the PIFA to generate two operating bands at about 900 and 1900 MHz to cover GSM900, DCS, PCS and UMTS operations. Finally, a compact quad-band folder-type mobile phone antenna with a coupling feed is proposed. The one-eighth wavelength mode can be excited, and the obtained bandwidths cover GSM850, GSM900, DCS and PCS operations.

In this thesis, the studies mainly focus on recent trends in novel MIMO antennas for indoor wireless communication system. Firstly, we propose a novel MIMO antenna for access-point application. This proposed antenna can reduce the lateral length of the conventional access-point antenna for MIMO application. Then, we present MIMO antenna designs for mobile devices such as PDA phones and laptop computers. Although these two devices are of different configurations, the PIFAs are applicable in these two devices, and their design rules are basically the same. Thus, for this study, the design consideration of the MIMO antenna will focus on S-parameter analysis. Detailed antenna designs and experimental results are presented and discussed in this thesis.