IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO.

1, JANUARY 2012 389

its top-/bottom-side views are given in Fig. 7. The measured VSWR [10] W. J. Lui, C. H. Cheng, and Y. Cheng, “A novel broadband multislot
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[11] J. Langley, P. Hall, and P. Newham, “Novel ultra-wideband vivaldi
can be observed that the two predicted VSWR curves of the slotline antenna with low cross polarization,” Electron. Lett., vol. 29, no. 23,
antennas with finite- and infinite ground planes are almost the same as pp. 2004–2005, 1993.
each other. It is indicated that the finite ground has no effect on the input [12] K. Ryu and A. Kishk, “UWB dielectric resonator antenna with low
impedance of this antenna if its overall size is sufficiently large. Over cross-polarization,” in Proc. IEEE Radio and Wireless Symp., Jan.
the realized UWB band of 3.2 to 10.8 GHz, the measured VSWR is less 2010, pp. 552–554.
[13] L. Zhu, S. Sun, and W. Menzel, “Ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass fil-
than 2.3 and it is slightly higher than 1.8 obtained in simulation. This
ters using multiple-mode resonator,” IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon.
small discrepancy is mainly attributed by certain unexpected tolerance Lett., vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 796–798, Nov. 2005.
in fabrication. The simulated and measured antenna peak and average [14] G. Robert-Pierre Marié, “Wide Band Slot Antenna,” U.S. Patent 3 031
gains at its H-plane are plotted in Fig. 9 as a function of frequency. The 665, Apr. 24, 1962.
peak gains vary from 0.5 to 4.0 dBi in the realized impedance band- [15] Y. Liu, Z. Shen, and C. L. Law, “A compact dual-band cavity backed
width whereas the average gains vary from 03:0 to 1.3 dBi. Fig. 10 slot antenna,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 5, no. 1, pp.
4–6, 2006.
plots the simulated and measured radiation patterns at three individual [16] K. C. Gupta, R. Garg, I. Bahl, and P. Bhartia, Microstrip Lines and
frequencies, i.e., 3.5, 6.0 and 10.0 GHz, and they are in reasonably good Slotlines, 2nd ed. Norwod, NJ: Artech House, 1996.
agreement with each other. At the high-end frequency near 10.0 GHz, [17] G. Matthaei, L. Young, and E. M. T. Jones, Microw. Filters,
the H-plane radiation pattern is split into a few radiation beams and Impedance-Matching Networks, and Coupling Structures. Norwood,
the cross polarization in the E-plane pattern is increased. It is primarily MA: Artech House, 1980.
[18] S. H. Choi, J. K. Park, S. K. Kim, and J. Y. Park, “A new ultra-wideband
attributed by the fact that the slotline resonator becomes electrically antenna for UWB applications,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 40,
large at high frequencies and many other high-order resonant modes no. 4, pp. 399–411, May 2004.
are excited in the wide slotline resonator. This cross polarization can
be decreased at high frequencies by narrowing the radiating slot at the
cost of narrow impedance bandwidth. This undesired phenomenon can
not be abolished in physics and also exists in many other UWB an-
tennas, e.g., a planar monopole antenna [18]. A Compact Hepta-Band Loop-Inverted F Reconfigurable
Antenna for Mobile Phone
IV. CONCLUSION
In this communication, a novel UWB microstrip-fed slotline antenna Yue Li, Zhijun Zhang, Jianfeng Zheng, Zhenghe Feng, and
has been presented, designed and implemented under the concept of Magdy F. Iskander
multiple-mode resonance of a single resonator. Our extensive study has
firstly exhibited that its wide bandwidth of 3:1 or 100% is realized Abstract—A folded loop-inverted F reconfigurable antenna for mobile
by concurrently exciting the first four resonant modes of a single slot- phone applications is designed and the obtained results are discussed in
line radiator that is fed by the microstrip line at a proper offset position. this communication. It is shown that loop antenna mode and an inverted F
antenna (IFA) mode are controlled by only one p-i-n diodes with simple bias
With reference to the 160-
port impedance, an initial slotline antenna
circuit. The impedance can be matched by adopting a matching bridge for
is designed to achieve a wide operating band with a fractional band- both the loop and IFA modes. In a compact volume of 60 5 5 mm , the
width of 97.9%. By installing a tapered-line impedance transformer, proposed antenna operates in hepta-band, including GSM850, GSM900,
an actual 50-
microstrip-fed UWB slotline antenna has been devel- GPS, DCS, PCS, UMTS and WLAN, with the return loss lower than 6 dB.
oped by using four excited resonant modes. Measured results of the A prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated, measured, and obtained
proposed antenna are in good agreement with the predicted ones and results including return loss, efficiency and gain, are presented.
they have demonstrated a 97.9% operating bandwidth, over which the Index Terms—Handset antennas, impedance matching, Mobile antennas,
VSWR is less than 2.3 and the antenna gain varies from 0.5 to 4.0 dBi, multiple band antennas, reconfigurable antennas.
as like other UWB antennas.
I. INTRODUCTION
REFERENCES
With the rapid development of wireless communication technology,
[1] Y. Yoshimura, “A microstripline slot antenna,” IEEE Trans. Microw.
Theory Tech., vol. 20, no. 11, pp. 760–762, Nov. 1972. multi-band and multi-functional antennas are widely studied and
[2] J. D. Kraus and R. J. Marhefka, Antennas: For All Applications Third adopted for the mobile phone applications. There is a significant
Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. demand to integrated more wireless services to small volume mo-
[3] L. Zhu, R. Fu, and K. L. Wu, “A novel broadband microstrip-fed wide bile handsets. Wide bandwidth and compact structure are important
slot antenna with double rejection zeros,” IEEE Antennas Wireless
Propag. Lett., vol. 2, pp. 194–196, 2003. Manuscript received May 09, 2011; revised June 22, 2011; accepted July 02,
[4] N. Behdad and K. Sarabandi, “A multiresonant single-element wide- 2011. Date of publication September 15, 2011; date of current version January
band slot antenna,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 3, pp. 05, 2012. This work is supported in part by the National Basic Research Pro-
5–8, 2004. gram of China under Contract 2010CB327402, in part by the National High
[5] N. Behdad and K. Sarabandi, “A wide-band antenna design employing
Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) under
a fictitious short circuit concept,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag.
Contract 2009AA011503, the National Science and Technology Major Project
Lett., vol. 53(II), no. 1, pp. 475–482, Jan. 2005.
of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China 2010ZX03007-001-01, and
[6] M. Kahrizi, T. K. Sarkar, and Z. A. Maricevic, “Analysis of a wide
radiating slot in the ground plane of a microstrip line,” IEEE Trans. in part by Qualcomm Inc.
Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 29–37, Jan. 1993. Y. Li, Z. Zhang, J. Zheng, and Z. Feng are with State Key Laboratory on
[7] Y. W. Jang, “Broadband cross-shaped microstrip-fed slot antenna,” Microwave and Digital Communications, Tsinghua National Laboratory for In-
Electron. Lett., vol. 36, pp. 2056–2057, 2000. formation Science and Technology, Department of Electronic Engineering, Ts-
[8] Y. F. Liu, K. L. Lau, Q. Xue, and C. H. Chan, “Experimental studies of inghua University, Beijing 100084, China (e-mail: zjzh@tsinghua.edu.cn).
printed wide slot antenna for wide-band applications,” IEEE Antennas M. F. Iskander is with HCAC, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI
Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 3, pp. 273–275, 2004. 96822 USA (e-mail: iskander@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu).
[9] J. Y. Sze and K. L. Wong, “Bandwidth enhancement of a mi- Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are avail-
crostripline-fed printed wide-slot antenna,” IEEE Trans. Antennas able online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Propag., vol. 49, no. 7, pp. 1020–1024, Jul. 2001. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2011.2167949

0018-926X/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE

390 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 1, JANUARY 2012

requirements for the internal multi-band antenna design, such as

monopole antennas [1], [2], IFA [3]–[5], as well as the many other
designs described in [6]–[13].
Recently, a number of publications, however, suggested that the loop
antennas could also provide promising solution for mobile phone ap-
plications [6]–[13]. To arrange a loop antenna in a small volume with
good impedance matching, however, is a challenging task as discussed
in many publications. A tuning pad is utilized as described in [8], [9]. The
tuning pad shows different effects to different operating modes of the
loop and higher modes of operation can be tuned for wider bandwidths.
However, integrating more frequency bands to an internal antenna with
small volume continues to be still a challenge. Frequency reconfigurable
antenna represents an effective solution for multi-band antenna designs.
Different operating modes with different frequencies are reconfigured
using the same antenna pattern and without extra space. Wide bandwidth
is achieved by combing the overall working frequency bands.
In this communication, a folded loop antenna is presented for mobile
phone applications. The proposed antenna can be reconfigured to IFA
by breaking the loop, using only one p-i-n diode and with a simple bias
circuit. Besides adopting the tuning pad proposed in [8], [9], a matching
bridge is also utilized in both loop and IFA modes of the proposed an-
tenna to achieve wider bandwidth. Hepta-band coverage is realized in
a compact volume of 60 25 2 5 mm3 , including GSM850, GSM900,
GPS, DCS, PCS, UMTS and WLAN. Prototype was also built and the
measured results show acceptable radiation efficiency and gain of the
proposed antenna, even after considering the effect of p-i-n diode.

II. ANTENNA DESIGN AND CONFIGURATION Fig. 1. Geometry and dimensions of the proposed antenna. (a) 3-D view. (b)
Detailed dimensions in the planar view.
Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the proposed reconfigurable antenna,
the overall dimensions are 60 2 5 2 5 mm3 . The folded loop antenna
(uniform width of 1 mm) is supported by foam with the permittivity
close to that of air. The antenna structure is arranged just outside the
ground plane area and above the main board. The main board is made of
FR4 substrate ("r = 4:4; tan  = 0:01), with the thickness of 0.8 mm.
A 100 3 60 mm2 metal ground is printed on the backside of the main
board, connecting the shorting point of the loop through a via-hole. A
50
microstrip line is arranged on the front side of main board and is
connected to feeding point of the loop. A shorting bridge (blue color in
Fig. 1), which has the same width as the loop (1 mm), connects the feeding
point with the shorting point. The position of p-i-n diode is illustrated in
Fig. 1(b). When the p-i-n diode is “ON,” the antenna works in a typical
loop mode. When the p-i-n diode is “OFF,” on the other hand, the loop
will be broken into two IFA, and the left part (the one without tuning
pad) is the main working branch. As a result, the operating modes of the
proposed antenna can be switched by the state of p-i-n diode.
The measured return losses of both working modes are shown in
Fig. 2. These data agree well with simulation results as will be shown
in Section III. Hepta-band is covered with 06 dB (VSWR = 3 : 1)
Fig. 2. Measured return loss of loop and IFA modes of the proposed antenna.

by combining the bandwidths of two modes. For the loop mode (solid
line), the achieved bands are 790–870 MHz and 1490–2225 MHz, of the loop as shown in Fig. 1. The simulated return loss of the loop
covering GSM850, GPS, DCS, PCS and UMTS bands. For the IFA mode with and without the matching bridge is illustrated in Fig. 3.
mode (dash dotted line), the achieved bands are 845–980 MHz and Simulations were made using the Ansoft High Frequency Structure
2240–2565 MHz, covering GSM900 and WLAN bands. Analysis on Simulator (HFSS) software. As it may be seen, the inclusion of the
the impedance matching of both modes is described in Section III. matching bridge resulted in improving the bandwidth, thus covering
the GSM850, GPS, DCS, PCS and UMTS bands.
The matching method is shown on the Smith Chart of Fig. 4. The
III. WORKING MODE ANALYSIS matching bridge works as a shunt inductor at the feeding point of loop.
As studied in [14], a shunt inductor is able to move the impedance curve
A. Loop Mode
alone the equal admittance circle. The susceptance introduced by shunt
Typical loop antennas and their applications in the mobile phones inductor is 1=j ! L, where ! is angular frequency and L is the equivalent
area are systematically discussed by Wong [7]–[10]. Three resonant inductance of the matching bridge. For the lower band, the susceptance
modes, including 0.5-wavelength mode, one-wavelength mode and is larger than that of the high band. As a result, the impedance curve
1.5-wavelength mode, are usually utilized. The tuning pad [8], [9] is moves further away from the matching center and towards the lower
a good method for impedance matching and with different effects to frequencies. Similar to the tuning pad in [8], [9], the matching bridge
different modes. The 0.5-wavelength mode is tuned for lower band, also has different effect that depends on the frequency. For the lower
and the one-wavelength and 1.5-wavelength modes are tuned together band, shown in Fig. 4(a), the frequency shifts to lower band with similar
to cover the higher bands. In order to achieve wider bandwidth, a bandwidth. However, more band moves into the VSWR 3:1 circle is
matching bridge is added between the feeding and shorting points shown in Fig. 4(b) and as a result the bandwidth is enhanced.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 1, JANUARY 2012 391

Fig. 3. Simulated return loss of loop mode of the proposed antenna with or Fig. 5. Simulated return loss of IFA mode of the proposed antenna with or
without the matching bridge. without the matching bridge.

Fig. 6. Photo of the proposed antenna with bias circuit.

in Fig. 5. For the dash dotted line, we can see two resonant frequencies
appearing in both lower band and high band, but with unacceptable
bandwidth. The narrow bandwidths for two monopoles are mainly due
to the compact volume without extra matching structure. For the two
IFA results shown in the solid line, one of the two former resonant fre-
quencies has been matched by adding the matching bridge. Therefore,
two more bands of GSM950 and WLAN have been achieved based on
the matched loop mode.

IV. ANTENNA FABRICATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS

To demonstrate the validity of the presented matching strategy, the
proposed antenna with p-i-n diode was fabricated and tested, as shown
in Fig. 6. The detailed diagram of bias circuit of p-i-n diode is shown in
Fig. 7. The selected p-i-n diode is Philips BAP64-03 silicon PIN diode,
with good performance up to 3 GHz [15]. When the p-i-n diode is for-
ward-biased, it works as a series resistance. In the frequency band of
0.5–2.5 GHz, the insertion loss introduced by p-i-n diode is 0.1–0.2 dB
at its typical bias current of 10–100 mA. When the p-i-n diode is re-
verse-biased, it is equivalent to a series capacitance of approximately
0.45 pF, the isolation in the required band is better than 015 dB. There-
fore, less number of p-i-n diodes will reduce the insertion loss and im-
Fig. 4. Smith Chart of the loop mode with or without the matching bridge. (a)
Lower band. (b) Higher band. prove the performance of the systems. One is the minimum number of
diode for two switchable states. In the bias circuit, a capacitor (Cb1 ) is
used between the port and loop antenna for DC blocking; another DC
B. IFA Mode block capacitor (Cb2 ) is used between the feeding and shorting points;
In order to cover more bands by the internal antenna in the same an inductor (Lb ) is used for RF choking; another capacitor (Cs ) is used
volume, another mode is developed based on the loop structure. By cut- between Vcontr: and the ground in order to short the RF signal leaked
ting the loop, the antenna can be divided to two IFAs with the matching from Lb ; a resistor (Rb ) is used to control the bias current. The bias
bridge, or two monopoles without the matching bridge. The compar- voltage for Vcontr: is 3 V, supplied by two AA batteries. The values of
ison of return loss between two IFAs and two monopoles are illustrated each component in the bias circuit are: Cb1 = 120 pF, Cb2 = 120 pF,
392 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 1, JANUARY 2012

measured and shown in Fig. 9. For the GSM band, the gain varies
in the range of 0.22–1.10 dBi; for the GPS, DCS, PCS, and UMTS
bands, the gain ranges from 0.43 dBi to 3.13 dBi; and for the WLAN
band, gain of 2.12–2.41 dBi is achieved. The results indicate the
performance improvement by adopting switching mechanism.

V. CONCLUSION
A folded loop antenna with reconfigurable characteristic is proposed
in this communication for multiband applications for mobile phones
applications. Two strategies are designed for bandwidth enhancement.
Fig. 7. Diagram of bias circuit of p-i-n diode. The first one is the implementation of the loop-IFA modes switch. The
IFA mode is achievedby cutting the loop structure without other changes.
Another two resonant frequencies are added for wider bandwidth. Only
one p-i-n diode is utilized for modes switching, thus avoiding the com-
plex bias circuit and additional insertion losses. The second one is the
matching bridge between feeding and shorting point. For loop mode,
different effects take place for lower and higher bands; but for IFA mode,
both lower and higher modes are matched. By adopting the matching
bridge, the bandwidths of two modes are both improved. As a result, for
a typical mobile phone with the ground size of 100*60 mm2 , hepta-band
coverage is achieved in the compact volume of 60 2 5 2 5 mm3 , in-
cluding GSM850, GSM900, GPS, DCS, PCS, UMTS and WLAN bands.
The proposed antenna shows good radiation performance including the
efficiency and gain. The insertion loss of p-i-n diode is also discussed.
High quality switch is a promising solution for reconfigurable antenna
designs for mobile phone applications.
Fig. 8. Measured radiation efficiency of loop and IFA modes of the proposed
antenna.
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of GSM850, GSM900, GPS, DCS, PCS, UMTS and WLAN with the
return loss lower than 06 dB. Especially for GPS operation, linear po-
[11] C. H. Ku, H. W. Liu, and S. Y. Lin, “Folded dual-loop antenna for
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shown in Fig. 8. By combing the curves of two modes, the im-
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