Design and Simulation Dual-Band PIFA Antenna for

GSM Systems

Saad Wasmi Luhaib
Department Electrical Engineering
University of Mosul
Mosul, Iraq
saadw1981@gmail.com

Kaydar M. Quboa
Department Electrical Engineering
University of Mosul
Mosul, Iraq
kaydar_quboa@yahoo.com

Bareq M. Abaoy
Department Electrical Engineering
University of Mosul
Mosul, Iraq
bariq_mahmod@yahoo.com

Abstract In this paper, a new design of a dual band Planner
Inverted F Antenna (PIFA), for cellular telephone systems and
other applications is presented. The PIFA antenna is composed of
ground plane , patch antenna, feeding post and shorting plate
connected to the ground plane. The designed antenna has been
simulated using the CST 2010 software. The simulated results for
the resonant frequency, return loss, radiation pattern and gain
are presented and discussed. The bandwidths of 114MHz and
176MHz for GSM900 and GSM1900 respectively are achieved on
the basis of -6 dB return loss as an acceptable reference in
mobile phones applications. A gain of 1.933dB and 4.74dB is
obtained in lower and higher frequency respectively.

Keywords-component; PIFA antenna ;Dual band antenna ;
GSM900 and GSM1900 systems
I. INTRODUCTION
The recent trends for hand-held cellular phones are that the
antenna should be miniaturized to reduce the size, weight and
cost besides omni-directional radiation pattern, higher gain, and
wide impedance bandwidth in order to have dual band
behaviors[1]. An internal to have a built in antenna which
becomes very promising candidates for applications in mobile
handsets [2].
Planar inverted-F antennas (PIFAs) are among the most
widely used antennas in mobile terminals[2,3]. Many
researchers have investigated several designs of dual-band
antennas[4,5,6,7]. The developments in GSM mobile phone
required the integration of GSM900 and GSM1900
technologies into single antenna of dual-band characteristics.
Recently, the specific absorption rate(SAR) measured in W/Kg
becomes important environmental issue. The lower
electromagnetic radiation generated by a portable unit into a
phantom and a body the better the unit[8].
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
The antenna is designed using CST Microwave Studio
2010 software. The specifications of key elements for the
design of the rectangular planar inverted -F antenna are listed
in Table 1.



TABLE I. SPECIFICATIONS OF (PIFA) PARAMETERS.
Shape Rectangular
Frequency of operation GSM900 (880-960)MHz
GSM1900 (1850-1990)MHz
Dielectric constant of the substrate 4.3
Height of dielectric substrate 1.54mm
Feeding Method probe feed
VSWR 3:1
Gain (0-5)dB

III. ANTENNA GEOMETRY
The geometry of the proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 1. It
composed of ground planes, patch antenna, feeding post, and
shorting plate connecting the ground plane. As a design
procedure, the initial patch size is to be determined to obtain
certain resonant frequency (f
r
) using the following equation[9].
fr=c/4(L+W) (1)
where c, L and W are velocity of light, length and width of
the patch element respectively.
The dimension of the proposed PIFA is 22mm 40 mm
and is located 8mm above the phone printed circuit board
(PCB). The PCB layer has a relative permittivity of 4.3 (FR4
composite), and its size is 100mm 40mm1.54mm and is
metalized on the back surface to provide an RF ground. The
proposed PIFA antenna is optimized to operate at resonant
frequency of 0.9GHz and 1.9GHz to cover the dual-band of
GSM900 and GSM1900. The proposed antenna is fed by 50
coaxial probe feeding structure.
2012 - 9th International Multi-Conference on Systems, Signals and Devices
978-1-4673-1591-3/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE
0.86 0.9 1 0.88 0.92 0.94 0.96 0.98
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Frequency /GHz
G
a
in

d
B
,
V
S
W
R



VSWR
Gain
1.8 1.85 1.9 1.95 2 2.05 2.1
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
5.5
Frequency /GHz
G
a
in
d
B
,
V
S
W
R


VSWR
Gain
0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4
-45
-40
-35
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
Frequency /GHz
S
1
1
d
B



Figure 1. Geometry of the proposed PIFA antenna: (a) top view, (b) side view,
(c) 3D view

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The proposed antenna has been analyzed and optimized
using 3D Electromagnetic Field Simulator (CST Microwave
Studio 2010). The corresponding return loss (S11) parameter of
the proposed antenna is shown in Fig.2. Obviously, two dips
are clearly seen at frequencies of 0.926 GHz and 1.926 GHz.
The lower mode has an impedance bandwidth ( -6dB return
loss) of 114 MHz (0.874-0.988 GHz), or about 12.3% with
respect to the resonance frequency of at 0.926 GHz, while for
the higher mode, a wider continuous bandwidth has been
reached to be 176 MHz (1.84-2.016 GHz), or about 9.13% with
respect to resonance frequency of 1.926 GHz. The obtained
bandwidths can sufficiently cover the bandwidth requirement
for GSM900 and GSM1900 standard given in table 1.

Figure 2. Return loss of the proposed
Fig. 3 shows the gain and VSWR responses of the proposed
antenna in the GSM900 and GSM1900 bands.


(a)


(b)

Figure 3. VSWR and gain responses for the proposed antenna for:
(a) GSM900 ,(b) GSM1900
A maximum gain of 1.933 dB is achieved in lower band
with VSWR value of 1.0181 indicating a good impedance
matching (perfect matching VSWR=1) which implies that
almost all input power could be transmitted to the patch. In the
higher band, the peak gain reaches of 4.74dB with VSWR
value of 1.51.
Fig. 4 shows the electric field radiation patterns for the
proposed PIFA at the resonance frequency of 0.92GHz and
1.926GHz.


(a)











































Figure 4. Simulated radiation pattern for the proposed Antenna at (a) 3-D at
0.926GHz (b) 3-D at 1.933 GHz (c) x-y 0.926GHz (d) x y1.926 GH

It is worth mentioning that for all cases, the far field
patterns are almost omnidirectional, which is a desired property
for hand-held mobile phones.
Figs. 4(b) ,4(d) shows the two dimensional far field electric
radiation patterns for the proposed PIFA at frequencies
0.926GHz and 1.926GHz of in the x-y plane which are nearly
omnidirectional, and symmetrical patterns in the y-z plane.
The effect of varying the height (h) from 6mm to 10mm on
the return loss is shown in Fig. 5 for GSM900 and GSM1900.

(a)


(b)
Figure 5. Effect of simulated return loss (a) and (b) Loss with varying of
height of PIFA.

From Fig. 5, it is clear that the optimal height is 8mm for
both GSM900 and GSM1900.
The effect of the short wall width (shw) on the return loss is
also investigation.
The simulation result are shown in Fig. 6(a) for GSM900 and
Fig. 6(b) for GSM1900. From Fig. 6, the optimized width
chosen for proposed PIFA antenna is 2.375mm.


(a)
-60
120
-30
150
0
180
30
-150
60
-120
90 -90

Eth
Eph
(b)
(c)
0.5
1
1.5
-60
120
-30
150
0
180
30
-150
60
-120
90 -90


Eth
Eph
(d)

(b)

Figure 6. Effect of simulated return loss (a) and (b) Loss with varying width
of the shorting wall.

V. CONCLUSION
From the result obtained for the dual-band antenna the
following conclusions can be drawn: The studied antenna it has
two bands of operation at the GSM900 and GSM1900.
The particular feeding technique, the optimized shape of
the patch slot made it possible to satisfy VSWR and radiation
pattern requirements in the pertinent frequency band of
114MHz and 176 bandwidth covering dual frequency range
from 0.874-0.988 GHz and 1.84-2.016 GHz. Despite the small
area and thickness, this antenna can be made from copper
sheet, therefore it is easier to fabricate.

REFERENCES

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