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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 7, JULY 2011
I. INTRODUCTION
NTENNA design is becoming a bottleneck for wireless
mobile devices where multiple communication services
are integrated in the same platform. Today, a typical wireless
device might support multiple services such as GSM, DVB-H,
and GPS that all rely on a multi-band antenna [1][9]. Implementing multi-band antennas in a small terminal is challenging
due to the limited space and the need for low fabrication costs.
Accordingly, antennas used for such devices must also follow
the downsizing trend of the terminal unit. In particular, physically smaller built-in antennas are required for next generation
devices. Different techniques are documented to design multiband antennas [8], [9]. One method, which is widely used for
handset antennas, is the use of meandered metal segments. The
meandering is achieved by cutting slots into non-radiating edges
of the antenna. This effectively elongates the surface current
path on the antenna and increases the reactive loading, resulting
in another mode of operation at lower frequencies. However,
for non-resonating antennas that radiate over a wide frequency
range (e.g., ultrawideband (UWB) antennas) this technique is
not applicable. Another approach for designing multi-band antennas is to use a separate antenna for each operating mode [10].
In this method the antenna can either be formed of one radiating
structure with multiple ports, or a few separate antennas. This
technique often requires more space. Therefore, integrating several antennas into a limited space is practically challenging.
In order to efficiently use the space allocated for the antenna
in the wireless devices, a novel antenna integration technique is
introduced in this paper. We integrated a narrowband antenna
with a wideband antenna. The proposed structure is composed
of a shorted microstrip patch which is integrated with a coplanar
waveguide (CPW) fed UWB monopole antenna. A prototype of
the antenna has been fabricated and verified.
Tackling the challenge of limited space in small devices is indeed the main motivation of this approach. The concept which is
introduced here could be applied to a wide range of different antennas. However, considering the interest in dynamic and open
access spectrum in future networks is also a motivation for this
research. In recent years, the underutilization of the frequency
spectrum has inspired the use of reconfigurable radios concepts
such as cognitive radio (CR) [11]. A CR is capable of sensing the
spectrum and changing system parameters such as frequency,
transmitted power, or standard if required. Various antenna scenarios have been reported in the literature [12][15]. In one scenario a wideband antenna might be used for spectrum sensing
whilst a reconfigurable narrowband antenna is employed for
communication [13]. Tuning circuits can easily be integrated
with this antenna making it useful for both fixed and reconfigurable radio applications [15].
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II the integration method and design details are presented. Simulation and
measurement results are also reported and discussed. Three sets
of matching circuits have been designed to tune the antenna to
4 GHz, 8 GHz and 10 GHz. The matching circuit design and
results are discussed in Section III. The isolation between antenna ports is important in closely spaced antennas. Hence, in
Section IV, the antenna configuration is modified to reduce the
level of mutual coupling between the two ports.
II. THE INTEGRATED WIDE-NARROWBAND ANTENNA
Manuscript received October 28, 2010; accepted January 15, 2011. Date of
publication May 10, 2011; date of current version July 07, 2011. This work was
supported by EPSRC Grant EP/F017502/1.
E. Ebrahimi and P. S. Hall are with the Department of Electronics, Electrical
and Computer Engineering, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, U.K. (e-mail: exe797@bham.ac.uk).
J. R. Kelly is with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering,
The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, U.K.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2011.2152353
A. Integration Concept
We propose to use a printed antenna with a relatively large
metallization area as a ground plane for an additional antenna.
Depending on the application and the amount of available space,
it may be possible to use the first antenna as the coplanar ground
for the second antenna or the second antenna can be printed on
the reverse side of the substrate and, where necessary, it can be
galvanically connected to ground with a via. Taking into account
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Fig. 1. Topology of the proposed antenna, (a) top view and (b) bottom view.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 7, JULY 2011
Fig. 4. Simulated current distribution. (a) Top view and (b) bottom view.
Fig. 2. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient (a) UWB antenna and (b)
narrowband antenna.
Fig. 5. Simulated and measured UWB antenna radiation patterns at 4.86 GHz,
(a) xy plane and (b) zy plane.
mechanism arrangement can be modified to enhance the isolation between the ports. This issue has been investigated and detailed discussions are presented in Section IV.
Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 illustrate measured and simulated theta
component of the radiation patterns for the UWB antenna at
4.86 GHz and 10 GHz, respectively. Fig. 7 depicts the measured
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 7, JULY 2011
Fig. 12. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient of the antenna with a 4
GHz matching circuit.
Fig. 10. Matching circuit for (a) 4 GHz, (b) 8 GHz, (c) 10 GHz.
Fig. 13. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient of the antenna with a
10 GHz matching circuit.
Fig. 11. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient of the antenna with a 4
GHz matching circuit.
TABLE I
EFFICIENCY AND GAIN OF VARIOUS NARROWBAND ANTENNAS
Original antenna
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Fig. 14. Geometry of configuration A, (a) top view, (b) bottom view.
Fig. 15. Transmission coefficient for all three configurations and the reference
antenna.
challenging in closely spaced antennas. Although the patch antenna is positioned in a region of the UWB antenna with low
current concentration, the coupling between the ports is still relatively high. From Fig. 3, it is clear that the coupling is less than
10 dB throughout the whole band, except in the range 4.7 GHz
to 7.3 GHz, where the peak value is 4 dB at 5.15 GHz. Investigations show that when the UWB antenna is excited the intensity of the current flow along the lower edge of the UWB ellipse
and the top edge of the CPW ground plane is high. In effect
a slot to microstrip transition is created at the point where the
narrowband feed line crosses over this region. Therefore, a significant portion of the input power is coupled into the microstrip
feed line, and returns to the feed port of the narrowband antenna.
Similar discussion applies when the narrowband antenna is fed.
In this case, it creates a microstrip to slotline transition and the
fields around the microstrip line couple into the tapered slot of
the wideband antenna. Fig. 4 illustrates this argument. Hence,
to increase the isolation between the ports one solution is to ensure that the feed line does not cross this region. This section
presents three modifications to the structure in order to reduce
the level of coupling.
A. Configuration A
Fig. 14 demonstrates the geometry of the first configuration
(Configuration A). The modification involves shifting the patch
feed line away from the tapered slot at the edge of the wideband
antenna and bending it at right angles. Using this method, the
peak value of mutual coupling drops from 4 dB to just below
7 dB (see Fig. 15). The impedance bandwidth of the wideband
antenna is not affected by this modification, i.e., the 10 dB
bandwidth still covers the whole of the FCC UWB band. The
narrowband antenna exhibits a resonance at 4.81 GHz. At the
resonant frequency the reflection coefficient is just below 20
dB.
B. Configuration B
Investigating the current distribution reveals that there are
less currents on the upper part of the monopole radiator representing a good location for the second antenna. Fig. 16 illustrates the second modified antenna (denoted Configuration B).
The monopole radiator is elongated so that it extends to the edge
Fig. 16. Geometry of configuration B, (a) top view, (b) bottom view.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 7, JULY 2011
to make minor changes to the geometry in order to accommodate the matching circuits. Additionally the overall dimensions
of the antenna are quite small.
It is concluded that the specific arrangement of the narrowband antennas feed line in the original antenna design creates a
microstrip to slot transition suggesting that approximately 40%
of the power is coupled from one antenna into the other. The
final section of this paper evaluated three different approaches
for reducing the mutual coupling between the two antennas.
Each of these configurations yielded to a reduction in the isolation while maintaining the wideband and narrowband functionality. In the third configuration the coupling level has dropped
dramatically from 4 dB to below 20 dB.
Fig. 17. Geometry of configuration C, (a) top view, (b) bottom view.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
the two ports (see Fig. 15). The 10 dB impedance bandwidth
of the wideband antenna has not distorted. The narrowband antenna operates at 5.35 GHz.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper introduced a novel concept for integrating two
planar antennas suitable for multi-band applications. The integration approach was based on using a relatively large printed
antenna as the ground plane for an additional antenna. To avoid
high interaction between the two antennas, it is preferable to
place the second antenna above a region of the larger antenna
where there is a relatively low concentration of surface current.
The ground plane of the large antenna appeared to be the most
suitable location. However, after taking some industrial concerns into account it was clear that the extra antenna could not
be placed above the main ground plane. In practice, the ground
plane of the antenna is used for mounting the RF and digital circuits. The concept was validated by integrating a narrowband
antenna with a UWB antenna. The structure consisted of a wideband CPW-fed monopole and a microstrip shorted patch antenna. The wideband antenna was printed onto the top side of the
substrate and the shorted patch was printed above the monopole
radiator, on the bottom side of the substrate. Other UWB antennas with different radiator shapes and feeding mechanisms
may also be customized and designed by applying the same concept. Depending on the frequency of operation there are more
possibilities to choose from when selecting the second antenna.
The structure was fabricated and verified.
By providing two separate ports for two services this antenna
makes it possible for the user to switch the services on and off,
one at any time. In circumstances when the size of the ground
plane is not large enough for the second antenna a smaller antenna can be designed at higher frequency and then tuned to the
required frequency by means of a tuning circuit. By employing
a bank of matching circuit, or several reconfigurable matching
networks it is possible to use this arrangement to create reconfigurable radio systems as well. Three matching circuits were
designed to demonstrate the possibility of tuning the narrowband antenna across the wide range of frequencies. An advantage of this integrated antenna concept is that one only needs
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James R. Kelly (M10) was born in Derbyshire, England. He received the Masters degree in electronic
and electrical engineering and the Doctorate in microwave filters from Loughborough University, Leicestershire, England, in 2002 and 2006, respectively.
From 1999 to 2000, he worked for Interfleet
Technology (international rail vehicle consultancy).
During summer 2001, he was on placement within
the Rolls-Royce Strategic Research Centre. After
completing his Ph.D. he began working as a Research
Associate/Fellow. He has worked at Loughborough
University (20062007) as well as The University of Birmingham (20082010).
Those projects focused on the design of 2D leaky-wave antennas and reconfigurable antennas for Cognitive Radio. He is currently with the Communications
Research Group, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K., where he is employed