Design of GSM/LTE multiband application

for mobile phone antennas

Yu-Jen Chou, Guo-Sheng Lin, Jun-Fu Chen, Lih-Shan Chen
and Mau-Phon Houng

good agreement. The measured results based on a 6 dB return loss

cover the following bands: GSM900 (880960 MHz), GSM1800
(17101880 MHz), GSM1900 (18501990 MHz), LTE2300 (2305
2400 MHz), and LTE2500 (25002690 MHz). Fig. 2 also shows the
fabricated antenna with the ground plane.

A novel compact multiband planar antenna fed by a microstrip line

structure is presented. The proposed antenna is developed for wireless
communication applications of the global system for mobile (GSM)
communication and long-term evolution (LTE) in different service
bands of 900, 1800, 1900, 2300, and 2500 MHz. The antenna has
ve bands, and the structure is a combination of a monopole antenna
and a coupled ground line fabricated on an FR4 substrate. The proposed antenna can be embedded in mobile phones for GSM and
LTE applications. The measured peak gains are 2.12 and 3.82 dBi
for the GSM and LTE bands, respectively.

direct-fed monopole

coupled ground strip

strip1

strip2
X

strip3

A : feeding point
B : shorting point
A unit : millimetres

ground plane

112

112 60 mm2

Design of antennas: Fig. 1a shows the proposed multiband antenna

structure. The antenna was fabricated on an FR4 glass epoxy substrate
with a thickness of 0.8 mm, relative permittivity of 4.4, and a loss
tangent of 0.02. The overall FR4 substrate was employed as the
system circuit board (122 60 mm2) on which the GSM/LTE antenna
(10 50 mm2) was designed for the top edge of a mobile phone. The
backside of the FR4 substrate was used as the system ground plane
(112 60 mm2). The selected dimensions of the overall circuit board
and the antenna are reasonable for practical mobile phones.
The proposed antenna is composed of a circuit structure directly connected to a feeding contact for a monopole antenna and a coupled
ground strip connected to a shorting contact. The monopole strips are
designed to be approximately a quarter-wavelength long at 900, 1800,
2300, and 2500 MHz. A coupled ground strip is also added to
connect the right side of the lower bands and to obtain good impedance
matching across the operating bands. After adjusting the monopole
strips in the resonant modes, a low operating band of 840960 MHz
was obtained for GSM900 applications. The high modes of 1800,
2300, and 2500 MHz constitute high operating bands of 1660
2670 GHz for GSM1800, GSM1900, LTE2300, and LTE2500 applications. The coupled ground strip includes comb-shaped dual-parasitic
shorted strips. The overall antenna is fed by a 50 microstrip line connected to the feeding point (point A) of the driven monopole and a
coupled ground strip connected to the shorting point (point B) of the
system ground planes. All the optimised geometric parameters for the
multiband antenna element are presented in Fig. 1b. The proposed
microstrip line-fed antenna structure is easy to implement with a monolithic microwave-integrated circuit and has dimensions that can be modied to match different antenna geometries for multiband impedance
characteristics.
Simulated and measured results: Fig. 2 shows the simulated and
measured return losses of the proposed antenna. The experimental
results were obtained using an Agilent E8364A vector network analyser.
The simulation was conducted using high-frequency structure simulator
simulation software. The simulated and measured return losses are in

60

a
50
21.5
0.5

10
0.8
1.5

1.1

1.5

1.9 0.9

7
0.5
17

24.5

1
4

19.9
18.5
0.5

0.8

15.5

20

10

1.3

6.5
3.5

1.5

1.5
15.5

1.4

18.4

0.5

23

Fig. 1 Geometry of microstrip line-fed structure for multiband antenna operation in mobile phone, and detailed dimensions of metal pattern for multiband antenna
a Geometry
b Detailed dimensions
0
5
3 : 1 VSWR
10

return loss, dB

Introduction: The multiband was designed on a single antenna to meet

the needs of multifunctional wireless communication systems. Since the
introduction of compact mobile devices, designing an internal compact
multiband antenna has become a challenging topic. For general handset
applications, several compact and wideband techniques are employed to
achieve compact multiband antenna operating bands. In [1, 2],
multi-loop-type antennas with a meander structure were utilised to
attain multiband and a compact size. In [3], bendable planar
inverted-F antennas were utilised to achieve compact size. Other multiband techniques include using a multi-branch antenna structure [4], utilising a slot antenna structure [5], and loading a parallel resonant
structure in antennas [6].
In this Letter, we propose a multiband antenna solution for the global
system for mobile (GSM) communication and long-term evolution
(LTE), which are wireless communication access technologies. A
novel multiband antenna applicable in small handsets that cover
GSM900 and GSM1800/1900 (880960 and 17101880/1850
1990 MHz) as well as LTE2300 (23002400 MHz) and LTE2500
(25002690 MHz) is presented. The design of the proposed compact
multiband antenna is described in detail. The related fabricated results
for the obtained performances are presented and discussed.

15
20
25
30
35
40

simulated
measured

top view
bottom view
photographs of fabricated antenna
0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

frequency, GHz

Fig. 2 Simulated and measured return loss of proposed antenna

Fig. 3 shows the geometric comparison of the simulated return loss

for the proposed antenna. Three antennas have the same coupled
ground strip but different numbers and locations of monopole strips.
Case 1 only contains monopole strip 1 (antenna 1), whereas case 2 is
created by adding monopole strip 2 to case 1 (antenna 2). Case 1
involves two resonant modes at 1900 and 2400 MHz, and the impedance matching is poor. In case 2, the impedance matching is good in the
resonant modes. In case 3, monopole strip 3 is added to the case 2 structure (antenna 3). Case 4 is the proposed antenna (antenna 4). The antennas in cases 3 and 4 have roughly the same structure but different widths
of monopole strip 3. The width of monopole strip 3 is adjusted for
impedance matching, and a high-order mode occurs at 2.6 GHz.
These data indicate that the proposed antenna has a multiband
characteristic.

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 20th August 2015 Vol. 51 No. 17 pp. 13041306

0
5
3 : 1VSWR

return loss, dB

10
15
20

strip1
strip2

25
antenna-1

30

antenna-2

antenna-1
antenna-2
antenna-3
proposed

strip3

35
40

antenna-3
0

0.5

proposed
1.0

2.0

1.5

2.5

3.0

frequencies are illustrated in Fig. 4. The far-eld radiation patterns of

the antenna were measured at resonant frequencies of 900, 1800,
2300, and 2500 MHz. The far-eld radiation patterns at different frequencies were measured in an anechoic chamber. The far-eld radiation
measurements were obtained at various frequency points in the
GSM900/1800/1900/LTE2300 and LTE2500 bands to plot the
antenna peak gain and radiation efciency spectra shown in Fig. 5.
The measured antenna peak gain for the GSM900 band is 0.62
2.12 dBi, and the radiation efciency is 4254%, as shown in Fig. 5a.
The measured antenna peak gain for the GSM1800/1900 bands is
2.383.81 dBi, and the radiation efciency is 4571%. The measured
antenna peak gain for the LTE2300/2500 bands is 3.824.79 dBi, and
the radiation efciency is >53%, as shown in Fig. 5b. These results
are acceptable for practical mobile phone applications.

frequency, GHz

70
60

50
40

30
20

90
radiation efficiency, %

45

315

80

100

90
antenna peak gain, dBi

0
45

315

antenna peak gain, dBi

100
measured peak gain
measured efficiency

80
70

60
50

40
4

30
20

measured peak gain

measured efficiency

10

270
40 30 20 10

270

90
0

40 30 20 10

90
0

0
0
0.82 0.84 0.86 0.88 0.90 0.92 0.94 0.96 0.98 1.00
frequency, GHz

3
1.6

radiation efficiency, %

Fig. 3 Geometric comparison of simulated return loss for proposed antenna

10
0

1.8

2.0
2.2
2.4
frequency, GHz

2.6

2.8

Fig. 5 Measured peak gain and efciency

135

225
190

190

XY-plane

40 30 20 10

315

270

90
0

40 30 20 10

135
190

XY-plane

190

270

90
0

40 30 20 10

135

XY-plane

190
0

90
0

XZ-plane

E-mail: mphoung@mail.ncku.edu.tw
Jun-Fu Chen and Lih-Shan Chen (Department of Electronic
Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan)

45

315

The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015

Submitted: 27 May 2015 E-rst: 27 July 2015
doi: 10.1049/el.2015.1839
One or more of the Figures in this Letter are available in colour online.
Yu-Jen Chou, Guo-Sheng Lin and Mau-Phon Houng (Institute of
Microelectronics, Department of Electrical Engineering, National
Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan)

135

225

45

315

45

315

45

40 30 20 10

190
0

XZ-plane

Conclusion: A planar GSM/LTE multiband antenna design for mobile

phones has been developed and veried. A direct-fed monopole antenna
and a coupled ground strip were utilised to realise ve operating bands
on a 6 dB return loss covering the GSM900/1800/1900/LTE2300/
2500 application bands. The good radiation characteristics of gain and
efciency illustrate the potential applications of the proposed antenna
for mobile phones. The footprint of the proposed antenna is only
500 mm2; thus, the antenna can be easily integrated into the system
circuit board of mobile phones. The fabrication procedure of the proposed antenna is compatible with printed circuit board technology.

270

225

90
0

135

225

0
315

XZ-plane

45

270

225

a GSM900 band
b GSM1800/1900/LTE 2300/2500 bands

0
45

315

135

225

References
270
40 30 20 10

270

90
0

40 30 20 10

135

225
190

XY-plane

135

225

90
0

190

XZ-plane

co-polar
cross-polar

Fig. 4 Measured co-polarisation and cross-polarisation radiation patterns at

900, 1800, 2300 and 2500 MHz
a
b
c
d

900 MHz
1800 MHz
2300 MHz
2500 MHz

The measured co-polarisation and cross-polarisation radiation patterns of the implemented antenna on the XY and XZ planes at four

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ELECTRONICS LETTERS 20th August 2015 Vol. 51 No. 17 pp. 13041306