Abstract
The design of a small ultra-thin printed inverted-F antenna (PIFA) with independent control on the resonant frequency bands is proposed. The antenna consists of a slotted radiator supported by shorting walls and a small ground plane. The structure is designed and optimized to operate at 2.09, 3.74 and 5 GHz with achievable bandwidths of 11%, 8.84% and 10%, respectively. These three bands cover the existing wireless communication frequency bands from 1.5-6.8 GHz. Each of the three bands can be controlled independently without affecting the other two bands. The 2.09 GHz band can be controlled to operate between 1.5-2.09 GHz (33.33%), the 3.74 GHz band can be controlled over the range of 3.57-4.18 GHz (15.76%) and the 5 GHz band can be controlled to cover the band from 5.00-6.80 GHz (30.50%). Results of intensive investigations using computer simulations and measurements show that the ground plane and the feed locations of the antenna have marginal effects on the performance of the antenna. The effects of the user's hand and mobile phone housing on the return loss, radiation patterns, gains and efficiency are characterized. The measured peak gains of the prototype antenna at 2.09, 3.74 and 5 GHz are 2.05, 2.32 and 3.47 dBi, respectively. The measured radiation efficiencies for the corresponding three bands are 70.12, 60.29 and 66.24% respectively.