1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless communication devices, and more specifically to a relatively compact antenna (PIFA) suitable for use in such devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Wireless communication equipment, such as cellular and other wireless telephones, wireless network (WiLAN) components, GPS receivers, mobile radios, pagers, and other wireless devices are enjoying increasing popularity in the contemporary marketplace. One reason for their increasing popularity is the large number of applications that such devices are now capable of supporting. Additional reasons include enhanced user interfaces, longer battery life, increasing affordability, and improved operability, among others.
One critical feature of wireless devices not often contemplated by their users is the antenna, which provides a region of transition between a signal in a guided wave within the device and a free space wave. After all, it is the antenna, which can be used to both transmit and receive information signals, that allows the wireless device the ability to communicate across a wide range. Antenna technology continues to advance rapidly and such advances are instrumental in enabling higher performance and smaller packaging in wireless devices. For example, enhancements in antenna technology can yield increased performance in terms of higher signal strength, improved reception of weaker signals, longer battery life, increased (or narrowed, if desired) bandwidth and smaller packaging.
Perhaps the most common antenna is a simple whip antenna, having a length that is typically λ/8, λ/4 or λ/2 (where λ is the wavelength). The popularity of whip antennas is attributed to their low cost, ease of manufacture and simplicity of implementation. They operate over a wide bandwidth and provide a radiation pattern that is well suited to mobile applications. In place of whip antennas, helical antennas are sometimes used in wireless devices. A helical antenna includes one or more conductive radiators wound in the shape of a helix. An feature of the helical design is its small size, and, for certain applications such as GPS receivers, its circular polarization. Although they enjoy widespread use, whip and helical antennas protrude from the package and are prone to breakage if the phone is mishandled. Also, their length tends to interfere with the form factor of the device, especially for handheld or portable applications.
To avoid some of the drawbacks associated with whip and helical antennas, conventional systems often utilize what are commonly known as microstrip, or patch, antennas to obtain modest performance from a relatively small package. Such antennas utilize a conductive material formed in a stripline, rectangular, circular or other shape, and disposed on a dielectric substrate of certain dielectric value and thickness. The shape of the conductor is chosen to achieve the desired resonant frequency and radiation pattern. Selecting a lower substrate permittivity and a larger patch size yields a higher antenna efficiency. Impedance matching is optimized by selecting an appropriate location on the patch for the feed point. Excitation via the feed results in a charge distribution on the underside of the patch and the ground plane. The patch antennas allow a great flexibility in antenna and wireless-device design, as they are cost-effective, easily manufactured, and can be conformed to the shape of the wireless device.
A derivation of the patch antenna is what is commonly known as a planar inverted F antenna, or PIFA. The PIFA can resonate at a much smaller patch size for fixed operating frequency as compared to the conventional patch antenna. It is generally a λ/4 resonant structure and is implemented by short-circuiting the radiating element to the ground plane using a conductive wall, plate or post. Thus, the conventional PIFA structure consists of a conductive radiator element disposed parallel to a ground plane and insulated from the ground plane by a dielectric material, usually air. This radiator element is connected to two pins, typically disposed toward one end of the element, giving the appearance of an inverted letter “F” from the side view. One pin electrically connects the radiator to the ground plane, the other pin provides the antenna feed. Impedance matching is obtained by selecting correct positioning of the feed and ground contacts. Thus, the conventional PIFA structure is similar to a shorted rectangular microstrip patch antenna.
These and other conventional antenna solutions offer good performance at attractive prices in relatively small packages. Despite these qualities, however, antenna designers continue to strive to improve operating efficiency, enhance multi-band operation, minimize losses resulting from capacitive tuning, and decrease the antenna's sensitivity to its surroundings.
In summary, the present invention provides a novel and improved antenna configuration utilizing a capacitive element configured to provide high efficiency operation, and a tuning area that allows the antenna to be tuned independently of the capacitive element. As a result of this feature, the antenna can be tuned to the desired operating frequencies, while allowing the capacitive element to remain configured for optimal operating efficiency.
In one implementation, the antenna is a planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) that is configured in a loop, separated from a ground plane by a dielectric so as to provide radiation of the wireless signals, although other shapes are contemplated and acceptable. The loop configuration can provide an antenna pattern that makes effective utilization of a given volume and is therefore relatively small in size and high efficiency.
According to one embodiment of the antenna, the PIFA includes a capacitive loading section, providing for optimal antenna efficiency and thus optimal signal strength. Capacitive loading can be used to obtain a decrease in antenna size without suffering from any appreciable accompanying efficiency trade-off, and is optimized to allow the antenna to radiate efficiently.
Additionally, in one embodiment, an antenna tuning section is provided to allow the antenna to be tuned without adjusting the capacitive loading section. As such, the antenna can be optimized for maximum efficiency using the capacitive loading, and then tuned appropriately without any appreciable impact to the efficiency. Therefore, a feature of including one or more independent tuning sections, is that they can be used to tune the antenna independently of the capacitive loading element. As a result, the tuning can be done in a manner so as to have little or even no impact on the efficiency established by the capacitive loading element.
A parasitic element can be included to allow operation of the antenna at a second frequency band. Use of such a parasitic element allows the antenna to be operated at a second frequency band with little or no compromise to its operation at the first frequency band. Additional features can be added to the antenna, such as slits, for example, to allow the antenna to operate at additional frequency bands.
These and other features will become apparent by review of the figures and detail descriptions that follow.
The present invention is described herein with reference to the following drawings. The drawings are provided for purposes of illustration only and not limitation. It should be noted that for clarity and ease of illustration these drawings are not made to scale.
The described example implemention is directed toward a highly efficient and tunable antenna. In this example, the antenna is in the form of a multi-band planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) having a capacitive element configured to provide high efficiency operation, and a tuning area that allows the antenna to be tuned while maintaining a desirable level of efficiency. More specifically, the tuning area can be configured to tune the antenna to the desired operating frequencies, while allowing the capacitive element to remain configured for optimal operating efficiency.
The antenna is described from time to time herein in terms of an example application, which includes dual-band CDMA and GSM radiotelephones operating at the 800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequency bands. After reading this description, it will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art how to implement the antenna for other applications in other wireless devices and operating at other frequency bands, including without limitation cellular and other radio telephones conforming to alternative standards, portable radios, pagers, and WLAN devices, to name a few.
In one embodiment, ground plane 204 is formed using a ground plane embedded in the printed circuit board accommodating the wireless device's circuitry. This embodiment provides the quality that additional materials need to be utilized to manufacture ground plane 204. This embodiment also provides the quality that the antenna can be mounted relatively close to the printed circuit board, thus saving volume in the wireless device. In this embodiment, because the printed circuit board may be larger than the antenna's radiator structure, ground plane 204 may cover a larger area than radiating element 208, depending on the size of the circuit board to which the antenna is mounted.
Although illustrated as rectangular in shape, radiating element 208 can also be configured in other shapes or patterns, and in varying sizes to optimize bandwidth, operating frequency, radiation patterns and the like. In fact, numerous alternative configurations of radiating element 208 are possible, some of which are discussed in more detail below. For ease of discussion, arrow 240 is included in
Radiating element 208 is electrically connected to ground plane 204 via a ground wall, pin or post 218 (generally referred to as ground post 218), which, in the illustrated embodiment, is a single ground post 218 disposed at one end of radiating element 208. Additional ground posts can be included depending on the application. Also, additional connections may be made, including non-conductive connections used to support the radiator element. By way of example without limitation, the end of radiating element 208 opposite ground post 218 may be connected to the housing of the wireless device for support, or non-conductive spacers may be included to help support radiating element 208 in its application.
A feed 216 connects a signal source or sink, typically from a radio or other RF transmitter, receiver or transceiver, to radiating element 208. Although not illustrated, it is desirable that feed 216 be somewhat electrically insulated from ground plane 204 to prevent grounding of signals carried thereon. Depending on the application, feed 216 is located at a position proximal to ground post 218. The exact proximity of feed 216 to ground post 218 is determined so as to provide proper matching for the antenna to the wireless device's feed circuitry. In one embodiment as described below with reference to
The PIFA illustrated in
The parameters of PIFA can be adjusted by varying the dimensions with respect to one another. For example, an increase in the spacing between radiating element 208 and ground plane 204 widens the bandwidth of the antenna. Reducing width d of ground post 218 (d<w) reduces the overall dimension and also the bandwidth, while adjusting L allows frequency tuning. As understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, such modifications change the position of the point at which feed 216 is optimally connected for a given impedance. Adding an etched slot on radiating element 208 allows the PIFA to operate in multi-band mode. Other techniques that can be used to provide multi-band operation are discussed in detail below.
The impedance bandwidth of the PIFA is affected by the length and width of the ground plane as well. This is especially true for mobile handset applications that operate at the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz frequency bands utilized in the example application. Therefore, the dimensions of the ground plane should be optimized to obtain acceptable return loss and appropriate bandwidth.
Depending on the desired configuration, more than one ground post 218 can be utilized in the antenna design. The effect of multiple ground posts 218 in various configurations can be modeled by treating them as lengths of a transmission line, where their length is the height from ground plane 204 to radiating element 208. Therefore, the ground posts 218 add inductance and capacitance to antenna structure. For multiple ground posts 218, the series inductance is the total of the self-inductances of all ground posts 218 and the capacitance is due to the close proximity of the ground posts 218. The values of inductance and capacitance depend on the number of ground posts 218, their radius, the separation between them, and the permittivity and permeability of the substrate.
Although numerous configurations are possible, in the embodiment illustrated in
As the discussion above indicates, dimensions of the various components that make up the PIFA can be crucial to optimal operation of the antenna. While this discussion allows the antenna designer to optimize the PIFA for his or her own application,
Referring now to
In this implementation, the separation distance d4 between ground post 218 and feed 216 is approximately five millimeters (5 mm), and the overall length d5 of radiating element 208 is approximately 35 millimeters (35 mm). Utilizing these dimensions, the overall volume of the fabricated antenna becomes approximately 1.68 cubic centimeters, including the ground plane 204.
Radiating element 208 includes a first section 416 and a second section 414. Also illustrated in
As would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after reading this description, alternative modifications can be made to the antenna to allow operation at multiple frequency bands.
As illustrated, parasitic element 442 is a parasitic element that provides operation at the higher frequency band. The addition of this parasitic element lets the designer match the antenna at a higher operating frequency, thereby providing dual-band operation without compromising the performance of the antenna at the low-frequency band. Parasitic element 442 could be folded under to provide capacitive coupling, but, depending on the operating frequency, such folding may not be necessary. For example, in the example application where the higher frequency is 1900 MHz, folding is not necessary as capacitive coupling is less critical at this wavelength.
First section 416 can be adjusted to tune the antenna for low-band operation. Likewise, parasitic element 442 can be adjusted to tune the antenna for high-band operation. Second section 414 is the capacitive loading location, which can allow the designer to confine the fields inside the antenna volume. In this configuration, second section 414 can be selected such that capacitive loading is optimized for antenna operating efficiency, while first section 416 is used to tune the antenna.
The longer low-band element 418 (comprising sections 414 and 416) resonates at the lower frequency. The physical length of this element 418 roughly corresponds to a quarter wavelength, or λ/4, as compensated for by local dielectric effects and the parasitic shunt capacitance of parasitic element 442. For low-band operation at 800 MHz, λ/4 is approximately 89 mm.
The high-band parasitic element 442 resonates at the higher frequency, which is desirable to be maintained at less than three times the low-band frequency, and in the case of the example application, is approximately 1900 MHz. Without parasitic element 442, the antenna would radiate at a second resonance of λ/2, which is approximately 1600 MHz in the example application. With some matching, it is possible to tune the antenna so that it radiates at 1800 or 1900 MHz. With the configuration illustrated in
The load on the high-band resonant impedance is element 418 shunt parasitic load across the inductive ground tab. At this frequency, the low-band element's impedance must be higher than the impedance of the high-band element. It should be noted that in typical operation, the unused element represents a parasitic load on the used element. Therefore, the tuning of one element may have an effect on the other.
As described above, placement of feed point 404 is crucial for obtaining optimum impedance matching. In the illustrated embodiment, placing the feed point 404 in close proximity to ground post 408 alters the generally low impedance of the antenna, e.g., which can be 10 Ω or less, to a more useful value without the need for adding external components to the antenna configuration. In one embodiment of the application, feed point 404 is positioned five millimeters (5 mm) from ground post 408 along section 416, with ground post 408 being closest to the end of the radiating element section 416.
It is useful to consider the size and shape of the wireless device with which the antenna is to be used when selecting a layout of the antenna for a specific application. Simulation software and other tools can be utilized to optimize the layout of radiating elements, ground posts and the feed. Although not required with the example application, external matching components could be added to the antenna to provide broadband operation of the low-band element.
Radiating element 208 includes a first section 416 and a second section 414. Also illustrated in
The physical length of this element 418 roughly corresponds to a quarter wavelength, or λ/4, as compensated for by local dielectric effects and the parasitic shunt capacitance of parasitic element 442, although other lengths are possible. For low-band operation in the example application of 800 MHz, λ/4 is approximately 89 mm.
The various conductive elements of the PIFA as described herein, can be manufactured using any number of conductive materials, including copper, copper barium, phosphor bronze and the like. After reading this description, it will become obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art how to implement the antenna using appropriate conductive materials given various considerations such as availability, cost, performance, efficiency, safety and ease of manufacture.
While particular example and alternative embodiments of the present intention have been disclosed, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that many various modifications and extensions of the above described technology may be implemented using the teaching of this invention described herein. All such modifications and extensions are intended to be included within the true spirit and scope of the invention as discussed in the appended claims.