Julian Duran: 673300861 Prof.

David Yang

Final Design Project ECE 523

GSM Band Microstrip Antenna for Mobile Devices

Introduction

With the high and increasing demand of smaller wireless communication devices comes the difficulty of providing
a reliable and effective way to build the most important, but often overlooked element of a wireless system, the antenna.
The antenna of today's cellular communications system is a design challenge due to the fundamental limitation of frequency
vs. size. It is very well known that the most simple, basic antenna is the half-wave dipole; meaning that the length of the
antenna is half the wavelength of the carrier. Cellular phones operating in the GSM1 band fundamentally would require an
antenna length ranging from 15cm to 17cm. Today's devices do not have the luxury of providing such ample space to fit a
half-wave dipole antenna.
We will design and propose a GSM band microstrip antenna that can fit in a 2cm x 2cm area of a mobile phone. The F
planar microstrip antenna is a good candidate that provides good bandwidth when matched correctly and a very small form
factor.

Printed Straight F Antenna

The Straight F antenna is a variant of the monopole where the top section has been folded down so as to be parallel
with the ground plane. This is done to reduce the height of the antenna, while maintaining a resonant trace length. This
parallel section introduces capacitance to the input impedance of the antenna, which is compensated by implementing a
short-circuit stub. The stub’s end is connected to the ground plane through a via.
This antenna is used without no ground backplane and uses a stub transmission line to match it to the frequency range of
interest. The Straight F Antenna achieves low Q-factor and is broadband in nature. The ground plane of the antenna plays a
significant role in its operation. Excitation of currents in the printed IFA causes excitation of currents in the ground plane.
The resulting electromagnetic field is formed by the interaction of the IFA and an image of itself below the ground plane. Its
behavior as a perfect energy reflector is consistent only when the ground plane is infinite or very much larger in its
dimensions than the monopole itself. In practice the metallic layers are of comparable
dimensions to the monopole and act as the other part of the dipole. The antenna/ground
combination will behave as an asymmetric dipole, the differences in current distribution on the
two-dipole arms being responsible for some distortion of the radiation pattern.

Illustration 1: Straight F
Antenna configuration.
Dashed line represents the
end of groundplane [1].

1 The GSM band in North America ranges from 1.71 GHz to 1.98 GHz, commonly known as PCS. 850 MHz is also in use.
Julian Duran: 673300861 Prof. David Yang

Some important design guidelines will be followed:

• In general, the required PCB ground plane length is roughly one quarter (λ/4) of the operating wavelength.
• If the ground plane is much longer than λ/4, the radiation patterns will become increasingly multilobed.
• On the other hand, if the ground plane is significantly smaller than λ/4, then tuning becomes increasingly difficult
and the overall performance degrades.
• The optimum location of the SFA in order to achieve an omni-directional far-field pattern and 50Ω impedance
matching was found to be close to the edge of the PCB.

Design
We define some constraints:
1. 2cm x 2cm area of antenna.
2. 10cm x 5cm area of PCB.
3. Need to achieve at least -7dB return loss in GSM Band (1.71 GHz – 1.989 GHz)
4. Use of FR-4 substrate with 1.54mm thickness.
5. 1oz of Cu for 1.4mil thickness.
Zeland IE3D v14 was used to simulate and design the antenna.
The figure below illustrates the dimensions of the design.

14.38mm

2mm

18mm

12.5mm
1mm

From the CAD layout we can see that the antenna resembles the letter F, hence
its name and includes a stub transmission line that matches it to the input impedance of
50Ω.

Illustration 2: Straight F
Antenna for GSM Band
 Julian Duran: 673300861 Prof. David Yang

Plots of Impedance, Return Loss (S11) and VSWR

Illustration 3: The return loss for this antenna reaches meets the requirements of -7dB across the 1.7-
1.98GHz.

Illustration 4: The antenna achieves best performance at 1.77 GHz with -26dB of return loss. Across
much of the band of GSM the requirements have been exceed and there is about -12dB RL.
Julian Duran: 673300861 Prof. David Yang

Illustration 5: In the GSM band the radiation resistance varies from 50 - 100 ohms, good values to
match the port impedance. Resonance is obtained at 1.78 GHz, very close to the ideal 1.8 GHz middle
of the band.
Julian Duran: 673300861 Prof. David Yang

Illustration 6: VSWR of 2 throughout the GSM band, indicating good antenna performance and
matching.

The elevation pattern indicates two main lobes.

This is a limitation of the software, where there
still exist an infinite ground plain between the
antenna, which cannot be removed. Otherwise it
would resemble more oval shape.
Julian Duran: 673300861 Prof. David Yang

At table of other antenna properties such as efficiency and gain for 1.8 GHz is below:

Miscellaneous Illustrations

Illustration 7: The current density of the antenna is greater on the edges of the groundplane, which
indicates that the groundplane acts as the other end of the monopole or the image.
Julian Duran: 673300861 Prof. David Yang

Illustration 8: 3D Radiation Pattern. The red area indicates maximum gain of 1.7dBi.
Here the omnidirectional characteristics of the antenna can be appreciated. Note that
the software has a limitation in where there exist an infinite ground even where there is
no groundplane. This is what gives that rapid cutoff of radiation in between the two
main lobes. Ideally one would see the two main lobes connect each other.

Conclusion

A GSM 1700/1900 band Straight F Folded Monopole Microstrip Antenna for mobile communications has been
design with very good specifications. The antenna resonates at 1.78 GHz with good radiation resistance across the band,
between 50 – 100 ohms. The impedance of the antenna could be matched better by making is inductive or close to zero
across the band.
The return loss of the antenna exceeds the design specifications and meets the requirements of at least -7dB across the band.
This results in good radiation efficiency, as the input power is not reflected back as much, indicating good matching
performance. The VSWR is a good indicator of antenna performance and values below 2 are desirable. This antenna has a
VSWR of 2 from 1.7 GHz to 1.9 GHz, this is one parameter that can be improve for frequencies in the higher end of the
band. This antenna achieves an efficiency of 71% and a gain of 1.7dBi.

The convenience of F planar antennas lies in the fact that they can be made electrically small and achieve very good
performance, conforming with the physical dimensions of today’s wireless devices. This is the main reason why almost
every mobile phone in use today uses this type of antenna configuration.
Julian Duran: 673300861 Prof. David Yang

References

[1] Miniaturized Printed Wire Antenna for Wireless Communications. H.Y. David Yang, IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS
PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 4, 2005