Magnetic boosters for multiband operation

Emergent wireless handheld platforms strongly require the integration of a wide variety of services and functionalities in their limited space. These constraints directly affect handset antenna design, which has to address the challenge of providing miniature and multiband antennas by facing the existing trade-off between antenna performance and size. This article proposes the use of small magnetic boosters to excite the efficient radiating mode that the inherent ground plane of handset platforms features at mobile frequencies. Electrical models are used to provide a physical insight into the behavior of the radiating system and broadband techniques are applied for attaining impedance match. To validate the proposal, simulation results using the software IE3D based on MoM as well as measured results are provided. The outcomes demonstrate that the proposed magnetic boosters featured by considerable reduced dimensions of approximately 0.05Î are able of providing operation in the main communication standards GSM850/900 (824-960 MHz) and DCS/PCS/UMTS (1710-2170 MHz). Thus, the proposal attains a size reduction factor around five with respect to previous solutions based on resonant elements while preserves a suitable electromagnetic performance. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:65-75, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27241