Resumen de Concentrated ground plane booster antenna technology for multiband operation in wireless devices
The mobile phone evolution is linked to the global coverage and the offer of new services. Current devices are not only used to communicate, they also provide new functionalities such as Internet, FM radio or video streaming. In order to satisfy all these requirements, antennas have to operate in a major number of frequency bands because they have to provide worldwide operability in the current communication standards (2G, 3G, and 4G). Moreover, they have to be small because the remaining space after incorporating all the new services' components is limited. Moreover, the first mobile phones had huge dimensions but among the years, they have become smaller, lighter, and the enormous external antenna is no longer permitted.
To fulfil the aforementioned requirements, different approaches based on modifying the antenna geometry and topology have been widely used. However, other lines of research, more focused in the ground plane, have recently become more attractive since the ground plane plays a very important role in the handset device.
A different way of exciting the ground plane in order to obtain good radiation is the proposed antenna technology called Ground Plane Booster Antenna Technology, which uses very simple and small shapes such as cubes in order to excite efficient modes in the ground plane for radiating/receiving electromagnetic waves.
This is a big step forward as the solution features very small volume, is independent of the device (the same antenna can be used in any cell phone, tablet, personal computer, e-Reader or even a laptop or similar wireless device), and it is capable of operating in a large number of frequency bands. Having a standard design that can be used in several platforms is really important as so far, mobile devices use a customized antenna, which means that every single device has a different antenna design that leads to have expensive, complex, and exclusive solutions.
This ground plane booster elements can be used in wireless devices when they efficiently excite the ground plane allowing a multiband, miniature, and standard antenna. This technology is also aimed to enhance the battery life span, improve the global connectivity, and minimize the electromagnetic human exposure.
With respect to previous antenna solutions, the fact of using this technology permits a really huge and disruptive volume reduction. One key aspect is that they are inherently reactive elements. That is why different matching networks are needed in order to properly operate in the frequency bands of interest.
Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to obtain a multiband radiating system while keeping a concentrated and standard solution by means of combining multiple ground plane boosters very close to each other to keep the required concentrated configuration, using a single ground plane booster, or combining both previous solutions with intelligent ground planes.
The main focus of this research is to obtain a really concentrated solution with many different challenges regarding coupling, volume constraints, and matching network solutions. However, as a result, the main advantage of this novel solution is that it simplifies the number of boosters and the required area with the aim to simplify the architecture and minimize losses and complexity.
