Multiband Planar Inverted-F Antenna with Independent Operating Bands Control for Mobile Handset Applications

A new compactmultiband PIFA (Planar Inverted-F Antenna) for mobile handset is proposed in this article. The proposed PIFA has a simple geometry with four slots integrated in the radiating patch and ground plane. The PIFA occupies a small volume of 51 x 14 x 7.2mm(3) and is placed on the top portion of mobile phone. The optimized PIFA is worked in the 790MHz band (737-831MHz), the 1870MHz band (1794-1977MHz), the 2550MHz band (2507-2615MHz), and the 3400MHz band (3341-3545MHz), to cover LTE700, LTE800, DCS1800, PCS1900, LTE1800, LTE1900, LTE2500, and WIMAX3400 bands. Each of the four operating bands can be controlled independently by the variation of a single parameter of the proposed design, with a wide control range. An omnidirectional radiation pattern to each resonant frequency is obtained with a maximum gain of 2.15 dBi at 790MHz, 3.99 dBi at 1870MHz, 4.57 dBi at 2550MHz, and 6.43 dBi at 3400MHz. The proposed PIFA is studied in the free space and in the presence of other mobile phone components such as the battery, LCD (liquid crystal display), camera, microphone, speaker, buttons, and a plastic housing. The distribution of specific absorption rate for both European and American standards for each operating band and at various distances between the antenna and the human head is also studied.