Two metasurface-inspired antennas embedded in a metallic cavity are introduced here. They are expected to be integrated on fast moving platforms enduring harsh accelerations and shocks. The metasurface allows enlarging the antenna bandwidth that is intrinsically reduced for small antennas embedded in sub-wavelength metallic cavities. The first one is only 60 × 60 × 20 mm3 (0.23λ1 × 0.23λ1 × 0.08λ1 at the frequency of 1164 MHz) and presents a dual-band behavior, covering both the lower and upper global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) bands (all GNSS bands are covered). It is fed by four probes and a dedicated circuit, ensuring the phase quadrature between adjacent feeds to achieve circular polarization over these two bands. For the second proposed antenna, circular polarization is achieved using two feed points connected to the radiating aperture of size 50 × 50 × 20 mm3 (0.26λ0 × 0.26λ0 × 0.10λ0 at the frequency of 1559 MHz). It covers the E1, L1, B1, and G1 GNSS bands. The numerical results are successfully validated by measurements.

For future fifth-generation (5G) smartphones, a high-efficiency multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system capable of operating in Long Term Evolution (LTE) 42/43/46 is suggested. A pair of small microstrip-fed slot antenna and inverted F antenna is part of the single antenna design structure. They are positioned on the longer side of the FR-4 printed circuit board. In an effort to lessen the mutual coupling, two antenna elements have a U-shaped rectangular slot inserted between them. The detailed study of the suggested MIMO system includes measurement of the reflection parameter, analyzing the radiation performance, performing envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) and channel capacity calculations, and analyses of the effects of user’s hand in the vicinity of the antenna array. Simulation and measurement results demonstrate the required performance of the proposed design, that is, greater than 80% of total efficiency, isolation >12 dB, and ECC <0.15. The suggested antenna has the benefits of multiband operation, high efficiency, good isolation, and a small footprint.

In this paper, a truncated patch antenna based on the electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure has been proposed. The fabricated antenna has five operating frequencies at 10.4, 15.68, 19.68, 27.2, and 35.04 GHz. The fabricated prototype of the antenna constitutes a truncated rectangular patch etched with the shape of a symmetrical slot (on top) and an EBG loaded on the ground plane of the dielectric substrate. The optimized volume of the antenna is 20 × 15 × 1.57 mm3. The proposed antenna gives a good radiation pattern for the E-H field in all covered bandwidth and also achieved better performances related to the reference papers. A multiband antenna also covered the 5 G bandwidth, which resonates at 27.2 GHz from 24.2 GHz to 27.84 GHz bandwidth and at 35.04 GHz from 33.84 GHz to 36.2 GHz bandwidth, which can be used in the Internet of Medical Things. On the other hand, X/Ku/K frequency bands have been committed for wireless communication where the multiband antenna can be used to help in monitoring, especially in the case of data transmission from radio frequency sensors to health-care system in real-time applications.

This work demonstrates a novel, reflective-type, dual-polarized multiband polarization transformer for various C to Ku band applications. The design constitutes a top FSS printed on a thin FR-4 grounded dielectric substrate. A y/x-polarized incident wave experiences linear-circular conversion from 4.61 to 4.71 GHz (right-hand circular polarized (RHCP)/left-hand circular polarized (LHCP)), 5.44 to 7.68 GHz (LHCP/RHCP), 10.13 to 14.98 GHz (RHCP/LHCP), and 16.68 to 17.19 GHz (LHCP/RHCP) with 3.41, 34.15, 38.63, and 3.01% FBW, respectively. In addition, it performs linear-cross conversions with a minimum 90% polarization conversion ratio (PCR) from 4.92 to 5.18 GHz, 8.32 to 9.41 GHz, and 15.56 to 16.25 GHz with 5.15, 12.30, and 4.34% FBW. Multiple surface plasmonic resonances are responsible for these polarization conversions in different bands. The device performance is angular stable for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) incidences. The design novelty lies in compacted periodicity 0.112λL, low-profile thickness 0.037λL with a multi-conversion (switching the orthogonal circular rotation in consecutive bands), and stable angular response, which can potentially be used in real-time applications.

This paper proposes a wide band and multiband frequency reconfigurable antenna that can operate in the UWB, GSM, GPS, 4G LTE, WLAN, and WiMAX bands. The antenna is made up of a trapezoidal-shaped monopole radiator, which was inspired by a rectangular monopole antenna. The ground plane is modified by embedding T and L-shaped slots to notch the desired operating frequency. The proposed antenna can switch to six different frequencies using RF PIN diodes, making it suitable for modern wireless applications. A multilayer frequency selective surface (FSS) reflector is presented to improve the gain of the proposed reconfigurable antenna. The low-profile design achieved a significant increase in gain while retaining the UWB antenna's excellent impedance bandwidth. Because of the use of the FSS reflector, the antenna's average peak gain has increased from 6 to 10.4 dBi. The proposed antenna has a wide switching capability, which validates its unique feasibility for high-speed multiple Internet of Things applications via a common embedded platform under various applications.

Conventional multiband antennas suffer from strong interactions among different operating frequencies, complex configurations, low bandwidth, and reduced efficiencies. A design concept for a multibeam multiband antenna in wireless devices is proposed in this paper. The design concept provides a promising approach to augment transmission and reception. The principle of design involves a primary radiating element embedded in a triplate conformation which excites a passive array of multiple frequency secondary radiators, forming a frequency selective structure in triplate (FSST). The higher order mode behavior of the parent antenna characterizes the design of FSST placed in its nearfield. The mathematical modeling and analysis of the design methodology is also presented. As proof of concept, the proposed design methodology is validated with simulations and experiments at four unlicensed communication bands and the results are compared.

In mathematical definition, a fractal is a self-similar subset of Euclidean space whose fractal dimension strictly exceeds its topological dimension which in turn involves a recursive generating methodology that results in contours with infinitely intricate fine structures. Fractal geometry has been used to model complex natural objects such as clouds coastlines, etc., that has space-filling properties. In the past years, several groups of scientists around the globe tried to implement the structure of fractal geometry for applications in the field of electromagnetism, which led to the development of new innovative antenna configurations called “fractal antennas” which is primarily focused in fractal antenna elements, and fractal antenna arrays. It has been demonstrated that by exploiting the recursive nature of fractals, several marvellous kinds of properties can be observed in antennas and arrays. The primary focus of this article is to provide a compressed overview of the developments in fractal-shaped antennas as well as arrays over the last few decades where the most prominent contributions mostly from IEEE journals have been highlighted. The open intention of this review work is to show an encouraging path to antenna researchers for its advancement using fractal geometries.

The goal of this study is to analyze the specific absorption rate (SAR) distribution of the projected 5G frequencies below 6 GHz and at Wi-Fi frequency (2.45 GHz) on a human head, for eyewear device applications. Two separate tri-band printed dipole antennas for this purpose are designed and fabricated at operating frequencies of 2.45/3.8/6 GHz for prototype-1 and at operating frequencies of 2.45/3.6/4.56 GHz for prototype-2. In order to obtain the desired frequencies: first, the prototypes of the proposed antennas are fine-tuned via Computer Simulation Technology Microwave Studio (CST) and then fabricated on the FR4 layer. The reflection coefficient (S11) is tested and the simulation results are confirmed. In order to analyze the effect of wearing a pair of glasses' frame including a tri-band 5G antenna, a frame is designed and produced via 3D printer with polylactic acid material which has high dielectric constant (ɛr = 8.1). The SAR results of the proposed antennas have been examined for the cases where the antenna is embedded in the frame and is used alone. Both cases were analyzed by using the homogeneous specific anthropomorphic mannequin and the heterogeneous visible human head phantoms and the results have been evaluated in terms of SAR10 g values.

In this article, a multiband antenna for various wireless communications is proposed for WWAN, Bluetooth, WiMAX, WLAN, and Downlink satellite system. The antenna consists of a radiating patch and a rectangular ground plane with four L-shaped stubs which are embedded as side arms to obtain a resonating band for WWAN (1.9GHz), Bluetooth (2.4 GHz), WiMAX (2.5, 3.5, and 5.5 GHz), and WLAN (5.5 GHz) wireless systems and a C-shaped stub is etched on the radiating patch to obtain a higher WLAN band (2.4, 5.2, and 5.8 GHz) and a satellite downlink system (7.5 GHz). The proposed antenna exhibits circular polarization at WWAN band and linear polarization for remaining applications. Also, the proposed antenna exhibits an omnidirectional radiation pattern.

A printed multiband Multi-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna is proposed in this paper. This MIMO antenna system comprises two symmetric printed monopole antennas. Each antenna element consists of multiple bend lines, producing four resonant modes and covering the GSM900, PCS, LTE2300, and 5G bands. Simulated and measured results prove that the proposed MIMO antenna can be applied to traditional 2G, 3G, 4G, and present 5G mobile communication. By etching four inverted L-shaped grooves on its ground plate, mutual coupling between the adjacent antenna elements has been suppressed. This makes the |S21| at all four resonant modes is lower than −40 dB. In addition, its low coupling mechanism has been analyzed by surface current distribution. The designed multiband MIMO antenna provides an idea of reference to realize low mutual coupling between antenna elements, which is also realizable in infrared or optical regimes with appropriate designs.

A novel concept of using fractal antenna with metamaterial and slot to achieve multiband operation is investigated. The antenna consists of an L-shaped slot, Sierpinski triangle (used as fractal) as the radiating part and metamaterial circular split ring resonator (SRR) as the ground plane. The introduction of metamaterial in the ground plane makes the antenna operate at 3.3 GHz (middle WiMAX). The etching of Sierpinski triangle and L-shaped slot in the radiating monopole perturbs the surface current distribution; thereby increasing the total current path length which tends the antenna to further operate at 5.5 (upper WiMAX), 7.3 (satellite TV) and 9.9 GHz (X-band), respectively. The extraction of medium parameter of a circular SRR through waveguide medium is discussed in detail. The antenna has a compact dimension of 0.33λ0 × 0.27λ0 × 0.01λ0 = 30 mm × 24.8 mm × 1.6 mm, at a lower frequency of 3.3 GHz. Under simulation, antenna operates at 3.3, 5.5, 7.3 and 9.9 GHz with S11 < −10 dB bandwidth of about 5.9% (3.24–3.44 GHz), 5.6% (5.31–5.62 GHz), 7.3% (6.99–7.52 GHz) and 3.02% (9.78–10.08 GHz), respectively. In measurement, antenna exhibit resonances at 3.1, 5.52, 7.31, 9.72 GHz with S11 < −10 dB bandwidth of about 3.5% (3.04–3.15 GHz), 5.01% (5.44–5.72 GHz), 13.2% (6.76–7.72 GHz) and 5.77% (9.42–9.98 GHz), respectively. Good impedance matching and stable radiation characteristics are observed across the operational bandwidth of the proposed configuration.

A single-feed dual-band circularly polarized stacked microstrip patch antenna with a small-frequency ratio is presented. Two pair of orthogonal slits is cut on the lower circular patch for achieving circular polarization and truncated corner square patch is used as the upper parasitic element. The frequency ratio of the dual-band is 1.03. The 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth is 1.3% for the upper band and 1.1% for the lower band. Proposed structure is fabricated on the FR-4 epoxy substrate and fed by SMA connector. The measured results are in good agreement with the theoretical and simulated results. The antenna shows stable radiation characteristics in both bands of operation.

In this paper, a 1.8–2.6 GHz wideband rectenna is designed for radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting in the context of wireless sensor nodes (WSN). To assess the feasibility of ambient RF energy harvesting, the power density from RF base stations is analyzed through statistical measurements. Power density measurements are also performed close to Wi-Fi routers. Using these results, a methodology based on impedance matching network adaptation and maximum power transfer is proposed to design the wideband RF harvester. Using this method, three RF bands, i.e. GSM1800, UMTS and WLAN, are covered. The theoretical analysis is confirmed by simulations and measurements. From measurements results, the prototype RF-to-DC conversion efficiency is 15% at −20 dBm from 1.8 to 2.6 GHz. It is shown that with three RF sources in the chosen bands, each emitting at 10 dBm, the RF-to-DC conversion efficiency is 15% better compared to that measured with a single RF source. Finally, 7 µW is harvested at 50 m from a GSM1800 and UMTS base station. This value confirms the RF harvester workability to supply small sensors.

A low specific absorption rate (SAR) reconfigurable multiband coplanar waveguide fed planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) is presented in this paper. Different numbers of meander-turn-shaped slots are etched on the PIFA radiating plate to excite new resonant frequencies. Extra resonant frequencies are created by increasing the number of meander-turn-shaped slots for different wireless communication applications. A new independent resonant frequency is created by etching a coupled slot within the ground plane for the upper WLAN. A PIN diode switch is used to reconfigure the fundamental resonant frequency from the LTE band 11 to band 8 with a total of 63% size reduction compared with the original PIFA size. Furthermore, the SAR in the human head is investigated using the Hugo voxel model in CST Microwave Studio. The volume of the antenna is 22 × 30 mm2 over a 35 × 50 mm2 ground plane, which is suitable for handheld devices.

In this paper, for the first time, we present a novel Pi-shaped structure using resonators for multiband applications. The multiband Pi-shaped structure with LC resonators is analyzed. In order to demonstrate the proposed multiband Pi-shaped structure, one tri-band Wilkinson power divider and one tri-band rat-race coupler are designed, fabricated, and tested. The compactness of the two demonstrated components is well kept by putting all stubs with resonators inside the components themselves. Measured results are in good agreement with the simulated results.

Simple internal multiband monopole antenna with low specific absorption rate (SAR) for most wireless communication applications is presented in this paper. The proposed antenna is an unequal arms monopole antenna with a meander stripoin the other substrate side. The antenna has a simple structure and it is sufficiently small in size to be easily fitted on the housing of a mobile phone or a universal serial bus (USB) dongle with size 20 × 50 × 0.8 mm3. The antenna is designed to operate in different bands to cover most of allocated wireless communication bands in the frequency range from 0.9 to 6 GHz. The proposed antenna has an acceptable average gain of about 2.75 dBi and an average efficiency of about 85% while providing a monopole radiation pattern in both horizontal and elevation planes, with average half-power beam width of 65° in the elevation plane. The simulation and the experimental results of the antenna are in agreement. The SAR in the human head is investigated by using CST 2012 Microwave Studio Hugo Voxel Model.

Fourth generation mobiles require multi-standard operating handsets with small physical size as well as increasing demand for higher data rates. Compact multi-band printed inverted-F antennas (IFA) for available wireless communications are proposed in this paper. New design of printed IFA based on uniplanar compact electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structure concept is proposed. A printed-IFA with L-load shaped over an artificial ground plane is designed as the main antenna to cover most wireless applications such as GSM, LTE, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wimax, and WLAN. The multi-band is created by means of an EBG structure that is used as a ground plane. Different shapes of uniplanar EBG such as ring, split ring resonator, and spiral rather than mushroom-like structure are investigated. The proposed antenna is built on the uniplanar EBG ground plane with size of 35 × 45 mm2, which is suitable for most of the mobile devices.

This paper gives a summarized overview on the progress and achievements on AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMT)-based power amplifiers (PAs) for mobile radio applications which have been achieved within two national funded German projects during a period of six years. Starting with a first 34 dBm (2.5 W, peak) amplifier in 2003 the impressive progress toward highly efficient S-band mobile radio PAs with up to >50 dBm (100 W) peak output power is described by means of some selected single- and multiband amplifier demonstrators. This progress has been mainly enabled by clear progress on GaN technology, device packaging, and PA design. Targeting at highly efficient single-band amplifier applications, a 2.7 GHz symmetrical Doherty amplifier with up to 45% drain efficiency at close to 45 dBm average output power under single-carrier W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) operation using digital predistortion can be highlighted. In case of multiband capable amplifiers addressing software-defined radio applications, a class-AB-based demonstrator covering a frequency range from 1.8 to 2.7 GHz was realized. The amplifier showed >30% drain efficiency up to 2.5 GHz as well as up to 40 dBm average output power under single-carrier W-CDMA operation using proprietary digital predistortion. Finally, Alcatel-Lucent's activities on envelope tracking for future efficiency improved GaN-based amplifiers are described.