Handset antenna array to mitigate the finger loading effect

The effect of the human hand over the electromagnetic behavior of handset antennas is an important aspect that should be taken into account. In this regard, the finger loading is a critical issue since it may detune the input impedance as well as decrease the efficiency. To overcome such effects, an array of several small handset antennas is proposed, in particular, an array of two elements and other with three elements distributed along the ground plane of a handset wireless device. The finger loading effect over several positions is experimentally analyzed using a phantom hand in the 824-960 MHz frequency region where several communications standards are allocated (e.g. GSM850 and GSM900). The experiments reveal that the array with three elements presents higher robustness to the finger loading effect fulfilling, at the same time, the size constraints imposed by handset platforms.