Resonator-based analysis of the combination of mobile handset antenna and chassis

The performance of the mobile phone handset antenna-chassis combination is analyzed based on an approximate decomposition of the waves on the structure into two resonant wavemodes: the antenna-element wavemode and the chassis wavemode. A double resonator equivalent circuit model is presented and used to estimate the impedance bandwidth and the respective distributions of radiation losses with typical parameter values at 900 and 1800 MHz. It is noticed that at 900 MHz, the radiation losses of the antenna element wavemode represent typically less than 10% of the total power. Thus, the antenna element works mainly as a matching element, which couples to the low-Q resonant wavemode of the chassis. At 1800 MHz, the contribution of the antenna element wavemode is larger. By enhancing the coupling and by tuning the chassis resonance, it is possible to obtain an impedance bandwidth of over 50% (6 dB return loss) at both at 900 and 1800 MHz. The results given by the equivalent circuit study are fully supported by those of three-dimensional phone-model simulations, including calculation of the SAR and efficiency values. In prototyping, the 6 dB bandwidth of 5.5% was obtained at 980 MHz with a nonradiating coupling element with a volume of 1.6 cm³ on a 120 mm long chassis.