Design and Analysis of Metamaterial Antenna for

Mobile Handset Application

Soon Ho Hwang #1, Tae Sik Yang#2, Joon Ho Byun#3, Austin S Kim#4
#

Telecommunication R&D Center, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Republic of Korea
1

soonho123.hwang@samsung.com
2
taesik73.yang@samsung.com
3
joon00@samsung.com
4
austin.s.kim@samsung.com

Abstract Printed and multiple antenna which is available to

mobile handset is proposed and investigated in this paper. The
proposed antenna is comprised of meandered transmission lines
on the printed circuit board (PCB) substrate which is
FR4(r=4.6). Especially, this antenna is based on composite
right/left handed (CRLH) metamaterial transmission lines [1]. In
order to have a broad bandwidth, the antenna consists of two
different unit cells. Through these two CRLH unit cell, this
antenna can have a broad bandwidth which is from 1700 MHz to
2700 MHz (VSWR<3.0), and efficiencies of each frequency range
are over 60%. Return loss, efficiency, radiation patterns, and
current distributions are provided in this paper. Total PCB size
is 4080 mm2 with 1 mm thickness, and antenna space is 4015
mm2. The proposed antenna covers a variety of commercial
bands which are DCS, USPCS, WCDMA, Wibro, Bluetooth, and
Wimax. Since this metamaterial antenna consists of transmission
lines on PCB, proposed antenna is very useful to apply for the
RF devices.

I. INTRODUCTION
Increasing demands and development on personal mobile
systems have been requiring that mobile handsets should have
various voice and data communication services. These mobile
handsets are required to operate at multiple frequency bands.
Moreover, the demand of compact, slim, and multiple
function handsets put stricter requirements on the antenna
design. In order to overcome the limited antenna design
circumstance, a lot of antenna design guides have been
introduced, for example, helical antenna, planar inverted F
antenna (PIFA), and chip antenna. However, these common
antenna designs still have a limitation that the size of antenna
is proportional to its physical size.
To overcome this problem, two methods are proposed in
this paper. One method is to make the antenna the PCB
embedded type. The proposed antenna is based on
transmission lines on the PCB for reducing antenna volume
such as height. So, designing thin and slim handsets is
possible without restricting antenna height. When the antenna
is composed of transmission lines on PCB, the cost for
manufacturing mobile handset can be reduced. This is very
critical point, especially for the mobile phone companies. The
other method is to make the antenna electrically small.
Proposed antenna is based on composite right/left handed

(a) The Front View

(c) The Geometry of Front Side

(b) The Rear View

(d) The Geometry of Rear Side

Fig. 1. Overview of the Proposed Antenna

(CRLH) metamaterial transmission lines for size reduction.

This kind of metamaterial structure has been researched over
the last years[1][7]. According to these papers, metamaterial
is a novel structure which has unique electromagnetic
properties such as supporting infinite wavelength wave at a
specific non-zero frequency and left handed (LH)
characteristics of wavelength proportional to frequency. Thus,
it can significantly reduce the size of RF devices such as
power dividers and filters as well as antennas while
maintaining or improving those performances.
In this paper, the metamaterial antenna is proposed as an
internal antenna for mobile handsets. The antenna is designed

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3.0

operate resonant frequency. PCB ground of front and rear side

is connected through vias. Part A in Fig. 2 is feeding line and
part B and C are radiating patches which are connected with
via line (part D and F) through vias (part G). Feeding line
(part A) and radiating patches (part B and C) are located at
front side of PCB. On the other hand, via lines (part D and F)
are located at rear side of PCB. These radiating patches are
excited by feeding line through a small gab in between. And,
via lines are finally connected with rear side of ground. Part E
is feeding point, which is fed by 50 coaxial cable for
measurement.
The proposed antenna has a pair of unit cells. One is
composed of part B and D with via, and the other is composed
of part D and F with via. Those two unit cells have a similar
structure, but do not have symmetric structure. However, they
share the feeding line (part A). The size of each parts is shown
in Fig. 1 (c) and (d). The width of via lines (Part D and F) is
0.5 mm. The width of feeding line (Part A) is also 0.5 mm.
And the gab between each unit cell and feeding line is 0.2 mm
which is the distance between radiating patches (part B and C)
and feeding line (part A). The diameter of vias (part G) is 0.5
mm. This novel antenna is based on CRLH metamaterial
structure mentioned in [1-4]. This CRLH structure consists of
series inductance, series capacitance, shunt inductance, and
shunt capacitance. The characteristics of these inductances
and capacitances are explained well in [1-4]

3.0

III. ANALYSIS
The measurement return loss of proposed antenna is
presented in Fig. 3. The antenna covers six bands which are
DCS, PCS, WCDMA, Wibro, Bluetooth, and Wimax under
VSWR<3. Especially, the resonant frequency of 2400 MHz
has a good impedance matching value. Fig. 4 shows total
radiation efficiency of frequency range from 1600 MHz to
3000 MHz. This result is measured at reverberation chamber.
Efficiency of each commercial band is over 60% as shown in
Table I. At 2400 MHz, its efficiency is almost 90%. Measured
radiation patterns at each frequency are plotted in Fig.5. These
patterns are measured at 1700 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2500 MHz,
and 2700MHz. Due to a measurement deviation of 0 and 360
degree, there is a little aberration at that degree.

Fig. 2. Antenna Structure

( Part A, B, C, and E on front side & Part D and F on rear side )

Return Loss [dB]

-6

-12

-18

-24
1.6

1.8

2.0

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

Frequency [GHz]

Fig. 3. Return Loss

100

Efficiency [%]

80
60
40
20
0
1.6

1.8

2.0

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

Frequency [GHz]

TABLE I
EFFICIENCY AND AVERAGE

Fig. 4. Efficiency

Antenna Performance

to operate at DCS (1710 - 1850 MHz), PCS (1850 - 1990

MHz), WCDMA (1920 - 2170 MHz), Wibro (2300 - 2390
MHz), Bluetooth (2400 - 2480 MHz), and Wimax (2500 2690MHz) frequency bands.
II. PROPOSED ANTENNA GEOMETRY
Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the proposed metamaterial
antenna. The overall dimension of the proposed structure with
a printed type on a substrate of FR4 (r=4.6) is 40801 mm3,
which is small enough to be built in mobile devices such as a
mobile phone, and the space for antenna is 4015 mm2, which
is PCB embedded type. Fig. 2 presents the antenna parts to

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Band
Efficiency [%]

Average Gain [dBi]

DCS

62.1

-2.07

PCS

62.3

-2.12

WCDMA

72.3

-1.41

Wibro

86.6

-0.62

Bluetooth

89.5

-0.48

Wimax

70.6

-1.51

(a) The Front View @1700MHz

(b) The Rear View @1700MHz

(c) The Front View @2100MHz

(d) The Rear View @1700MHz

(e) The Front View @2500MHz

(f) The Rear View @2500MHz

(a) xy plane @1700MHz (b) yz plane @1700MHz (c) zx plane @1700MHz

(d) xy plane @2100MHz (e) yz plane @2100MHz (f) zx plane @2100MHz

(g) xy plane @2500MHz (h) yz plane @2500MHz (i) zx plane @2500MHz

(g) The Front View @2700MHz (h) The Rear View @2700MHz

(j) xy plane @2700MHz (k) yz plane @2700MHz (l) zx plane @2700MHz

(i) Unit of Current Distribution, Jsurf [A/m]

( ---x--- : Horizontal Wave, ---o--- : Vertical Wave )

Fig.6. Current Distribution

Fig. 5. Radiation Pattern

First, the length and width of transmission lines affect both the
inductance and capacitance of the antenna. The longer
transmission line is, the higher an inductance is. Similarly the
wider transmission line is, the lower an inductance is.
Secondly, the gab between transmission lines affects the
capacitance of the antenna. The closer the transmission lines is,
the higher a capacitance is. Moreover, how much area
transmission lines are overlapped can also decide the
capacitance value. Through modifying the transmission lines,
the resonant frequency of the antenna is able to be tuned for
the frequency of interest.

Fig 6. shows current distributions at various frequencies.

Through these current distributions, operating mechanism at
the resonant frequency can be verified. At 1700 MHz,
radiating patch (Part C) and via line (Part F) are dominant
parts since currents are concentrated on these Part C and F. On
the other hand, at 2500 MHz, other radiating patch (Part B)
and via line (Part D) are critical parts for the resonance. In the
case of 2100 MHz, both radiating patches (Part B and C) and
via lines (Part D and F) play a key role to resonate the
frequency. However, only feeding line (Part A) is able to
resonate at 2700 MHz. The verification of current distribution,
IV. CONCLUSIONS
which is simulated using Ansoft HFSS [8], can be useful
In this paper, we presented broadband antenna, which is
method for antenna tuning.
designed based on metamaterial structure. Metamaterial
Since the proposed antenna is printed on the PCB, it is easy
structure has been recently considered as one of
for tuning the resonant frequency. It means that modification
miniaturization methods for RF devices. In order to improve
of transmission lines can change the impedance of the antenna.
the metamaterial antenna performance such as bandwidth and

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efficiency, two different metamaterial unit cells are employed.

Through this antenna design, broad bandwidth and high
radiation efficiency are proven in this paper. Moreover, it is
very useful to apply RF devices like a small and slim mobile
handset since the proposed antenna is implemented on PCB.

[4]

[5]

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with tunable radiation angle and beamwidth," IEEE Transactions on

[6]

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