1528
16, 2017
A Decoupled Multiband Dual-Antenna System for
WWAN/LTE Smartphone Applications
Jian Dong, Member, IEEE, Xiaping Yu, Student Member, IEEE, and Lianwen Deng
Abstract—A compact printed multiband decoupled dual-
antenna system for WWAN/LTE smartphone applications is pre-
sented. The proposed dual-antenna system is composed of two
groups of symmetrical bending structures and uses the structure of
the slotted and protruded ground to reduce the coupling between
elements. A measured impedance bandwidth with S 1 1 lower than
−6 dB over 740–965 and 1380–2703 MHz is obtained. The isola-
tion between elements is better than 10 dB within the operating
bands. Based on 3-D radiation patterns, the envelope coefficient,
the mean effective gain, and the diversity gain are calculated. The
results show that a good diversity performance is achieved for
the proposed dual antenna, which makes the antenna suitable for
WWAN/LTE smartphone applications.
Index Terms—Decoupled antennas, multiband antenna,
multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO), smartphone applica-
tions.
I. INTRODUCTION
ULTIPLE-INPUT–MULTIPLE-OUTPUT (MIMO) [1]
M technology uses the multipath channel characteristics to
improve the spectrum utilization and is one of the key tech-
nologies for future wireless communication systems. For smart-
phone applications with WWAN/LTE operations, it is difficult
to design a multiband MIMO antenna system in a limited space
[2]. Moreover, the strong coupling between closely spaced ele-
ments limits antenna efficiency and MIMO system capacity [3].
Therefore, the requirement of multiband operation and decou-
pling presents great challenges to the design of a multiantenna
system for smartphone applications.
There are some kinds of methods for alleviating the coupling
between elements, such as protruded ground method [4], etching
slot method [5], neutralization technique [6]–[8], and polariza-
tion decoupling method [9]–[11]. In [4], a printed WWAN band
decoupled dual-antenna array design with T-shaped protruded
ground was proposed for mobile phone applications. In [5],
Manuscript received October 13, 2016; revised November 24, 2016; accepted
December 28, 2016. Date of publication January 4, 2017; date of current version
June 5, 2017. This work was supported in part by the National Science Founda-
tion of China under Grant 61201086, in part by the China Scholarship Council
under Grant 201506375060, in part by the Guangdong Provincial Science and
Technology Project under Grant 2013B090500007, and in part by the Dongguan
Municipal Project on the Integration of Industry, Education, and Research under
Grant 2014509102205.
J. Dong and X. Yu are with the School of Information Science and Engineer-
ing, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China (e-mail: dongjian@
csu.edu.cn; 976365968@qq.com).
L. Deng is with the School of Physics and Electronics, Central South Univer-
sity, Changsha 410083, China (e-mail: dlw626@163.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2017.2647807
1536-1225 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.
a decoupled dual-antenna consisting of two symmetric L-like
monopoles, a connecting line, and three slots was presented for
mobile terminals. In [6], a symmetrical dual-band antenna ar-
ray with high isolations using the neutralization technique was
proposed for terminal applications. In [7], a decoupled dual-
antenna system (comprising two groups of driven strips and
shorted strips, LC bandstop filters, and on-ground slots) incor-
porating a U-shaped neutralization line (NL) was proposed for
hepta-band smartphone applications. In [8], a decoupled dual-
antenna system using two crossed NLs with two embedded
inductors was proposed for LTE/WWAN smartphone applica-
tions. The above designs have some drawbacks, such as narrow
bandwidth, insufficient operating bands, and very complicated
overall antenna/decoupling structures. Also, GPS applications
at 1.575 GHz are not included in these designs. Typical polariza-
tion decoupling techniques, such as orthogonal radiation pattern
method [9], [10] and mode decoupling method [11], usually re-
quire large decoupled structure and, therefore, are not suitable
for smartphone applications.
This letter proposes a compact multiband decoupled dual-
antenna system for WWAN/LTE smartphone applications. The
operating bands with the measured S 11 lower than −6 dB are
740–965 and 1380—2703 MHz, covering all the GSM850/900,
GPS, DCS, PCS, UMTS, LTE2300/2500, and 2.4-GHz WLAN
bands. A particularly simple decoupling structure of the slotted
and protruded ground is used to not only reduce the coupling
between two closely spaced elements, but also expand the effec-
tive bandwidth. Design details of the dual-antenna system are
described, and results are presented to show the performance of
the proposed antenna.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
The overall geometry of our dual-antenna system is given
in Fig. 1(a). The antenna is printed on a 0.8-mm-thick FR4
substrate with a 4.4 relative permittivity and a 0.02 loss tangent.
The board is set as 95 × 60 mm2 , modeling the ground plane
of a 4.7-in smartphone in addition to metal antenna. Fig. 1(b)
and (c) shows that the antenna is composed of two groups of
mirror symmetrical bending structures, and each group includes
internal bending structure (bending structure 1) and external
bending structure (bending structure 2). The internal bending
structure is responsible for low-frequency excitation, and the
external bending structure mainly accounts for high-frequency
excitation. Note that both elements are printed on the front of
the substrate without vertically folded parts, which decreases
the complexity of antenna structure compared to designs in [5],
DONG et al.: DECOUPLED MULTIBAND DUAL-ANTENNA SYSTEM FOR WWAN/LTE SMARTPHONE APPLICATIONS 1529

Fig. 2. Photographs of the proposed dual-antenna system: (a) front and (b)
back.

Fig. 3. Simulated and measured S-parameters of the proposed antenna.

Fig. 1. Geometry and detailed dimensions (in mm) of the proposed dual-
antenna system: (a) General view, (b) main antenna structure, (c) bending
structures and detailed dimensions, and (d) decoupling structure and detailed
dimensions.

TABLE I
DIMENSIONS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA (UNIT: mm)

Parameter L W H T1 T2 C1 C2 W1
Value 95 60 0.8 15 3 14 2 4
Fig. 4. Comparisons of simulated S 1 1 for the proposed antenna: (a) the case
Parameter W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9
with only bending structure 1; and (b) the case with only bending structure 2.
Value 5 17.5 25 18.5 2 10 18 26
Parameter W10 W11 Wi Wj L1 L2 L3 L4 simulated and measured results. The measured impedance band-
Value 25 28 0.4 1 1.5 3 4 2.6
Parameter L5 L6 L7 L8 L9 width with S11 < −6 dB is observed to cover the GSM850/900,
Value 1 8 1 4.5 10.5 GPS, DCS, PCS, UMTS, LTE2300/2500, and 2.4-GHz WLAN
bands. The proposed antenna provides wider bandwidth and
more useful bands with respect to similar antennas in [4]–[7].
[7], and [8]. Fig. 1(d) shows the decoupling structure on the The S21 curve is also observed to be below −10 dB over all
back of the antenna, consisting of a protruded stub and two the desired bands. Compared to the antennas in [7] and [8], our
rectangular slots. The ingenious combination of the two kinds design achieves similar S-parameter results by using much sim-
of structures can not only reduce the coupling, but also expand pler overall antenna structure and decoupling structure. For fur-
the effective bandwidth. Each element is connected to a 50-Ω ther analysis, we illustrate the proposed antenna from the fol-
coaxial feedline at the feeding point. The finally chosen sizes of lowing three aspects.
our antenna are summarized in Table I.
A. Structure Analysis
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION To illustrate the effect of bending structures 1 and 2 on gen-
The proposed dual-antenna system was fabricated and tested, erating the operating bands, Fig. 4 gives simulated S 11 results
as shown in Fig. 2. The simulated results are obtained by An- for the proposed antenna with only bending structure 1 and with
soft HFSS 13, and the measured results are obtained by using an only bending structure 2, respectively. It is observed that bend-
Anritsu 37347D vector network analyzer and an anechoic cham- ing structure 1 is mainly responsible for low-frequency excita-
ber. Fig. 3 gives the simulated and measured S-parameters of tion (0.74–1.00 GHz), and bending structure 2 mainly accounts
the proposed antenna, indicating a good agreement between the for high-frequency excitation (1.57–2.80 GHz). Compared to
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Fig. 5. Simulated S 2 1 of the proposed antenna without decoupling structure.
Fig. 6. Simulated surface current distributions of the dual-antenna system
(left) without decoupling structure and (right) with decoupling structure (right)
at (a) 0.85 and (b) 1.9 GHz.
antenna designs in [6]–[8], the proposed dual-antenna system
realizes all the desired bands by using much simpler antenna
structure.
Fig. 5 gives the S21 results of the antenna without decoupling
structure, showing higher than −10-dB coupling at most
desired bands. In order to further explain the effect of decou-
pling structure on reducing the coupling between elements,
Fig. 6 shows the surface current distributions of the proposed
dual-antenna system without decoupling structure (left) and
with decoupling structure (right) at the lower band (0.85 GHz)
and higher band (1.9 GHz). For each case, only Element 1
is incited, and Element 2 is terminated by a matching load.
As given in Fig. 6, the addition of the slotted and protruded
ground modifies the current distributions on the system ground
and Element 1, and the induced surface current density on
Element 2 is reduced with lower coupling. Compared to
decoupling structures using NLs and slots/inductors in [7] and
[8], the proposed decoupling structure is much simpler and,
therefore, avoids complex tuning and optimization process.
Also, the surface current distributions in the right part of
Fig. 6 illustrate the effect of the two bending structures on
generating different operating bands. Specifically, at 0.85 GHz,
the currents are mainly concentrated on bending structure 1;
at 1.9 GHz, the currents are mainly concentrated on bending
structure 2. This confirms the preceding analysis in Fig. 4.
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 16, 2017
Fig. 7. Simulated S 1 1 for the antenna as a function of H , the thickness of the
substrate.
Fig. 8. Simulated S 1 1 for the antenna (a) as a function of W i , the width of
bending part of bending structure 1, and (b) as a function of W j , the width of
bending part of bending structure 2.
B. Parametric Study
Due to the small space of mobile phone, the performance of
the antenna is sensitive to parameter changes. To illustrate the
effects of the critical parameters on the operating bands, a para-
metric study is given in this section. Keeping all the other pa-
rameters unchanged, the effect of the thickness of the substrate,
H, on the return loss is given in Fig. 7. It can be seen from Fig.
7 that the frequency bands shift toward lower frequency as H
increases from 0.6 to 1 mm. Considering the coverage of both
the lower and higher bands, the value of H = 0.8 mm is chosen
as an optimum.
Fig. 8 shows the simulated S11 as functions of Wi and Wj .
In Fig. 8(a), as Wi varies from 0.3 to 0.5 mm, the results verify
the expectation that the lower band is mainly determined by
Wi . In order to maximize the total bandwidth, Wi is chosen
to be 0.4 mm as the optimum. In Fig. 8(b), as Wj varies from
0.8 to 1.2 mm, the results verify the expectation that the higher
band is mainly determined by Wj . In order to maximize the
total bandwidth, Wj is chosen to be 1 mm as the optimum.
The results obviously show that the lower and higher bands of the
antenna can be effectively controlled by tuning the parameters
of the bending structures 1 and 2.
Fig. 9 gives S-parameters for the proposed antenna as func-
tions of T1 , the height of the protruded stub of the decoupling
structure. It can be seen from the figure that as T1 increases from
13 to 15 mm, the results of both S11 and S12 are improved. When
T1 = 15 mm (i.e., the exact distance from the top of the main
ground plane to the top of the substrate), the antenna exhibits
the optimum performance in terms of the decoupling and effec-
DONG et al.: DECOUPLED MULTIBAND DUAL-ANTENNA SYSTEM FOR WWAN/LTE SMARTPHONE APPLICATIONS 1531

Fig. 9. Simulated S-parameters as functions of T 1 , the height of the protruded

stub of the decoupling structure. Fig. 11. Measured antenna peak gain and total efficiency of the proposed
dual-antenna system.

TABLE II
COMPARISON OF ELECTRICAL PARAMETERS AMONG DIFFERENT WORKS

Works Gain (dBi) Efficiency Operating Isolation

Bands (MHz)

Ban et al. [4] – > 40% 824–960, −12

1710–2170
Huang and Wu 1.2–4.2 55%–85% 1710–2720 −15
[5]
Peng et al. [6] −1.6–2.2 – 890–960, −30
1700–2200
Ban et al. [7] – > 43% 824–960, −10
1710–2840
Wang and Du [8] −1.79–3.75 29.63%–61.73% 702–968, −10
1698–2216,
2264–3000
Proposed 0.764–4.505 40%–67.2% 740–965, −10
1380–2703

TABLE III
DIVERSITY PERFORMANCE OF THE PROPOSED DUAL-ANTENNA SYSTEM

Frequency/GHz ρe 1 2 MEG1 /dBi MEG2 /dBi DG(1%)/dB

0.85 0.318 −6.51 −6.38 9.86

1.9 0.065 −4.93 −4.79 9.73
2.4 0.026 −6.66 −6.54 9.91

The measured peak realized gain results range from 0.764 to

Fig. 10. Radiation patterns for (left) Element 1 and (right) Element 2 at
different frequencies.
tive bandwidth. In summary, the proposed decoupling structure
can not only reduce the coupling between two closely spaced
elements, but also expand the effective bandwidth.
C. Radiation Characteristics and Diversity Performance
Fig. 10 presents the simulated and measured radiation patterns
in the three principal planes for Elements 1 and 2 at 0.85, 1.9,
and 2.4 GHz, showing a good agreement between simulated and
measured results. At the lower band, dipole-like radiation pat-
terns are observed, while at the higher bands, some variations in
the patterns are observed. Also, some complementary character-
istics for the two element patterns are observed at the same fre-
quency, indicating pattern diversity ability for combating mul-
tipath fading. The measured peak realized gain and the total
efficiency of our dual-antenna system are presented in Fig. 11.
1.215 dBi at the lower band and from 2.212 to 4.505 dBi at the
higher band. The proposed antenna provides higher gain results
than those in [8] partly because the two crossed NLs between
elements in [8] occupy a large space and, therefore, reduce the
effective size of antenna elements. The measured total efficiency
is about 40%–53.2% at the lower band and about 40.7%–67.2%
at the higher band. Table II presents a comprehensive com-
parison between our proposed dual-antenna and some typical
reported designs [4]–[8]. Note that most electrical parameters
of the proposed antenna are close to or better than those of typ-
ical reported works, which demonstrate the superiority of our
proposed antenna. By further reducing the losses of the substrate
and the feedline, the improved efficiency could be expected.
In order to assess the diversity performance of our proposed
dual-antenna system, some important parameters are evaluated
using 3-D radiation pattern method [12] and summarized in
Table III, including the envelope correlation coefficient ρe12
(ECC), mean effective gain (MEG), and diversity gain (DG).
The results show that the proposed dual-antenna system obtains
1532
good diversity performance over all the desired bands with low
correlation (ρe12 < 0.5), comparable average received power
(|MEG1 /MEG2 | < 3 dB), and high DG.
IV. CONCLUSION
A compact printed multiband decoupled dual-antenna system
is proposed. The dual-antenna system consists of two groups of
symmetrical bending structures and uses the slotted and pro-
truded ground to reduce the coupling between elements. The
simple structure makes it easy for the antenna to be printed on
the top portion of smartphone system circuit board with an area
of 60 × 15 mm2 . The measured bandwidth of the antenna cov-
ers the GSM850/900, GPS, DCS, PCS, UMTS, LTE2300/2500,
and 2.4-GHz WLAN bands. The isolation between elements is
better than 10 dB within the operating bands. The calculated
results show that a good diversity performance is achieved for
the proposed dual antenna, which makes the antenna suitable
for WWAN/LTE smartphone applications.
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