Dual Band Antenna for Mobile Communications

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to antennas, and more particularly, to a dual band antenna for mobile communications.

2. Description of the Related Art

With the rapid progress of mobile communications, the capacity of existing systems is becoming saturated, and thus, new systems are being developed at new frequencies to enhance capacity. Accordingly, the interrelationship between existing and new systems must be taken into consideration in the design of mobile communications equipment. For mobile communications antennas, major design concerns are power efficiency and effective use of frequency.

In practice, it is desirable in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) to interlink the existing CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) system with the new PCS (Personal Communication System) system, in the U.S.A. to interlink the existing AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service) system with the PCS system, and in Europe to interlink the existing GSM (Groupe Speciale Mobile) system with the DCS (Digital Communication System) 1800 system. Generally, a "dual band system" is a system that allows for communications within two different systems at different frequency bands, such as in above examples. It is desirable to manufacture communications equipment capable of operating within dual band systems.

Heretofore, each radio telephone terminal in the dual band systems are provided with two separate miniature antennas for two different bands, which results in increased production cost. Also, the use of two antennas for this purpose is an obstacle to the miniaturization of the radio telephone terminal, and results in an inconvenience to the user. For these reasons, it is required to develop a dual band antenna capable of being used for both bands.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,056 discloses a multi-frequency antenna employing a tuned sleeve choke. Referring to FIG. 1, an antenna of the type disclosed in that patent is shown. This antenna operates effectively in a system in which the frequency ratio between operating frequencies is 1.25 or higher. The internal conductor 10 connected to coaxial feed line 2 and the sleeve choke 12i act as a radiating element. The feed point of sleeve choke 12i is short-circuited and the other end thereof is open. The lengths of conductor 10 and sleeve choke 12i are designed so as to achieve maximum efficiency at a desired frequency.

The choke 12i is partially filled with dielectric material 16i that is dimensioned so that the choke forms a quarter wavelength transmission line and prevents coupling between the shell 14i and the extension 10 at the open end of the choke at the highest frequency. At some lower frequency of operation, the choke 12i becomes ineffective as an isolation element and the entire length P of the structure from the ground plane to the end of the conductor, becomes a monopole antenna at the lower resonant frequency.

The coupling between conductor 10 and sleeve choke 12i occurs at the open end of sleeve choke 12i. That is, when the length ##EQU1## the choke acts as a high impedance, whereby the coupling between conductor 10 and sleeve choke 12i is minimal. When ##EQU2## the choke acts as a low impedance, whereby the coupling between conductor 10 and choke 12i is higher. The electrical length of choke 12i can be adjusted by varying the dielectric constant of dielectric material 16i.

The construction consisting of internal and external conductors 10, 14i is regarded as coaxial transmission, and its characteristic impedance is expressed as follows: ##EQU3## where .di-elect cons..sub.r is dielectric constant, D is the diameter of the external conductor, and d is the diameter of the internal conductor. The input impedance between internal and external conductors 10, 14i is denoted by the following equation: ##EQU4## where .gamma.=.alpha.+j.beta., .alpha. is attenuation factor, .beta. is propagation constant, l is length of transmission line, and Z.sub.L is load impedance.

In the antenna of FIG. 1, the ground plate 20 and external conductor 14i are structurally adjacent to each other, thereby causing parasitic capacitance which degrades the antenna efficiency. To improve the antenna efficiency, the parasitic capacitance can be decreased. Accordingly, in the construction of FIG. 1, the diameter of external conductor 14i must be reduced for this purpose, which is ultimately the same as the reduction of characteristic impedance of choke 12i according to the above equation (1). That is, such reduction in the characteristic impedance of choke 12i gives rise to a change in the amount of coupling, resulting in a degradation of the antenna's performance.

Thus, to minimally affect the amount of coupling and to keep the characteristic impedance of choke 12i essentially the same as it was previously (i.e., before the diameter of conductor 14i changed), the diameter of internal conductor 10 must be reduced. This results in a reduction in the antenna's bandwidth. Therefore, when the antenna is manufactured in such a manner, the same cannot satisfactorily cover the frequency bandwidth required for the system.

Further, since the dielectric material is employed to adjust the quantity of coupling, the dielectric constant and the dimension of the dielectric material must be accurately selected for proper coupling.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a dual band antenna with improved performance and bandwidth, by minimizing parasitic capacitance between a ground plane and an external conductor thereof.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a dual band antenna which has a simple and compact structure and high performance.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a dual band antenna which is inexpensive and convenient to use.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a dual band antenna for mobile communications includes a rod-shaped radiating element having a first portion of a predetermined length connected to a coaxial feed line, and a second portion of a specified length integrally extending from the first portion. The coaxial feed line connects to a ground plate, and a first capacitive load connects to the first portion of the radiating element. A choke surrounds the second portion of the radiating element, and has a shorting end connected to a distal end of the second portion and an open end at a proximal end of the second portion. A second capacitive load is connected at the shorting end of the choke. In a higher operating band of the dual band, the input impedance of the choke is high, such that only the first (lower) portion of the radiating element radiates. At a lower operating band of the dual band, the choke's input impedance is lower to allow for radiation from the entire length of the antenna.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a monopole antenna operating at dual frequencies according to a conventional embodiment of multi-frequency antenna employing tuned sleeve chokes;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view illustrating the construction of a dual band antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIGS. 3A and 3B are circuit diagrams illustrating equivalent circuits of the antennas of FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively.

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the drawings attached only be way of example. It is to be noted that like reference numerals and characters used in the accompanying drawings refer to like constituent elements.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an antenna in accordance with the invention includes a choke 35 formed as a metal pipe, with the lower end of the choke being open. A rod-shaped radiating element 33 is positioned within choke 35, with an upper end of radiating element 33 being connected to an upper end of the choke (short-circuited end). The open circuited end of choke 35 is approximately at a distance L1 from ground plane 20. A lower end of radiating element 33 is connected to internal conductor 8 of coaxial feed line 2. A capacitive load 36 is connected to the short-circuited end portion of choke 35. Another capacitive load 37 is connected to radiating element 33 at a specified distance downward from the open-end of choke 35.

Capacitive load 36 can be either a coaxial cylinder or a parallel wire or wires. In the embodiment of FIG. 2, capacitive load 36 is symmetrical with respect to radiating element 33; however, it may alternatively be asymmetrical with respect to the radiating element in other embodiments. The provision of capacitive loads 36, 37 permits the overall antenna length to be shorter than the physical length of the well-known quarter-wave monopole antenna.

Since the impedance of choke 35 (in conjunction with the radiating element 33 inserted therein) changes as a function of frequency, this characteristic can be advantageously used to enable the antenna of FIG. 2 to operated simultaneously in two different frequency bands. For instance, choke 35 can be designed with a length of .gamma./4 at the center frequency of a high frequency band, e.g., 1,700-1,990 MHz such that only the first portion of radiating element 33 radiates in the high band. At a low enough frequency, the entire antenna of length L2 radiates.

The input impedance Zin at the choke 35 input terminal at the high frequency band is determined in accordance with the above equation (2). Zin can also be expressed by the following equation (3) because the load impedance Z.sub.L is a short-circuit:

If the attenuation factor .alpha. is ignored (i.e., .alpha.=0), Zin is denoted by the following equation (4):

where .beta. is the propagation constant "2.pi./.lambda.".

By using eqn. (4), the input impedance Zin when 1=.lambda./4 can be expressed by the following equation (5):

As the calculation result above indicates, the input impedance of choke 35 in the higher frequency band becomes almost infinite, whereby only the lower portion (hereinafter referred to as "first portion") of radiating element 33 below the open-end of choke 35 radiates. The remaining portion of radiating element 33, i.e., the portion inserted into choke 35 (hereinafter referred to as the "second portion" of the radiating element) does not radiate when the choke input impedance is very high, which is preferably the case within the higher frequency band. As a result, in the high frequency band, the antenna of FIG. 2 operates as a .lambda./4 monopole antenna having a length of L1 (assuming that the length L1 is selected to correspond to about .lambda./4 at a frequency within the higher frequency band). In the lower frequency band of the dual band, the choke 35 input impedance is lower, whereby choke 35 and radiating element 33 are electrically coupled. Thus, in the lower band, the antenna operates as a 1/4 wavelength monopole antenna having a length of L2 (assuming that the length L2 is selected to correspond to about .lambda./4 at a frequency within the lower frequency band). As mentioned above, the capacitive loading of loads 36 and 37 will affect the exact lengths selected for L1 and L2.

In the following discussion, examples are presented illustrating the variation, as a function of frequency, of the input impedance of choke 35 within the antenna of FIG. 2 for specific frequencies. As a first example, the impedance variation within the PCS frequency band of Korea Telecom is expressed by the following equation 6:

where Fhmin and Fhmax are the minimum and maximum frequencies, respectively, within the band.

Since the characteristic impedance Zc of choke 35 is governed by the above eqn. (1), the characteristic impedance is calculated by substituting the actual value in eqn. (1), resulting in the following eqn.(7):

Therefore, the amount of input impedance variation at frequencies in the above PCS frequency band can be expressed by the following eqn. (8):

As calculated above, since the input impedance Zin is high, the choke 35 does not operate as a radiating element in the higher frequency band.

Next, the input impedance Zin at the input terminal of choke 35 in the CDMA (800 MHz) frequency band is calculated as the following equation (9):

where Flmin and Flmax are the lowest and highest frequencies, respectively, within the band.

As a result, in the lower frequency band, the choke 35 and the radiating element 33 are coupled, such that the entire length L2 of the antenna radiates. Thus, if L2 is selected to correspond to a quarter wavelength at a frequency within the lower frequency band, the antenna acts as a quarter wavelength monopole antenna.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, since the choke 35 is separated from coaxial feed line 2 and ground plate 20 by a significant distance, e.g., by about the distance corresponding to .lambda./4 at the center of the higher frequency band, the effect of parasitic capacitance is thereby reduced. Also, the diameter d1 of radiating element 33 can be made larger than the diameter d of the antenna shown in FIG. 1, thereby allowing for a wider operating bandwidth as compared to that prior art antenna.

With reference now to FIGS. 3A and 3B, there are shown lumped element equivalent circuits for the antennas of FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively. The coupling between radiating element 33 and choke 35 is a function of the shown capacitor and inductor, and the radiating element 33 is divided into first and second portions with the parallel LC resonant circuit in between.

Since the above-described antenna of the present invention has a broad bandwidth, the same single antenna can be used within a dual band system such as GSM/DECT, GSM/DCS1800, AMPS, or CDMA(824 MHz-894 MHz/PCS systems. In addition, the above-described antenna can be used for dual bands in which the separation between the upper and lower frequency bands is not an integer multiple of 1/4 wavelength. For this case, the antenna can be designed via appropriate selection of lengths for the first and second portions of the radiating element, and tuning can be effected by using appropriate upper and lower capacitance loadings.

It will be readily appreciated that an antenna manufactured in accordance with the present invention has the advantage of a simple and compact structure with high performance, while being easy to manufacture, inexpensive and convenient to use.

As described above, although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the specific embodiment, it must be in no way construed as a limitation of the invention itself, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many changes and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims cover all such changes and modifications which fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention.