MIMO ANTENNAS FOR MOBILE HANDSET AND TABLET APPLICATIONS.

Abstract

The fast development of wireless communication technologies is pressing the antenna engineers to investigate and design compact multiband antennas for the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, which is the key technology for the next generation of mobile communications. The growing increase in the demand for transmitting and exchanging large volume data, such as multimedia and interactive materials is constantly fueling the need for higher data rates. MIMO systems have demonstrated the capability to increase channel capacity, with a simultaneous increase in range and reliability, without taking any additional bandwidth thus resulting in improved data throughput. However, the performance of a MIMO system is highly dependent on the nature of its propagation environment and the placement of antennas on device platform. The true benefits of MIMO can be exploited through a smart design that can adapt with changing system requirements or environmental conditions. This research project has investigated the methods to make multiband MIMO and multiband reconfigurable antennas on small mobile terminals with high communication performance. This involves the methods for avoiding coupling between multiple antennas and possible tuning of the antennas for next generation mobile handsets. The aim of this work is to develop MIMO and reconfigurable antennas for wireless terminals such as mobile handsets and tablets. The project is divided in two phases with the first phase involving the development of multiband MIMO antennas for handheld terminals and the second phase involves the design of reconfigurable antenna for mobile handsets. Several prototypes of handset antennas, capable of covering various cellular frequency bands, have been developed. The research involves a substantial work on theoretical analysis, computer simulation and experimental verification.