Active inverted-F antenna on side of small conducting plate

The digital terrestrial television broadcasting service is due to start this year in Japan. For the antenna of a portable TV, a small sized antenna is desired. The inverted-F antenna is used in mobile communication terminals, such as cellular phones, due to its small size and ease of design and fabrication. The characteristics of this antenna may be affected by conducting materials in the vicinity of the antenna. Therefore, in the design of such antenna, the existence of surrounding material must be considered. We analyze, numerically and experimentally, the active inverted-F antenna (AIFA) mounted on the side of a rectangular conducting plate of 182 mm by 18 mm at the digital television frequency band. The AIFA and CPW are printed on a PCB. The antenna is fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW) printed on the conducting plate. The small conducting plate is located parallel to a B5-sized (182 mm by 252 mm) conducting plate. The electromagnetic simulator IE3D is used for the analysis of the antenna. The antenna is promising as the antenna of a digital terrestrial television receiver.