Microstrip antennas for mobile communications

A quarter-wave dipole antenna is typically used in portable transceivers of cellular personal communications systems. As a result of an omnidirectional radiation pattern of such an antenna a considerable part of the emitted power is absorbed by a user´s body, especially by the head. Small handset antennas with a relatively wide bandwidth and minimized radiation pattern towards the user´s head are presented in this paper. Two types of microstrip antennas i.e. dipole and patch antennas are considered. The results of experiments confirm that compromise between the requirements for radiation pattern and human head protection is possible and consequently, such types of antennas can be used effectively for mobile communications.