Antenna design considerations for LTE enabled tablets

Long-term evolution (LTE) is a series of wireless communication standards that provides a roadmap for integrating several innovative technologies. These technologies offer the flexibility to operate at frequencies ranging from 400 to 4000 MHz and utilize multiple antennas on both ends of the wireless channel to support high data rate 4G applications. Primary design challenges include maintaining suitable performance characteristics (i.e. reflection coefficient, isolation, mean effective gain (MEG) and envelope correlation coefficient (ECC)) for miniaturized multi-band antennas. In addition, optimal multiport matching networks can be integrated to improve performance. Finally, specific absorption rate (SAR) must meet FCC guidelines pertaining to LTE enabled mobile devices. This paper demonstrates an effective workflow to overcome these complicated and often conflicting challenges.