The influence of the user hand on mobile phone antenna performance in data mode

With the continuous trend to smaller mobile devices, the possible insufficient over-the-air (OTA) performance becomes a growing concern for service providers and phone manufacturers. In addition to reduced radiation efficiency, the hand may further impair the radiation performance. The influence due to the hand occurs not only in the talk mode (when the user is talking on the phone), but is also significant in the data mode (when the user is browsing or typing text with the phone). The aims of this paper are to investigate the influence on the antenna performance criteria of the position and grip of the hand on the phone in data mode to support the standardization process of the hand phantom, and to propose a method to analyze the influence due to the hand.