Compact planar antennas for short-range wireless automotive communication

This paper describes several small printed circuit board planar antennas that can be integrated with amplifiers for short-range vehicle wireless communication. The antennas are designed for the 315-MHz frequency band, which is commonly used for control and security devices in the USA and Canada. Each antenna has dimensions of 50 /spl times/ 70 mm (much less than the free-space wavelength /spl lambda/=0.95 m) and is implemented on FR-4 dielectric substrate. These investigated antennas were compared with respect to input impedance, radiation resistance, radiation efficiency, directivity, directionality, bandwidth, matching system complexity, and gain. This paper also includes experimental verification of the final antenna design in the vehicle. It is shown that the antenna diversity method can increase communication range for remote keyless entry systems.