Single Ring Slot-Based Antennas for Metal-Rimmed 4G/5G Smartphones

In this paper, multiband antennas based on a single ring slot are proposed for 4G/5G smartphone applications. The basic structure of the antenna is consisted of a large metal ground and an unbroken metal rim, in which a single 2 mm-wide ring slots is realized between the metal ground and rim. Here, a reconfigurable 4G antenna (820-960 and 1710-2690 MHz) is initially devised by loading multiple grounded stubs and a simple dc controlling circuit with varactor diode into the upper section of the ring slot. To further cover the sub-6 GHz spectrum (3400-3600 MHz) for future 5G communications, a four-element multi-input multi-output (MIMO) slot antennas configuration is designed by utilizing the lower section of the ring slot. A prototype antenna was fabricated, and good agreement is shown between the measured and simulated results. Due to the advantages such as multiband operation, MIMO configuration for 5G communications, high isolation, and compact structure, the proposed antenna design is attractive for 4G/5G smartphones.