Multiband antenna operation with a non-resonant element using a reconfigurable matching network

A small non-resonant antenna element (86.4mm³) is proposed for multiband operation in combination with a reconfigurable matching network. The non-resonant antenna element is in the corner of a ground plane, featuring representative dimensions (120 mm × 60 mm) of a wireless device such as a smartphone. Said reconfigurable matching network uses a variable capacitor implemented with MEMS technology having a small footprint of only 2 mm². A particular capacitance value is selected through a digital input allowing 32 states. For the present case, only four states are enough in order to cover the frequency range of 698MHz–960MHz up to 1710MHz–2690MHz. Measured average total efficiencies across the bands are above 40% making the solution attractive for multiband wireless devices.