Enhancing Smartphone Satellite Communication by an Antenna Booster

The top metal-frame antenna (TMFA) of a smartphone independently offers limited capacity for satellite communication. This paper proposes a novel antenna booster (AB) technical architecture to enhance channel capacity and communication quality. The AB suppresses the original radiation and redirects energy to a circularly polarized (CP) radiator, significantly enhancing the gain. The AB comprising a monopole coupler (MC) and a CP patch is designed and measured for feasibility verification. Testing on a real-world smartphone shows the proposed AB achieving an impedance bandwidth (IBW) of 18.7% (1.91 ~ 2.32 GHz) and an axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) of 17.6% (1.87 ~ 2.32 GHz). In the Tiantong satellite’s Tx and Rx bands, it attains a peak gain of 6.1 dBic and an efficiency over 52.9%. The smartphone’s CP gain increases by about 6 dB after installing the AB, indicating the feasibility of the architecture.