Compact and Broadband Antenna for LTE and Public Safety Applications

The antenna presented in this letter employs a stepped T-shape structure in combination with patch tapering and a capacitive feeding mechanism to obtain broad bandwidth (BW). This antenna is specifically designed to operate for US Public Safety (PS) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless communication bands covering 426-861 MHz (68% BW). The radiation pattern over this broad bandwidth remains almost unchanged with good gain flatness. The antenna has a compact three-dimensional structure with lateral dimensions being ~ 0.25 λ in length and height being ~ 0.01 λ at the lowest frequency of operation. The measured and simulated impedance and radiation characteristics results agree well, demonstrating the good performance of the broadband and compact antenna presented in this letter.