Microstrip Antennas for Laptops

Jerzy Guterman, António A. Moreira and Custódio Peixeiro

The use of omnidirectional microstrip patch antennas into laptops is described. The main topics of this work are:

• design of novel single and dual-band miniature microstrip antenna elements to be integrated along the laptop screen edges,
• investigation of radiator housing effects for different antenna locations,
• investigation of multi-antenna arrangements for MIMO enabled laptops (cooperation with the UCLA groups of Professor Michael Fitz and Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii),
• investigation of the antenna interaction with the laptop user (cooperation with Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii).

Seven antenna prototypes have been integrated into real laptops and tested. MIMO performance has been measured in a true MIMO testbed at the UCLA UnWired Laboratory.