Novel Shorted Meander-Line USB Dongle Antenna with a Compact Ground Plane

This letter presents the design of a novel multiband USB dongle antenna with a compact ground plane. The radiating patch is composed of a modified meander-line monopole and a shorted loop to generate a dual-broadband resonance. The proposed antenna supports WiBro, Bluetooth, WLAN, WiMAX, and S-DMB services. The total dimensions of the fabricated antenna are 10 mm × 45 mm × 1 mm, the most compact size among multiband USB dongle antennas reported to date. The measured 10 dB reflection loss bandwidths are 20.8% (2.24 GHz to 2.76 GHz) and 20.2% (4.86 GHz to 5.95 GHz). The measured peak gain is 2.97 dBi, and efficiency is higher than 58%. In addition, the radiation pattern approximates an omnidirectional pattern. Keywords: Wireless USB dongle, multiband antenna, meander-line, loop element.