1026 PIERS Proceedings, Stockholm, Sweden, Aug.

1215, 2013

A Reconfigurable Miniaturized Spiral Monopole Antenna for TV

White Spaces
M. Y. Abou Shahine1 , M. Al-Husseini2 , Y. Nasser1 ,
K. Y. Kabalan1 , and A. El-Hajj1
1
American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon
2
Lebanese Center for Studies and Research, Beirut 2030 8303, Lebanon

Abstract This paper presents a novel design of a reconfigurable miniaturized planar spiral
monopole antenna suitable for TVWS applications. The proposed antenna is designed on a FR4
epoxy substrate fed by a microstrip line over a partial ground plane. This antenna, designed
for the high frequency of the UHF band (600800 MHz), operates with 1 dB transmission gain.
By inserting a tunable inductor on the spiral monople and modifying its inductance, frequency
reconfigurability is attained, and the antenna can operate at different bands in the 600800 MHz
range. These bands range between 15 to 20 MHz which is suitable for TVWS applications.

1. INTRODUCTION
TV white spaces (TVWS) refer to the unused portions of the spectrum in the TV band, freed up
by the transition from analogue to digital TV broadcasting, which can be used for new services
and applications [1]. TVWS have very interesting benefits where radio signals in the 470790 MHz
spectral bandwidth, have a very long range. This implies a lower cost for networks deployment since
fewer base stations are needed to provide the same coverage with excellent building penetration
properties. Another benefit in this un-used frequency range resides in its spectrum organization:
huge, free, unlicensed and globally harmonized [2]. In 2008, the Federal Communications Commis-
sion FCC has adopted rules to allow unlicensed use of TV white space. This leads to important
innovation in the UHF band and provides long distance broadband access to rural areas with limited
coverage [3].
Due to the increasing interest in the TVWS applications, several antennas have been recently
designed to operate in the UHF band, including ones with broadband operation, i.e., designed
to operate in the entire UHF band [47], and other designs with narrowband but reconfigurable
operation [810]. The compact broadband monopole slot antenna reported in [4] exhibits a wide
bandwidth (4601000 MHz) to be used in digital TV applications by using a feed-in space and a
straight gap. A pair of slot lines is adopted in order to minimize the antenna size, and this can
accomplish good impedance matching at the UHF band. In [5], a broadband miniaturized antenna
providing a wide operating bandwidth for Digital TV (DTV) signal reception in the UHF band in
mobile handheld devices is designed using eight quarter-wavelength slots with a compact size. The
asymmetric fork-like monopole antenna for digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) signal
reception for application in the UHF band is presented in [6]. The proposed antenna consists
of two two-branch strip monopoles on a rectangular ground plane with a concave which results
in a wide bandwidth of 461 MHz (451912 MHz). In [7], an internal antenna for Digital Video
Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) service is designed having a size suitable for a mobile handset
and having enough bandwidth to cover the whole DVB-H (470 MHz702 MHz) band. However, and
to reduce bandwidth, researchers moved to design reconfigurable narrowband inverted F-Antennas
to operate in the whole UHF band. This meander antenna dedicated to the mobile TV in [8] uses
PIN diodes inserted in different points of the radiating element to dynamically cover the frequency
UHF band. In [9], a compact low cost inverted F antenna dedicated to the DVB-H (470862 MHz)
is designed. This antenna is suitable to small mobile devices and the operating frequency is tuned
with a varactor diode component. A frequency-tunable Inverted F-Antenna (IFA) for DVB-H
suitable for small mobile devices is reported in [10]. The operating frequency of the antenna is
tuned with a varactor component which loads the IFA element and thus enables it to resonate at
different frequencies. This kind of tunable narrowband antenna is suitable for DVB-H reception,
since one channel in a bandwidth of 8 MHz is received at a time.
In this paper, a miniaturized planar spiral monopole antenna is introduced to attain frequency
reconfigurability in the UHF band. The designed antenna operates in the higher part of the UHF
band (600800 MHz) and is suitable for TVWS applications. In this antenna, frequency reconfig-
urability is obtained by inserting a tunable inductor on the spiral monople. The geometry and
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Stockholm, Sweden, Aug. 12-15, 2013 1027

the design guidelines of the proposed antenna structures are presented in Section 2. Experimental
results are presented in Section 3. In Section 4 a brief conclusion is given.
2. ANTENNA STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
The configuration of the proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 1. It is based on the design presented
in [11]. A square spiral monopole antenna is designed on a 105 mm 40 mm FR4 epoxy substrate
of thickness h = 0.8 mm and fed by a 2vmm width microstrip line over a partial ground plane. The
size of the spiral structure is 50 mm 30 mm with a width of 1 mm and a gap of 5 mm between the
spirals as shown in Fig. 1.

Figure 1: Configuration and dimensions of the proposed antenna.

The spiral wire is used as a radiating element of the monopole antenna to minimize the size
of antenna. As a miniaturized radiating element, the meander line is widely employed. However,
the radiation power is reduced since the direction of the current on the meander line is opposite
for neighboring wire, therefore the antenna gain will be very low. In our design, the current in
the spiral structure is in the same direction for neighboring wire, thus the radiation efficiency is
enhanced and the gain is improved [11].
Frequency reconfigurability is obtained by inserting a tunable inductor (Chip Inductor-0603CT)
on the spiral monople as shown in Fig. 1 (red color) and modifying its inductance. This idea of
reconfigurability was used in [12]. The size of the tunable inductor is compatible with the size of
the spiral and its inductance ranges between 1 and 56 nH. The antenna is designed and simulated
using Ansoft HFSS.

Figure 2: Reflection coefficient of the antenna for different inductance values.

1028 PIERS Proceedings, Stockholm, Sweden, Aug. 1215, 2013

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The simulated reflection coefficient plots of the reconfigurable antenna are given in Fig. 2 for the
indicated inductance values. It is clear that frequency reconfigurability has been achieved. Consid-
ering four different values for the inductor, i.e., L = 1, 5, 10.5 and, 27 nH, frequency reconfigurability
is attained in the higher part of the UHF band (600800 MHz) and the antenna can operate at
different bands in this 600800 MHz range. These bands range between 15 to 20 MHz which is
suitable for TVWS applications.
The gain of the proposed antenna is given in Fig. 3. It is about 1 dB: a good gain given the small
size of this antenna. The radiation patterns of this antenna are omni-directional over its bands of
operation, as shown in Fig. 4, with almost equal radiation in the H-plane, and radiation with the
shape of digit 8 in the E-plane.

Figure 3: Simulated gain of the proposed antenna. Figure 4: Simulated radiation patterns of the pro-
posed antenna.

4. CONCLUSION
A reconfigurable miniaturized planar spiral monopole antenna suitable for TVWS applications is
proposed in this paper. Frequency reconfigurability is attained through inserting a tunable inductor
on the spiral monople and changing its inductance. This antenna can operate at different bands
which range between 15 to 20 MHz, in the 600800 MHz band, with omni-directional patterns and
an acceptable gain of 1 dB given the small size of the antenna. This bandwidth, the small and the
compact size of this antenna, and the frequency reconfigurability make this antenna a practical one
that can be used for TVWS applications.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research for support-
ing this research work.
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