Antennas are our electronic eyes and ears on the world. They play a very important role in mobile networks, satellite communications system, military communications, radars and electronic warfare by transforming a Radiofrequency ( RF) signal, traveling on a conductor, into an electromagnetic wave in free space and vice versa. The RF current flowing through the antenna produce electromagnetic waves which radiate into the atmosphere.
The first radio antennas were built by Heinrich Hertz, a professor at the Technical institute in Karlsruhe, Germany. Since then many varieties of antennas have proliferated including dipoles/monopoles, loop antennas, slot/horn antennas, reflector antennas, microstrip antennas, log periodic antennas, helical antennas, dielectric/lens antennas and frequency-independent antennas have been . Each category possesses inherent benefits that make them more or less suitable for particular applications.
Antennas for cellular phones and all types of wireless devices link us to everyone and everything.The main objective in designing antenna system for mobile devices is that that can operate for all existing band of mobile phone from 2G to 4G, and also for extension band planned for 5G communications.
The shrinking of mobiles is demanding miniaturization of the antenna as much as possible while preserving the efficiency. The numerous advantages of planar or microstrip antenna, such as its low weight, small volume, and ease of fabrication using printed circuit technology, led to the design of several configurations for various personal and mobile applications.
The miniaturization is also needed because it will enable to integrate multiple antennas in a device to support MIMO schemes. Multiple transmit and multiple receive (MIMO) antennas has emerged as one of the most significant technical breakthroughs in next generation wireless communications. MIMO is the use of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver to improve communication performance.
Wearable applications require antennas and electronic devices to be embedded into clothing. Generally they need to be small, lightweight, conformal, and reliable. A widely studied approach to meet these requirements is fabrication of antennas from electrically conductive textiles (e-textiles).
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