This invention relates to antennas, and more particularly, to antennas that have shunt inductors at intervals along their lengths.
Antennas are widely used in modern electronic devices. For example, antennas are often used in portable electronic devices such as laptop computers and cellular telephones. Particularly in environments such as these, there is a premium placed on small size and high radiation efficiency. Antennas that are compact take up less space in a portable device than bulkier antennas, which allows a designer to enhance the portability of a device. Highly efficient antennas reduce the amount of battery drain that is imposed on a portable device.
It is sometimes desirable for an antenna to cover multiple frequency bands. This allows antenna hardware to be shared among multiple radio-frequency transceivers without providing too much antenna hardware in a device. Multiband antenna designs generally require antenna resonating structures that radiate over a wide range of frequencies or multiple radiators.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide antennas that cover one or more communications band without consuming too much space in an electronic device such as a portable electronic device.