A Surface-Mountable Electrically Small Antenna for Sub-6 GHz 5G (NR) Bands for Handheld Devices

This letter introduces a novel electrically small antenna (ESA) with an inductive–capacitive resonator (LC-R) design tailored for compact handheld devices such as dongles, routers, tablets, and mobile handsets. The ESA integrates an LC resonator parasitically with the driven element to achieve a dual-band/wideband response in sub-6 GHz 5G new radio (NR) bands. Its key innovation is independence from device printed circuit board (PCB) size, maintaining matched impedance without external matching circuits. The fabricated prototype achieves impedance bandwidths (VSWR < 2) of 27.78% [(3.15 GHz to 4.15) GHz] and 20.77% [(4.4 GHz to 5.42) GHz] for 5G NR bands n77/n78/n79. Impedance performance is further validated on various PCB sizes, highlighting its versatility for wireless handheld applications.