KR20020095045A - Antenna device, portable radio communication apparatus and methods related thereto - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An antenna device, a portable radio communication device and a method related thereto are provided to simplify the configuration of the antenna device, while reducing the manufacturing cost and power consumption. CONSTITUTION: An antenna device comprises a dielectric substrate(20); and a conductive antenna element(25) adapted to transmit radio waves in a predetermined frequency range. The conductive antenna element is arranged on the dielectric substrate, and includes a feed line connected to the output of a power amplifier(23) of a portable radio communication device. The power amplifier is fed with a radio frequency signal during use. The conductive antenna element is adapted to substantially damp the harmonics of the radio frequency signal output from the power amplifier such that the output of the power amplifier does not need a discrete filter.

Description

ANTENNA DEVICE, PORTABLE RADIO COMMUNICATION APPARATUS AND METHODS RELATED THERETO

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications devices, and more particularly to antenna devices used in such portable wireless communications devices, such portable wireless communications devices, and methods thereof.

Referring to FIG. 1, a high frequency front end of a portable radio communication apparatus according to the prior art includes a transmitter unit Tx and a receiver unit Rx separated from each other.

The transmitter section Tx includes an input 1 for receiving a radio frequency signal from a transmission circuit (including a mixer) of the radio communication device. The input 1 is connected to a power amplifier (PA) 3 for amplifying a radio frequency signal. The power amplifier 3 is connected to a transmitting antenna 4 which transmits an amplified RF signal and emits RF waves in response to the signal. Between the power amplifier output and the transmit antenna, a low pass filter 6 is arranged which is adapted to suppress or remove high frequency components from the power amplifier 3 and optionally the mixer 2 if not yet removed.

The receiver section Rx comprises a receiving antenna structure 7 which receives an RF wave and generates an RF signal in response thereto. The antenna structure 7 is connected to a filter 8 for bandpass filtering the received signal. The filtered signal is output at 11 which is provided to a low noise amplifier (LNA) 9 which amplifies the received signal and is connected to a receiving circuit of a wireless communication device (including a mixer which downconverts the signal to a baseband frequency signal). .

The filter 8 is a SAW filter, i.e. an electric filter using surface acoustic wave technology, which needs to achieve basic selectivity, protect the low noise amplifier and offset the noise and out of band signals.

Moreover, one of the components of the front end, i.e., the transmit (4) and receive (7) antennas, the filters (6, 8), the power amplifier (3), and the low noise amplifier (9) are input and output to match the adopted criteria. And / or an output impedance matching circuit Z.

If the transmit and receive branches are not separated, the duplex filter or switch needs to manually separate the other direction of transmission.

Due to the large size of the filters, in particular SAW filters, it is difficult to integrate and / or miniaturize the front end components on a single chip.

Moreover, integration and / or miniaturization of front end components is further complicated because most components have additional impedance matching circuits for matching 50 ohm input and output. For example, power amplifiers typically have an optimal output impedance of 5 Ω and thus require separate circuits to match continuous circuits. This additional circuitry increases both the size and the cost of the portable wireless communication device. Moreover, this circuit introduces additional losses for the signal on the transmission line.

One object of the present invention is to provide an antenna device for use in a portable radio communication device which is simpler than a conventional antenna device and uses fewer components, and which can be directly connected to the output of a power amplifier and / or to the input of a low noise amplifier. It is.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an antenna device which is easy to manufacture and assemble and which is inexpensive.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an antenna device which takes up less space than conventional devices.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an antenna device that provides a minimum loss when used in a portable wireless communication device.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an antenna device that provides an optimum impedance match for a power amplifier or low noise amplifier.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a portable wireless communication device such as a mobile telephone comprising an antenna device which achieves the above objects.

These and other objects are in accordance with the present invention obtained by an antenna device and a portable wireless communication device, which are defined by the appended claims.

Antenna element, preferably by providing a printed antenna pattern for transmission that exhibits good antenna characteristics at the frequency to be used and operates as a low pass filter for efficiently suppressing any harmonics present at the fundamental frequency. Can be used in a portable wireless communication device and is directly connected to the power amplifier. Thus, there is no need for a separate or discrete low pass filter to filter the output from the power amplifier.

Moreover, the antenna element can be modified to obtain an input impedance matched to the output impedance of the power amplifier (or any reflection coefficient measuring device connected downstream of the power amplifier). Obviously, this impedance need not be standardized to 50Ω, but rather can be any impedance, in particular an impedance that minimizes the need for a matching circuit.

By providing an antenna element, preferably a printed antenna pattern for reception, which exhibits good antenna characteristics at the frequencies to be used and which at the same time acts as a bandpass filter for pre-filtering the received signal. A high quality discrete band pass filter, such as a SAW filter, can be used in a portable wireless communication device to be able to connect to the output of a low noise amplifier (instead of conventional connection of the filter in front of the input of the low noise amplifier). Thus, the antenna element can be connected directly to the input of the low noise amplifier.

Moreover, the antenna element for reception can be modified in accordance with the impedance matched to the input of the low noise amplifier. This impedance is preferably chosen in a corresponding manner that allows the matching circuit to be miniaturized.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing an antenna device which achieves the above object and using a switchable antenna device which achieves the above object.

These objects are achieved by the method claimed in the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings which do not limit the present invention for the purpose of explanation only and the description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention.

1 is a schematic block diagram showing a front end portion of a portable radio communication device according to the prior art;

2 is a schematic block diagram showing a front end of a portable radio communication apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

3A-B are schematic plan views showing two embodiments of an antenna pattern used in the front end of FIG. 1;

3C is a schematic diagram showing the frequency-dependent radiation efficiency of the multipurpose antenna pattern for transmission configured in the front end of FIG.

4 is a schematic diagram showing the frequency-dependent radiation efficiency of the multipurpose antenna pattern for reception configured in the front end of FIG.

5 is a schematic block diagram showing a front end of a portable radio communication apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a schematic block diagram showing a front end portion of a portable radio communication apparatus according to the third and fourth embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 7 is a schematic plan view showing one embodiment of a switchable antenna pattern for use in any one of the front ends of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for main parts of drawing>

20: dielectric substrate

21: input

23: power amplifier

25, 26: antenna element

27: low noise amplifier

28: filter

A first embodiment of the high frequency front end of the portable radio communication apparatus according to the present invention is described below with reference to Figs. 2-4. The front end includes a dielectric substrate 20, such as a printed circuit board that supports an electrical circuit and its components.

The front end includes separate transmitter (lower branches in FIG. 2) and receiver (upper branches in FIG. 2) branches.

The transmission branch includes an input 21 for receiving a radio frequency signal TX-RF from a transmission source located on a main circuit board (not shown) of the wireless communication device. The input radio signal TX-RF is provided to a power amplifier PA 23 for amplifying a frequency converted signal. The power amplifier 23 is thereby connected to a transmitting antenna element 25 which transmits the amplified RF signal and emits an RF wave in response to the amplified signal. Antenna element 25 is typically implemented as a planar conductive layer on substrate 20.

An additional frequency component, i.e., the upper harmonic of the fundamental radio frequency generated by the power amplifier 23, must be removed from the transmit branch. Unexpected additional frequency components can also be received at the input 21, which must be filtered.

According to the present invention, an antenna element is provided that exhibits good antenna characteristics at a radio frequency adopted for use, i.e., a fundamental frequency, and also effectively suppresses any harmonic of the fundamental frequency. The antenna element is self-evident as a low pass filter, with no additional filter required for the transmission branch.

3A and 3B schematically illustrate the transmit antenna pattern that exhibits the above-described attributes and can be used at the front end of FIG. The antenna pattern includes each of two patches or strips (narrow connected to the wide), the narrow being provided at its far end as can be seen from the wider patch. In FIG. 3A, the two patches or strips are straight elements, while in FIG. 3B the narrow patches or strips are bent in an L shape.

Preferably, the antenna pattern is arranged on a dielectric substrate (not shown) which is mounted in order on the circuit board of the portable radio communication device operating as the ground plane of the antenna function. Preferably, the dielectric substrate has a uniform thickness such that the antenna pattern can be arranged substantially parallel to the circuit board of the wireless communication device at a significant distance (corresponding to the thickness of the dielectric substrate). Optionally, the antenna pattern can be arranged in different geometry. In particular, one of the patches may be bent around mutually inclined sides of the dielectric substrate such that a three dimensional antenna pattern is obtained.

An exemplary prototype is configured for transmission at f ₀ = 900 MHz in the following dimensions.

Width of narrow patch, a = 2mm

Width of optical patch, b = 8mm

Length of narrow patch, c = 40mm

Length of optical patch, d = 22mm

Thickness of the dielectric substrate separating the antenna pattern from the ground plane, D = 8 mm

Dielectric constant of the dielectric substrate, ε = 2.5

Due to this prototype, it is possible to damp the output by 20-25 dB at the first harmonic, i.e., 1800 MHz, while a similar structure with the same resonant frequency but with a narrow patch width equal to the width of the optical patch is obtained. Damping the harmonics only a few dB.

In FIG. 3C, the radiation efficiency of this transmit antenna element, also referred to as the multipurpose antenna pattern (MAP), is shown schematically with respect to frequency. It can be seen that the antenna element exhibits good radiation efficiency in the vicinity of the fundamental frequency f ₀ , and very low efficiency in the vicinity of the harmonics of the fundamental frequency, that is, 2f ₀ , 3f ₀ , 4f ₀ , and the like.

The conductive antenna element of the present invention has a basic output from the power amplifier 23 at least 15 dB, preferably at least 20 dB, more preferably at least 25 dB, more preferably 30 dB, more preferably 35 dB, most preferably 40 dB. It is adapted to damp the first harmonic of the radio frequency signal f ₀ .

Another feature of the invention is that the antenna element or pattern 25 can be designed to have a kind of impedance matching suitable to be integrated into the antenna pattern. This approach eliminates the need for a separate impedance matching circuit at the input of the antenna pattern, and moreover if the antenna pattern is an impedance that matches directly with the mismatched output of the directional coupler 24, or the mismatched output of the power amplifier in the absence of such a device. The circuitry required is smaller, resulting in smaller losses.

Preferably, the input impedance of the antenna pattern 25 is matched to the actual output impedance of the preceding component, that is, the power amplifier, rather than the standard 50Ω. A typical power amplifier that does not require any matching circuit has an output impedance of only a few ohms.

3) to obtain an antenna pattern exhibiting good antenna performance at the resonant frequency, (ii) enhancing the damping at the harmonic of the fundamental frequency, and (iii) representing an impedance matched to the optimum output of the power amplifier. Various modifications to the antenna pattern of c are required.

Thus, the antenna pattern of the present invention may be modified in any one of the following ways.

The shape of the antenna or antenna pattern can be changed by changing the position of the feeding, creating holes or slots in the antenna pattern, or connecting parasitic elements to the antenna pattern.

The antenna pattern can be changed by connecting and / or disconnecting the antenna element.

The antenna pattern can be changed by connecting and / or disconnecting discrete elements.

In the receiver branch, the receiving antenna structure or pattern 26, which receives the RF wave and generates the RF signal in response, exhibits good antenna characteristics at the frequency or frequency band to be used, and also has high and low frequencies, i.e., the received frequency. It is in accordance with the present invention that is adapted to suppress some unexpected signal out of band.

4 schematically shows the frequency dependent radiation efficiency of the receiving antenna element 26. In a preferred version of the invention which can be used in the European UMTS standard having a reception band around 2110 MHz and a transmission band at 1980 MHz, the reception antenna of the invention has a damping in the reception band of about 3 dB and at least 5 dB, preferably at least 10 dB. More preferably at least 20 dB, most preferably at least 30 dB, at a frequency in the transmission band.

In this sense, the receive antenna pattern operates as a prefilter for prefiltering the received wireless signal, which may be provided directly to the input of the low noise amplifier 27 which amplifies the received signal. The SAW filter 28 is connected to the output of the low noise amplifier 27 to achieve selectivity and to attenuate the noise generated by the transmitter on the receive band. Optionally, a complementary filter is connected to the output of the low noise amplifier to filter the mirror frequency, and the SAW filter operates without the low noise amplifier. As a result, the filtered signal is provided to the output 30 to be further provided to the processing circuitry of the mixer and the portable wireless communication device.

The main advantage of arranging the complementary filter at the rear of the low noise amplifier instead of the SAW filter at the front of the low noise amplifier (which is done at the front of the conventional receiver) is that the loss at the front of the low noise amplifier is reduced (SAW filters are typically 3-4 dB). Insertion loss). This improves the noise factor of the front end and improves the reception sensitivity.

In the transmit antenna pattern, the receive antenna pattern 26 of the present invention may be designed to have a kind of impedance matching suitable to be integrated into the antenna pattern. Preferably, the input impedance of the antenna pattern 25 is matched to the actual input impedance of the low noise amplifier as the next element with an input impedance of typically between 100 and 200 ohms greater than the standard 50 ohms rather than the standard 50 ohms.

When the antenna device or the radio frequency front end of the present invention is configured, the antenna pattern is modified to tune the filtering characteristics and other antenna characteristics in order to obtain an antenna showing a certain performance.

This tuning may be performed by changing the shape of the antenna and creating holes or slots in the antenna pattern, connecting the parasitic elements to the antenna pattern, or connecting and / or disconnecting the antenna elements as described above. have.

In the high frequency front end where the transmitting and receiving branches are not separated (not shown), (i) transmit and receive radio signals in the frequency band, (ii) suppress the harmonics of the fundamental frequency signal, and (iii) An antenna pattern adapted to prefilter (band pass filtering) the signal can be used to obtain a corresponding operation. The other directions of transmission are separated from each other in a conventional manner by a duplex or a switch. The power amplifier and low noise amplifier are connected directly to the duplex or switch, and the auxiliary filter is connected to the output of the low noise amplifier.

It should also be understood that the antenna device used in a portable wireless communication device providing multi-band operation includes a plurality of separate transmit and receive branches of the kind illustrated in FIG. 2.

5, a second embodiment of the front end portion of a portable wireless communication device according to the present invention includes transmission and reception branches. The portable wireless communication device is arranged for triple band or triple standard switching and includes separate transmit and receive branches.

The transmission branch comprises three separate input lines; One is for each band or standard. Each input line is connected to a respective power amplifier adapted to that band or standard. The output of the power amplifier can be connected to a single antenna by a switch 41. According to the present invention, the antenna 25 transmits radio waves according to three bands to be used or three standards to be used, and simultaneously damps harmonics of signals in three bands or according to three standards. Is adapted to. Thus, for example, using antennas for 900 MHz and 1800 MHz is disadvantageous since the frequency of 1800 MHz is the first harmonic of 900 MHz.

The receive branch has a receive antenna (damping or blocking all other frequencies) with a pass band for the other frequency at the same time. The antenna is connectable to three different wires, each of which is provided with its respective low noise amplifier by a switch 42. Each low noise amplifier is adapted to operate in accordance with one of each of the three bands or each of the three standards. To the output of each low noise amplifier is a respective auxiliary filter, i.e. a SAW filter.

In the embodiment of FIG. 5, the power amplifier is connected to the transmit antenna 25 all at once without the need of any low pass filter. Thus, receive antenna 26 may be provided at once with the bandpass operation of the receive antenna being prefiltered to the input and provided directly to the low noise amplifier and selectively filtered at the output of the low noise amplifier.

6A, the illustrated third embodiment of the front end of a portable wireless communication device in accordance with the present invention includes separate transmit and receive branches. Each branch includes triple antenna elements or patterns 52-54 and 56-58.

The three transmit antennas 52-54 are adapted to be used in each frequency band or in accordance with respective standards. For example, antenna pattern 52 is adapted to transmit at 900 MHz, antenna pattern 53 is adapted to transmit at 1800 MHz, and antenna pattern 54 is adapted to transmit at 1900 MHz. Each transmit antenna is adapted to operate as a low pass filter that effectively dampens any harmonic and optionally spurious signal of the intended fundamental frequency. Thus, for example, the antenna pattern 52 is adapted to be efficiently damped at 1800 MHz, 2700 MHz, 3600 MHz, etc., and the antenna pattern 53 is adapted to be efficiently damped at 3600 MHz, 5400 MHz, 7200 MHz, etc., and the antenna pattern 54 is 3800 MHz, It is adapted to efficiently damp at 5700MHz, 7600MHz, etc.

Thus, the three receive antennas 56-58 are adapted to receive sensitivity in each frequency band or according to each standard, and are designed simultaneously to band pass filter the received signal in the pre-filtering mode of operation.

Moreover, a single wideband power amplifier (PA) is used for amplification at all three frequencies / standards, and switch 51 is used for selective switching of transmit antenna patterns 52-54.

Thus, switch 55 is provided to switch either of the receive antennas 56-58 to the input of a single low noise amplifier (LNA). The SAW filter is connected to filter the received signal following amplification by the low noise amplifier.

For this purpose, the amplifier must have a bandwidth that can be used for all frequencies. Moreover, the amplifier must be adjustable to support other standards such as GSM, DCS, EDGE, UMTS, and the like. Moreover, the SAW filter at the receiving branch must simultaneously exhibit good filter characteristics at all frequencies, or be adjustable at each frequency.

Antenna patterns 52-54 and 56-58 are impedance matched directly to the amplifier and not matched to the 50Ω standard. Thus, antenna patterns 52-54 are impedance matched to the output of a power amplifier, typically a few ohms, while antenna patterns 56-58 may be impedance matched to the input of a low noise amplifier typically greater than 50 ohms.

6B, a fourth embodiment of the front end of a portable wireless communication device in accordance with the present invention is illustrated. This embodiment is the same as the embodiment of FIG. 6A except that the switches 51 and 56 are removed and the three antenna patterns 52-54 and 56-58 of each branch are resistively connected to each other. . This approach is desirable because there is no occupied space and power consumption of the switch. However, this embodiment has higher requirements for the antenna filtering function.

Finally, the switchable antenna pattern used for any one of the front ends of the present invention, with respect to FIG. 7, is briefly described. According to the embodiment of FIG. 7, the filtering operation can be adaptively controlled in use.

Antennas for wireless communication devices suffer from non-tuning due to the presence of a user. For many antenna types, the filtering characteristics are different than when the device is in free space. Adaptive tuning between free space and call location can substantially reduce this problem.

In FIG. 7, a meander-like antenna structure 71 is shown arranged with a switching device 72 including a plurality of switches 73. The antenna structure 71 can be understood as a plurality of aligned and individually connectable antenna elements 74 in which the connected state is connected to the feeding point 75 via the switching device 72. The feeding point 75 is further connected to a power amplifier of a transmitting circuit (not shown) or a low noise amplifier of a receiver circuit of a wireless communication device (not shown).

An example of typical operation is as follows. Assume that some switches are closed and some are open, so that this antenna configuration is adapted to optimal performance when arranged in a mobile phone located in free space. When the phone is moved to a call location, the user's influence drops the frequency characteristic of the filtering capability, so that the switch is opened to reduce the electrical length of the connected antenna structure in order to compensate for the presence of the user so that the frequency of the filtering characteristic is Is increased. This increase due to the proper design of the antenna structure 71 and the switching device 72 compensates for the reduction introduced when the telephone is moved from free space to the call position.

In the above description, the term antenna pattern is used to refer to the radiating element of the device. It is to be understood that this term virtually covers any antenna, such as a conventional or modified PIFA, microstrip, patch, or mentor antenna that is adapted to transmitting or receiving electromagnetic waves.

By the present invention, integration and / or miniaturization of the front end element is facilitated. The front end can be used simply with fewer devices and improved performance. The size and power consumption of the portable wireless communication device can be reduced. Antenna devices, high frequency front ends and portable wireless communication devices can be manufactured at low cost.

In the transmission branch, in particular lower losses and better efficiency are achieved, reducing power consumption. In the receive branch especially lower losses and better receive sensitivity are achieved.

Preferred embodiments of the antenna arrangement according to the invention have been described above. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that such embodiments may vary within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (17)

Dielectric support 20; And a feed line adapted to transmit radio waves at a predetermined frequency (f ₀ ) or frequency range, arranged on the dielectric support, and connected to the output of the power amplifier 23 of the portable radio communication device, wherein the power line is in use. In the antenna device used in the portable radio communication apparatus, the amplifier includes a conductive antenna element (25; 52-54) provided by a radio frequency signal in the predetermined frequency or frequency range. The conductive antenna element is adapted to substantially dampen any harmonics 2f ₀ , 3f ₀ , 4f ₀ , ... of the radio frequency signal output from the power amplifier such that no discrete filter is required at the output of the power amplifier. Antenna device characterized in that the. 2. The conductive antenna element of claim 1, wherein the conductive antenna element damps any first harmonic 2f ₀ of the radio frequency signal output from the power amplifier at least 15 dB, preferably at least 20 dB, and most preferably at least 25 dB. And an antenna device adapted to. 2. The conductive antenna element of claim 1, wherein the conductive antenna element damps any first harmonic 2f ₀ of the radio frequency signal output from the power amplifier at at least 25 dB, preferably at least 30 dB, and most preferably at least 35 dB. And an antenna device adapted to. The antenna device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the conductive antenna element comprises first and second patches or strips connected to each other. 5. The antenna device of claim 4 wherein the first patch or strip has a first width, the second patch or strip has a second width, and the first and second widths are substantially different. 6. The antenna device of claim 5, wherein the first width is narrower than the second width. The antenna device according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein the feed line is connected to the first patch or strip at its distal end when viewed from the second patch or strip. 8. An antenna device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the conductive antenna element is arranged to interact with a ground connector or ground plane of the portable radio communication device when in use. 9. An antenna device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said antenna element comprises any hole or slot in said antenna element, a parasitic element, a discrete element, or a plurality of antenna segments. 10. The antenna device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the antenna device has an integrated impedance matched to the output of the power amplifier integrated in the antenna element. 11. The conductive antenna element (25) (52-54) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the conductive antenna elements (25; 52-54) transmit radio waves at a second predetermined frequency or frequency range, Antenna device adapted to substantially damp. 11. A second conductive antenna element according to any one of claims 1 to 10, adapted to transmit radio waves at a second predetermined frequency or frequency range and to substantially dampen any harmonics of the second predetermined frequency or frequency range. 53-54) further comprising. 13. The antenna device of claim 12, further comprising a switch for switching between the first and second conductive antenna elements. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, The conductive antenna element 71 is switchable between a plurality of antenna configuration states in which each resonance frequency is not substantially damped and any harmonics of the resonance frequency are substantially damped, And the antenna device further comprises a switch for selective switching of the antenna element between the antenna configuration states. Dielectric support 20; And a feed line adapted to transmit radio waves at a predetermined frequency (f ₀ ) or a frequency range, the feed line being arranged on the dielectric support and connected to the input of the low noise amplifier 23 of the portable radio communication device. An antenna device for use in the portable radio communication device comprising: 26; The conductive antenna element is adapted in use to band pass filter the received radio frequency signal to provide only the radio frequency signal to the low noise amplifier at the predetermined frequency or frequency range such that discrete filter 28 is needed only at the output of the low noise amplifier. An antenna device, characterized in that. Providing a dielectric support 20; Providing a conductive antenna element; Arranging the antenna element on the dielectric support; Providing a feed line connected to the output of the power amplifier 23 of the portable radio communication device; And changing the antenna element such that the antenna element transmits radio waves efficiently at a predetermined frequency (f ₀ ) or a frequency range, wherein the antenna element is used in a portable radio communication device. Modifying the antenna element such that the antenna element substantially damps any harmonics 2f ₀ , 3f ₀ , 4f ₀ ,... Of the predetermined frequency f ₀ or frequency range. An antenna device manufacturing method. Genetic support; And a conductive antenna element (71) arranged on the dielectric support, the conductive antenna element (71) comprising a feed line connected to an output of a power amplifier of the portable radio communication device. , The power amplifier is provided with a radio frequency signal when in use, The conductive antenna element 71 is switchable between a plurality of antenna configuration states in which each resonant frequency is not substantially damped and any harmonics of the resonant frequency are substantially damped, The antenna device further comprises a switch for selective switching of the antenna element between the antenna configuration states, And the method comprises switching the antenna element between the antenna configuration states by the switch depending on the environment of the portable radio communication device.