Miniaturized NFC Antenna Design for a Tablet PC With a Narrow Border and Metal Back-Cover

A novel structure of the near-field communication (NFC) antenna design for a tablet PC is proposed. This tablet PC has a narrow border and full metallic back-cover. A miniaturized loop antenna design is achieved by attaching ferrite sheets on both sides of the loop antenna. The ferrite sheets may reduce eddy currents induced on the adjacent metallic back-cover by the loop antenna to improve the communication range of the NFC. Only the edge of the tablet PC allows the antenna to radiate due to the full metallic back-cover. Thus, the NFC antenna needs to be narrow to be installed on the edge of the tablet PC. Therefore, we propose a miniaturized NFC antenna with the dimensions of $41.5\ ({L}) \times 7.5\ (W) \times 0.45\ (T)\ \hbox{mm}^3$ only. Simulated magnetic field distributions are consistent with measured voltage distributions. This design has a good communication range more than 6 cm in front of the touchscreen panel and reaches 2 cm over the other side above the metal back-cover.