Patent Publication Number: US-7724193-B2

Title: Printed circuit boards with a multi-plane antenna and methods for configuring the same

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/951,603, entitled “PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS WITH MULTI-PLANE ANTENNAS AND METHODS FOR CONFIGURING THE SAME,” filed Jul. 24, 2007, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference as if set forth in its entirety. 

   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to the field of communications, and, more particularly, to antennas and wireless terminals incorporating the same. 
   The size of wireless terminals has been decreasing with, many contemporary wireless terminals being less than 11 centimeters in length. Correspondingly, there is increasing interest in small antennas that can be utilized as internally mounted antennas for wireless terminals. For example, challenges are presented for GPS, Bluetooth and the like antenna placement due to the small form factors and tight space requirements in applications such as wireless terminals. 
   Inverted-F planar antennas, for example, may be well suited for use within the confines of wireless terminals, particularly wireless terminals undergoing miniaturization. Typically, conventional inverted-F antennas include a conductive element that is maintained in a spaced apart relationship with a ground plane. Exemplary inverted-F antennas are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,538,604 and 6,380,905, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   Some embodiments of the present invention provide a multi-plane antenna on a substrate having a front face and a back face. A plurality of through holes extend through the substrate between the front face and the back face of the substrate. A first antenna component is on the front face of the substrate and a second antenna component is on the back face of the substrate. A conductive via extends through a selected one of the through holes that electrically connects the first antenna component and the second antenna component to define the multi-plane antenna on the substrate. The substrate may be a printed circuit board (PCB). 
   In further embodiments, the first antenna component is a plurality of antenna components on the front face of the PCB and the second antenna component is a plurality of antenna components on the back face of the PCB. The conductive via is a plurality of conductive vias extending through selected ones of the through holes that electrically connect respective ones of the first and second antenna components to define the multi-plane antenna on the PCB. Unused conductive vias may extend through ones of the plurality of through holes that are not associated with any of the antenna components, which unused conductive vias are arranged for use with other multi-plane antenna configurations. 
   In other embodiments, the multi-plane antenna is a planar inverted F antenna (PIFA), a monopole antenna and/or a dipole antenna. The multi-plane antenna may be a meander antenna and/or a spiral antenna. The antenna components may be standard size components and a spacing of the through holes may correspond to the standard size. The standard size may be, for example, 0201, 0402, 0603 and/or 0804. The antenna components may be zero ohm resistors, capacitors and/or active components. The antenna may be a 1.575 GHz GPS antenna and/or a Bluetooth antenna. 
   In further embodiments, the substrate includes a surface defining a third plane and the antenna further includes a further plurality of through holes extending from the front and/or back face of the substrate to the third plane, a third antenna component on the third plane and a conductive via extending through a selected one of the further plurality of through holes that electrically connects the first and/or second antenna component to the third antenna component to define the multi-plane antenna on the substrate. The first antenna component and/or the second antenna component may be a trace pattern on the substrate and the antenna may further include additional trace patterns on the front and/or back face of the substrate extending between ones of the plurality of through holes that have no conductive vias extending therethrough. The additional trace patterns are not used to define the multi-plane antenna. 
   In other embodiments, the multi-plane antenna has a total antenna element length that is less than a total antenna length of a comparable performance single plane antenna. The antenna may further include a ground plane on the front or back face of the substrate that is positioned proximate the multi-plane antenna. A mobile terminal including a multi-plane antenna of one or more of the embodiments described above further includes a wireless communication circuit formed on the front and/or back face of the PCB. 
   In yet other embodiments, mobile terminals are provided including a portable housing and a printed circuit board (PCB) mounted in the housing. The PCB includes a plurality of through holes extending through the PCB between a front face and a back face of the PCB. A wireless communication circuit is formed on the front face and/or the back face of the PCB. A multi-plane antenna in the housing is operatively coupled to a receiver and/or transmitter of the wireless communication circuit. The multi-plane antenna includes a first antenna component on the front face of the PCB and a second antenna component on the back face of the PCB. A conductive via extends through a selected one of the through holes and electrically connects the first antenna component and the second antenna component to define the multi-plane antenna on the PCB. 
   In other embodiments, a plurality of antenna components are provided on the front and back face of the PCB and a plurality of conductive vias extending through selected ones of the through holes electrically connect respective ones of the first and second antenna components to define the multi-plane antenna on the PCB. Unused conductive vias may extend through ones of the plurality of through holes that are not associated with any of the antenna components, which unused conductive vias are arranged for use with other multi-plane antenna configurations. 
   In further embodiments methods for configuring a multi-plane antenna include providing a substrate having a front face and a back face, a plurality of through holes extending through the substrate from the front face to the back face at selected locations on the substrate and conductive vias extending through the plurality of through holes. A plurality of antenna components are selected. Either the front face or the back face is selected for mounting each of the selected plurality of antenna components. Pairs of the conductive vias to be associated with respective ones of the antenna components are selected. The respective ones of the antenna components are electrically connected between the corresponding pairs of conductive vias on the corresponding selected face of the substrate to form the multi-plane antenna. 
   In other embodiments, providing the substrate includes forming the plurality of through holes extending through the substrate from the front face to the back face at the selected locations on the substrate and forming conductive vias extending through the plurality of through holes. Selecting either the front face or the back face may include selecting the front face for a portion of the plurality of antenna components and selecting the back face for a remainder of the plurality of antenna components. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
       FIG. 1A  illustrates a conventional 1 layer PIFA. 
       FIG. 1B  is a graphical illustration of simulated performance of the antenna of  FIG. 1A . 
       FIG. 2A  illustrates a multi-layer PIFA with vias according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 2B  is a graphical illustration of simulated performance of the antenna of  FIG. 2A . 
       FIG. 3A  illustrates a conventional meander antenna. 
       FIG. 3B  is a graphical illustration of simulated performance of the antenna of  FIG. 3A . 
       FIG. 4A  illustrates a multi-layer meander antenna with vias according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 4B  is a graphical illustration of simulated performance of the antenna of  FIG. 4A . 
       FIG. 5A  illustrates a multi-layer meander antenna with vias according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 5B  is a graphical illustration of simulated performance of the antenna of  FIG. 5A . 
       FIG. 6A  illustrates a multi-layer spiral antenna with vias according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 6B  is a graphical illustration of simulated performance of the antenna of  FIG. 6A . 
       FIG. 7  is a graphical illustration of simulated antenna efficiency and radiation efficiency for the antennae of  FIGS. 1A-6A . 
       FIG. 8A  is a top plane view of a PCB with vias according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 8B  is a side view of the PCB of  FIG. 8A  taken along line  8 B- 8 B of  FIG. 8A . 
       FIG. 9A  is a top plane view of a multi-plane antenna on the PCB with vias of  FIGS. 8A-8B  according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 9B  is a side view of the antenna of  FIG. 9A  taken along line  9 B- 9 B of  FIG. 9A . 
       FIG. 9C  is a bottom plane view of the antenna of  FIG. 9A . 
       FIG. 10A  is a top plane view of a further multi-plane antenna on the PCB with vias of  FIGS. 5A-8B  according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 10B  is a side view of the antenna of  FIG. 10A  taken along line  10 B- 10 B of  FIG. 10C . 
       FIG. 10C  is a bottom plane view of the antenna of  FIG. 10A . 
       FIG. 11A  is a top plane view of another multi-plane antenna on the PCB with vias of  FIGS. 8A-8B  according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 11B  is a side view of the antenna of  FIG. 11A  taken along line  11 B- 11 B of  FIG. 11A . 
       FIG. 11C  is a bottom plane view of the antenna of  FIG. 11A . 
       FIG. 12  is a schematic illustration of a mobile terminal according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
       FIG. 13  is a flowchart illustrating a method of configuring a multi-plane antenna according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   The invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which illustrative embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. 
   The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. It will also be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. 
   Unless otherwise defined, all teens (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and this specification and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. 
   As will be further described herein, some embodiments of the present invention implement planar inverted F antennae (PIFA), monopole antennae, dipole antennae and/or the like on a printed circuit board (PCB). In some embodiments, via holes are used to make use of at least two layers/planes (bottom and top) on the PCB to gain antenna length by using the PCB thickness. In some embodiments, standard sized components, such as 0201, 0402 or the like (such as zero ohm resistors) can be placed in between the via holes to tune the length of an antenna without the need for another board spin. As such, in some embodiments, components can be added and/or removed after production of the PCB to, for example, fine tune the antenna and/or even change the complete design of the antenna without having to re-spin the PCB. 
   In some embodiments, in addition to the meander line design, other geometric shapes (such as a helical antenna) are implemented on the PCB. This way of implementation may be used, for example, for Bluetooth and/or GPS antennae in wireless terminals. 
   Various embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the attached figures. For purposes of explanation of the present invention, the illustrated embodiments are based on a two layer board. For simulation purposes, a Zealand IE3D electromagnetic 2.5 D simulator is used, assuming a dielectric thickness of 0.5 mm, a dielectric constant of 4.5, a loss tangent of 0.015 and a ground plane size of 50 mm×100 mm. The PCB is assumed to have a thickness of 0.5 mm. In addition, for purposes of all of the illustrated examples, a 1.575 GHz GPS antenna is simulated. However, it will be understood that different antenna designs, different numbers of layers/planes, different PCB sizes and the like may be provided by some embodiments of the present invention and the present invention is not to be limited to the particular exemplary embodiments illustrated herein for purposes of explanation of the present invention. 
     FIGS. 1A and 1B  illustrate a PCB  100  having a conventional 1 layer PIFA  110  with an end-to end length of 33 mm and a width of 2 mm. The PIFA  110  leftmost end as seen in  FIG. 1  includes a ground (GND) connection point  112  and is shown overlapping but insulated from the ground plane  120  at a signal feed point. 
   A two layer/plane PIFA  210  with vias according to some embodiments of the present invention is shown in  FIGS. 2A and 2B . Note that, for the same application of a GPS antenna as seen in  FIGS. 1A and 1B , the embodiments of  FIGS. 2A-2B  have an end-to-end length (not including the vias that extend the effective length of the antenna) of 32 mm. A PCB thickness of 0.5 mm is used for the illustrated embodiments of  FIGS. 2A-2B . 
   Referring to  FIG. 2A , the multi-plane antenna  210  is formed on a substrate, shown as a PCB  200  in the embodiments of  FIG. 2A . The PCB  200  has a front face  201  and a back face  202 . Note that, for purposes of illustration, the PCB  200 ,  300 ,  400 ,  500 ,  600  is shown in dotted line in  FIGS. 2A-6A  merely by way of reference to aid in understanding of the location of the front and back side antenna components as will now be described. Also, like numbered elements (e.g.,  200 ,  300 ,  400 ,  500 ,  600 ) across  FIGS. 2A-6A  are substantially the same except as particularly described herein. The antenna  210  includes antenna components  210   a  on the front face  201  and antenna components  210   b  on the back face  202 . A ground point  212  is also illustrated for the antenna  210  and a ground plane  220  is shown proximate the antenna  210 . 
   The PCB  200  further includes a plurality of through holes  230  extending through the PCB  200  between the front face  201  and the back face  202 . Conductive vias  240  extend through selected ones of the through holes  230  to connect the antenna components  210   a ,  210   b  in a pattern to define the multi-plane antenna  210  on the PCB  200 . In some embodiments, the segment length between vias  240  may be selected to correspond to a standard component size, such as 0201, 0402, 0603, 0804 and/or the like, to allow ready configuration/re-configuration using readily available standard sized components, such as 0 ohm resistors and/or capacitors. Likewise, active components, such as switches, may be used, for example, to implement a multi-band antenna. Thus, while single band antennae will be described herein for illustrative purposes, multi-band antennae may also be provided and, in some embodiments, conventional approaches to providing a multi-band antenna may be more readily implemented using a multi-layer/plane antenna on a PCB as described herein. 
     FIGS. 3A-3B  illustrate a conventional 1-layer meander layout antenna  310  on a PCB  300 , wherein the end-to-end length is reduced to 28 mm from the 33 mm of the example of  FIG. 1A . Also shown in  FIG. 3A  are a ground point  312  and a ground plane  320 . 
     FIGS. 4   a  and  4 B illustrate a multi-layer/plane meander layout antenna  410  using vias according to some embodiments of the present invention, shown as a two layer design on a 0.5 mm PCB  400  in  FIG. 4A . The embodiments of the antenna  410  of  FIG. 4A  have an end-to-end length of 25 mm. 
   Referring to  FIG. 4A , the multi-plane antenna  410  is formed on a substrate, shown as a PCB  400  in the embodiments of  FIG. 4A . The PCB  400  has a front face  401  and a back face  402 . The antenna  410  includes antenna components  410   a  on the front face  401  and antenna components  410   b  on the back face  402 . A ground point  412  is also illustrated for the antenna  410  and a ground plane  420  is shown proximate the antenna  410 . 
   The PCB  400  further includes a plurality of through holes  430  extending through the PCB  400  between the front face  401  and the back face  402 . Conductive vias  440  extend through selected ones of the through holes  430  to connect the antenna components  410   a ,  410   b  in a pattern to define the multi-plane antenna  410  on the PCB  400 . The antenna  410  of  FIG. 4A , as contrasted with the multi-plane PIFA  210  of  FIG. 2A  is a meander antenna design, illustrating the flexibility provided by some embodiments of the present invention. 
     FIGS. 5A and 5B  illustrate a further multi-layer/plane meander layout antenna  510  using vias according to some embodiments, shown as a two layer design on a 0.5 mm PCB  400  in  FIG. 5A . The embodiments of the antenna  510  of  FIG. 5A  have an end-to-end length of 23 mm. 
   Referring to  FIG. 5A , the multi-plane antenna  510  is formed on a substrate, shown as a PCB  500  in the embodiments of  FIG. 5A . The PCB  500  has a front face  501  and a back face  502 . The antenna  510  includes antenna components  510   a  on the front face  501  and antenna components  510   b  on the back face  502 . A ground point  512  is also illustrated for the antenna  510  and a ground plane  520  is shown proximate the antenna  510 . 
   The PCB  500  further includes a plurality of through holes  530  extending through the PCB  500  between the front face  501  and the back face  502 . Conductive vias  540  extend through selected ones of the through holes  530  to connect the antenna components  510   a ,  510   b  in a pattern to define the multi-plane antenna  510  on the PCB  500 . The antenna  510  of  FIG. 5A  is a variation on the configuration of  FIG. 4A  but is likewise, as contrasted with the multi-plane PIFA  210  of  FIG. 2A , a meander antenna design. 
     FIGS. 6A and 6B  illustrate a spiral (helical) antenna  610  implemented using vias according to some embodiments of the present invention. Thus, some embodiments of the present invention may replace an antenna type normally implemented using a wire, rather than planar surfaces of a PCB, with a multi-plane antenna, shown as two planes in the embodiments of  FIG. 6A . 
   Referring to  FIG. 5A , the multi-plane antenna  610  is formed on a substrate, shown as a PCB  600  in the embodiments of  FIG. 6A . The PCB  600  has a front face  601  and a back face  602 . The antenna  610  includes antenna components  610   a  on the front face  601  and antenna components  610   b  on the back face  602 . A ground point  612  is also illustrated for the antenna  610  and a ground plane  620  is shown proximate the antenna  610 . 
   The PCB  600  further includes a plurality of through holes  630  extending through the PCB  600  between the front face  601  and the back face  602 . Conductive vias  640  extend through selected ones of the through holes  630  to connect the antenna components  610   a ,  610   b  in a pattern to define the multi-plane antenna  610  on the PCB  600 . 
   Simulation results showing antenna efficiency (AE) and radiation efficiency (RE) for the respective antennae of  FIGS. 1A-6A  are shown in  FIG. 7 . For example, the simulation of the spiral using vias of  FIG. 6A  for RE is indicated by reference number  700 . Also shown are the RE for the traditional PIFA of  FIG. 1A  ( 710 ), the two layer PIFA of  FIG. 2A  ( 720 ), the traditional 1-layer meander of  FIG. 3A  ( 730 ), the two-layer meander of  FIG. 4A  ( 740 ) and the two-layer meander of  FIG. 5A  ( 750 ). 
   Further embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to  FIGS. 8A-11C . More particularly,  FIGS. 8A and 8B  show a PCB design with no components added while  FIGS. 9A-11C  illustrate three different exemplary implementations created using the common board footprint of  FIGS. 8A and 8B . As seen in  FIG. 8A , the substrate, shown as a PCB  800 , includes a plurality of conductive vias  840  in a 3×4 matrix. It will be understood that, while illustrated as a 3×4 matrix of vias in a uniform grid in  FIG. 8A , the present invention is not limited to such a configuration and may use different arrangements and spacing of vias. As seen in  FIG. 5B , the conductive vias  840  extend through respective through holes  830  that extend from the front face (shown in  FIG. 8A ) to the opposite, back face of the PCB  800 . 
   The respective conductive vias  840  are arranged with a longitudinal spacing Δ 1 , a lateral spacing Δ 2  and a cross spacing Δ 3 . While the longitudinal spacing Δ 1  and the lateral spacing Δ 2  are shown as equal in  FIG. 8A , varied spacing may be provided in some embodiments, not only lateral relative to longitudinal but within rows and/or columns of the arrangement of conductive vias. The via spacing in some embodiments is selected to provide for use of standard size components. 
   As seen in  FIGS. 9A-9C , in some embodiments, using the design flexibility provided by vias, all the components may be placed on a single side. As seen in  FIGS. 9A-9C , a substrate, shown as a PCB  900 , includes a plurality of conductive vias  940  extending therethrough from a front face ( FIG. 9A ) to a back face ( FIG. 9B ) of the PCB  900 . An antenna  950  is formed by a plurality of antenna components  950   a - 950   k  electrically connected at respective ones of the conductive vias  950 . 
     FIGS. 10A-10C  show a meander design implementation according to some embodiments of the present invention. As seen in  FIGS. 10A-10C , a substrate, shown as a PCB  1000 , includes a plurality of conductive vias  1040  extending therethrough from a front face ( FIG. 10A ) to a back face ( FIG. 10B ) of the PCB  1000 . An antenna  1050  is formed by a plurality of antenna components  1050   a - 1050   g  electrically connected between respective ones of the conductive vias  1050  and through the conductive vias  1050  to respective components on opposite faces of the PCB  1000 . 
     FIGS. 11A-11C  show a spiral design implementation according to some embodiments of the present invention. As seen in  FIGS. 11A-11C , a substrate, shown as a PCB  1100 , includes a plurality of conductive vias  1140  extending therethrough from a front face ( FIG. 11A ) to a back face ( FIG. 11B ) of the PCB  1100 . An antenna  1150  is formed by a plurality of front face antenna components  1150   b  and back face antenna components  1150   a  electrically connected between respective ones of the conductive vias  1150  and through the conductive vias  1050  to respective components on opposite faces of the PCB  1100 . 
   While the examples of  FIGS. 8A-11C  all use a PCB design with conductive vias in place, and antenna configuration through selection of components and coupling of components through the vias, in some embodiments, a trace pattern may be formed on the faces of the PCB and the antenna may then be implemented by forming conductive vias through selected ones of a plurality of openings between ends of conductive traces on the respective faces of the PCB. 
   As seen in the illustrated embodiments, the total antenna element length may be reduced considerably compared to traditional meander line and straight line techniques. Radiation efficiency is indicated as highest for the helical antenna as predicted by the simulations. In some embodiments, a meander line and/or a helical GPS antenna can be tuned by placing 0402 or 0201 components (such as 0 ohm resistors) and using different layers on a PCB with the help of through via holes. 
   Referring now to  FIG. 12 , a mobile terminal  1200  according to some embodiments of the present invention will be described. The mobile terminal includes a portable housing  1205  and a printed circuit board (PCB)  1210  mounted in the housing  1205 . The PCB  1210  includes a plurality of through holes  1216  extending through the PCB  1210  between a front face  1212  and a back face  1214  of the PCB  1210 . A wireless communication circuit  1220  is shown formed on the front face  1212 , which circuit  1220  may be formed exclusively on the back face and/or on the front face and the back face of the PCB  1210 . For example, the circuit  1220  may include a transceiver including a receiver and transmitter and/or a GPS receiver and/or a Bluetooth receiver in some embodiments. 
   A multi-plane antenna  1230  is located in the housing  1205  and operatively coupled to the receiver and/or transmitter of the wireless communication circuit  1220 . The multi-plane antenna  1230  includes a first antenna component  1230   a  on the front face of the PCB  1205  and a second antenna component  1230   b  on the back face of the PCB  1210  and a conductive via  1240  extending through a selected one of the through holes  1216 . The conductive via  1240  electrically connects the first antenna component  1230   a  and the second antenna component  1230   b  to define the multi-plane antenna  1230  on the PCB  1210 . It will be understood that a plurality of antenna components may be provided on the front face of the PCB  1210  and on the back face of the PCB  1210  along with a plurality of conductive vias extending through selected ones of the through holes  1216  that electrically connect respective ones of the front and back face antenna components  1230   a ,  1230   b  to define the multi-plane antenna  1230  on the PCB  1210 . 
   In some embodiments of the present invention, ones of the conductive vias extending through ones of the plurality of through holes are not associated with any of the antenna components. The multi-plane antenna may be, for example, a planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) and/or a meander antenna. For example, as discussed above, the antenna may be a 1.575 GHz GPS antenna. In addition, the antenna components  1230   a ,  1230   b  may be standard size components and a spacing of the through holes  1216  may correspond to the standard size. The antenna components  1230   a ,  1230   b  may be zero ohm resistors, capacitors and/or active components or the like. 
   Methods for configuring a multi-plane antenna according to some embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the flowchart illustration of  FIG. 13 . Operations for the embodiments of  FIG. 13  begin with providing a substrate having a front face and a back face, a plurality of through holes extending through the substrate from the front face to the back face at selected locations on the substrate and conductive vias extending through the plurality of through holes (block  1300 ). Operations at block  1300  may include forming a plurality of through holes through the substrate at the selected locations on the substrate and forming the conductive vias through the plurality of through holes. The substrate may be, for example, a printed circuit board. 
   A plurality of antenna components for use in forming the multi-plane antenna are selected (block  1310 ). For example, the antenna components may be zero ohm resistors, capacitors, and/or active components such as switches. The antenna components may be standard size components and the spacing of the through holes may correspond to the standard size, such as 0201, 0402, 0603, 0804 or the like sized components. 
   Either the front face or the back face of the substrate is selected for mounting each of the selected plurality of antenna components (block  1320 ). For embodiments including components on multiple and distinct planes, a portion of the plurality of antenna components are associated with the front face while the remainder of the antenna components are associated with the back face at block  1320 . 
   Pairs of the conductive vias are selected to be associated with respective ones of the antenna components (block  1330 ). The respective ones of the antenna components are electrically coupled between the corresponding pairs of conductive vias on the corresponding selected face of the substrate to form the multi-plane antenna (block  1340 ). The multi-plane antenna may be a planar inverted F antenna (PIFA), a monopole antenna and/or a dipole antenna. In some embodiments, the multi-plane antenna is a meander antenna and/or a spiral antenna. For example, the multi-plane antenna in some embodiments may be a 1.575 GHz GPS and/or a Bluetooth antenna. It will further be understood that a plurality of multi-plane antennas may be formed on a single substrate in some embodiments of the present invention. 
   In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forth in the following claims.