Smartwatch is a potential candidate for the Internet of Things (IoT) hub. However, the performance of smartwatch antennas is severely restricted by the smartwatch structure, especially when the antennas are designed by traditional methods. For adapting smartwatches to the role of IoT hub, a novel method of designing multi-band smartwatch antenna is presented in this paper, aiming at increasing the number of frequency bands, omni-directivity, and structural suitability. Firstly, the fundamental structure (including the full screen and the system PCB) of the smartwatch is analyzed as a whole by characteristic mode analysis (CMA). Thus, abundant resources of characteristic modes are introduced. The fundamental structure is then modified as the radiator of a multi-band antenna. Then, a non-radiating capacitive coupling element (CCE) excites the desired four 0.5-wavelength modes from this structure. This method could fully utilize the intrinsic modes of the smartwatch structure itself, thus exhibits multiple advantages: significantly small size, smaller ground, omni-directional radiation, and fitting to the full-screen smartwatch structure.
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