AbstractA dual‐band frequency tunable loop antenna that utilized a circuit model was introduced. An open loop antenna was selected as a prototype, which could be simply represented by an LC resonant circuit. To overcome the input mismatch in high‐frequency region, an additional π circuit was introduced. Using a chip inductor in the π circuit, the high frequency can be easily tuned without changing the low frequency. The proposed dual‐band antenna performs better than the single‐band antenna. Both the simulated and measured results agreed well. The proposed antenna was compact (0.09 λ0 × 0.09 λ0 × 0.01 λ0) and operated at two different frequencies (1.80 and 2.45 GHz). The operating bandwidth (S11 < −6 dB) was 1.7–2.7 GHz, satisfying GSM 1700/1800, WCDMA, and, WLAN. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:2207–2212, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26246