IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

9, 2010

883

A Frequency-Recongurable Quasi-Yagi Dipole Antenna

Yong Cai, Member, IEEE, Y. Jay Guo, Senior Member, IEEE, and Andrew R. Weily, Member, IEEE
AbstractA new frequency-recongurable quasi-Yagi dipole antenna is presented. It consists of a driven dipole element with two varactors in two arms, a director with an additional varactor, a truncated ground plane reector, a microstrip-to-coplanar-stripline (CPS) transition, and a novel biasing circuit. The effective electrical length of the director element and that of the driven arms are adjusted together by changing the biasing voltages. A 35% continuously frequency-tuning bandwidth, from 1.80 to 2.45 GHz, is achieved. This covers a number of wireless communication systems, including 3G UMTS, US WCS, and WLAN. The length-adjustable director allows the endre pattern with relatively high gain to be maintained over the entire tuning bandwidth. Measured results show that the gain varies from 5.6 to 7.6 dBi and the front-to-back ratio is better than 10 dB. The H-plane cross polarization is below 15 dB, and that in the E-plane is below 20 dB. Index TermsEndre antennas, recongurable antenna, varactors.

I. INTRODUCTION

RINTED quasi-Yagi antennas have received considerable research interest since they have many applications in mobile satellite services, WLAN and millimeter-wave systems, phased arrays, and active arrays [1][3]. They have the advantages of low cost, high radiation efciency, and ease of fabrication and integration with monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). Broadband operation of such type of antennas with modest gain has been presented [3], [4]. A seven-element design was recently reported for millimeter-wave application [5], and a high gain varying between 911 dBi was obtained. The feasibility of a frequency-switchable printed Yagi antenna, between 2.4 and 5.78 GHz, was demonstrated in [6], in which the lengths of reectors and directors were altered accordingly at these two frequencies using ideal switches. Measured directivity of 7.6 dBi at 2.4 GHz and 9.8 dBi at 5.78 GHz were reported. For future cognitive radio systems [7], recongurable antennas can offer enhanced functionalities by adapting its operation status to a varying radio environment, such as a fading channel or the presence of an interfering signal. The combined multiple functions in one single recongurable antenna also results in an efcient use of limited antenna real estate. Frequency recongurable antennas [8], [9] are highly

desirable in cognitive systems where the secondary users can make efcient use of unoccupied frequency spectrum without interfering the primary users. To minimize the interference, it is also benecial to use directional antennas for cognitive radio applications. The unwanted radiation or interference in other directions can be effectively suppressed. In this letter, we propose a novel frequency-recongurable planar quasi-Yagi antenna. It consists of a driven dipole element with two varactors in two arms, a director with an additional varactor, and a reector formed from the truncated ground plane. The effective electrical length of the director element and that of the driven arms are adjusted together by changing the biasing voltages. This design allows the antenna endre pattern to be maintained with relatively high gain over the entire tuning bandwidth. A broadband microstrip-to-coplanar-stripline (CPS) transition is introduced for the antenna feeding [10]. Measured results show that the antenna offers a 35% continuous tuning bandwidth, from 1.80 to 2.45 GHz with good impedance 10 dB), thus covering a number of wireless matching ( communication systems, including 3G UMTS, US WCS, and WLAN. II. ANTENNA DESIGN A schematic layout and dimensions of the proposed antenna are shown in Fig. 1. The antenna metallization is etched on both mm, sides of a Rogers RO4003 substrate (thickness , and ). The top dielectric constant metallization consists of a driven dipole element, one director element, and a broadband microstrip-to-CPS transition [10]. The bottom side metallization is a truncated ground plane, which acts as the reector element for the antenna. The loading varactors (MGV125-20-0805-2) in the driven and director elements are modeled in CST simulation using the equivalent circuit given in [9]. The varactor has a typical internal RF resistance of 1.6 in reverse biased status. The installation position of the varactor diodes in the driven and director dipoles has a strong effect on the antenna frequency tunability. High tunability is obtained when the diodes are placed at a location with high current density. For the director, the maximum current is at the center of the dipole, while for the driver the maximum current is at the junction of the dipole and the CPS lines. Resistive biasing circuitry is included on the top side of the substrate [11]. It consists of a series of short strips connected each in the current dewith high-value chip resistors (100 sign). The chip resistors act as RF chokes to suppress induced currents on the short metal strips. The short length of the metal strip would lead to resonances at high frequencies, which are and , beyond the frequency of interest. Voltage drops,

Manuscript received July 23, 2010; accepted August 17, 2010. Date of publication September 07, 2010; date of current version September 27, 2010. This work was supported by DIISR AustraliaChina Special Fund CH080270. The authors are with the CSIRO ICT Centre, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia (e-mail: yong.cai@csiro.au; Jay.Guo@csiro.au; Andrew.Weily@csiro.au). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/LAWP.2010.2073436

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IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 9, 2010

Fig. 2. Impact of the biasing circuitry on antenna pattern at frequencies 1.8 and 2.45 GHz.

Fig. 1. (a) Antenna design layout of the frequency recongurable quasi-Yagi dipole antenna. (b) Geometry of the antenna (without the biasing lines): L : ,W : ,L ,S : ,W ,L ,W :, L ,r ,L ,L ,g ,W ,L (all dimensions are in millimeters), and  .

83 5

=15 = 6 = 19

= = 56 = 21 5 =6 = 19 = 0 5 = 14 = 14 = 1 = 102 = 87 = 76

exist across the varactors. Their values depend on the total resistance of a biasing line and the dc resistance of the varactor diode. According the varactor data sheet [12], the dc resistance at room temperature. It is noted that the reis about 180 sistance decreases as the temperature increases. An alternative biasing solution is to use high resistive material [13] or optical bers [14] in the biasing circuitry. However, these technologies would incur a higher fabrication cost. Simulations were performed to check the effect of the resistive biasing circuitry on the antenna performance. In Fig. 2, the simulated E-( plane) and H-( plane) plane patterns are compared in the presence and absence of the biasing circuitry at frequencies 1.8 and 2.45 GHz. It is observed that the circuitry has a marginal effect on the antenna radiation patterns. The effect is slightly more pronounced at higher frequencies than at lower frequencies. Although results are not shown in this letter, the existence of the biasing network lowers the operation frequency by at most 1.5%.

The broadband microstrip-to-CPS transition [10] is employed, for the rst time, to feed the printed dipole antenna as well as provide a solution to dc biasing. The transition performs eld rotation and impedance matching. This radial stub behaves as an open circuit at the peripheral of its arc portion. This introduces a virtual short at the junction of the microstrip-to-CPS transition. The even-mode electric eld under the microstrip line couples to the virtual short and experiences a 90 rotation. The odd-mode eld of the CPS is then established after the ground plane truncation [10]. In addition, two microstrip impedance transformation sections are used to match the impedance of the microstrip line and CPS line. A back-to-back conguration of the microstrip-to-CPS transition (refer to the inset of Fig. 3) is simulated and parametrically optimized in CST. Fig. 3 shows that a return loss of better than 11.5 dB and an insertion loss of less than 2 dB are obtained over the frequency range from 1.0 to 3.1 GHz. The optimized feeding structure is used in the antenna design. III. RESULTS Fig. 4 shows the predicted and measured antenna reection coefcient of the proposed frequency-recongurable quasi-Yagi antenna. As can be seen from the measured results, the central operating frequency of the antenna is tuned from 1.8 to 2.45 GHz. This leads to a relative tuning bandwidth of 35% (i.e., the span of the tuning bandwidth, 0.65 GHz, over the lowest central frequency, 1.8 GHz). The measured results are in good agreement with the simulated ones. The results in Fig. 4 were obtained using the diode capacitance and , shown in Fig. 1(a)] and the measured values [ voltages across the diodes [ and , shown in Fig. 1(a)], which are given in Table I. The antenna is well matched over each tuning subband. Thus, no external matching circuitry is

CAI et al.: FREQUENCY RECONFIGURABLE QUASI-YAGI DIPOLE ANTENNA

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Fig. 3. Simulation result of S-parameters for a back-to-back conguration of the microstrip-to-CPS transition.

Fig. 4. Reection coefcient at four tuning subbands. Solid line: measurement results. Dashed line: simulation results.

Fig. 5. Radiation patterns for frequency-recongurable quasi-Yagi antenna at three frequencies. Black solid line: measured co-pol; black dashed line: simulated co-pol; gray solid line: measured x-pol.

AND

C
IN

VALUES IN SIMULATION AND V AND V VALUES MEASUREMENT FOR FREQUENCY TUNING

TABLE I

required, which simplies the antenna design. The bandwidth obtained by tuning between subband1 to subband4 can serve several wireless communications systems, including the DCS (17101880 MHz), UMTS (19002170 MHz), US WCS (23052320 MHz and 23452360 MHz), and IEEE 802.11 b WLAN (24002484 MHz). Radiation patterns and gain of the antenna were measured using the NSI-700S-50 spherical near-eld system located at CSIRO, Epping, NSW, Australia. The NSI-RF-WR430 openended rectangular waveguide probe was used as the transmitting

antenna. Two dc power supplies were placed inside the chamber and covered with absorbers during the measurement. Three thin dc power cables were used to connect between the power sup, , and plies and the antenna dc biasing electrodes ( ground 0 V). The far-eld patterns and directivities, at different biasing voltage sets (Table I), were obtained from the near-eld measurement. The required near-eld-to-far-eld transformation was completed within the NSI antenna measurement software. The simulated and measured E- and H-plane patterns, at 1.8, 2.1, and 2.45 GHz, are presented in Fig. 5. Good agreement between the simulated and measured copolarization patterns is observed. The endre pattern is well preserved over the tuning bandwidth. The measured front-to-back ratio is better than 10 dB at the three frequencies. The ratio decreases as the frequency increases. The measured cross-polarization level is below 20 dB in the E-plane and below 15 dB in the H-plane. The main lobe of the E-plane pattern is slightly tilted from the positive y-axis at the frequencies 1.8, 2.1, and 2.45 GHz. This is mainly due to the radial stub used in the feeding structure. It is also observed in Fig. 5 that the null in the E-plane pattern starts disappearing when the frequency is increased. This phenomenon is not observed in the conventional YagiUda antenna. From our simulation investigation, the null disappearance is attributed to

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IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 9, 2010

IV. CONCLUSION A planar quasi-Yagi dipole antenna with 35% frequency tuning bandwidth has been presented. The effective electrical length of the director is adjusted with that of the driver arms simultaneously when the operating frequency is tuned by varying the biasing voltages. This conguration allows the endre pattern with relatively high gain to be maintained across a wide tuning bandwidth. Measured antenna realized gain varies from 5.6 to 7.6 dBi. The antenna efciency is above 74% over the frequency from 1.80 to 2.45 GHz. The measured front-to-back ratio is better than 10 dB, and the cross-polarization level is below 15 dB. The endre pattern of the antenna makes it a suitable candidate for a point-to-point wireless communications system. The antenna can be an element of a frequency-recongurable array and be scaled to other operating frequency bands, thus nding applications in future cognitive radio systems. The concept can be extended to frequency-agile quasi-Yagi antennas with more director elements to achieve higher gain.

REFERENCES
[1] A. Densmore and J. Huang, Microstrip Yagi antenna for mobile satellite service, in Proc. IEEE Antennas Propag. Soc. Int. Symp., Jun. 1991, vol. 2, pp. 616619. [2] G. R. DeJean and M. M. Tentzeris, A new high-gain microstrip Yagi array antenna with a high front-to-back (F/B) ratio for WLAN and millimeter-wave applications, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 298304, Feb. 2007. [3] W. R. Deal, N. Kaneda, J. Sor, Y. Qian, and T. Itoh, A new quasi-Yagi antenna for planar active antenna arrays, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 910916, Jun. 2000. [4] H. K. Kan, R. B. Waterhouse, A. M. Abbosh, and M. E. Bialkowski, Simple broadband planar CPW-fed quasi-Yagi antenna, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 6, pp. 1820, 2007. [5] R. A. Alhalabi and G. M. Rebeiz, High-gain Yagi Uda antennas for millimeter-wave switched-beam systems, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 57, no. 11, pp. 36723676, Nov. 2009. [6] P. F. Wahid, M. A. Ali, and B. C. DeLoach, Jr., A recongurable Yagi antenna for wireless communications, Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 140141, Jul. 2003. [7] C. Cordeiro, K. Challapali, D. Birru, and N. Sai Shankar, IEEE 802.22: An introduction to the rst wireless standard based on cognitive radios, J. Commun., vol. 1, pp. 3847, 2006. [8] G. H. Huff, J. Feng, J. Zhang, and J. T. Bernhard, A novel radiation pattern and frequency recongurable single turn square spiral microstrip antenna, IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 5759, Feb. 2003. [9] A. R. Weily, T. S. Bird, and Y. J. Guo, A recongurable high-gain partially reecting surface antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 56, no. 11, pp. 33823390, Nov. 2008. [10] W.-H. Tu and K. Chang, Wide-band microstrip-to-coplanar stripline/ slotline transitions, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 10841089, Mar. 2006. [11] C. Mias, Varactor-tunable frequency selective surface with resistivelumped-element biasing grids, IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 15, no. 9, pp. 570572, Sept. 2005. [12] Metallics GaAs hyperabrupt varactor diodes data sheet, Aeroex, Plainview, NY, Dec. 3, 2009 [Online]. Available: http://www.aeroex. com/AMS/Metelics/pdles/MGV_Series_Hyperabrupt_A17041.pdf [13] D. E. Anagnostou and G. Z. Zheng et al., Design, fabrication, and measurements of an RF-MEMS-based self-similar recongurable antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 422432, Feb. 2006. [14] C. J. Panagamuwa, A. Chauraya, and J. C. Vardaxoglou, A frequency and beam recongurable antenna using photoconducting switches, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 449454, Feb. 2006.

Fig. 6. Comparison of the measured and simulated antenna gain and efciency. (a) Realized gain. (b) Antenna efciency.

the spurious radiation contribution from the CPS lines added to the radiated eld from dipole elements at the angle of and 270 . It is observed that there is a difference between the measured pattern plots and the simulated ones. This discrepancy is caused by the thin dc biasing power cables extended behind the truncated ground plane. Antenna gain was measured using the gain-comparison method. The NSI-RF-SG430 gain horn was used as the second receiving antenna. The antenna efciency was evaluated from the difference between the measured antenna gain and directivity. The simulated and measured gain and efciency, over the four tuning subbands, are compared in Fig. 6(a) and (b), respectively. Within each subband, several gain values at the frequency points were measured using the biasing voltages given in Table I. A small gain variation, between 5.67.6 dBi, is obtained over the tuning bandwidth. In comparison to the wideband quasi-Yagi antenna [3], [4], the antenna realizes a relatively high-gain operation associated with frequency-selective capabilities. The overall measured antenna efciency, as shown in Fig. 6(b), is above 74%. The lowest efciency occurs at 2.2 GHz, where the antenna return loss is relatively low at the border of two tuning subbands.