BROADBAND STRIPLINE FED MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNAS FOR 3G MOBILE

COMMUNICATIONS
R A Abd-Alhameed', N T AI?, P S Ercel l ' , C H See' and J C Cardi ner'
'Telecommunication Research Centre, Bradford University, Bradford. BD7 I DP
'Etisalat College, P 0 Box 980, Sharjah, UAE nta[r@ece ac ar
ABSTRACT Bandwidth enhancement and size reduction
techniques for microstrip patch antennas are demonstrated
theoretically and experimentally. Three novel designs of
small broadband microstrip patch antennas for 3G mobile
communications are presented: two forms of shorted coplanar
patch antenna, and an E-shaped antenna. By optimising the
geometry, using ground planes and short circuits. the size of
the antennas can be reduced considerably. The predicted and
measured impedances of the three proposed designs are
discussed.
1. INTRODUCTION
Micro strip patch antennas have many well-known
advantages, especially for mobile communications where low
S A R i s an important feature. However, narrow bandwidth is
the main limitation on their scope, and presents a difficult
problem when size must also be reduced. The impedance
bandwidth of a typical patch antenna may he just a few
percents. Numerous methods have been suggested to alleviate
this problem. The use of thicker substrate with low
permittivity constant is usually unacceptable, and other
methods proposed and investigated include using multiple
resonances, and modifying and optimising the geometly of
the patch antenna [1-6]. The problem is acute for the
emerging 3C-industry, and has intensiiied the research effort.
Drastic size reductions by the use of a high permittivity
. .
substrate, shorting pins. or modified geometries are possible
[7,8] hut have well-known penalties i n bandwidth, gain and
efficiency.
In this paper. three proposed microstrip patch antennas are
studied. AI1 of thcse are simpler in construction than a
traditional wide band patch antenna. The E-shaped antenna is
realized when two slots are inserted symmetrically into the
radiating edge of a normal rectangular patch antenna. tigures
1,2. The length and width of the slot play are important in
achieving satisfactory performance [5,6j. I n the other form,
the broad bandwidth can be achieved by electromagnetically
coupling two shorted coplanar patches. where one is driven
and the other parasitic. I t should be noted that the parasitic
patch could be either circular or rectangular. while the driven
patch is fixed as rectangular in design [7]. Measured
impedance bandwidths for the new designs will be presented.
and comeared with simulations.
2. REVIEW OF BANDWIDTH ENHANCEMENT AND
SIZE REDUCTION TECHNIQUES
The many designs proposed for bandwidth improvement
[4,9] can he categorised as two general methods: broadband
matching. and using coplanar or multi-layer parasitic
elements. This classification excludes the straightforward
approach of increasing the antenna volume, for example by
increasing the substrate thickness or reducing its permittivity.
Broadband matching is usually implemented by attaching a
lossless matching network to the patch antenna. without
altering its shape. Normally, the matching network is
included in the feed part of the antenna, and it could be
realised in lumped, microstrip and coplanar technologies. I t
may be integrated to some degree with the antenna hut it is
not itself a radiating element. It therefore raises the order of
the impedance response, and allows the same intrinsic
bandwidth to be used more effectively.
Using coplanar or multi-layer parasitic elements is the most
popular and useful method for bandwidth improvement. The
basic idea is to introduce additional patches to provide two or
more closely spaced resonances. In other words, creation of
multiple resonances in input response by addition of external
passive networks or internal resonant structures. In some
reported cases the additional elements may havc increased
the volume. and this should be borne in mind when assessing
the bandwidth improvement. These methods may invoke
additional dissipative losses.
Techniques for making antennas smaller have long been
established [8.9-10]. Their aim is to achieve resonance at the
desired operating frequency in a smaller size. There is a
fundamental trade off between bandwidth and size. so the
miniaturization techniques incur penalties in bandwidth. and
sometimes also efticicncy. These may be acceptable in
particular applications. The main miniaturizing tools used are
loading the antenna with lumped elements. high dielectric
constant materials. or with conductors: using a ground plane
and short circuits, and optimising the conductor geometry.
Loading of the antenna can be done by modieing the
dielectric or magnetic characteristics of the material
surrounding it. The antenna becomes smaller when
embedded in high-permittivity material. due to the reduced
wavelength in the material. Higher permittivity usually
implies higher dielectric losses. but these can remain very
small with modern dielectrics. However, the size reduction in
itself tends to increase conductor ohmic losses. Another
0-7803-7510-6102/517.00 02002 IEEE ICCS 2002
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method uses a ground plane and shorting pins: by connecting
shorting pins fromthe patch antennas to the ground plane. the
size of the patch can be reduced by one half or more. This is
due to the shorting pins acting as an inductive element to
some extent, and perturbing the electric-field paths in the
patch. Finally. in microsrip patch antennas, the size can also
be reduced by inserting slots into the patch. These force the
surface current to meander, thus artificially increasing the
antenna's electrical length without modifying its global
dimensions
3. PROPOSED NEW ANTENNAS
The broadband designs now described incorporate novel
methods for introducing additional, independently radiating,
resonances within the structure. As they also use fairly thick
substrate with low permittivity (air substrate E, =I ) they have
enough bandwidth for 3G applications.
3.1. E-shaped patch antenna
The basic idea of this antenna is to modify the geometry o f a
typical rectangular patch antenna by inserting a pair of slits in
an appropriate radiating edge to form an E-shaped patch. The
slots reduce the size of the original rectangular patch, because
the length of the current path around the slots is increased.
The slots also introduce the dual frequency features. The
higher frequency is mainly determined by the centre pal of
the proposed patch, while the lower one is controlled by the
outer parts. The length, width and position of the two
symmetrical slots must be critically selected, otherwise only
a single resonant frequency will be observed.
The geometry of the E- shaped antenna geometry isshown in
Fig.1. The antenna has only one patch, which is simpler than
most conventional wide-band microstrip antennas which use
multiple layers. Two parallcl narrow slots of length and width
43.25mm x Imm are inserted into to the rectangular patch
whose size is about I O5 mm x 44 mm, and it is fed by a probe
at the centre of the long edge. Fig. 2 shows the practical
configuration of the E-shaped antenna with a ground plane
of dimensions 150 mmxl50mm and 18mm thickness of air
substrate.
3.2. Two shorted coplanar patch antennas
The basic broadbanding concept of this proposed antenna is
electromagnetic coupling of two coplanar, shorted.
rectangular or circular microstrip patch elements. One patch
is driven by a probe at its edge. and the other is parasitic. The
driven patch will dominate the higher resonant frequency
while the lower one is generated by electromagnetic coupling
of the two of the shorted patches. The coupling gap between
two patches must be carefully selected for optimal coupling.
or only a single resonant frequency with relatively narrow
bandwidth will be observed [7]. In this case short circuit pins
are used to minimize the overall dimension ofthe each patch.
Fig. 3 shows the geometry ofthis antenna, and Fig. 4 shows
its practical realisation. The two patches are coplanar and
individually shorted to ground by a shorting pin. The antenna
is air tilled, and has a maximum thickness of IOmm. This is
about 1/15 of a free space wavelength at the frequency of
interest, while the maximum transverse dimension is only a
quarter-wavelength. The driven patch has dimensions 22 x
30mm, while the other isabout 8 x33 mm. A rectangular stub
measuring 2 x 3.25 mm' is attached to the centre of the
radiating edge of the driven patch, and isalso attached to the
feed probe. For optimal coupling, the coupling gap between
the two shorted patches is about 4mm. The radius of the
shorting pins and the feed probe is0.65mm.
4. SI MULATI ON AND EXPERI MENTAL RESULTS
4.1. E-Shaped patch antenna
Simulations were made using HPADS-2002 Vl.5
Momentum based on the mixed potential integral equation
(MPIE) formulation. According to the simulated results in
Fig. S(a). it is seen that two adjacent resonant modes are
excited, which leads to a wide bandwidth. They are centred
near 2GHz and 2.7 GHz. The impedance bandwidth,
determined from -1OdB return loss, is 0.950 GHz or about
40%, with respect to the centre frequency at 2.375 GHz. The
-10dB return loss band is from 1.9 GHz to 2.85 GHz which
fully covers the frequency spectrum of IMT-2000 from 1885
to 2200 MHr. Fig. 5(b) also illustrates the simulated
broadband impedance behaviour. It can be seen that one
small circle encloses the centre of the Smith chart. as
required for optimum bandwidth. The input impedance ofthe
proposed design was also measured using an HP8510C
nrtwork analyser. and the results are shown in Fig. 6(a) and
(b) respectively. The measured results have impedance
bandwidth of 23% (return loss 5-IOdB) with a centre
frequency 2.6 GHz and fully cover the frequency spectrum
from 2.3- 2.9 GHz. The simulated impedance bandwidth is
17% higher than the experimental results. and there is a slight
shitt in the centre frequency. This is probably due to the use
of a finite-size ground plane in the tests, instead of an infinite
ground plane as used in the simulations. With slight scaling
to adjust the centre frequency, the antenna is clearly easily
capable of covering the 1.885 to 2.2 GHz band far 3C
mobile.
4.2. Shorted coplanar patch antenna
Fig.7 shows simulated input impedance of the antenna in Fig.
4 which uses two shorted rectangular patches. The simulated
impedance bandwidth (return loss 5 -10 dB) is 20.2% from
1.78 to 2.18 GHz. so with marginal adjustment it can clearly
cover the UMTS spectrum from 1885 to 2200 MHz. There
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are two resonant frequencies at 1.825 and 2.1 GHz, which
can also be seen in the Smith chart in Fig 7(b). The large
circle indicates that good matching is expected over a broad
band of frequencies.
The measured impedance bandwidth is shorn in Fig. 8.
A 26.5 % impedance bandwidth for return loss 5-4 dB has
been achieved over a frequency range from1.605 to 2.095
GHz. This does not agree well with the simulated results that
return loss is less than -1OdB. The tests were made on a finite
ground plane, while an infinite ground plane was used in the
simulation. It is not certain that the inductance of the feed
probe has been properly included in the simulation.
Nevertheless, the experimental results confirm that this
method of introducing an additional radiating resonance is
feasible, and deserves tinher study and optimisation.
CONCLUSION
Bandwidth enhancement and size reduction techniques for
microstrip patch antennas have been discussed. and two
novel form5 were proposed for small broad-band antennas.
They were designed, measured and characterized in detail.
By lengthening the current path in the patch or including
shorting pins in the design, the size of the proposed antennas
has been successfully minimized. Likewise, by
electromagnetically coupling two resonators and altering the
geometry of the rectangular patch, a wider bandwidth has
been achieved.
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