Problem identification and proposed solution

Abstract

In todays modern
communication
industry, antennas are the most important
components required to create a communication link. Microstrip antennas are the most suited for
aerospace and mobile applications because of their low profile, light weight and low power
handling capacity. They can be designed in a variety of shapes in order to obtain enhanced gain
and bandwidth, dual band and circular polarization to even ultra wideband operation. The project
provides a detailed study of the design of circular ring microstrip patch antenna to facilitate dual
polarized, dual band operation. The design parameters of the antenna have been calculated using
the transmission line model and the cavity model.

Aim and Objective

The aim of the project is to design and fabricate a dual frequency and dual polarized microstrip
patch antenna. The performance comparison is based on radiation pattern, bandwidth, return loss,
vswr and gain. The slit length, slit width, distance of the slit from the edge of the patch, feed
point and the cross slot parameters are varied in order to obtain optimum results.

INTRODUCTION

Microstrip antennas are widely used in many applications due to their low prole, low
cost and ease of fabrication. In some applications it is desired to have a dual band or multiband
characteristics. These characteristics can be obtained by coupling multiple radiating elements or
by using tuning devices such as varactor diodes. However, these methods make antenna more
complicated. A simple method to achieve the dual band characteristic in a microstrip antenna is
embedding a slot in the patch as the structure proposed which the radiating patch includes a pair
of step-slots. In microstrip antennas, embedded slots can also be used to enhance the impedance
bandwidth of a single band antenna. A circular arc slot and a U-shaped slot have been
investigated in order to broaden the bandwidth of a single band antenna. To realize a broadband
characteristic in feeding a microstrip antenna, an L-probe can be used. This feeding structure is
also known as broadband electromagnetic coupling probe
A microstrip antenna generally consists of a dielectric substrate sandwiched between a
radiating patch on the top and a ground plane on the other side as shown in Figure 2.1. The patch
is generally made of conducting material such as copper or gold and can take any possible shape.
The radiating patch and the feed lines are usually photo etched on the dielectric substrate.
For simplicity of analysis, the patch is generally square, rectangular, circular, triangular,
and elliptical or some other common shape. For a rectangular patch, the length of the patch is
usually in the range of
0.3333 0 < < 0.5 0, where 0 is the free space wavelength. The patch is selected to be very
thin such that << 0 (where is the patch thickness). The height of the substrate is
usually0.003 0 0.05 0. The dielectric constant of the substrate is typically in the range
2.2 12 [3].

Advantages and Disadvantages

Microstrip antennas are used as embedded antennas in handheld wireless devices such as cellular
phones, and also employed in Satellite communications. Some of their principal advantages are
given below:
Light weight and low fabrication cost.
Supports both, linear as well as circular polarization.
Can be easily integrated with microwave integrated circuits.
Capable of dual and triple frequency operations.
Mechanically robust when mounted on rigid surfaces.

Microstrip patch antennas suffer from more drawbacks as compared to conventional antennas.
Some of their major disadvantages are given below:
Narrow bandwidth.
Low efficiency and Gain.
Extraneous radiation from feeds and junctions.
Low power handling capacity.
Surface wave excitation.

DESIGN METHODOLOGY

In order to reach the primary goal of manufacturing broadband patch antennas the project was
split into subtasks, which allowed for achievable short-term goals. After the initial research
regarding microstrip antennas specific work needed to be done. The flow chart below explains
the process.

Design Methodology

Ultrawideband (UWB) communications offers great promise for transferring voice and
high data rates over the frequency band from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, provided that the components
required for such systems can be designed and fabricated affordably. The antenna is one of the
components which has attracted many designers since the United States Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) opened that band for commercial use. The antenna presents
numerous challenges, including broadband impedance matching and radiation stability in a
relatively small structure that can be produced for low manufacturing cost.
As a possible solution, a simple, compact microstrip-fed UWB antenna with dual-bandnotched characteristics at 3.4 and 5.8 GHz is proposed. It has a broad impedance bandwidth,
owing to a modified ground plane with two fillets and a step-shaped slot. By etching a
semicircular slot in the radiating patch, the first notched band from 3.3 to 3.6 GHz was achieved.
To produce the second notched band from 5.725 to 5.825 GHz, a hook-shaped slot was cut in the
ground plane.

1. The diagram in (a) shows the geometry and configuration of the proposed dualnotched-band antenna while (b) shows part of the ground plane.

In this dual-notch design, when one notch band varies, the other remains unchanged, due
to the fact that the two slots are placed on different sides of the antenna and the coupling between
them is weak. The band-notched antenna can be designed without retuning the dimensions of an
original UWB antenna. Figure 1 shows the geometry and design of the proposed antenna.

The antenna will printed on low-cost FR-4 PCB substrate material with relative dielectric
constant, r, of 4.4, loss tangent, , of 0.02, and thickness, h, of 1.6 mm. A circular patch with
radius of R1 was printed on the top side of the substrate. This circular patch is connected to a
microstrip line with width w. For a characteristic impedance of 50 , the width of the microstrip
line is fixed at 2.8 mm.

On the bottom of the substrate is a modified rectangular ground plane with two fillets and a stepshaped slot, which results in a broadened bandwidth. The step-shaped structure can be seen as an
impedance transformer, and the fillets result in a smooth transition to the ground plane. These
measures help to decrease discontinuities and reflections, allowing for good input impedance
matching. Figure 2 shows the effects of the step-shaped structure and the fillets. The step-shaped
structure affects the impedance over the full UWB frequency range. The fillets mainly influence
the impedance at higher frequencies (8.5 to 11 GHz). The improved impedance matching is
apparent when the modified ground plane is introduced.

Antenna design specification

Antenna type
Frequency bandwidth
Material
Gain
Impedance
VSWR
Radiation pattern

Cost of material

Circular Ring Microstrip Antenna

1 10 GHz (Ultra wide band)
FR4
Up to 1.2dBi ( at frequency 6 GHz )
50
<2.0:1
Omni/directional

Table 1 below shows the cost of material to design and fabricate an elliptical antenna.

Table 1: Cost of material

No
1.
2.
3.

Material
PCB Board (FR4)
Double sided tape
SMA Female Connector

Amount
1
1
2

Price
RM 18.00
RM 3.00
RM 20.00

Total

RM 41.00