2012 IEEE Symposium on Wireless Technology and Applications (ISWTA), September 23-26, 2012, Bandung, Indonesia

A Design Of Off Centered Feed Array (OCFA)

Antenna for ISM Band
A.A. Azlan (1), M.T.Ali (2), M.K.M Salleh(2)
(1)
Center Of Medical Electronic Technology (CMET)
Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Polytechnic;
Persiaran usahawan seksyen u1;
Shah Alam Selangor, Malaysia
E-mail:9m2agc@gmail.com
(2)
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
Email:mizi732002@yahoo.com

Abstract -- In this paper, a patch antenna for 2.45 GHz ISM
(Industrial Scientific Medical) band Wireless Body Area
Network (WBAN) applications is proposed. The antenna
structure consists of a microstrip antenna array consist of 3 by 3
OCFA (off centered feed array) that is coaxial feed through type
antenna with Unbalanced characteristic whereby the feed line
situated off centered from the OCFA antenna structure. Two
matching stub and Circular matching BalUn were introduced to
match the impedance of the antenna and contribute high gain
antenna about 11.84 dB at 2.45 GHz. Then, the entire proposed
antennas were being analyzed in term of return loss, Voltage
Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR, radiation pattern and gain. The
fabricated proposed antenna only analyzed in term of return loss
using Vector Network Analyzer (VNA).
Keyword: Industrial Scientific Medical, Wireless Body Area
network, BalUn, matching stub, Return loss.
I.INTRODUCTION
With the recent development of wireless communication
technology, many researchers pay great attention to the study
of wireless body area networks (WBANs). WBANs link
between various electronic devices in, on, and the human
body. The application of WBANs has been expanding in
medical services, national defense, wearable computing, and
so forth. Several frequency bands have been assigned for
WBAN systems, such as the medical implant communication
system (MICS: 400 MHz) band, the industrial scientific
medical (ISM: 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz) band, and the ultra-
wideband (UWB: 3~10 GHz) [1].Not much design focusing
on unbalanced type of antenna especially on array method to
enhance the antenna gain. Since it is difficult to match the fed
of the antenna with conventional balanced type of matching
hence it also contributes of multiple side lobes on radiation
pattern. So the need of the antenna design for high gain is
antenna is importance to minimize the power and still offer
great distance for long range communications. The overall
study is base on developing the high gain antenna for ISM
band, so it can be used on various electronic devices to
exchange the data from the sensor equip with on body
antenna for medical sensing purposes to the receive antenna at
the electronic equipment. By using the microstrip high gain
antenna the amount of supplied power can be reduced and the
long range communication between reading equipment and
sensor still can be maintain since the system used high gain
array antenna. Most design is base on using microstrip
antenna technology using low cost FR4 substrate and all the
antenna parameters were show in TABLE I.
TABLE I: ANTENNA PARAMETER
Substrate FR-4
Dielectric constant r 4.9
Tangent loss 0.019
Thickness 0.8 mm
Centre frequency 2.45 GHz
II.ANTENNA DESIGN
The design was inspired by the usage of 2 by 2 arrays
structure with FR4, 0.8mm substrate. So the aim is to
maintain the same substrate characteristic and rectangular
quarter wave technique used by that array antenna to
perform the design of our proposed OCFA antenna. The
main works were focusing not only increasing the antenna
gain and its performance but also maintaining the substrate
characteristic that used FR4 0.8mm substrate. The design of

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 2012 IEEE Symposium on Wireless Technology and Applications (ISWTA), September 23-26, 2012, Bandung, Indonesia
2 by 2 arrays is show in the figure 1 while proposed 3 by 3
OCFA antennas is shown in figure 2.
Figure 1: 2 by 2 conventional array antennas
Figure 2: Proposed 3 by 3 OCFA antenna
The overall length of proposed antenna is 131.6 mm x 130.2
mm and the shape of the antenna is almost like cubic shape,
and the overall shape in figure 2 are aspired from figure 1.The
structure of 2 by 2 array system is still be maintained and
from the figure 2, half of the structure of figure 1 was add to
left of the structure at figure 2 and all the dimension are
exactly the same as the origin patch. Then, we add another 3
patches to the upper section of figure 2. This upper section is
aspired from the 2 patches located at the bottom of the figure
1. The overall structure of the proposed antenna consists of 9
patches of rectangular antenna that be array together with the
direct feed using feed through SMA connector from behind of
the antenna. Since this proposed antenna contributed to the
unbalanced type of antenna since the feeding line located at
approximately /3 to left of the antenna and 2/3 to right of
the antenna and the illustration of location of feeding point is
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show in figure 3. As reported in [2] any off centered antenna,
contribute high impedance up to 200 ohm at the feeding point
of the antenna due to unbalanced condition. So to overcome
this problem we need to install the BalUn (balance to
unbalance) to the proposed antenna to overcome the
mismatch problem. As also reported in [2] they install ratio 4
to 1 BalUn so that the impedance is down to 50 ohms that is
suitable for most communication standard for transmitting
equipment [3]. Besides that, in order to fine tune the antenna
especially to resonate to our desired ISM band centered
frequency that is 2.45 GHz, there are 2 matching stub
installed at the proposed antenna. This both matching stub are
Shunt -short type of matching stub. The design of circular
Matching BalUn and 2 matching stub are show in figure 3.
A. BalUn and matching stub design
Figure 3: BalUn and Matching Stub
As illustrated in figure 3 the design of shunt short matching
stub is expressed in equation (1) through equation (3) and for
tuning purposes, if the calculations for the lengths turn up
negative we can increase the distance by /2
tan , 0
= (1)
tan , 0
Where
(2)
For a short circuit stub is defined as:
= tan (3)
Beside matching stub the BalUn also play the importance
role in our proposed antenna matching system. The design
of the BalUn is based on the effective area of the patch
(length of the rectangular single patch) that is defined as
 2012 IEEE Symposium on Wireless Technology and Applications (ISWTA), September 23-26, 2012, Bandung, Indonesia

and to find the diameter for the BalUn we used the equation
/4 to find the diameter of the BalUn. All the calculation
and actual dimension of the antenna is shown in TABLE II
(all dimension in mm).
TABLE II: BalUn AND MATCHING STUB DIMENSION
Parameter Calculation Optimization
(6)
Where
D Chamfer angle, W microstrip Width and H
Substrate height while on most of our proposed miter design
for the proposed antenna is show in TABLE III.
TABLE III: MITERING DIMENSION (IN MM)

Parameter Calculation Optimization

C. Rectangular patch and Array design

B. Mitering Design

Mitering or curving transmission lines is a process of

bending the end of the array to minimize the reflection
effect of the antenna. Mitering the bend chops off some
capacitance, restoring the line back to its original
characteristic impedance [4]-[9].The figure 4 below shows
the important parameters of a mitered bend.

Figure 5: Single Patch Design

Figure 4: Array mitering process

From figure 2 our proposed antenna used this mitering

process to minimize the reflection effect at the end of the
antenna array. The process of mitering process is based on
the Equation (4) through Equation (6).
Figure 6: Upper side of proposed antenna
D W (4)
As illustrated in figure 5, this is one of the patches taken
. apart from of our proposed antenna show in figure 2. The
0.52 0.65 (5) entire dimension can be view as figure 5 while in figure 6 is
the half of the upper side of the proposed antenna array
design since half of the bottom design identical to upper
design. All the equation to obtain the patches and antenna
array are showed in Equation 7 through Equation 12

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 2012 IEEE Symposium on Wireless Technology and Applications (ISWTA), September 23-26, 2012, Bandung, Indonesia

The width of antenna is given by equation 7 cases also was carried out in figure 8a to 8d and all this 4
cases were tabulated in TABLE IV.
(7)
TABLE IV: BalUn AND STUB EXPERIMENT CASES

The length of the antenna is given by equation 8 STUB BalUn

2 (8) Cases R E R E

The extension for length antenna L is given by equation 9 Case 1

Case 2
Case 3
(9)
Case 4 (proposed)
Effective dielectric constant (reff ) is given by equation 10
Where Letter R is Remains while E is Eliminated

(10)

The height of the 50 ohm matching patch (Lf) is given as

equation 11

(11)

The 50 ohm feed line width and all array design are base on
equation 12

(6)

(12)
Figure 8a:S11 data for Case 1
Antenna structures have been fabricated using FR4 0.8mm
substrate using manual DIY fabrication method.

Figure 7: Antenna prototype

III.RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Numerical simulations and measurements were

conducted for 3 by 3 OCFA antennas and the analysis are
focus on Return loss measurement, radiation pattern, and
gain by using simulation CST microwave studio simulator
while all measured return loss (S11) value were conducted
by using Rohde & Schwarz ZVA 40 vector network
analyzer. Besides that, the differences of antenna structure
for BalUn and matching stub in term of return loss for 4
Figure 8b:S11 data for Case 2
The S11 graph as show in figure 8a is a result for CASE1
whereby the BalUn was eliminated while maintaining the
matching stub structure. From the simulation CST result for
CASE 1, by elimination of the Circular matching BalUn and
maintaining the matching stub there is no peak reported at the

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 2012 IEEE Symposium on Wireless Technology and Applications (ISWTA), September 23-26, 2012, Bandung, Indonesia

S11 graph at figure 8a. The nearest peak reported was at
2.55GHz at -14.7dB. The results indicate that without the
installation of BalUn to our proposed antenna system, it is
not only creating mismatch to the feeding point but its also
result the proposed antenna system did not resonate at our
desired 2.45GHz frequency. Since the purpose of matching
stub is to do fine tuning, so it is not so much different in
shifting the frequency for CASE 2. As revealed in figure 8b
the S11 reading for Stub Elimination (CASE 2) is alias at
2.43GHz for value of -10.1 dB and -14dB at 2.56GHz, but it
is still beyond our desired frequency. Again there is still no
peak reported at our ISM band frequency 2.45GHz which
lead to the adding of CASE 3 experiment work showed in
figure 8c.
As shown in figure 8d for case 4 situation whereby both
matching stub and BalUn were installed, it show that highest
peak obtain at 2.45GHz with reading of return lost (RL) is -
33.1dB and this is the best result compare to the other 3
cases stated at table 4.So by using result obtained for case 4,
we selected case 4 structure to be fabricated as our proposed
antenna and the comparison between measured (case 4)
simulation and measured fabricated antenna (case4) is show
in figure 8e and all the Resonant Frequency, VSWR, Gain
and Return loss value obtained between simulation and
fabricated for case 4 is showed in TABLE V.

Figure 8e: Simulation versus measured result

TABLE V: SIMULATION MEASURED RESULT

Figure 8c:S11 data for Case 3 Parameter Simulation Measured

As shown in figure 8c the S11 reading show that no peak

reported at 2.45GHz. The nearest peak only occurs at
frequency 2.28GHz for case 3. The Unbalanced condition
create no peak response to almost entire ISM band frequency
2.4 GHz to 2.5GHz if both matching stub and BalUn is
remove from the structure of proposed antenna.

Figure 8f: Polar plot at 0 degree

Figure 8d: S11 data for Case 4

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 2012 IEEE Symposium on Wireless Technology and Applications (ISWTA), September 23-26, 2012, Bandung, Indonesia

REFERENCES

[1] P. S. Hall and Y. Hao, ed., Antennas and Propagation for

Body-Centric Wireless Communications, Artech House,
2006.

[2] http://www.w8ji.com?windom_off_center_fed.html

[3] Berge Ayvasian LTE TDD operator business case

&Adoption forecast white paper march 2011

[4]R.J.P. Douville and D.S. James, Experimental

Characterization of Microstrip Bends and Their Frequency
Dependent Behavior, 1973 IEEE Conference Digest,
Figure 8g: 3D radiation pattern for OFCA antenna October 1973, pp. 24-25.

Figure 8f and 8g is a radiation pattern reading for our [5]R.J.P. Douville and D.S. James, Experimental Study of
proposed antenna by using CST simulation software. Figure Symmetric Microstrip Bends and Their Compensation, IEEE
8f is a 2dimension reading while figure 8g is 3 dimension Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol.
reading of our proposed antenna at zero degree. MTT-26, March 1978, pp. 175-181

IV. CONCLUSION [6]. C Wu, k. L. Wu, Z Bi, J. Litva, Modelling of coaxial-

fed microstrip patch antenna by finite difference time
A new 3 by 3 OCFA (off centered feed array) antenna domain method, Electronics Letters 12th September 1991,
with operating frequencies 2.45 GHz was designed, Vol. 27, issue 19, pp. 1691-1692
fabricated and measured. It has been demonstrated with CST
simulation software and experimental results that the antenna [7]. Different IEEE Wireless Standards
is useful for ISM (industrial science medical) centre http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wireless80211/a/aa802
frequency is at 2.45GHz.The antenna is feed with off 11standard.htm
centered feeding feed through technique and create the
unbalanced to the antenna especially on impedance [8]. Introduction to WiMAX standard
matching. A comprehensive solution to overcome this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX\
problem by installing circular BalUn (Balanced to
Unbalanced) and Shunt short matching stub create solve a lot [9]. Asrokin A., M. K. A. Rahim, M. Z. A. Abd. Aziz, Dual
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and Shunt short stub was also demonstrated in this paper and Applied Electromagnetics,
the outcome by all the result indicate that the purpose of the Johor, Malaysia, pp: 26-29, 2005.
BalUn is acting as the frequency shifter. So by altering the
optimization on BalUn it is reported from the result that it
can shift the operating frequency and balanced the
impedance matching as well. While, Shunt short matching
stub is acting as frequency tuner whereby as reported in the
result, it is only narrow down the return loss value while
maintain the operating frequency. So the 3 by 3 OCFA
antennas not only create high gain 11.84dB at 2.45GHz but
it also solves some of the unbalanced feed technique
especially on array technique. For future development the
work focusing on reduced size on array development can be
extended with replacement the radiation elements with other
geometry shape to see their performance.

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