DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF MICROSTRIP

PATCH ANTENNA ARRAYS FOR WIRELESS

COMMUNICATION

A REVIEW OF LITERATURE SUBMITTED TO

BARKATULLAH UNIVERSITY, BHOPAL
FOR THE COURSE WORK
FOR THE DEGREE OF

Doctor of Philosophy
(ELECTRONICS)

Under the Supervision of

Dr. A. K. Rastogi
Professor & Head
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS & ELECTRONICS
Institute for Excellence in Higher Education,
Bhopal (M.P.) India 462 016

BY

Gazala Perveen
Department of Electronics
1
Barkatullaha University, Bhopal (M.P.)

2
 Design and Simulation of Microstrip Patch Antenna
Arrays for Wireless Communication
Wireless communications have been developed widely and rapidly in the modern
world especially during the last two decades. The future development of the
personal communication devices will aim to provide image, speech and data
communications at any time, and anywhere around the world. Information is
indeed the lifeblood of modern economies and antennas provide mother earth a
solution to a wireless communication system. An antenna is a device that provides
a means for radiating or receiving radio waves. Thus information can be
transferred between different locations without any intervening structure.
Furthermore, antennas are required in situations where it is impossible, impractical
or uneconomical to provide guiding structures between the transmitter and the
receiver.

There is a wide range of antennas which serve this purpose. A few among them
being wire antennas, aperture antennas, microstrip antennas, array antennas,
reflector antennas and lens antennas.

A large number of commercial needs are met by the use of microstrip printed
antennas. These antennas consist of a metallic patch on a grounded substrate. The
metallic patch can take many different configurations such as rectangular, circular,
triangular etc. However, the rectangular and circular are the most popular because
of the ease of analysis and fabrication, and their attractive radiation characteristics,
especially low cross polarization radiation. The microstrip antennas are low profile,
confirmable to planar and non-planar surfaces, simple and inexpensive to fabricate
using modern printed circuit technology, mechanically robust when mounted on
rigid surfaces, compatible with MMIC designs and very versatile in terms of
resonant frequency, polarization, pattern and impedance. These antennas can be
mounted on the surface of high performance aircraft, spacecrafts, satellites,
missiles, cars, and even hand held mobile telephones.

3
Many antennas require radiation characteristics that may not be achievable by a
single element. It may however be possible that an aggregate of radiating elements
in an electrical and geometrical arrangement (an array) will result in the desired
radiation characteristics. The arrangement of the array may be such that the
radiation from the elements adds up to give a radiation maximum in a particular
direction or directions, minimum in others, or otherwise as desired.

In recent years, there is a need for more compact antennas due to rapid decrease in
size of personal communication devices. As communication devices become
smaller due to greater integration of electronics, the antenna becomes a
significantly larger part of the overall package volume. This results in a demand for
similar reductions in antenna size. In addition to this, low profile antenna designs
are also important for fixed wireless application. The microstrip antennas are used
in a wide range of applications from communication systems to satellite and
biomedical applications. There are numerous and well known method to increase
the bandwidth of antennas, including increase of substrate thickness, the use of low
dielectric.

Renowned scientists have dealt with microstrip antennas and efforts have been
made to make the communication more and more flawless by putting their efforts.
In last few decades, the use of microstrip antennas became establish, a number of
new analytical and full-wave techniques were introduced, new feeding techniques
became available, and microstrip antennas revived the field of active antennas.
Garg et. al. [1] provides various aspects of microstrip antennas, analysis technique;
prominent antenna types such as rectangular patches, dipoles and slots; circularly
polarized antenna; loaded and active (integrated) antennas; broad banding
techniques; and array antennas.

Antennas becoming a key element in wireless communication devices have

undergone amazing developments especially in the direction of compactness.
Antenna history starts with Hertz when he proved Maxwells theoretical prediction
of electromagnetic waves by the classical experiments in 1880s [2]. But the long
distance communication using antennas was first realized by Marconis
transatlantic experiments in 1901. During this period our Indian scientist J. C. Bose

4
also conducted experiments on high frequencies even in millimeter waves and
developed first horn antenna, which he called a collecting funnel.

World War II made some historic developments in antenna research, especially in

centimeter wave antennas. Dipoles, loops, reflectors, horn radiators and lens
antennas were introduced and the concept of antenna array was proposed [3]. But
during the last two decades personal communication industry saw a tremendous
growth especially in mobile communications. Strong need for the integration of
multiband, multi-purpose services to the mobile phones focuses the antenna
research to compact multiband printed antennas. In earlier devices wire antennas
were used which protruded outside and make the device bulky. Research and
developments in the printed antenna designs allow antenna to be integrated to the
printed circuit board of the communication device, thus allows compactness.
Planar inverted antennas (PIFA), printed monopoles and printed dipoles are
commonly being used for compact applications. But the demand for the integration
of more and more services to the mobile phone while reducing its size has been a
great challenge for the antenna designer.

In this modern communication age, mobile phones and other personal

communication devices are becoming smaller and light weight. Printed antennas
are well exploited in these compact applications because of its features like low
profile, small size, conformal to the mounting host etc [4]. Printed antenna history
started in 1953 with Deschamps when he first proposed microstrip antenna [5].
Almost all printed antennas are developed based on microstrip configuration or its
modifications. Microstrip antenna geometry became popular because of its features
like
Low volume, low profile and conformal configuration.
Low fabrication cost.
Easily integrated with microwave integrated circuits.
Feed lines and matching networks can be fabricated simultaneously along
with the antenna structure.
Any desired polarization

Along with these advantages, microstrip antenna has some drawbacks,

which limits its direct application in compact devices. They are:

5
 Narrow bandwidth.
Limited half space radiation.
Large size, half wave length dimensions.
Comparatively large ground plane.
Poor end fire radiation.

Balani [6] introduced the fundamental principles of antenna theory and applied
them to the analysis, design, and measurements of antennas. Because there are so
many methods of analysis and design and a plethora of antenna structures,
applications are made to some of the most basic and practical configurations, such
as linear dipoles; loops; arrays; broadband, and frequency-independent antennas;
aperture antennas; horn antennas; microstrip antennas; and reflector antennas. A
tutorial chapter on Smart Antennas has been included to introduce the student in a
technology that will advance antenna theory and design, and revolutionize wireless
communications. It is based on antenna theory, digital signal processing, networks
and communications. The microstrip antenna designs covered compact microstrip
antennas and broadband microstrip antennas. Kin-Lu Wong [7] describes in detail
advanced designs for compact microstrip antennas, compact broadband microstrip
antennas, compact dual-frequency and dual-polarized microstrip antennas, compact
circularly polarized microstrip antennas, and compact microstrip antennas with
enhanced gain. They have also explained advanced designs for all these designs.

Shin and Kim [8] designed a wideband, high-gain one patch microstrip antenna
coupled with an H-shaped aperture which can reduce the cross- polarizations and
may solve the problem of narrow bandwidth of microstrip antenna. It also
improves gain, and reduces spurious radiation due to low cross-polarization. They
provided an exhaustive coverage of the design of a wideband and high-gain one-
patch microstrip antenna coupled with an H-shaped aperture. They fabricated the
antenna and measured its properties. Their antenna may find relevant applications
in fields such as mobile communication, wireless LAN, and RF communication
systems.

Casu et.al. [9] has performed a detailed analysis on the design and implementation
of 4x1 and 8x1 microstrip patch antenna (array) of given specifications using IE3D

6
software and a dielectric material FR4 with dielectric substrate permittivity of 4.28,
tangent loss of 0.002 and height of 1.6 mm. The microstrip patch antenna array is
designed for WLAN applications, at an operating frequency of 2.4 GHz with
microstrip line feed and power dividers. The results obtained in simulation proved
that the 3dB bandwidth of the microstrip patch antenna is smaller than the 3dB
bandwidth of the array (90 MHz and 140 MHz). The S 11 parameter of the antenna
(-12 dB) is greater than the S11 parameter of the sinfazic network (-18 dB) and the
phased network (-14 dB). In practice, the measured S11 parameters are almost the
same as the simulated parameters: the antenna (-16 dB), the sinfazic network (-18
dB). The measured and simulated directive characteristics are almost identical and
confirms us that a microstrip patch antenna has a larger directive characteristic than
the array, where it is applied the group directive function. Moreover, the antenna
doesnt contain secondary lobes comparing with the array which means that there
arent power losses.

Cakir and Sevgi [10] have taken into account typical low-cost, low-weight
microstrip base station antenna arrays with beam-scanning capabilities. In
downtowns of large cities like New York, Chicago, and in historical cities like
Istanbul, where high buildings are separated by narrow but densely occupied
streets, antenna arrays with approximately 200350 beam-widths are required to
complete the cellular communication coverage. To meet this requirement, new
antenna arrays are designed with 350 beam-widths and 600 electronic scanning
capabilities. Their characteristics are investigated both numerically and
experimentally. Initial design is done via an analytical approximate approach (i.e.,
the transmission-line model), and then accurate characteristics are determined via
numerical simulations. An FDTD-based antenna simulation package (M-PATCH)
is prepared, tested on canonical structures and against the literature first, for
verification and calibration. Then, the characteristics of the designed arrays are
investigated via M-PATCH. Finally, the arrays are experimentally verified. It is
illustrated that, the results of simulations and experiments agree very well, and the
arrays meet the design criteria.

Due to the existence of growth in development of low cost, less weight, highly
reliable, minimal profile antennas for wireless devices, it poses a new challenge for
the design of antenna in wireless communications. Sandeep and Kashyap [11] in
7
their paper have presented a design and simulation of a rectangular micro strip
patch array antenna at 2.4 GHz for wireless communications that provides a
radiation pattern along a wide angle of beam and achieves a gain of 11.6 dB. The
rectangular micro strip patch antenna was analyzed using Ansof/Ansys HFSS.
They have also made a comparison among the different substrates which shows
different results based on same parameters. The performance parameters were
achieved with gain 12 dB and beam width 40 degrees in E-plane and 26 degrees in
H-plane for patch array antenna.

The complete characterization of microstrip lines at an infrared frequency of

28.3THz (10.6-m wavelength) through modeling, fabrication, and measurement
has been done by Tasneem at. al [12]. The transmission-line parameters of interest
cannot be directly measured at infrared frequencies-the only measurable quantity is
the voltage response of the antenna-coupled bolometric sensor. They validated the
computational approach for transmission-line parameters by verifying the
computed and measured response of the antenna connected to microstrip lines of
different lengths. A modeling procedure, fabrication process, and measurement
results for MS transmission lines at LWIR were reported. A finite-element
approach was used to compute characteristic impedance, attenuation constant and
effective index of refraction for these lines. The response of an antenna-coupled
bolometer measured as a function of transmission-line length was found to agree
closely with the response computed with transmission-line parameters extracted
from the models, when measured values of IR material properties were used.
Design trends in terms of geometry and materials were presented. The MS
configuration was found to have lower attenuation than its CPS counterpart.

Debatosh Guha [13] has given a review article on microstrip and printed antennas.
In this paper, a very brief and comprehensive survey of recent trends and
developments in microstrip antenna research is presented. Comparatively newer
fields with potential scope of developments are discussed in more detail. Some
advanced topics of microstrip antennas still find enormous scope of improvements
and are covered in the limited scope of this article. The current trends in printed
antenna researches are discussed with a special emphasis on the newly growing
topics. Particularly, the scopes and developments of Photonic band gap materials,
High frequency selective surfaces in antenna applications are covered in more
8
detail. Antenna for mobile communication handsets is another potential field of
current research. A general overview of microstrip antenna research is presented.

Microstrip lines, widely used for good reason, are broadband in frequency and
provide circuits that are compact and light in weight. They are generally
economical to produce since they are readily adaptable to hybrid and monolithic
integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technologies at RF and microwave frequencies.
Although, the existing EM simulation models used for the synthesis and analysis of
microstrip lines are reasonably accurate, they are computationally intensive and
time consuming. Neural networks recently gained attention as fast and flexible
vehicles to microwave modeling, simulation and optimization. After learning and
abstracting from microwave data, through a process called training, neural network
models are used during microwave design to provide instant answers to the task
learned. Krishna et. al. [14] in their paper have presented simple and accurate ANN
models for the synthesis and analysis of microstrip lines to more accurately
compute the characteristic parameters and the physical dimensions respectively for
the required design specifications. It was shown that the results of the neural
models trained by the Quasi Newton algorithm and Huber Quasi Newton
algorithms are better for synthesis and analysis of Microstrip line.

A full wave analysis of microstrip discontinuities is presented using both wavelet

basis and wavelet transforms by M. R. Rezaei ad S. Nikmehr [15]. In the method
of solution, the exact spectral domain Green's function of the structure is used in
the method of moments. The unknown higher order currents on the line are
expanded in terms of cubic spline basis functions which belong to semi-orthogonal
wavelet family. Application of moment method yields a set of linear algebraic
equations. Change of bases through a wavelet like transform produces the sparse
matrix equation. In order to validate the proposed method, they have presented two
examples; open-end and floating line. The approach has a proper edge current
modeling and also leads to lower memory requirement and faster solve time. The
accuracy of results is, also, demonstrated by comparison with the results of the
other researchers. Numerical results were presented for the proposed method,
based on developed MATLAB codes, and good agreement with other methods was
observed.

9
A. Shrivastava and M. Sachidananda in [16] presented the characteristics of a feed
discontinuity encountered in the design of a high gain Omni-directional antenna
array for WLAN applications. The main advantage in the microstrip realization is
the flexibility available in terms of the control on the width of the ground plane as
well as the microstrip line impedance. The analysis of the discontinuity is carried
out using finite difference time domain (FDTD) formulation of the problem. A few
discontinuities are fabricated in the duroid substrate and the scattering parameters
are measured using a vector network analyzer. The theoretical FDTD results and
measurements are compared. The FDTD method has been used to perform time
domain simulations of the pulse propagation in the microstrip discontinuity. The
discontinuity is characterized in terms of 2-port equivalent circuit parameters. The
empirical formulas, for the parameters of the model have been derived as a
function of ground plane width and discontinuity gap. These formulas can be used
as a practical guide for designing the antenna array.

Microstrip lines are the most commonly used transmission lines at high
frequencies. In this paper [17], the authors have rated how to model the
capacitance of microstrip lines using COMSOL. The goal was to use COMSOL to
determine the capacitance per unit length of shielded microstrip lines. The results
were compared with those obtained by variational methods and were found to be
very close. The capacitance of shielded microstrip line has been calculated using
COMSOL in two ways.

Noh et. al. [18], designed a microstrip patch array antenna with high gain and
wideband for dual transmitting /receiving at Ku-Band. The patch array antenna has
a horizontal polarization for Rx band and a vertical polarization for Tx band. A
unit element of the patch array antenna consists of one radiating patch and two
parasitic patches for improving impedance bandwidth and gain characteristics, and
Tx/Rx feed circuits for bi-directional communication. For obtaining high gain, the
unit patch elements are arranged the form of a 1x8 array structure. To verify the
practicality of this antenna, the authors fabricated a 1x8 microstrip patch array
antenna and measured the antenna pattern. As a result, they obtained that the gain
of the dual Tx/Rx array antenna is 17.1-18.l dBi at 11.7-12.75 GHz and 14.0-14.5
GHz. The impedance bandwidth is about 10% at Rx band and 11% at Tx band. The
cross-polarization level is below -25dB, and the side-lobe level is below -9.4dB.
10
Ali et. al. [19] in their paper presented the design of E-shaped microstrip single
patch antenna with wideband operating frequency for wireless application. The
antenna design is an improvement from previous research and it is simulated using
CST Microwave Studio 2009 software. Parametric study was included to
determine affect of design towards the antenna performance. The performance of
the designed antenna was analyzed in term of bandwidth, gain, return loss, VSWR,
and radiation pattern. The design was optimized to meet the best possible result.
Substrate used was C-Foam PF-2 which has a similar dielectric constant of air. The
results show the wideband antenna is able to operate from 8.34 GHz to 13.86 GHz
frequency band with optimum frequency at 8.73 GHz. This result is an
improvement when compared to the original specification which saw the
bandwidth is expanded from 4.99 GHz to 5.72 GHz. Other parameters such as
gain, S11 and VSWR also have been improved.

Designs of an RFID-enabled tag antenna as well as two other miniaturized

antennas are proposed for wireless sensors for agricultural applications, all of
which are based on patch antennas around the resonant frequency of 2.45 GHz by
A. Harrabi et. al. [20]. With the use of the simulation tool CST MWS, these
antennas were designed and optimized. They allow not only the integration of a
microchip but also of a sensor commonly used in the agricultural field such as a
humidity/temperature sensor.

Chitra [21] has proposed a Coplanar Waveguide fed double L slot antenna array
for multi-band operation satisfying WLAN and WiMAX in his work. The proposed
array antenna comprises of two rectangular planar patch elements each embedded
with two L shaped slots. For the proposed antenna, the -10 dB return loss is
achieved and it reach about -35 dB which covers some of the bandwidth
specification of WLAN and WiMAX standards. Due to the advantages such as
slow cost, small size, low weight and capability to integrate in applications such as
mobile phones and laptops the microstrip antennas are used. The parametric study
is performed to understand the characteristics of the proposed antenna. It shows
that the features of the small antenna structure, good radiation characteristics are
promising for multi input multi output operation. The simulated result of the return
loss of the CPW-fed Microstrip patch antenna yields dual band. The radiation
11
pattern is Omni-directional pattern for all of operation bandwidth. It can be
observed that the peak gain can be higher than 3 dBi at 3.5GHz. The simulation
gives satisfactory results for the requirements to fabricate prototype which can be
used.

A novel miniaturized microstrip-fed planar patch antenna designed by simply

notching and slotting the patch for UWB operation has been presented by Wu
et.al., [22]. A compact planar ultra wideband (UWB) antenna suitable for wireless
universal serial bus (USB) dongle application is presented. By simply cutting
notches and embedding types of slots into a rectangular patch, multiple resonances
with effective bandwidth enhancement were achieved. A prototype of the proposed
antenna was constructed and measured to show an ultra wide operating band with
10-dB return-loss bandwidth of about 10.42 GHz ranging from 2.86 to 13.38 GHz,
which sufficiently covers the operating band, 3.110.6 GHz, of the new wireless
personal area network (WPAN) using UWB technique. Also, monopole-like
radiation patterns and larger than 3 dBi of peak antenna gain have been measured
across the operating band. This design has an overall size of only 11 15 0.8 mm 3
and is very suitable for use in an USB device.

CAOMeng et. al. [23] in their paper introduced the design of W band microstrip
antennas, which is feeding by the microstrip line on the material for Rogers
RT/duroid 5880 medium plate, the energy is coupled into microstrip line by using
waveguide microstrip converter, and the whole system is simulated and actual
measured. Measured results of the antenna radiation characteristics are differences
from the simulation results. It is proved that the energy is feed from the waveguide
by the result of the feeding characteristics measurement. But the result of
measurement is much different from simulation, especially in the range from
60GHz to 70GHz, and results are close from 70GHz to 75GHz. The result of
radiation characteristics measurement is much different from simulation, width of
3dB lobe is only about 6 degrees, makes beam pattern too narrow. It can be seen
from the results of simulation and real test that antenna performance is not
satisfactory. Finally the conclusion is that the application of traditional method to
design antenna in W band is a challenge, it is difficult to make W band antenna
work by this way.

12
The construction and parameters of the multielement patch antenna have been
presented by Stec et. al., [24]. The planar antenna for K-band has been designed.
The antenna structure on the patch radiation elements was leaned. Radiation
elements in two array configuration: rectangular 4x4 and circular 24- elements
have been configured. The additional elements cause better directional parameters
of the array. All radiation elements work in phase. Presented antennas were
physically realized in Microwave Division of MUT. The antennas construction
based on the simulation results, which is dedicated basing on FEM method
software, have been made. Real antennas measurements results confirmate
simulation results. The antennas have 5x5 cm total dimentions for rectangular
shape and 7 cm diameter for circular shape. Both constructions on the Rogers
RT5880, 0.79 mm height substrate have been made. The antenna has moderate
gain 16 dBi for 300 MHz bandwidth for 18 GHz center frequency. Simulation
results as well as measurements results in form of directional characteristics for E
and H planewave have been presented in the paper.
By proper shape selection, the directional parameters of antennas can be formed.
For simple applications, the rectangular array can be used. These antenna
assurances moderate parameters with simple elements configuration. For much
demanding applications, the antenna shape should be improved with the radiating
elements structure complexity, for better parameters obtaining. As results, antennas
with moderate gain, but high directivity have been obtained. In spite of narrow
bandwidth, presented antenna is efficient component for systems working in K-
band.

A Ku-band patch antenna loaded with notches and slit has been designed and
simulated using CST Microwave studio by Dubey et. al. [25]. Multi-frequency
band operation is obtained from the proposed microstrip antenna. The simulated 10
dB impedance bandwidth of the rectangular patch microstrip antenna is 600 MHz,
520 MHz and 382 MHz for the resonance frequency of 12.41 GHz, 14.44 GHz and
16.64 GHz respectively. The gain and directivity of the proposed antenna are
presented at different Ku-band frequencies. Proposed antenna shows multiple
resonance behavior. The notch and slit parameter have the ability to tune the
proposed antenna at different frequency of Ku-band.

13
A 5.8 GHz linear polarized 2 X 2 light weight antenna array with a corporate feed
for solar power satellite application has been presented by Reddy et. al., [26]. The
performance of the array antenna is obtained using IE3D. The measured results
closely follow the simulated results. The use of a foam substrate adds light weight
with enhanced gain and bandwidth. When compared with a RT duroid 5870
material there is a weight reduction of 97.7% The impedance bandwidth of a single
radiating element and array antenna is 340MHz and 490MHz for VSWR = 2
respectively. The gain of an array has been increase to 14.3dBi from that of
9.29dBi offered by a single element.

Dual-band and broadband rectangular microstrip antennas are realized by cutting U

slots, V slots, or a pair of rectangular slots inside the patch. In these designs,
depending upon where the slot is cut, the slot length is taken to be equal to either a
quarter-wavelength or a half-wavelength in length. However, these simpler
approximations of slot length as a function of frequency do not give a close match
for different slot lengths and their positions inside the patch. Deshmukh and Ray
[27], in their paper have studied the surface currents and voltage distributions for a
dual-band pair of rectangular slots, and for U-slot-cut rectangular microstrip
antennas, over a wide frequency range. It was observed that the slot does not
introduce any mode, but reduces the higher-order orthogonal mode resonance
frequency of the patch and, along with the fundamental mode, realizes the dual-
band response. Furthermore, by studying the current and voltage distributions, a
formulation for the slots resonant length on a glass epoxy substrate was proposed.
The frequencies calculated using the proposed formulations agreed well with the
simulated values, with an error of less than 5%. These formulations were also
validated on RT-duroid substrate.

It has been observed that the slots modify the higher-order orthogonal TM02 mode
resonance frequency of the rectangular microstrip antenna. Along with the
fundamental TM10 mode, this results in the dual-frequency response. Although one
of the frequencies is governed by a modified second-order orthogonal mode, the
radiation patterns in the two principal planes remain in the broadside direction at
both the frequencies, with no variation in the directions of the principal planes.
This is because the slots, besides reducing the resonance frequency, also alter the

14
direction of the surface currents at the higher-order mode. The surface-current and
voltage distributions were studied over a wide frequency range.

Resonant-length formulations for these dual-band rectangular microstrip antennas

for the slot and patch modes were proposed. The proposed formulation agreed well
with the simulated values, with an error less than 5% for different slot lengths and
for different positions inside the patch. These formulations also gave a close match
for rectangular microstrip antennas on RT-duroid substrate. The measurements
were carried out for different slot lengths in the three dual-band antennas, and the
measured results closely agreed with the calculated and simulated results. For
suspended microstrip antennas, these formulations can be used by suitably
modifying the term for the edge-extension length. These formulations can be used
to determine various dimensions of the slotted rectangular patch for designing
dual-band antennas for various applications.

The parametric study in [28] by Elfergani et. al., helped to identify the principal
structural parameters controlling the behavior of the tuned monopole structure. Slot
tunable antenna with F-shaped slot was fabricated and measured. By attaching a
varactor diode over F-shaped slot with capacitance range of 0.5pf - 3pf , the
proposed antenna has achieved a wide frequency tuning range that covers digital
cellular system (DCS: 17101880 MHz), personal communication service (PCS:
18501990 MHz), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS: 1900
2200 MH. Both measured and simulated return loss characteristics, radiation
patterns and gains have shown that the antenna delivers a good performance. In
addition, this antenna is small enough in size for mobile handsets.

Whittow [29] has investigated the concept of replacing conventional flat 2-D patch
antennas with 3-D versions where the substrate height is not uniform. The
hypothesis of his work is that the electric fields are not evenly distributed under the
patch and hence increasing the height in specific locations can be beneficial in
terms of size of performance. This paper has investigated the concept of designing
antennas with 3-D substrates. The electric fields underneath the patch antenna are
not uniformly distributed and hence increasing the substrate height in specific
locations has been shown to be a more effective use of volume and materials.
Increasing the substrate height where the electric fields are small and the currents
15
are large reduced the frequency. The results have indicated that smooth transitions
in the substrate shape will produce better results in terms of efficiency.

Salazar et. al. [30] has discussed the scanning performance of the X- band phased-
array antenna to be used for a solid state weather radar system. A simple and low-
cost antenna array architecture based on series-fed array of dual-polarized aperture
coupled microstrip patch antennas was designed, implemented and tested in order
to prove the concept of low-cost phased array radar system for meteorological
applications. The measured results presented indicate a good scanning
performance. Measured results of the second prototype presents a significant
improvement in the elevation patterns and S-parameters when the mutual coupling
is included in the synthesis approach to design the linear array using series fed
configuration. The development of the phased-array antenna prototype has been
designed, integrated, characterized and tested. Measured results show an excellent
performance for low cost antenna architecture.

Due to the fast development of wireless technology, many novel wireless products
have been introduced to the consumers. The design trends of these wireless
products is to integrate many functions into a single product, therefore the antenna
used in the wireless communication applications must have wideband or
multiband. In my research work I aim at designing a wideband microstrip patch
antenna array. An antenna with wideband is referred to as a broadband antenna.
This is going to overcome the drawbacks of narrow bandwidth provided by the
traditional microstrip antennas along with the added advantage of high efficiency
provided by the arrays.

References
[1] Ramesh Garg, Prakash Bhartia, Inder Bahl, Apisak Ittipiboon, Microstrip
Antenna Design Handbook, 2001, Artech House.
[2] A. D. Olver, Trends in antenna design over 100 years, published in the
proceedings of the 1995 International Conference, 100 Years of radio, ISSN
0537-9989, pp 83-88, 5th -7th Sept. 1995.
[3] Jack Ramsay, Highlights of antenna history, IEEE Antennas and
Propagation Society Newsletter, pp. 8-20, December 1981.

16
[4] T.S. Rappaport, Wireless Communications, Principles and Practice,
Prentice Hall, 1996.
[5] G. A. Deschamps, Microstrip Microwave Antennas, presented at the Third
USAF symposium on Antennas, 1953.
[6] C. A. Balanis, "Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design ", John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., New York, 2005.
[7] Kin-Lu- Wong, Compact and Broadband Microstrip Antennas, 2002, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York.
[8] H.S. Shin and N. Kim, Wideband and high-gain one-patch microstrip
antenna coupled with H-shaped aperture, 12th Sept. 2002, Vol. 38, No. 19.
[9] George Casu, Ctlin Moraru, Andrei Kovacs, Design and Implementation
of Microstrip Patch Antenna Array, IEEE Trans. 978-1-4799-2385-4/14,
2014.
[10] Gonca Cakir, Levent Sevgi, Design, Simulation and Tests of a Low-cost
Microstrip Patch Antenna Arrays for the Wireless Communication, 2005,
Turk J Elec Engin, Vol.13, No.1.
[11] B. Sai Sandeep, S. Sreenath Kashyap, Design and Simulation of
Microstrip Patch Array Antenna For Wireless Communications at 2.4
GHz, International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Vol.
3(11), Nov. 2012, ISSN 2229-5518.
[12] Tasneem A. Mandviwala, Brian A. Lail and Glenn D. Boreman,
Characterization of Microstrip Transmission Lines at IR Frequencies-
Modeling, Fabrication And Measurements, Microwave and Optical
Technology Letters, 12321237, Vol. 50, No. 5, May 2008, Wiley
Periodicals, Inc.
[13] Debatosh Guha, Microstrip and Printed Antennas: Recent Trends and
Developments, Microwave Review, Dec. 2003.
[14] K. Sri Rama Krishna, J. Lakshmi Narayana, L. Pratap Reddy, ANN
Models for Microstrip Line Synthesis and Analysis, International Journal
of Electrical Systems Science and Engineering 1; 3 Summer 2008.
[15] Mehdi Rezaei Zarnaghi and Saeid Nikmehr, Application of Wavelet-Like
Transforms in Full-Wave Analysis of Microstrip Discontinuities,
ICMMT 2008 Proceedings.
[16] Amit Srivastava and M Sachidananda, A Study of Microstrip Feed
Discontinuity for Omni-Directional Linear Array Antennas, Kanpur.

17
[17] Sarhan M. Musa and Matthew N.O. Sadiku, Quasi-static Analysis of
Shielded Microstrip Lines, Excerpt from the Proceedings of the
COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Las Vegas.
[18] Haeng Sook Noh, Jae Seung Yun, Jong Myen Kim and Soon-Ik Jeon,
Microstrip Patch Array Antenna with High Gain and Wideband for
Tx/Rx Dual Operation at Ku-Band, IEEE Trans. 0-7803-8302-8/04,
2004, pp: 2480-2483.
[19] M. T. Ali, Aizat, I. Pasya, M. H. Mazlan Zaharuddin and Norsuzila
Yaacob, E- Shape Microstrip Patch Antenna for Wideband Applications,
IEEE International RF and Microwave Conference (RFM 2011), 12 th -14th
Dec. 2011, Seremban, Malaysia.
[20] Amal Harrabi, Ali Gharsallah and Manos M. Tentzeris Design of a
Miniaturized RFID Antenna Integrated with Sensor for Wireless
Agricultural Applications, 6th European Conference on Antennas and
Propagation (EUCAP), 978-1-4577-0919-7/12, 2011 Crown, 3483-3486.
[21] R. Jothi Chitra, B. Ramesh Karthik and V. Nagarajan, Double L - Slot
Microstrip Patch Antenna Array for WiMAX and WLAN, IEEE Trans.,
978-1-4673-1622-4/12, 2012, ICCSP-'12, pp: 137-140.
[22] Chao-Ming Wu, Yung-Lun Chen, and Wen-Chung Liu, A Compact Ultra
wideband Slotted Patch Antenna for Wireless USB Dongle Application,
IEEE Antennas And Wireless Propagation Letters, 1536-1225, Vol. 11,
2012, pp: 596-599.
[23] CAOMeng, XUEZheng-hui, RENWu, LI Wei-ming and WANG Xiao-mo,
Research on W band Microstrip Patch Antenna, IEEE Trans., 978-1-
4673-2185-3/12, 2012.
[24] Bronisaw Stec, Andrzej Jeziorski, Mirosaw Czyewski and Adam
Sowik, Multielement Patch antenna for K-band, IRS 2012, 19th
International Radar Symposium, May 23-25, Warsaw, Poland, IEEE
Trans., 978-1-4577-1837-3/12 pp: 183-186.
[25] Satya Kesh Dubey, Surya K Pathak and Kunal K Modh, High Gain
Multiple Resonance Ku-band Microstrip Patch Antenna, IEEE Trans.,
978-1-4577-1099-5/11.
[26] B. Sandhya Reddy, V. Senthil Kumar and V.V. Srinivasan, Design and
Development of a Light Weight Microstrip Patch Antenna Array for Solar
Power Satellite Application, IEEE Trans., 978-1-4673-2014-6/12.

18
[27] Amit A. Deshmukh and K. P. Ray, Formulation of Resonance
Frequencies for Dual-Band Slotted Rectangular Microstrip Antennas,
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 54, No. 4, August 2012,
ISSN 1045-9243/2012 pp: 78-97.
[28] I.T.E. Elfergani, Abubakar Sadiq Hussaini, R.A. Abd-Alhameed and
Jonathan Rodriguez, Capacitively Loaded Compact Slot Antenna, 2012,
IEEE 17th International Workshop on Computer Aided Modeling and
Design of Communication Links and Networks (CAMAD), 978-1-4673-
3125-8/12, pp: 353-357.
[29] William G. Whittow, Microstrip Patch Antennas with 3-Dimensional
Substrates, 2012 Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference,
12th-13th Nov. 2012, 978-1-4673-2220-1/12.
[30] Jorge L. Salazar, Rafael H. Medina, Eric J. Knapp and David J.
McLaughlin, Low Cost X-Band Dual Polarization Phased Array
Antenna: Scanning Performance, Proceedings of the 9th European Radar
Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 978-2-87487-029-3, EuMA,
31st Oct.-2nd Nov. 2012, pp: 425-428.

19