A Circular Polarization Alterable Square MPA with

Wide Frequency Tuning

Biswajit Dwivedy Santanu Kumar Behera
Department of Electronics and Communication Engg. Department of Electronics and Communication Engg.
National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India
Email: biswajit.dwivedy.in@ieee.org Email: skbehera@ieee.org

Abstract—A wide-range frequency tunable (2.01 GHz- 2.41

GHz) square patch antenna with simultaneous CP alteration
ability is designed and its performance is analyzed. Frequency
tuning is achieved by varying the capacitance of four varactors
connected between the central portion and four additional
segments of the main patch. Circular polarization at different
bands are achieved by using a wideband 90◦ phase shifter and
a DPDT switch is used to vary the sense of circular polarization
rotation. The antenna shows very good axial ratio value at all
frequencies with a maximum gain of 2.2 dBc.
Keywords—frequency reconfigurable; circular polarization; var-
actor; axial ratio

I. I NTRODUCTION
In RF communication major challenges which are becoming
worse day by day are spectrum congestion problem arising due
to uninterrupted increase in modern features along with users
and signal quality degradation by multipath propagation based
fading. The earlier problem is handled by frequency tunable
antennas using MEMS, p-i-n diodes, RF switches and varac-
tors etc [1]. To withstand the later problem, polarization agile
antennas are considered, as they can provide better weather
penetration and enhance information content by their two sets
of co-polar and cross-polar data [2]-[3]. So intense importance
is given on development of such antennas which are less
complex, compact, efficient and with ability to reconfigure
both frequency and polarization to mitigate above discussed
problems [4]-[5]. In this article, design of a microstrip line
fed square patch antenna having both frequency and circular
polarization agile characteristic within 2.01 GHz - 2.41 GHz
is discussed and its performance is analyzed.
II. D ESIGN A ND F UNCTIONAL D ESCRIPTION
A. Design Procedure And Frequency Reconfigurability
The design of the proposed antenna starts with a simple
quarter wave length transformer matched square patch antenna
designed on 62 mil FR-4 substrate at the centre frequency of
2.4 GHz following standard design formulae [6]. The antenna
radiates in basic T M10 fundamental linear polarized mode. To
achieve frequency tuning, an annular square shape portion with
some additional lengths on four sides are carefully removed
TABLE I. D IMENSIONAL D ETAILS O F T HE A NTENNA
Fig. 1. Layout of the proposed antenna
from the main patch for connection of four varactor diodes.
Specific varactor (SMV-2025, Skywork solutions) is selected
for tuning purpose as it has low series resistance (0.8 Ω) and
high range of capacitance variation (1.15 pF-8.81 pF). Due
to the simultaneous variation of capacitances of four varactors
overall electrical length of the antenna is varied causing change
in resonant frequency of the antenna. All dimensional details
of the antenna layout shown in Fig. 1 are presented in Table.
I. From Fig. 2, it is revealed that the resonant frequency of the
antenna varies between 2.41 GHz to 2.01 GHz for variation
of the capacitances from 1.15 pF to 8.81 pF.
B. CP Alteration with Frequency Tuning
To achieve circular polarization the main patch is fed
orthogonally with a phase difference of +90◦ for LHCP or -
90◦ for RHCP respectively. Current distribution of the antenna
at 2.16 GHz which is shown in Fig. 3 clearly illustrates
RHCP for a phase difference of -90◦ . The circular polarization
performance of the antenna for different values of capacitances

Para. Ls Lz Wz Lx Wf g L(λ/4) W(λ/4)

Val.(mm) 60 11.4 1 25 3 1 11.3 0.9 Fig. 2. S-parameters of the antenna for different values of varactor capacitance
 Fig. 3. Current distribution of the antenna at 2.16 GHz showing RHCP
Fig. 4. Axial ratio versus frequency plots for different values of capacitance
are presented in Fig. 4, where it can be clearly visualized
that the axial ratio values are well below 3 dB at all tunable
frequency bands. To facilitate automated switching of antenna
CP states at different operational frequencies, its performance
is checked using a wideband phase shift network consisting of
a Wilkinsons power divider and a Schiffman 90◦ phase shifter
(shown in Fig. 5). S-parameter file of a practical diversity
switch (MASWSS0129) provided by the manufacturer was
also used to examine the overall performance of the antenna
with the feed network using ANSYS Designer-15. The radi-
ation performance of the antenna at different frequencies and
the impact of the switching circuit on the antenna are discussed
in the next section.
III. R ADIATION P ERFORMANCE A NALYSIS
The radiation patterns of the antenna at two different fre-
quencies (2.41 GHz and 2.04 GHz) corresponding to varac-
tor capacitance values 1.15 pF and 6.93 pf evaluated using
ANSYS HFSS-15 are given in Fig. 6. From the plots, it
is noticed that the difference between the co-pol. and cross
pol. components of the antenna is more than 25 dB at both
the frequencies within a very wide beam-width of ±50◦ .
Similarly the radiation patterns at same two frequencies using
the switching network are shown in Fig. 7. In both the cases,
it can be seen that the co-pol. is about 20 dB higher than
the cross pol. component and the realized gain of the antenna
reduces as the operational frequency lowers due to the decrease
in effective aperture of the antenna. It has been verified that the
antenna radiation pattern remains unaltered at all frequencies
for both RHCP and LHCP but only selected cases of RHCP
are shown due the limitation of paper length.
IV. C ONCLUSION
The speciality of the proposed antenna is its wideband fre-
quency tuning range varying from 2.01 GHz-2.41 GHz, though
Fig. 5. Antenna feed network consisting of phase shifter and DPDT swicth
(a) (b)
Fig. 6. Circular polarized radiation pattern of the antenna without using the
feed network at (a) 2.41 GHz (b) 2.04 GHz
(a) (b)
Fig. 7. RHCP radiation pattern of the antenna using the feed network at (a)
2.41 GHz (b) 2.04 GHz
the basic square patch shows low bandwidth performance.
Along with frequency agility the antenna can be operated in
both RHCP and LHCP mode with a maximum realized gain
of 2.2 dBc. Small degradation in gain value is noticed due to
reduction of effective aperture of the antenna with decrease in
resonant frequency, but the loss may be compensated by using
a wideband LNA.
R EFERENCES
[1] S. Yang, C. Zhang, H. K. Pan, A. E. Fathy, and V. K. Nair, “Frequency-
reconfigurable antennas for multiradio wireless platforms,” IEEE Microw.
Mag., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 66–83, February 2009.
[2] S. Gao, A. Sambell, and S. S. Zhong, “Polarization-agile antennas,” IEEE
Microw. Mag., vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 28–37, June 2006.
[3] H. Sun and S. Sun, “A novel reconfigurable feeding network for
quad-polarization-agile antenna design,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag.,
vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 311–316, Jan 2016.
[4] N. Nguyen-Trong, L. Hall, and C. Fumeaux, “A frequency- and
polarization-reconfigurable stub-loaded microstrip patch antenna,” IEEE
Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 63, no. 11, pp. 5235–5240, Nov 2015.
[5] J. S. Row and C. J. Shih, “Polarization-diversity ring slot antenna with
frequency agility,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 60, no. 8, pp.
3953–3957, Aug 2012.
[6] C. Balanis, Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design. Wiley, 2012.