Proc.

of the 2017 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON), Malaysia, November 5-8, 2017

New Dimension in Cross-Polarization Reduction of a

Hexagonal Microstrip Antenna Using Two Circular
Substrate Integrated Cavities
Susamay Samanta P Soni Reddy
Member, IEEE Enterprise Solutions Department
Electronics and Communication Engineering Department Tata Consultancy Services
Adamas University Kolkata, India
Kolkata, India p.sonireddy@gmail.com
samantasusamay@gmail.com

Kaushik Mandal
Senior Member, IEEE
Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics
University of Calcutta
Kolkata, India
kaushikrpe@gmail.com

Abstract— Novel application of Substrate Integrated Cavity
(SIC) for suppressing cross-polarized (XP) radiation in
hexagonal microstrip antenna has been proposed. The proposed
design consists of a pair of tiny circular SICs consisting of
metallic vias located symmetrically on the H-plane of the
hexagonal patch. The design has been simulated in Ansys
HFSSTM to establish the proposition that the incorporation of
SIC does not affect the fundamental mode of resonance and the
co-polarized radiation levels of the conventional antenna
considerably but effectively reduces the cross-polarization
radiation levels. An isolation of -81 dB of cross-polarization level
from its peak has been obtained at the boresight of the patch.
Compared to the conventional hexagonal patch, a relative
suppression in cross-polarization of 49 dB at the boresight and 15
dB throughout in both the principal planes has been achieved.
Keywords— Cross-polarized (XP) radiation; hexagonal
microstrip antenna (HMSA); microstrip antenna; substrate
integrated cavity (SIC); substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)
I. INTRODUCTION
Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW), commonly used to
enhance the performance of printed circuits and antennas, of
late has gathered a lot of interest in the application areas of
microwave and millimeter wave technology [1]–[3]. Unlike
microstrip structures, SIW technology consists of sidewalls
composed of metallic posts with periodic gaps forming a
cavity. Thus, SIW integrated antenna offers low leakage loss,
higher efficiency, improved gain and low cross-polarization
(XP) levels over conventional microstrip antennas. For
reducing XP, as a leaky-wave antenna (LWA), SIW was first
used by Mallahzadeh et. al. in 2014 [4] which offered XP
reduction of 30 dB in X band. But its complex and costly
design based on a ridged substrate integrated waveguide
(RSIW) structure limited the application of SIW structures in
reduction of XP levels. Any further reference of using SIW to
address this serious problem is not found yet in literature
survey.
However, several other techniques were proposed by a
number of research groups till 2005 to address the XP
suppression problem. But they had either very intricate feed
design with a separate network for antenna feed or multi-layer
structure or a non planar ground plane occupying more space
and volume [5]-[8]. In 2005, Guha et al. first established the
fact that a dot type defected ground structure (DGS) can be the
simplest solution for suppressing the XP radiation of circular
microstrip patch antenna [9]. They could achieve XP reduction
up to 5 dB in S-band. Subsequently, in 2012, Kumar et al.
demonstrated that as an improvisation of the dot type DGS,
circular arc shaped DGS was the best candidate and it offered
around 10–12 dB XP reduction in both C and X bands [10].
However, each DGS has an inherent limitation that it produces
back radiation and the total gain is reduced.
In this paper, a new dimension in cross-polarization
reduction in microstrip antenna has been proposed using
Substrate Integrated Cavity (SIC). This design intends to
exploit the advantages of SIW structures utilizing the metallic
via structure and at the same time offers improved reduction in
cross-polarization levels in microstrip antenna. The proposed
design comprises of a hexagonal microstrip patch antenna
with a pair of circular SICs located symmetrically on the H-
plane of the patch. In the design, as the ground plane has no
defect, there is no chance of back radiation. Also, as SICs are
embedded within the substrate itself, they do not add any extra
surface or volume to the antenna. Microstrip patch antennas
are supposed to exhibit pure linear polarization in the
broadside radiation of fundamental TM11 mode.

978-1-5090-1134-6/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 1358

 Proc. of the 2017 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON), Malaysia, November 5-8, 2017

parameters and the optimized results is explained in Section

III. The antenna was designed in Ansys HFSSTM software
simulator. In Section IV the simulated results are discussed in
detail accompanied by Conclusion in Section V.

II. ANTENNA DESIGN

A. Antenna Geometry
To begin with, a conventional hexagonal microstrip patch
antenna with probe feed at ρ = 4.25 mm is designed to operate
in the S-band. The operating frequency of the hexagonal
microstrip patch antenna (HMSA) is derived from circular
microstrip patch antenna (CMSA) using the formulations
given in [11].
The HMSA is excited to resonate with TM11 mode having
fields with linear polarization lying along the broadside
direction of the patch, i.e. XZ-plane passing through the line
joining the feed and the centre of the patch. A TACONIC
TLP-3 substrate with εr = 2.33 and h = 1.575 mm is
considered for the present study. The patch side length is
found to be a = 16.49 mm for resonance at 3.5 GHz which
falls under S-band. The ground plane size has been selected as
0.7λ0 × 0.7λ0, λ0 being the free-space wavelength
corresponding to the resonating frequency of the patch [9].

B. Substrate Integrated Cluster Design

A pair of tiny circular SICs of radius RC is embedded in
the substrate symmetrically on the Y-axis along the diameter
of the patch as illustrated in Fig. 1. The present study
considers only circular shaped SIC for verifying the
proposition of achieving improved suppression of XP
radiation. Dimensions of the circular SIC are determined by
its circular cavity radius RC, diameter of SIC elements DS,
angular separation of SIC elements αS and location r. The
dimension and position of the SICs on the H-plane of the
patch are so chosen that they do not affect the fundamental
mode and co-polarized radiation levels of the patch, but
weaken the orthogonal fringing fields on the H-plane thereby
effectively suppress the XP radiations. Relative change in XP
levels have been studied by performing parametric variations
of RC, DS, αS and r. The optimum design parameters are
tabulated in Table I.
Fig. 1. Layout of hexagonal microstrip patch with detailed geometry of a
circular SIC.
TABLE I. ANTENNA DESIGN PARAMETERS WITH OPTIMIZED VALUES

Design Parameter Name Label Dimension

But, it is generally observed that, significant amounts of
cross-polarized (XP) fields are also present in the broadside Hexagon patch side length a 16.49 mm
direction which reduces the overall performance of the Probe offset position ρ 4.25 mm
antenna due to polarization diversity [10]. The circular SICs
are so placed that they do not affect the fundamental mode and Width of ground plane GW 60 mm
co-polarized radiation levels of the standard hexagonal Length of ground plane GL 60 mm
microstrip patch antenna while effectively reducing the XP
radiation levels. Relative suppression in XP values upto 49 dB SIC position r 15.14 mm
at the boresight is demonstrated by simulation for the standard SIC radius RC 2 mm
hexagonal microstrip patch antenna operating in S-band.
SIC element diameter DS 0.3 mm
The design of the proposed circular SIC structure is
explained in Section II. A detailed study of the design SIC element angular separation αS 30°

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 Proc. of the 2017 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON), Malaysia, November 5-8, 2017
(a)
Fig. 2. Simulated (a) S11 vs frequency characteristics (b) Radiation pattern in E-plane and (c) Radiation pattern in H-plane of HMSA with different probe offset
positions
(a)
Fig. 3. Simulated (a) S11 characteristics, (b) Radiation pattern in E-plane and (c) Radiation pattern in H-plane of HMSA with circular SICs for variation in RC
C. Feed Location
In microstrip patch antennas the XP radiations become
more prominent in case of coaxial probe-fed designs [12],
[13]. Hence choice of feed location plays a significant role in
the study of XP radiation suppression. The distance along the
radius from the center of the patch gives the feed location ρ
computed using formulations in [14]. The value of ρ is varied
from 3 mm to 5 mm to find the optimum matched location.
The simulated S11 characteristic of the feed locations is given
in Fig. 2.a. A considerably good input impedance matching is
obtained at feed location ρ = 4.25 mm (0.049λ0), λ0 being
wavelength corresponding to the resonating frequency. The
radiation patterns of the patch with different feed location are
analyzed in Fig. 2.b and Fig. 2.c. The co-polarized radiations
in both E-plane and H-plane are identical for all values of ρ.
But the optimally matched feed location (ρ = 4.25 mm) results
in lowest XP levels at the boresight of the antenna.
III. PARAMETRIC VARIATION FOR OPTIMIZATION OF ANTENNA
PERFORMANCE
The proposed antenna performance depends upon the
location and dimensions of the circular SICs. The parametric
variation of each dimension, keeping other dimensions fixed,
has been conducted to understand their effect in effective XP
radiation suppression.
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(b) (c)
(b) (c)
A. Substrate Integrated Cavity Radius
The effect of the variation of SIC radius from 1.5 mm to 3
mm on S11 and radiation characteristics of the proposed
antenna is illustrated in Fig. 3. From the S11 characteristics it is
clear that impedance matching improves, with minor shift in
frequency towards the lower side, as the RC is decreased. The
simulated radiation characteristics as depicted in Fig. 3.b and
Fig. 3.c show that the co-polarized radiations in E-Plane and
H-plane are identical for all RC values. However, the XP levels
are effectively reduced at RC = 2 mm in both the principal
planes at the boresight of the antenna, which considerably
increases as RC changes on either side.
B. Substrate Integrated Cavity Element Diameter
The S11 and radiation characteristics for variation in SIC
element diameter from 0.3 mm to 0.45 mm is shown in Fig. 4.
At DS = 0.3 mm better impedance matching and effective XP
suppression in both the principal planes at the boresight of the
antenna is observed. Further increase in DS results in increased
XP levels as illustrated in the radiation characteristics Fig. 4.b
and Fig. 4.c.
C. Substrate Integrated Cluster Position
The SICs are positioned symmetrically on either side of
the patch center along the H-plane in such a way that it does
not affect the fundamental mode but effectively reduces the
 Proc. of the 2017 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON), Malaysia, November 5-8, 2017

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 4. Simulated (a) S11 characteristics, (b) Radiation pattern in E-plane and (c) Radiation pattern in H-plane of HMSA with circular SICs for variation in DS

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 5. Simulated (a) S11 characteristics, (b) Radiation pattern in E-plane and (c) Radiation pattern in H-plane of HMSA with circular SICs for variation in the
position r of the SICs towards the center of the patch.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 6. Simulated (a) S11 characteristics, (b) Radiation pattern in E-plane and (c) Radiation pattern in H-plane of HMSA with circular SICs for variation in αS

XP radiations. The S11 and radiation characteristics as shown
in Fig. 5, indicate that the best position of SICs in order to
achieve XP reduction is the extreme edge on the H-plane of
the patch, r = 15.14 mm. This helps in weakening the
orthogonal fringing fields at the patch edge and thus reducing
the XP levels.
D. SIC Element Angular Separation
The angular separation between consecutive SIC elements
plays a significant role in the XP reduction. As the separation
between the elements increases, the XP radiation increases due
to leakage of stray radiations from the gap between the
elements. In this study, αS is varied from 30° to 60°, i.e. 12
elements circular SIC to 6 elements hexagonal SIC. The S11
characteristics displayed in Fig. 6.a shows better impedance
matching for αS = 30°. Similarly, the radiation characteristics
displayed in Fig. 6.b and Fig. 6.c, show that effective XP
reduction is achieved with αS = 30°.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The S11 characteristics of the antenna was simulated over
the frequency range from 3 GHz to 4 GHz. The S11
characteristic graph of the hexagonal antenna with and without
circular SICs for the same feed position has been shown in
Fig. 7.a. It is seen that the inclusion of SIC in the patch causes
a 7.5 % shift in frequency towards the higher end, although the

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 Proc. of the 2017 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON), Malaysia, November 5-8, 2017

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 7. Simulated (a) S11 characteristics, (b) Radiation pattern in E-plane and (c) Radiation pattern in H-plane of HMSA with and without circular SICs

(a) (b)

Fig. 8. Simulated scalar E – field distribution (a) Coventional HMSA (b) HMSA with proposed circular SICs

(a) (b)

Fig. 9. Simulated vector E – field distribution (a) Conventional HMSA (b) HMSA with proposed circular SICs

fundamental mode remains unaltered as verified from the
scalar E-field distribution over the patch depicted in Fig. 8.a
and Fig. 8.b.
The vector electric field distribution for TM 11 mode under
the hexagonal patch with and without SIC is shown in Fig. 9.a
and Fig. 9.b. The effect of SIC pairs in hexagonal patch is
clearly understood from Fig. 9.a which shows the presence of
orthogonal fringing fields at the edge of the patch along the H-
plane leading to XP radiation. Our proposition of reducing the
XP radiation by weakening the orthogonal fringing fields
along the H-plane is proven in Fig. 9.b.
The comparative study of the radiation patterns of the
antenna with and without SIC in both the principal planes is
shown in Fig. 7.b and Fig. 7.c. The co-polarized radiation
characteristics for antenna with and without SIC are same over
both the principal planes. However, the XP radiation levels are
found to be greatly reduced in antenna with SIC over both the
principal planes compared to the conventional HMSA. The XP
level for the antenna with SIC remains below -33 dB
throughout and -81 dB at the boresight in either plane.
Whereas the XP level for the conventional HMSA is as high
as -18 dB throughout and -32 dB at the boresight in either
plane. Approximately 15 dB XP reduction throughout and 49

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 Proc. of the 2017 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON), Malaysia, November 5-8, 2017

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