IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO.

5, MAY 2013 2767

A Novel Broadband Planar Antenna for 2G/3G/LTE

Base Stations
YueHui Cui, RongLin Li, Senior Member, IEEE, and Peng Wang

Abstract—A novel broadband planar antenna is developed for

mobile communication base stations. The antenna is composed of
a pair of folded dipoles which are coupling fed by an L-shaped
microstrip line. Both the dipoles and the coupling microstrip line
are etched on the same substrate. The planar antenna achieves
a bandwidth of 53% for dB, covering the
frequency range 1.65–2.85 GHz for 2G/3G/LTE applications. The
antenna gain of the broadband antenna element is about 9 dBi.
A dual-polarized planar antenna consisting of two broad-
band antenna elements is proposed, which achieves a bandwidth
of about 50% and an isolation of 30 dB. Two 8-element antenna
arrays are developed respectively for the broadband antenna and
for the dual-polarized antenna. Both antenna arrays achieve
a bandwidth of more than 58% (1.6–2.9 GHz). The antenna gains
achieved for the both antenna arrays are higher than 15.5 dBi. The
half-power beam widths in the horizontal plane for the antenna ar-
rays are approximately , suitable for base station appli-
cations.
Index Terms—Antenna array, base station, broadband antenna, Fig. 1. Configuration of a broadband planar antenna.
dual-polarized antenna, planar antenna.

The bandwidth achieved is % for return loss

I. INTRODUCTION dB. In [3], a bowtie patch antenna achieves a bandwidth of 45%
( dB); but it requires a high impedance surface. The

T HE rapid development of mobile communication systems

needs broadband and low cost antennas for base stations.
The second generation (2G) systems, such as GSM1800 and
GSM1900, operate in the frequency bands 1710–1880 MHz
and 1850–1990 MHz. The third generation (3G) systems, such
as cdma-2000, WCDMA, and TD-SCDMA, use the frequency
band 1920–2170 MHz. The long term evaluation (LTE) sys-
tems, such as LTE2300 and LTE2500, are designated the fre-
quency bands 2300–2400 MHz and 2500–2690 MHz. There-
fore, a bandwidth of 45.5% (i.e., 1.7–2.7 GHz) is required for
2G/3G/LTE base station antennas.
In recent years, a lot of broadband antennas have been de-
veloped for base stations [1]. The commonly used antennas for
base stations include patch antennas and dipoles. A patch an-
tenna usually has a narrower bandwidth. Patch antennas with an
L-shaped probe [2] was proposed for bandwidth enhancement.
Manuscript received August 16, 2012; revised December 30, 2012; accepted
January 27, 2013. Date of publication February 01, 2013; date of current version
May 01, 2013. This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (60871061), in part by the Guangdong Province Natural
Science Foundation (8151064101000085), in part by the Specialized Research
Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (200805610007), and in
part by ZTE Corporation.
Y.H. Cui and R.L. Li are with the School of Electronic and Information En-
gineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
(e-mail: lirl@scut.edu.cn).
P. Wang is with ZTE Corporation, Xi’an, China.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2013.2244837
printed dipole with integrated balun and microstrip matching
network proposed in [4] achieves a bandwidth of 18%. The
printed dipole with adjusted integrated balun proposed in [5] ob-
tains a broadband bandwidth of 40% ( dB). The printed
dipole antenna with a double-layered structure presented in [6]
has a bandwidth of 50% ( dB); but it has a relatively
low antenna gain (4.5–7.2 dBi). All these dipole antennas have
a nonplanar configuration.
In this paper, we propose a novel broadband antenna with a
planar configuration. The bandwidth achieved for dB
is 53% and the antenna gain is about 9 dBi. The antenna consists
of a pair of folded printed dipoles. The dipoles are coupling to an
L-shaped microstrip line. The dipoles and the feeding structure
of the antenna are etched on the same substrate. This antenna
can realize dual polarizations with an isolation of 30 dB by
employing two elements which are perpendicular to each other.
The broadband planar antenna is described in Section II. The
dual-polarized antenna is presented in Section III.
II. BROADBAND PLANAR ANTENNA
A. Antenna Element
The configuration of the broadband antenna element is illus-
trated in Fig. 1. The antenna consists of a pair of folded dipoles
connected in parallel through a coplanar stripline. The folded
dipoles are coupling fed by an L-shaped microstrip line. The
dipoles are printed on the back side of the substrate while the
L-shaped microstrip line is etched on the front side of the same

0018-926X/$31.00 © 2013 IEEE

2768 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO. 5, MAY 2013

TABLE I
OPTIMIZED VALUES FOR THE GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF THE BROADBAND
PLANAR ANTENNA

Fig. 2. Effect of the width of the coplanar stripline on the return loss of
the antenna element.

Fig. 5. A prototype of the broadband planar antenna: (a) perspective view, (b)
backside view.

Fig. 3. Effect of the length of the coupling microstrip line on the

return loss of the antenna element.

Fig. 6. Return loss of the broadband planar antenna.

which has a dielectric constant of and a thickness of

mm. The planar antenna is placed above a shaped re-
flector for base station applications.
The width of the slot of the coplanar stripline is an
important parameter for impedance matching. Fig. 2 shows the
simulation results for return loss of the antenna element as a
function of . An optimal value for is found to be 2.1 mm
for the best impedance matching.
The length of the coupling microstrip line is an-
Fig. 4. Effect of the height of the antenna element above the reflector on
the return loss. other important parameter that affects the impedance matching.
Fig. 3 shows the dependence of the return loss on the total length
of the L-shaped microstrip line. Without the coupling
substrate. The inner conductor of a flexible 50- coaxial cable microstrip line, i.e., and the antenna element is
is connected to the L-shaped microstrip line while the outer con- directly fed, the impedance matching is not very good. When the
ductor of the cable is soldered to the coplanar stripline. The de- coupling microstrip line is introduced, the impedance matching
sign of the antenna is based on a substrate of Rogers 4350B, is improved. The optimized value for the length of the coupling
CUI et al.: A NOVEL BROADBAND PLANAR ANTENNA FOR 2G/3G/LTE BASE STATIONS
Fig. 7. Radiation patterns of the broadband planar antenna at (a) 1.7 GHz, (b)
2.2 GHz, and (c) 2.7 GHz.
microstrip line is mm, which is approxi-
mately a quarter guided wavelength at 2.2 GHz.
The height (H) of the antenna element above the reflector also
has effect on the impedance matching of the broadband antenna
element. The effect on the return loss caused by the height is
depicted in Fig. 4. The impedance matching is not good without
the reflector (i.e., ). As the reflector is introduced, the
impedance matching is improved. However, as the antenna el-
ement gets closer to the reflector, the impedance matching be-
comes worse. The optimized height is mm.
The broadband antenna was optimized using Ansoft HFSS
v.13. The optimized geometric parameters are listed in Table I.
A prototype of the broadband antenna is displayed in Fig. 5.
The measured RL is compared with the simulation in Fig. 6.
Good agreement is observed. The measured bandwidth for
dB is about 53% (1.65–2.85 GHz). The broad band-
width of the antenna element is due to the introduction of the
coupling microstrip line and the reflector. The radiation patterns
measured and simulated at 1.7, 2.2, and 2.7 GHz are plotted
in Fig. 7. There is no significant difference for the radiation
2769
Fig. 8. Gain of the broadband planar antenna.
Fig. 9. Measured return loss of the 8-element broadband planar antenna array.
patterns over the wide frequency range. The measured and
simulated antenna gains are depicted in Fig. 8. The simulated
gain is about 10 dBi while the measured gain is about 9 dBi.
(The difference between measured and simulated results is due
to the losses from the coaxial cable and the SMA connector
which were not taken into account in simulation.) The gain
variation over the frequency range 1.7–2.7 GHz is less than 1
dB. The higher gain for the broadband antenna element is due
to the pair of dipoles that consists of two folded dipoles.
B. Antenna Array
For base station applications, an 8-element antenna array is
developed. The element spacing is 110 mm ( , where
is the free-space wavelength at 2.7 GHz). The antenna array is
fed by an eight-way power splitter. The measured RL for the
antenna array is shown in Fig. 9. The return loss is around 15
dB over 1.56–2.9 GHz. Fig. 10 shows the measured radiation
patterns compared with the simulated results at 1.7, 2.2, and 2.7
GHz. Good agreement is obtained. There is no grating lobe over
the frequency range 1.7 to 2.7 GHz. The simulated and mea-
sured gains for the array are plotted in Fig. 11. The simulated
gain is about 18 dBi while the measured gain is close to 16 dBi.
The 2-dB difference between simulation and measurement is
due to the losses caused by the feeding network, coaxial cable
and SMA connectors. The half-power beam widths (HPBWs)
2770 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO. 5, MAY 2013

Fig. 11. Half-power beam widths (HPBWs) and gains of the 8-elment broad-
band planar antenna array.

Fig. 12. Basic configuration of the dual-polarized antenna.

feed [10], [11], or a combination of these two feed configu-

rations [12], [13]. The crossed dipoles are another commonly
Fig. 10. Radiation patterns of the 8-element broadband planar antenna array at used configuration for dual polarizations [14]–[17]. All these
(a) 1.7 GHz, (b) 2.2 GHz, and (c) 2.7 GHz. dual-polarized antennas have a multilayered or 3-dimensional
configuration. In this section, we develop a fully planar
dual-polarized antenna.
are also plotted in Fig. 11. The HPBWs in the y-z plane (the The dual-polarized antenna consists of two broadband planar
horizontal plane) are while the HPBWs in the x-z plane antenna elements developed in the previous section. To achieve
(the vertical plane) are . Note that the sidewall of the dual polarizations, the two antenna elements are placed
reflector for the array is slightly adjusted from mm to orthogonally in the directions of and , respectively.
mm to achieve a HPBW around 65 in the horizontal In order to achieve a high isolation, different arrangements for
plane. the dual-polarized antenna element are investigated. The
basic configuration of the dual-polarized antenna is illus-
trated in Fig. 12. The separation between central axes of the an-
III. DUAL-POLARIZED ANTENNA
tenna elements is denoted by and the distance shifted from
the central axes is ds. Obviously, the isolation will increase as
A. Antenna Element
increases. In order to obtain a compact configuration for the
Nowadays dual-polarized antennas have been widely dual-polarized antenna, however, we need to keep as small
used in wireless communication base stations. One of the most as possible. In our design, we choose mm and realize
important considerations for a dual-polarized antenna is the the 30-dB isolation by adjusting the distance shifted ds. It is
isolation between the two polarization ports. A lot of feeding interesting to find by simulation that as ds decreases, the isola-
techniques [7]–[13] have been proposed for high isolation, tion between the two polarization ports increases, as indicated
e.g., L-probe feed [7]–[9], aperture-coupling (slot-coupling) in Fig. 13. The highest isolation is obtained when , which
CUI et al.: A NOVEL BROADBAND PLANAR ANTENNA FOR 2G/3G/LTE BASE STATIONS 2771

Fig. 15. Two short dipoles: (a) arbitrarily orientated dipole, (b) perpendicularly
orientated dipoles.

Fig. 13. Effect of the distance shifted (ds) on the isolation of the dual-
polarized antenna.

Fig. 16. A prototype of the dual-polarized antenna: (a) perspective view,

(b) backside view.

Fig. 14. Optimized configuration of the dual-polarized antenna.

Fig. 17. S parameters of the dual-polarized antenna.

corresponds to a perpendicular position as illustrated in Fig. 14

mutual impedance is equal to zero, which corresponds to a
for the dual-polarized antenna.
minimum coupling or the highest isolation since
To understand the mechanism for the highest isolation at
, two short dipoles are considered, as depicted in Fig. 15. The
dipoles 1 and 2 of length and , respectively, have arbitrary
orientation angles and (i.e., Fig. 15(a)), separated by a dis-
tance . The mutual impedance of the two dipoles are given by
[18]

(2)

(1) Therefore, the highest isolation may occurs at and

, which corresponds to a perpendicularly orientated position
It is noticed from (1) that the mutual impedance depends on the as indicated in Fig. 15(b). For the dual-polarized antenna,
orientation angles and when the separation distance and the perpendicularly orientated position corresponds to ,
the lengths and are fixed. When or , the which explains why the highest isolation occurs at .
2772 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO. 5, MAY 2013

Fig. 18. Gains of the dual-polarized antenna.

TABLE II
OPTIMIZED VALUES FOR THE GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF THE
DUAL-POLARIZED ANTENNA

Fig. 20. Radiation patterns of the 45 dual-polarized antenna array at: (a) 1.7
GHz, (b) 2.2 GHz, (c) 2.7 GHz.

Fig. 19. Measured S parameters of the dual-polarized antenna array.
The optimized values for the geometric parameters of the
dual-polarized antenna are in Table II. A prototype of the
dual-polarized antenna is pictured in Fig. 16. Simulated and
measured S parameters are compared in Fig. 17. It can be seen
that S11/S22 is less than dB over 1.69–2.78 GHz. Sim-
ulated and measured isolations between the two polarization
ports show a high isolation of 30 dB. The gains for both
and polarizations are close to 8.5 dBi, as demonstrated in
Fig. 18.
B. Antenna Array
A dual-polarized antenna array is developed. The an-
tenna array is composed of eight dual-polarized antenna
elements with an element spacing of 105 mm . The
dual-polarized antenna array is fed by two eight-way power
splitters.
The measured S parameters (S11/S22) for the dual-polarized
array are plotted in Fig. 19. The measured bandwidth for
dB is 58% (1.6–2.9 GHz). The measured
isolation is close to 30 dB. The measured radiation patterns are
compared with simulated results in Fig. 20. Good agreement is
observed and there is no grating lobe over the frequency range
1.7–2.7 GHz. As depicted in Fig. 21, the half-power beam
widths (HPBWs) in the horizontal plane (or the y-z plane) of
the dual-polarized antenna array are within ,
CUI et al.: A NOVEL BROADBAND PLANAR ANTENNA FOR 2G/3G/LTE BASE STATIONS
Fig. 21. HPBWs and gains for the 45 dual-polarized antenna array.
and the beam widths in the vertical plane are approximately
10 . The simulated and measured gains for the polarized
antenna array are also plotted in Fig. 21. The measured gain is
about 15.5 dBi, which are about 2 dB lower than the simulated
results due to the losses from the feeding network. The gain
variations over the frequency range 1.7–2.7 GHz are less than
1.5 dB. The radiation patterns, HPBWs, and gains for the
polarized antenna array are similar to those for the
polarized antenna array.
IV. CONCLUSION
A broadband planar antenna has been developed for base sta-
tions. The planar antenna achieves a wide bandwidth of about
53% (1.65–2.85 GHz) and a high gain of 9 dBi. A dual-po-
larized antenna is proposed, which achieves a high isolation of
30 dB. An 8-element broadband antenna array and an 8-element
dual-polarized antenna array are developed, both of which
achieve an antenna gain close to 16 dBi and a half-power beam
width of , suitable for base station applications in 2G,
3G and LTE systems.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the No.7 Re-
search Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corpo-
ration (CETC) for radiation pattern measurement.
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Yuehui Cui was born in Hubei, China, in 1986. She
received the B.S. degree in School of Information
Science and Technology from Sun Yat-Sen Univer-
sity, Guangzhou, China, in 2005. She is currently
working toward the Ph.D. degree in information
and communication engineering at South China
University of Technology, Guangzhou.
Her current research interests include base station
antennas and antenna synthesis.
RongLin Li (M’02–SM’03) received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong Univer-
sity, China, in 1983, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees
in electrical engineering from Chongqing University,
in 1990 and 1994, respectively.
From 1983 to 1987, he worked as an Assistant
Electrical Engineer in Yunnan Electric Power
Research Institute. From 1994 to 1996, he was a
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Zhejiang Univer-
sity, China. In 1997, he visited Hosei University,
Japan, as an HIF (Hosei International Fund) Re-
search Fellow. In 1998, he became a Professor in Zhejiang University. In 1999,
he visited the University of Utah, USA, as a Research Associate. In 2000, he
worked as a Research Fellow at the Queen’s University of Belfast, UK. Since
2001, he has been a Research Scientist with Georgia Institute of Technology,
USA. He is now an Endowed Professor in the South China University of
Technology, Guangzhou. He has published more than 100 papers in refereed
Journals and Conference Proceedings, and three book chapters. His current
research interests include new design techniques for antennas in mobile and
satellite communication systems, phased arrays and smart antennas for radar
2774 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO. 5, MAY 2013

applications, wireless sensors and RFID technology, electromagnetics and Peng Wang received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. de-
information theory. grees in electrical engineering from Xidian Univer-
Dr. Li is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of the IEEE International sity, Xi’an, China, in 2003, 2006, and 2008, respec-
Compumag Society. He was the recipient of the 2009 Georgia Tech-ECE tively.
Research Spotlight Award. He currently serves as an Editor of the ETRI He is currently a System Engineer in ZTE Corpo-
Journal and a reviewer for a number of international journals, including ration, Xi’an, China. His research interests include
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, IEEE Antennas and computational electromagnetics, active antenna sys-
Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components tems and beamforming for mobile communication
Letters, IET Microwave, Antennas and Propagation, Progress in Electro- base stations.
magnetic Research, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, and
International Journal of Wireless Personal Communications. He was a member
of the Technical Program Committee for IEEE-IMS 2008–2012 Symposia and
a session chair for several IEEE-APS Symposia.