Hexagon Microstrip Antenna for vehicle to
vehicle communication
Date: 04, June of 2019
Gaibor Bryan (1241) Sanipatin David (1253)
ANTENNA AND PROPAGATION ANTENNA AND PROPAGATION
ESPOCH-FIE-EITR ESPOCH-FIE-EITR
RIOBAMBA, ECUADOR RIOBAMBA, ECUADOR
bgaiborambi@yahoo.com davidsanipatin@gmail.com
Abstract—In order to implement the hexagonal proposed
antenna, here has been proposed the basic guidelines for the
preparation of a design, simulation in Ansoft HFSS, and fab-
rication of the proposed antenna adapted in FR4 of a 1.6mm
thickness. This document is itself a design based on other papers
and will explain the main aspects of the antenna that we are
going to implement as well as their performance, losses, gain, and
impedance bandwidth. This paper proposes to regular hexagon
broadband microstrip antenna with shorting pins and etching
V-shape slots with different size at each angle of the regular
hexagon patches as the most feasible option. The antenna element
is fed with a coaxial probe for causing the antenna to radiate,
and works in a tri-band suitable frequents for vehicle to vehicle
communication centered in 4.4 GHz, 6 GHz and 7.2 GHz each
one. With the collected results we compare with the previous
ones of the simulation.
Keywords—Microstrip antenna, hexagonal microstrip antenna,
polarized microstrip antenna, single coaxial feed, V2V commu-
nication, implementation.
I. I NTRODUCTION
With the advancement of the mobile and wireless technolo-
gies and the exponential growth of the daily use of devices
which have to be connected to another devices around, the
demand for microstrip antennas have increased as it is suitable
to be used in portable devices.
The desirability of microstrip antennas results from their
structure because these are particularly compact, adaptable,
accessible, low cost, aerodynamic structure and ease of fabri-
cation as we saw in previous works. There are several ways
to design micro strip patch antenna. A square shaped patch
antenna with slots on the structure is used, in order to useful
for S-band application [1]. An E-shaped antenna used strip line
feed and it has an operating frequency of 2.6GHz[2], similarly
a rectangular micro strip antenna used strip line feed and used
air as a substrate to achieve the S-band characteristics [3].
A rectangular patch antenna is designed by using all types
of feeding techniques [4]. A Probe feed is given to the slotted
rectangular patch and E-shaped antenna in order to useful for
wireless applications [5].
Parra Cesar (1265)
ANTENNA AND PROPAGATION
ESPOCH-FIE-EITR
RIOBAMBA, ECUADOR
cesarparra728@gmail.com
The study of Microstrip patch antennas has made great
progress in recent years.Compared with conventional antennas,
Microstrip patch antennas have more advantages and better
prospects.This antenna achieves good impedance matching and
broad bandwidth by loading shorting pins and etching V-shape
slots. Omni-directional radiation pattern can be obtained,
hexagonal geometry is one of the various shapes for microstrip
antennas capable of linear polarization operation, thus the
proposed antenna is simple structured and small size, which
is suitable for V2V communication.[6] Nowadays we connect
everything to the internet in order to have more intelligent
and useful artefacts, for example, global system for mobile
communication (GSM), long term evolution (LTE)etc, make
interpersonal communication more convenient.
Wireless fidelity (WiFi) makes people connect to the Inter-
net faster, and the real-time understanding things are surround-
ing. Recently, people pay close attention to the communication
between vehicles. It can provide real-time traffic information to
drivers so as to effectively relieve traffic congestion and avoid
traffic accidents, Most of automotive antennas are designed for
applications of low frequency, such as frequency modulation
and amplitucle modulation (FM/AM) radio, GSM, global
position system (GPS). Among them, the 2.45 GHz bluetooth
transmission which is installed on the vehicle is the application
on relatively high frequency.
In general, very few researches of the automotive antennas
which are operated on 5 GHz are carried out, so that is
why we are going to focus our work in vehicle to vehicle
communication around this frequency. In this case, commercial
simulator HFSS was employed to study the designs and key
parameters of the coaxial fed hexagonal shaped patch antenna
fabricated on thick substrate. The proposed configuration
yields improved measured bandwidth,experimental results for
the gain and radiation pattern are also presented.
A. Hexagonal Microstrip Patch Antennas.
The study of Microstrip patch antennas has made great
progress in recent years. Compared with conventional an-
tennas, Microstrip patch antennas have more advantages and
better prospects. Moreover, the Microstrip patch antennas can II. PROPOSED HEXAGONAL MICRO-STRIP PATCH
provide dual and circular polarizations, dual-frequency opera- ANTENNA
tion, frequency agility, broad band-width, feed line flexibility, In a previous paperwork we compared some ideas from
and beam scanning omnidirectional patterning. another papers of antennas, and analyzed the characteristics
That has been reported in the literature [7]. The hexagonal of these, besides of knowing the differences and applications.
patch antenna size calculation was made considering the The basic structure of the proposed Wideband microstrip
invariance of the electrostatic energy below the hexagonal antenna is shown in Fig.1.
and circular patches, as it was realized in [8] for the case
of rectangular and circular ones, keeping constant areas.The
relationship between the equivalent areas of the circular and
hexagonal patches is given in
√
3 3 2
πa2e = S (1)
2
Where
S = sides of a regular hexagonal patch antenna
ae = Effective radius of the circular patch antenna
A Microstrip patch antenna consists of a radiating patch on
one side of a dielectric substrate which has a ground plane on
the other side.
• The patch is normally made of a conducting material such
as copper or gold, and can take any possible shape that
we could imagine.
• The radiating patch and the feed lines are usually photo
etched on the dielectric substrate.
(a). Top View
In order to simplify analysis and performance prediction,
the patch is generally square, rectangular, circular, triangular,
elliptical or some other common shape as shown in figure
below. For a rectangular patch, the length L of the patch is
usually 0.3333λ0 < L < 0.5λ0. where (λ0) is the free-space
wavelength. The patch is selected to be very thin such that
t << λ0 (where t is the patch thickness). The height h of
the dielectric substrate is usually 0.003λ0 ≤ h < 0.05λ0. The (b). Side View
dielectric constant of the substrate (εr ) is typically in the range Fig 1. STRUCTURE OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA
2.2≤ εr ≤ 12[9] Our microstrip antenna is composed of a center-fed regular
Microstrip patch antennas are increasing in popularity for hexagon microstrip patch antenna, six shorting pins, and two
their use in wireless applications due to their low-profile struc- sets of V-shape slots with different size. Six shorting pins are
ture. Therefore they are extremely compatible for embedded placed on the six angles of the regular hexagon patch to realize
antennas in handheld wireless devices such as cellular phones, conductive connecting between the patch and ground. It is
cars localization, etc. The communication antennas on missiles equivalent to introduce parallel inductance between the patch
need to be thin and conformal and are often Microstrip patch and ground .
antennas. Another area where they have been used successfully Adjusting the size and location of shorting pins, ds and
is in Satellite communication. The height of designed antenna rs ,can effectively decrease input impedance and obtain wide
is H = 1.6 which is low profile and is easily installed on vehicle impedance bandwidth. In order to further improve impedance
roof in order to establish a V2V communication.[10] matching and reduce the size of the antenna, two sets of
It covers the bandwidths of V2V communication and wire- V-shape slots with different size are etched on the regular
less local area network (WLAN) 5.2 GHz. Considering the hexagon patch, which is equivalent to introduce the capacitive
measurement environment and manufacture difference, the reactance and inductive reactance .
deviation between simulated and measured is slow. But the Selecting the appropriate positions and lengths of two sets
tendency of both curves are basically the same. V2V com- of V-shape slots, d1, d2, L1 and L2, makes the antenna get
munication provide the information of position to the vehicles a better impedance matching. It also gives larger impedance
around, giving us the capacity of knowing their velocity, their bandwidth.
angle and some other facts that probably in the future will The proposed antenna is printed on FR4 epoxy substrate
help us to have more intelligent vehicles or safer ones.[11] with dielectric constant εr =4.4 , loss tangent tan δ = 0.02 and
thickness H = 3 mm. At the center of this antenna, the coaxial impedance matching and larger impedance bandwidth at fre-
probe with 50 Ω sub miniature version A (SMA) connector is quency band range around 4.4Ghz, 6Ghz and 7.2 Ghz .
used to excite the antenna proposed.
This antenna obtains omni-directional radiation pattern in
the horizontal plane and conical radiation pattern in the
vertical plane. Through the simulation software high frequency
structure simulator (HFSS).
The detailed dimensions of proposed antenna are shown in
Table 1.
TABLE 1
Detailed dimensions of the proposed antenna
Fig 2 With optimization impedance OF ANTENNA
Value Value
Parameter Parameter Optimizing sizes of two sets of V-shape slots can obtain
reflection coefficients S versus frequency with different pa-
rameters, as show in Fig.3
Rs /mm 45 L1 /mm 14.85

R /mm 37.5 A1 /mm 1

H /mm 1 d1 /mm 6.76

ds /mm 28.69mm L2 /mm 19.87

Fig 3.With optimization of the antenna

Fig. 3 shows reflection coefficients versus frequency with

rs /mm 2.75 A2 /mm 2.555 parameter D1 which is the distance between big V-shape slots
and feeding point. Fig.4 shows reflection coefficients versus
frequency with parameter L1 which is the length of big V-
θ1 /(o ) 30 d2 /mm 21.93 shape slots. As d1 or L1 is increased, the resonance point of
the antenna moves to the right, and the bandwidth is wider
slightly.
Meanwhile, a new resonance point will be produced at high
θ2 /(o ) 30
frequency. Because big V-shape slots will be more and more
close to shorting pins with the increase of values of d1 and
L1 . The disadvantage may cause that the current distribution
III. S IMULATION ANALYSIS AND MEASURED RESULTS
is changed
A. Parameters optimization analysis
As stated previously, the location and size of shorting pins,
the positions and lengths of V-shape slots might influence
the input impedance and impedance bandwidth. Hence, the
situation of the impedance matching and parameters of V-
shape slots are going to be analyzed. Fig. 2 shows the input
impedance of the antenna without/with shorting pins and V-
shape slots.
Design of hexagon microstrip antenna for vehicle-to-vehicle
communication impedance of the antenna without shorting
pins and V-shape slots is very high, which causes a poor
Fig 4. Simulated and Measured of the hexagonal antenna
impedance matching. Loading shorting pins and V-shape slots
effectively reduce the impedance value of the antenna. Hence, The reflection coefficients versus frequency with parame-
the antenna with shorting pins and V-shape slots has a good ters of small V-shape slots, D2 and L2 . Parameter D2 is
the distance between small V-shape slots and shorting pins.
Parameter L2 is the length of small V-shape slots. Moreover,
it is found that widths of two sets of V-shape slots have
seldom influence on impedance matching and bandwidth of
this antenna. Considering easy fabrication A1 and A2 are
going to be equal to 0.45 mm.
Taking all this into account, in this paper, the basic structure
of the proposed Wideband microstrip antenna is composed of
a center-fed regular hexagon microstrip patch antenna , six
shorting pins, and two sets of V-shape slots with different size
as we see in Fig. 5 and Fig.6
Fig 5.Hfss Design
Fig 6. Coaxial feed in the design
B. Radiation pattern of antenna
Fig. 7 (a) shows radiation patterns of antenna at 4.45
GHz, As shown in Fig. 7(b), the radiation pattern of the
monopole-like antenna is generated. The radiation pattern is
omni-directional in the horizontal plane (θ =0◦ ), whose out
of roundness is less than 0.5 dB for symmetrical structure of
the antenna.
As the conical radiation patterns are achieved in the vertical
plane (ϕ =0◦ or ϕ =90◦ ),the simulated maximal gain values
are found at the cross polarizations are less than 30 dB over
the operating frequency bandwidth in the vertical plane.
The results show that the bandwidth were improved in
the simulation, but the radiation pattern changes between the
simulation and the implementation.
We measured the previous antenna with the equipment of
the Microwave Lab of the Escuela Superior Politecnica de
Chimborazo.
Fig 7 (a). Radiation Pattern θ=0°
Fig 7(b). Radiation Pattern ϕ=90°
C. Comparison Results With Measurements
As we probed, the location and size of shorting pins, the
positions and lengths of V-shape slots might influence the input
impedance and impedance bandwidth. Once optimized the
antenna we proceeded to make the physical antenna based on
the results of the simulation. Following the same dimensions
with a small margin of error due to the materials and tools
that we found in our city the result of the implementation is
shown in Fig. 8
 IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a regular hexagon Microstrip antenna with
shorting pins and two sets of V-shape slots were designed,
continuing with the process now we have the results, compared
with the measures in the lab. The performance characteristics
of a coaxial fed hexagonal microstrip patch antenna for linear
polarization has been analyzed and verified experimentally.
The adaptation to the FR4 of 1.6mm made a tri-band
antenna.For the coaxial probes, the location of the feed were
selected in the center to provide good impedance matching, so
once the input impedance of the chosen antenna is reduced, we
achieved the good impedance matching and wide impedance
bandwidth. The return loss as a function of frequency indicates
that the antenna is able to achieve a tri-band centered in
4.4Ghz,6Ghz and 7.2 Ghz each one, with 0.87GHz, 0.27Ghz
and 0.92Ghz of bandwidth respectively and with gain value
around 25-30 dB due to its shorting pins and etching V-shape
slots. Moreover, this antenna is simple, low profile, low cost,
Fig 8 Photograph of the manufactured of antenna
and can be easily installed on vehicle roof. It is suitable for
V2V communication as well as some other useful applications.
The measures are very similar to the simulation, thus we got
a useful and a improved antenna.

V. ANNEXES

Fig 9 Frecuency 4.45[GHZ]

Fig 8(a) Back View

Fig 8(b) Side View Fig 9 Frecuency 6.02[GHZ]

 Fig 9 Frecuency 6.1[GHZ]

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