Broadband dual-frequency CPW-fed planar monopole antenna with rectangular notch

W.-C. Liu and C.-M. Wu

A rectangular notch is introduced to obtain a broadband dualfrequency operation of a planar monopole antenna fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW). The antenna is printed on a single metal layer and therefore is easily constructed. Prototypes of the proposed antenna designed for WLAN operations in the 2.4 and 2.5 GHz bands have been constructed and tested. Both theoretical and experimental results for bandwidths and radiation characteristics are presented and discussed.

edge of the ground plane is 1.8 mm. The use of a rectangular corner notch can lead to produce an additional surface current path and therefore broadband and dual-frequency operations can be obtained.

Introduction: Recently, there is growing research activity on broadband dual and multi-frequency antennas for various wireless communication applications. In particular, a great interest in coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed antennas has been presented in the literature because of their many attractive features such as, simplest structure of a single metallic layer, no soldering point and easy integration with active devices or MMICs [1]. For the available designs, the CPW-fed loop slot antenna reported in [2] is capable of broad but single-band operation only, and the CPW curved slot antennas reported in [3] are capable of dual or multiband operation for WLAN operations, however they do not have broad bandwidths and require greater complexity of antenna shapes. In this Letter, we present a new design of a planar monopole antenna consisting of a rectangular microstrip patch with a rectangular notch. The antenna is fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW) line such that only a single-layer substrate is required for this antenna. Therefore, the case of the proposed design is not only capable of providing the WLAN dualfrequency operations, but can achieve bandwidth enhancement. Details of the antenna design are described, and both theoretical and experimental results are presented and discussed.

Fig. 2 Measured and simulated return loss against frequency

(i) Measured return loss for proposed antenna with rectangular notch (ii) Simulated return loss for proposed antenna with rectangular notch (iii) Simulated return loss for proposed antenna without rectangular notch

51

41.9

notch 1.8 3.1

13.2

FR4

Fig. 3 Measured radiation patterns at 2.68 GHz for proposed antenna

z

xxx Ey Ef

22.5

ground

1.6

ground

y
31.5 31.5 50-W SMA connector

Fig. 1 Geometry of proposed CPW-fed notched monopole antenna for WLAN dual-band operations (dimensions, mm)

Antenna design: The geometry of the proposed CPW-fed rectangular notched planar monopole antenna for broadband and dual-frequency operations is shown in Fig. 1. For the design studied here, the antenna is fabricated on an inexpensive FR4 substrate with the dielectric constant of 4.4 and the substrate thickness of 1.6 mm. A CPW transmission line, which consists of a signal strip thickness of 3.1 mm and a gap distance of 1.6 mm between the single strip and the coplanar ground plane, is used for feeding the antenna. Two nite ground planes with the same size of 31.5 22.5 mm are situated symmetrically on each side of the CPW line. The basis of the antenna structure is a planar patch, which has the dimensions of height 41.9 mm and width 51 mm, and is embedded with a rectangular notch of height 11.4 mm and width 23.95 mm at the right-down corner. In addition, the notched planar monopole is connected to the end of the CPW feed line and the spacing between the patch and

Results and discussion: The proposed antenna was constructed and experimentally studied. The theoretical analysis was performed using the IE3DTM simulation software. Fig. 2 shows the measurement and simulation frequency response of the return loss for the proposed antenna with a rectangular notch, which are denoted as curves (i) and (ii), respectively. For the purpose of comparison, the simulation result of return loss of the corresponding antenna without rectangular notch curve (iii) is also shown in Fig. 2. It is seen that, for the antenna without the notch, the impedance matching is very poor. However, for the case with a rectangular corner notch, two broadband resonant modes are excited at 2.68 and 5.33 GHz simultaneous with a good matching condition. The lower mode has a wide impedance bandwidth (10 dB return loss) of 1.01 GHz (2.323.33 GHz), or about 35.8% with respect to the centre frequency at 2.825 GHz, and the bandwidth for the upper mode reaches 1.38 GHz (4.966.34 GHz), or about 24.4% referred to the centre frequency at 5.65 GHz. These results agree very well with those from simulation. Obviously, the obtained bandwidths cover both the WLAN standards in the 2.4 GHz (2.42.484 GHz) and 5.2 GHz (5.155.35 GHz) bands. Figs. 3 and 4 plot, respectively, the measured radiation patterns at 2.68 and 5.33 GHz for the proposed dual-band antenna. The patterns are observed to be stable for operating at the two frequencies. It is also noted that, at the two operating frequencies, the patterns in the xy-plane are nearly omnidirectional, and those in the yz-plane, as expected, are in symmetry with respect to the antenna axis (y 0 ) since the antennas

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 27th May 2004 Vol. 40 No. 11

structure is in symmetry. However, in the xz-plane, the peak radiations are positioned at about 30 right and left shifts from the z-axis (y 0 ) according to the appropriate positions of dominate current paths for operating at 2.68 and 5.33 GHz, respectively. Fig. 5 shows the measured antenna gain for frequencies across the lower and upper bands. The antenna gains are about 3.154.29 dBi and 2.44.5 dBi for the lower and upper bands, respectively.

Conclusions: Broadband dual-frequency operations of a simple CPW-fed planar monopole antenna suitable for WLAN operations in the 2.4 and 5.2 GHz bands have been studied. By embedding a notch to the radiating patch, dual-band and wide impedance bandwidths of 35.8 and 25.4% for the lower and upper bands, respectively, can be excited. Also, good antenna performances of operating frequencies across the two bands can be obtained. # IEE 2004 Electronics Letters online no: 20040456 doi: 10.1049/el:20040456 18 March 2004

W.-C. Liu and C.-M. Wu (Department of Aeronautical Engineering, National Huwei University of Science and Technology, 64 Wenhua Road, Huwei, Yunlin 632, Taiwan, Republic of China) E-mail: wencliu@nhust.edu.tw References
1 2 3 Ip, K.H.Y., Kan, T.M.Y., and Eleftheriades, G.V.: A single-layer cpw-fed active patch antenna, IEEE Microw. Guid. Wave Lett., 2000, 10, pp. 6466 Lin, X.C., and Wang, L.T.: A broadband cpw-fed loop slot antenna with harmonic control, IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., 2003, 2, pp. 323325 Angelopoulos, E.S., Stratakos, Y.E., Kostaridis, A.I., Kaklamani, D.I., and Uzunoglu, N.K.: Multiband miniature coplanar waveguide slot antennas for GSM-802.11b and 802.11b-802.11a wireless applications, IEEE Wirel. Commun. Netw., 2003, 1, pp. 103108

Fig. 4 Measured radiation patterns at 5.33 GHz for proposed antenna

xxx Ey Ef

Fig. 5 Measured antenna gains for proposed antenna

a Lower band b Upper band

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 27th May 2004 Vol. 40 No. 11