Numerical Modelling of a Microstrip Patch Antenna for Wireless Applications

Viorel IONESCU 1
1Department of Physics and Electronics, Ovidius University, Constanta, 900527, Romania
1. Introduction
A microstrip antenna operating from 1.64 2.33 GHz can cover all
the existing Digital cellular System (DCS), Personal Communication
Service (PCS) and 3G mobile communication systems bands [1].
In most applications, the microstrip patch antenna is fed using
either coaxial probe feed or inset microstrip line as both are direct
contact methods providing high efficiency [2].
The primary goal of the analysis for the present antenna model was
to establish the optimal position of the feed line by performing
numerical investigations using the Electromagnetic Waves,
frequency domain interface from commercial Finite Element
Method (FEM) package Comsol Multiphysics software (version 5.0).

2. Antenna Design
(a) (b)

Fig. 1. (a) Antenna model domains and (b) FEM model of the
microstrip patch antenna with an inset microstrip feeding line
Antenna FEM model discretization: user-controlled mesh sequence
type, with mesh elements of 3.24 - 18 mm for the PEC patch and
substrate domains and six different sets of mesh element
values(resulting six FEM models) for the lumped port boundaries.
Because the difference between the S11 values at y0 = 16 mm in the
case of models 5 and 6 was very small, the next simulations were
performed only for the model 5 with lumped port mesh elements of
0.1 0.4 mm.

Two port network analysis:

Fig. 4. Surface current density distribution (A/m)

Fig. 3. Normalized distribution of electric in XY plane for: a) y0 = 14 mm, b) y0 = 15 mm and
field (V/m) in XY plane for: a) y0 = 14 mm, c) y0 = 16 mm
Substrate: RO4003C(r= 3.38, h = 0.5mm) b) y0 = 15 mm and c) y0 = 16 mm
Transmission line model:

Electric field dispersion effects on the patch extremities and through the
dielectric substrate:

Patch extension along its length: Microstrip line insertion coordinate: Fig. 5. Far-field radiation pattern in E-plane (polar coordinates) for evaluation of
x0 =Wpatch/2 , y0 position was considered[3]: F/B ratio and -3dB BW in the case the of models with three different y0 values

3. Results and discussions

4. Conclusions
The normalized maximum distribution of the electric field in XY plane was exclusively located
at the antennas slot extremities for the model with y0 = 16 mm.
Surface current density distribution indicated that the input power was more efficiently
transmitted to the radiator when the antenna had y0 = 16 mm.
From the graphical representation of radiation diagrams in E-plane, it was established that the
antenna model having y0 = 16 mm presented the highest front-lobe gain of 6.7 dB and lower back-
lobe gain of -8.7 dB at a reflection coefficient s11 = -16.78 dB.
Fig. 2. 3D far-field radiation pattern (a) and Far-field radiation pattern
in E-plane, polar coordinates (b) for y0 = 14 mm and fr = 1.64 GHz References
[1] Y.-H. Huang, S.-G. Zhou, J.-L. Guo, and Y.-S. Chen, Compact and wideband dual-polarized antenna
From fig. 2.b we could observe a gain value for the front-lobe of with high isolation for wireless communication, Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, Vol. 38,
4.4 dB (at = 880), the gain value for the back-lobe was -11 dB at 171180, 2013.
[2] A. Aslam and F. A. Bhatti, Improved design of linear microstrip patch antenna array, 9th Int. Symp.
= 272 , F/B ratio being 15.4 dB for this model.
0
on Antennas Propagation and EM Theory, pp. 302-306, Nov. 29 -Dec. 2, 2010
[3] R. Garg, P. Bhartia, I. Bahl, A. Ittipiboon, Microstrip Antenna Design Handbook, Artech House
Publisher., Boston, MA, 2001.