CHAPTER1

1.1 History of Microstrip Patch Antenna

The rapid development of Microstrip antenna technology began in the late 1970s. By the early
1980s basic Microstrip antenna elements and arrays were fairly well established in terms of
design and modeling, and workers were turning their attentions to improving antenna
performance features (e.g. bandwidth), and to the increased application of the technology. One of
these applications involved the use of Microstrip antennas for integrated phased array systems, as
the printed technology of Microstrip antenna seemed perfectly suited to low-cost and high-
density integration with active MIC or MMIC phase shifter and T/R circuitry.

The group at the University of Massachusetts (Dan Schaubert, Bob Jackson, Sigfrid
Yngvesson) had received an Air Force contract to study this problem, in terms of design
tradeoffs for various integrated phased array architectures, as well as theoretical modeling of
large printed phased array antennas. The straightforward approach of building an integrated
millimeter wave array (or subarray) using a single GaAs substrate layer had several drawbacks.
First, there is generally not enough space on a single layer to hold antenna elements, active phase
shifter and amplifier circuitry, bias lines, and RF feed lines. Second, the high permittivity of a
semiconductor substrate such as GaAs was a poor choice for antenna bandwidth, since the
bandwidth of a Microstrip antenna is best for low dielectric constant substrates. And if substrate
thickness is increased in an attempt to improve bandwidth, spurious feed radiation increases and
surface wave power increases.

This latter problem ultimately leads to scan blindness, whereby the antenna is unable to
receive or transmit at a particular scan angle. Because of these and other issues, they were
looking at the use of a variety of two or more layered substrates. One obvious possibility was to
use two back to-back substrates with feed through pins. This would allow plenty of surface area,
and had the critical advantage of allowing the use of GaAs (or similar) material for one substrate,
with a low dielectric constant for the antenna elements. The main problem with this approach
was that the large number of via holes presented fabrication problems in terms of yield and
reliability. They had looked at the possibility of using a two sided-substrate with printed slot
antennas fed with microstrip lines, but the bi-directionality of the radiating element was
unacceptable.

The first aperture coupled microstrip antenna was fabricated and tested by a graduate
student, Allen Buck, on August 1, 1984, in the University of Massachusetts Antenna Lab. This
antenna used 0.062 Duroid substrates with a circular coupling aperture, and operated at 2 GHz.
As is the case with most original antenna developments, the prototype element was designed
without any rigorous analysis or CAD - only an intuitive view of how the fields might possibly
couple through a small aperture. They were pleasantly surprised to find that this first prototype
worked almost perfectly it was impedance matched, and the radiation patterns were good. Most
importantly, the required coupling aperture was small enough so that the back radiation from the
coupling aperture was much smaller than the forward radiation level.

The geometry of the basic aperture coupled patch antenna is described. The radiating
microstrip patch element is etched on the top of the antenna substrate, and the microstrip feed
line is etched on the bottom of the feed substrate. The thickness and dielectric constants of these
two substrates may thus be chosen independently to optimize the distinct electrical functions of
radiation and circuitry. Although the original prototype antenna used a circular coupling
aperture, it was quickly realized that the use of a rectangular slot would improve the coupling,
for a given aperture area, due to its increased magnetic polarizability. Most aperture coupled
microstrip antennas now use rectangular slots, or variations there-off.

The various frequencies ranges and their applications related to that with the specified
wavelength are listed in table 1.1 as shown below,
Frequency Band Wavelength
Frequency Range Application
Name (Meters)

Extremely Low
3-30 Hz 10,000-100,000 km Underwater Communication
Frequency (ELF)

Super Low Frequency AC Power (though not a

30-300 Hz 1,000-10,000 km
(SLF) transmitted wave)

Ultra Low Frequency

300-3000 Hz 100-1,000 km
(ULF)

Very Low Frequency

3-30 kHz 10-100 km Navigational Beacons
(VLF)

Low Frequency (LF) 30-300 kHz 1-10 km AM Radio

Medium Frequency
300-3000 kHz 100-1,000 m Aviation and AM Radio
(MF)

High Frequency (HF) 3-30 MHz 10-100 m Shortwave Radio

Very High Frequency

30-300 MHz 1-10 m FM Radio
(VHF)

Ultra High Frequency Television, Mobile Phones,

300-3000 MHz 10-100 cm
(UHF) GPS

Super High Frequency Satellite Links, Wireless

3-30 GHz 1-10 cm
(SHF) Communication

High Frequency
30-300 GHz 1-10 mm Astronomy, Remote Sensing
(EHF)

400-790 THz 380-750 nm

Visible Spectrum Human Eye
(4*10^14-7.9*10^14) (nanometers)

Table 1.1 Various Frequency Bands.

1.2 MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA

Microstrip antennas are attractive due to their light weight, conformability and low cost. These
antennas can be integrated with printed strip-line feed networks and active devices. This is a
relatively new area of antenna engineering. The radiation properties of micro strip structures
have been known since the mid 1950s. The application of this type of antennas started in early
1970s when conformal antennas were required for missiles. Rectangular and circular micro strip
resonant patches have been used extensively in a variety of array configurations. A major
contributing factor for recent advances of microstrip antennas is the current revolution in
electronic circuit miniaturization brought about by developments in large scale integration. As
conventional antennas are often bulky and costly part of an electronic system, micro strip
antennas based on photolithographic technology are seen as an engineering breakthrough.

In its most fundamental form, 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 as shown in Figure
below The patch is generally made of conducting material such as copper or gold and can take
any possible shape. The radiating patch and the feed lines are usually photo etched on the
dielectric substrate.

Fig 1..13 Basic structure of Microstrip Patch Antenna.

In order to simplify analysis and performance prediction, the patch is generally square,
rectangular, circular, triangular, and elliptical or some other common shape as shown in Figure
2.2. For a rectangular patch, the length L of the patch is usually 0.3333o< L < 0.5 o, where o
is the free-space wavelength. The patch is selected to be very thin such that t << o (where t is
the patch thickness).The height h of the dielectric substrate is usually .003 oh0.05 o. The
dielectric constant of the substrate (r) is typically in the range 2.2 r 12.

Fig 1.14. Common Shapes of microstrip patch elements.

Microstrip patch antennas radiate primarily because of the fringing fields between the
patch edge and the ground plane. For good antenna performance, a thick dielectric substrate
having a low dielectric constant is desirable since this provides better efficiency, larger
bandwidth and better radiation. However, such a configuration leads to a larger antenna size. In
order to design a compact Microstrip patch antenna, substrates with higher dielectric constants
must be used which are less efficient and result in narrower bandwidth. Hence a trade-off must
be realized between the antenna dimensions and antenna performance.

1.2.1 ADVANTAGES

Microstrip patch antennas are increasing in popularity for use in wireless applications due to
their low-profile structure. Therefore they are extremely compatible for embedded antennas in
handheld wireless devices such as cellular phones, pagers etc... The telemetry and
communication antennas on missiles need to be thin and conformal and are often in the form of
Microstrip patch antennas. Another area where they have been used successfully is in Satellite
communication. Some of their principal advantages are given below:
 Light weight and low volume.
Low profile planar configuration which can be easily made conformal to host surface.
Low fabrication cost, hence can be manufactured in large quantities.
Supports both, linear as well as circular polarization.
Can be easily integrated with microwave integrated circuits (MICs).
Capable of dual and triple frequency operations.
Mechanically robust when mounted on rigid surfaces.

1.2.2 DISADVANTAGES

Microstrip patch antennas suffer from more drawbacks as compared to conventional antennas.
Some of their major disadvantages aregiven below:
Narrow bandwidth.
Low efficiency.
Low Gain.
Extraneous radiation from feeds and junctions.
Poor end fire radiator except tapered slot antennas.
Low power handling capacity.
Surface wave excitation.

Microstrip patch antennas have a very high antenna quality factor (Q). It represents the
losses associated with the antenna where a large Q leads to narrow bandwidth and low
efficiency. Q can be reduced by increasing the thickness of the dielectric substrate. But as the
thickness increases, an increasing fraction of the total power delivered by the source goes into a
surface wave. This surface wave contribution can be counted as an unwanted power loss since it
is ultimately scattered at the dielectric bends and causes degradation of the antenna
characteristics. Other problems such as lower gain and lower power handling capacity can be
overcome by using an array configuration for the elements.
1 . 3 UWB ANTENNA
Essentially, a UWB communications system trades pulse shortness (gaining a high signal/symbol
rate) in exchange for two other variables (1) bandwidth (which becomes wider) and
(2)S/N(which is reduced). Greater bandwidth use needs FCC approval and a lower S/N requires
signal averaging, which then lowers the signal/symbol rate and thus the channel capacity (data
rate). Lowering the signal/symbol rate, plus the fact that the symbol/signal of a UWB system has
an informational value no higher than 1 bit (and after signal averaging much less), defeats the
aim, if the aim is to achieve high capacity or high data rate. These tradeoffs can, of course, to
some extent be alleviated by transmitting at an average pulse frequency higher than 2 GHz or by
using higher power (if permitted and non-interfering) but both of these strategies are also
available to conventional and non interfering wireless communications systems.

As in the case of more conventional communications systems, the UWB wireless system
designer must balance trade-offs among high bandwidth efficiency, low transmission peak
power, low complexity, flexibility in supporting multiple rates and reliable performance as
expressed in bit error rates.

It might be supposed that comparisons between UWB communications and conventional

communications can proceed using the conventional definitions for the variables in the
conventional range equation. In most cases, these variables do have the same connotation and in
the case of the conventional definition of receiver noise, it certainly does not. If the claim is valid
that a UWB signal is below the threshold of conventional heterodyne receivers, it must also be
valid that conventional transmitters are transmitting narrower band signals, which in many cases
are above the threshold of UWB receivers. Therefore a UWB receiver, which necessarily must
be ultra broadband in its front-end, is more vulnerable to interference noise than conventional
receivers of narrower bandwidth.

Now, it is generally considered that the fundamental receiver noise mechanism is thermal
noise and the noise variance is related to the effective noise bandwidth of the receiver. That
bandwidth is approximately one half the signal bandwidth. It is also generally assumed that the
most common communications channel is one with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). In
the AWGN case, the noise arises from the receiver itself, i.e., from thermal noise in the first
amplifier stage but this may not be the only noise present in the communications channel in the
case of UWB.

Even if it is the only noise present, it is conventionally assumed that an observation of

this noise through an unbounded bandwidth will have unbounded power. (That assumption is
both unrealistic but always assumed in the AWGN case.) If this assumption is adopted in the
case of a UWB ultra-broadband receiver, which is also a homodyne receiver, then if Eb is the
signal energy per bit for, e.g., a spread spectrum direct sequencing system (DSSS) and also a
UWB system, Noise the channel noise for DSSS, and nois the channel noise for UWB, then
taking the above remarks into consideration.

The ultra-wideband receiver front-end and the interference from conventional

communications transmitters would preclude equivalences. Therefore, direct performance
comparisons assuming an equivalence become problematic.

In comparing a UWB system with a DSSS system, it might be supposed that there is an
exact comparison between the UWB bandwidth produced by the shortness of the pulse duration
and the DSSS bandwidth produced by spreading from a chipping sequence. However, this
comparison is misleading because whereas in the case of UWB all the energy across the
bandwidth constitutes the signal, in the case of DSSS only that energy within the spread
bandwidth present before spreading and before transmission constitutes the signal, the remainder
of the energy in the spread bandwidth after reception being rejected as noise. The difference
between the two approaches is indicated by the fact that shortening an UWB pulse must be
compensated by an increase in the peak power to preserve the energy per bit, but the energy per
bit is independent of the chip rate and dependent on the data rate in the case of DSSS.

A possible choice for a UWB system is to increase the pulse repetition rate to maintain a
set data rate, but just as in the case of a DSSS system in which the chip rate is increased, the
penalty for this choice is an increase in system complexity, as well as average power. There is
thus a direct correspondence between the number of pulses per data bit in a UWB system using
coherent addition and the number of chips per data bit in a DSSS system. Of course, if data rate
is of no consequence, then the choice of system and compensating penalties will be dictated by
other considerations. It is also worth mentioning that these penalties are a consequence of figures
of merit which address peak power. Confusion arises when comparisons are switched between
peak and average powers of different communications systems and the corresponding figures-of-
merit changed at will.

1.3.2 Historical Development of UWB

UWB radar systems have been in the commercial world since the 1970s. They have been
successfully used in ground-, wall- and foliage-penetration, position-location, collision warning
for avoidance, fluid level detection, intruder detection and vehicle radar measurements. Future
applications include: distance and air-bag proximity measurements and backup warning, road
and runway inspection, breathing and heart monitoring, RF ID, and camera auto-focus.

There was/is nothing new about the fundamental design of subsystems of a UWB
communications system or any component part. Subsystem concepts, of certain levels of
sophistication or efficiency, were readily available to G. Ross when he obtained his 1973 patent
for a UWB communications system.

What was/is new is the assumption in the case of UWB communications systems, such
systems can coexist without interference with other communications systems which use
synchronous receivers and are regulated by conventional FCC spectrum habitation requirements.
This assumption specifically requires that the receivers of conventional systems not only
normally operate at higher average power/frequency threshold than do those of UWB receivers,
(which must either achieve acceptable signal-to-noise levels over time by signal averaging, or by
high instantaneous signal power levels), but also normally are not subject to electronic upset by
high peak power, transient UWB signals. These are two separate requirements, which are usually
assumed identical.

In the case of more than one UWB communications system operating in asynchronous
mode, the assumed absence of UWB-induced interference to other locally operating UWB
systems has also yet to be validated. This form of interference, which may be absent or rare in
the case of UWB radar, may yet be anticipated to be commonplace in the case of more widely
used UWB communication systems.

UWB transmit information by generating radio signals at specific time intervals

and occupying large B.W, thus enabling pulse postion (or) time modulation.UWB pulses
can be sent periodically at relatively at low pulse rates to support time (or) time modulation.

UWB has traditional applications in non-cooperative radar imaging .Most recent

applications are target sensors data collection, precision locating and tracking applications.
Recently China allowed 24 GHZ for UWB automotive short range radar.

UWB communication system has attracted increasing attention due to its advantages of
high speed data rate and low spectral power density, since FCC first approved the frequency
range from 3.1 to 10.6 GHZ for commercial UWB applications in 2002.

Moreover dual-polarized UWB antennas are more attractive due to the polarization
diversity technique. The performance of image/radar systems can also improved by employing
dual-polarized UWB antennas.

Challenges of dual-polarized UWB antennas designs include wide impedance matching,

high isolation between polarizations ports, low cross-polarizations, stable radiation performance
across wide bandwidth, and low cost. Microstrip patch antennas have been widely applied in
wireless communication systems mainly owing to their characteristics of low-profile, low-cost
and easy fabrication

In addition a single-layer patch antenna usually operates over a limited frequency range
only which cannot satisfy the bandwidth requirements for UWB applications. Consequently
several techniques have been proposed in the literature to extend the bandwidth of dual polarized
patch antennas .Among that one is capacitively coupled through four feeds which provide all
requirements of UWB applications, and also spurious radiation and return loss can be reduced.

And the square ground plane with size of 60mm 60mm, is printed on top layer of an
FR4 substrate and identical microstrip lines with a length 1 and a width of w are on other
side. Good impedance matching across a wide frequency range can be obtained by selecting
proper dimensions of feeds.
 UWB antennas have been in active commercial use for decades. In a sense, even the
venerable AM broadcast band antenna is UWB since it covers a band from 5351705 kHz for a
fractional bandwidth in excess of 100%. Because a high quality broadcast AM antenna is really
a tuned antenna designed to pick up an individual narrowband (10 kHz) channel, the effective
fractional bandwidth is really only 0.6-1.9% and only one channel can be received at a time.

This is a particularly stark example, but it highlights the difficulty with traditional UWB
antennas: they are typically multi-narrowband antennas instead of antennas optimized to
receive a single coherent signal across their entire operating bandwidth. Some modulation
schemes are more tolerant of antenna variations than others. For instance, a multi-band or
OFDM approach may be less vulnerable to dispersion or other variations across an antennas
operational band.

Nevertheless, a UWB system requires an antenna capable of receiving on all frequencies

at the same time. Thus, antenna behavior and performance must be consistent and predictable
across the entire band. Ideally, pattern and matching should be stable across the entire band.

1.5 Dual-Polarized Antennas

With the development of the wireless communication, the wireless networks should be
compatible with dual-band and dual-mode standards such as 2.4GHz WLAN band and
3.5GHzWiMAXband.Accordingly,the dual-band antennas are required in the modern wireless
systems. Patch antennas with dual-band operation are attractive due to the inherent advantage of
low profile, broadside radiation, and easy fabrication. In the past, a lot of techniques have been
proposed.

An effective design is to add a stacked patch to the driven patch which generates double
resonances. In addition, the patch antenna with a U-shaped slot canals realize dual-band
operation but it may suffer from the inherent weakness of narrow impedance bandwidth.
Although the method of using an L-shaped probe feed can enhance the impedance bandwidth for
the dual-band patch antenna this design may cause an asymmetric radiation pattern and a high
cross-polarization radiation. The high cross-polarization is a problematic issue in a lot of dual-
band patch antennas, especially at upper bands. To solve this problem, differential feed is
proposed to suppress the cross-polarization radiation.

However, if the isolation between two differential ports is low, it may lead to lower gain
and thus complex feeding networks should be designed to enhance the isolation. The meandering
probe is one of effective techniques for suppressing the high cross-polarization radiation of the
patch antenna. However, the reported work in only demonstrates low cross-polarization levels
only in one frequency band. Besides, the air loaded meandering probe increases the fabrication
tolerance.

In addition, a UWB antenna is preferentially non dispersive, having a fixed phase center.
If waveform dispersion occurs in a predictable fashion it may be possible to compensate for it,
but in general it is desirable to radiate similar waveforms in all directions. A log periodic
antenna is an example of a dispersive antenna. Larger scale components radiate low frequency
components while smaller scale components radiate high frequency components. The result is a
chirp-like, dispersive waveform. Worse, the waveform will vary at different azimuthal angles
around the antenna. Again, a multi-band or OFDM approach may be more tolerant of dispersive
antennas.

By contrast, a small element antenna, like a planar elliptical dipole tends to radiate a
more compact, non dispersive waveform, similar to a Gaussian W. This behavior is illustrated
in Figure 1. Since a small element antenna not only tends to be non-dispersive, but also more
compact, small element antennas are preferred in many applications. A wide variety of antennas
are suitable for use in UWB applications. Some of these are described elsewhere in a historical
survey UWB antennas may be classified as directional or non-directional. They may further be
classified as either electric or magnetic antennas.

1.6 Objectives
Microstrip patch antenna is used to send onboard parameters of article to the ground while
under operating conditions. The aim of the thesis is to design and fabricate an probe-fed
Square Microstrip Patch Antenna and study the effect of antenna dimensions Length (L),
and substrate parameters relative Dielectric constant (r), substrate thickness (t) on the
Radiation parameters of Bandwidth and Beam-width.

A microstrip antenna is a resonator type antenna. It is usually designed for single mode
operation that radiates mainly linear polarization. For a circular polarization radiation, a patch
must support orthogonal fields of equal magnitude but in-phase quardature. This requirement can
be accomplished by single patch with proper excitations or by an array of patches with an
appropriate arrangement and phasing.
 Literature Review
The Dual polarization antennas with four capacitive coupled feeds [1] are generally used in
GPS/WIMAX/WLAN systems , thus they enable multi-thread communication, and enables the
device to transmit data on one polarization and receive data on the other simultaneously. In
dual polarization both E-plane and H-plane components are equal in amplitude, and their
phases are not equal. If the phases of both the components are equal then they are circularly
polarized.

Now-a-days Base station antennas are dual polarized antennas whose antenna
elements are placed diagonally(450) and the angle between two elements should be 900. Dual
band antennas are not a new idea. Since many years ago several manufactures has
combined multiple elements to create antennas that operate in two separate bands.

It has been found that now-a-days the dual-polarized antennas are most widely used in
wireless communication systems, target detection, non -co operative imaging radar system,
precision locating and applicable for the commercial applications that has the frequency
range from 3.1 to 10.6 GHZ.