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Dual band sectorial slot circular pac-man

antenna by using leucaena leucocephala bio-
composite substrate

Article · February 2015

DOI: 10.1109/APACE.2014.7043766

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 Dual Band Sectorial Slot Circular Pac-man
Antenna by using Leucaena leucocephala Bio-
composite Substrate.
A.A. Azlan (1),M.T.Ali (1) , M.Z. Awang (1) ,M.F Jamlos (2) and N.I.S Anuar (3)
(1)
Antenna Research Centre (ARC)
Microwave Technology Centre (MTC),
Faculty of Electrical Eng. (FKE),
UiTM, Shah Alam.
Email:mizi732002@yahoo.com
(2)
Advanced Communication Engineering Centre,
School of Computer and Communication Engineering,
Universiti Malaysia Perlis.
E-mail: faizaljamlos@unimap.edu.my

(3)
Fibre and Bio-composite centre (FIDEC),
Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB), lot 152,
Kompleks Perabot Olak Lempit 42700 Banting, Selangor
E-mail: intansaffinaz@mtib.gov.my

Abstract – In this paper, sectorial slot Pac-man antenna for dual band
frequency, 1.6GHz for emergency radio show bit ship-standard
(EPIRB) and 2.4 GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) was
proposed. The back to back comparison between normal circular patch
and proposed patch was demonstrated to see the relevancy of proposing
the sectorial slot method to performed as dual band and enhance the
bandwidth. The uniqueness of the design was rely on the small tuning
circular at the centre of the design to control the resonant frequency
desired was also proposed. The design was prove to enhance the
bandwidth with 1.1 GHz, maintained the gain about 5dBi by using bio-
composite leucaena leucochephala substrate (εr = 3.06, Loss δ=0.0082).
Then, the proposed antenna was analysed in term of return loss, voltage
standing wave (VSWR), radiation pattern and gain.
Keyword:- Wood plastic composite, pac-man antenna, leucaena
leucochephala substrate
I. INTRODUCTION
Bio-composite drive of new printed circuit board (PCB)
component and antenna substrate to the green technology
area that related directly with the application of
electromagnetic applications. The durability and easy for
disposable material are the major concerns when selecting
the material. Previously, the applications of wood plastic
composite (WPC) was limited only on packaging and food
based item (Bowl, straw and cutlery). But now, the
applications was spread and the usage of polymer based
material as PCB and antenna substrate was very popular for
antenna designer lately [1]. The selection was based on low
cost and high temperature handling for Polypropylene (PP)
substrate up to 180 degree Celsius compare to the popular
fire retardant type 4 (FR4) substrate that only reported to
withstand only 120 degree Celsius[2] .The ability of the
material to handle high temperature due to antenna radiation
is crucial since it will expand the physical thickness of the
material, hence it also change the value of the dielectric
constant (εr). The changes of the εr value, will degrade the
overall performance of the antenna structure design since
there is a huge difference on simulation and real design
application and make the resonant frequency to shift a little
bit from the desired operating frequency. It has been
demonstrated previously [3]-[4], that adding the slot to the
antenna design will improve some of the bandwidth , control
the operating frequency and also, reduce the size of the
antenna due to the reduction of effective area and excited
surface current paths of radiating element. In this paper, the
sectorial slot was proposed to enhance the bandwidth and
dual band operating frequency by altering the slot dimension.
The comparison between normal circular patch antennas [5]
and proposed antenna was also demonstrated briefly to
reveal the relevancy of adding the sectorial slot by
maintaining the existing physical dimension of normal
circular patch antenna. The application of the antenna, was
to cover the frequency of emergency radio show bit ship-
standard (EPIRB) at 1.6GHz and wireless local area network
(WLAN) at 2.4 GHz. The antenna structure will be
fabricated onto the bio-composite material with overall
design given in Table I. The Substrate used for the antenna
design was based on the 150μm WPC method with 70% of
leucaena leucochephala (Lam) saw dust and 30% of
Polypropylene (PP) polymer. The successful bio-composite
WPC substrate, with εr equal to 3.06 and loss tangent (Tan δ)
equal to 0.0082 was reported in [6] with notation of the board
as PB Board.
TABLE I: BASIC ANTENNA DESIGN PARAMETER
 II. ANTENNA DESIGN
The basic design of the antenna is based on the circular type
patch antenna with coaxial feed through type. Even though
there is a success regarding the circular patch design using
others feeding and matching technique [7]-[8], the coaxial
feed through type was chosen, since there is a freedom to the
antenna designer to apply the air gap technique to enhanced
the antenna gain and provide more bandwidth, hence there
are some others physical parameter to adjust the resonant
frequency instead of only the dimension circular size. The
single circular patch antenna were given in Figure 1 and
proposed sectorial slot Pac-man antenna is shown in figure
2.
of the 1st and 2nd resonant frequency by using equation (3)
and equation (4). The idea of modelling the sectorial slot
section, was rely by replacing the sector slotted circular patch
by two equivalent circular patches of circumferences C1and
C2. The circumference of C1 is the total perimeter of the
circular patch with sector slot and its corresponding
resonance frequency would be fr1, the lower resonance
frequency of the proposed design. Similarly the
circumference of C2 is the length of the major arc of the
sector-slotted circular patch and its resonant frequency
would be fr2, the second resonance of the proposed design.

C1

C2

Figure 2: Sectorial slot Pac-man Antenna

The general equation with c is the speed of light, εreff is the

Figure 1: Circular Patch Antenna
effective permittivity by two layered of circular patch
The design of the circular patch was distributed by the
equation (1) and equation (2) below. The only parameter that
can be adjusted to shift the desired frequency up and down (3)
rely on the thickness of Air gap and the Radius (R) of the
circular patch dimension. On most of the previous research
[8], the feeding point situated, near end of the circular patch,
this is due to edge effect distribute high surface current (4)
compare to other area. The coordinate position of the feeding
was given as (X, Y) whereby the centre of the patch was
noted at coordinate (0, 0).
The effective circumference of the equivalent circular C 1
(sectorial) and C2 (big circular) is given by Pe.

(1)
(5)
Where
Where
(2)

(6)
εr ( Dielectric constant of Substrate)
fr (Resonant Frequency in Hz)
h (Height of the substrate in cm) R is the radius of patch, while αis slot angle of the Pac-man
antenna
The proposed sectorial slot Pac-man antenna was inspired by
equation (1) and equation (2) and with modification from the
idea of circumference mathematical modelling equation (1)-
(2), the equation can used to predict the operating frequency
 The design of the sectorial maintained the physical design
of normal circular patch antenna like figure 1. The reason
was to see the possibility of sectorial slot to function as
element to produce dual band characteristic while enhance
the bandwidth. Besides that, the proposed of small circular
slot (R1) to control the frequency to shift up and down
depend on radius of the R1. In order to shift down the
desired operating frequency the size of R1 must be reduced
and vice versa. Each 0.5 mm increment of the size R1 will
increase the operating frequency about 200Mhz, this was
due to decrement of surface area of the patch. Figure 2
above indicate the location of R1 at the centre of the circular
patch with notation coordinate of (0, 0). The design on both
normal circular and proposed sectorial slot Pac-man patch
antenna were revealed in table 2.
TABLE II: ANTENNA DIMENSION
All dimension in mm
Ant. 1: Normal circular patch
Ant. 2: Sectorial slot Pac-man antenna
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Several test already been conducted to find the best design
on both band for 1.6GHz (EPIRB) and 2.4GHz (WLAN)
application. The test involved the slot angle and the size of
tuning radius (R1), since this two section influence much to
the dual band configuration of the antennas. The idea is to
find the optimal slot angle (α), by referred to its simulation
efficiency. The target of optimal slot angle can be obtained
by altering the value in three different angle at 900, 600,300
and 100. Table III show the result for the effect of the angle
and tuning radius (R1) adjustment.
TABLE III: ANTENNA TUNNING EFFECT
From table III it is show that the bigger the slot angle
distribute the lowest efficiency, the tuning radius (R1) have
to be reduced to 1mm. The size reported was 55.48 mm
with only 30% of efficiency reported for frequency 1.6GHz
while for frequency 2.45 GHz was 50%. The maximum
frequency obtained for frequency 2.45GHz with S11
reported -10.1dB compared to 1.6GHz band with S11 at
only -7dB. The Circular radius size (R) reported to reduce
to 42.32 mm and tuning radius (R1) 1.2 mm for slot angle
600, with differences of 23.7% compared to 900 slot angle.
The better performance reported on S11 reading for
2.45GHz with-13dB and slightly reduce performance on
1.6GHz frequency with only -5dB. The efficiency also
show significant improvement on 2.4 GHz frequency with
55% but decrement to only 28% for 1.6GHz band. Next,
the angle were reduce from 300 to 100, there is no
significant different regarding the size reduction. The
reported differences only about 1.3 mm and increment of
tuning size about 0.48mm. So this indicate that there is no
significant difference regarding the overall result. Then,
the experiment continue to find the best design between 300
to100. After a few optimization process the best design
obtained at 200. The maximum circle radius (R) was
reported around 27.74 mm and tuning circle radius (R1) at
2.5mm. The best S11 reading for 1.6GHz band reported
with value of -19.3dB while for 2.45 GHz band the reading
obtained about -43.6dB. The overall best efficiency
reported at 1.6GHz was 58% and 2.45 GHz band was 70%.
So the design with slot angle of 200 were chosen for
fabrication process. Figure 2 above indicate the overall
design, while the table II indicate the parameter dimension.
Before the design we slotted like figure 2, the design
inspired by the normal circular indicated like figure 1
above. The S11 result were plotted in a form of graph for
normal circular patch with no sectorial slotted. Figure 3
below show the S11 plotted graph for normal circular patch
without sectorial slot.
 Figure 3: S11 plotted value for normal circular patch (a) (b) (c)

Figure 3 above indicate the plotting S11 value for normal
circular patch and the resonant frequency for this design was
at 2.4512 GHz with -36.45dB. The bandwidth of 0.28 GHz
obtained ranging from frequency 2.312 GHz up to 2.592
GHz with reference minimum reading at -10dB. Next, for
design like figure 2 above the result for that design showed
in figure 4. The graph in figure 4 combine both simulated
and measured S11 result.
Figure 4: S11 Plotted graph for Pac-man antenna
(a) : Front view
(b) : Back view
(c) : Side view (air gap)
Figure 5: Proposed fabricated antenna sectorial slot
Pac-man antenna design
After the measurement of S11 result, the process was
continue to measure the radiation pattern for proposed
antenna. The back to back comparison were done using
simulation result for both normal circular patch and
proposed Pac-man antenna to see the differences but only
optimise Pac-man antenna were conducted for practically
radiation pattern measurement inside anechoic chamber
room. Figure 6 below, indicated the radiation pattern for
simulation normal circular patch antenna while figure 7
showed the plot radiation pattern between simulations
and fabricated proposed Pac-man antenna.

When sectorial slot added to the design, the Pac-man antenna

work very fine to perform as dual band characteristic with
frequency for the first band reported at 1.63GHz with S11
value is -19.3dB for simulation and shifted about 0.003GHz
to upper frequency and performed at 1.66 GHz with S11 value
reported at -28.6dB. The second band for the antenna
resonate at frequency 2.45GHz with S11 value -43.3 dB for
Figure 6: Radiation Pattern for circular patch
the simulation and shifted to the upper frequency about 0.11
GHz to performed at frequency 2.56 GHz and -37.54dB for antenna (simulation) (Phi=900)
the S11 result. The overall antenna performance still
adequate even though there are shifted frequency reported,
because the operating frequency for both simulation and
measured frequency still in the range of needed frequency.
The shifted issue was due to the fabrication process since the
design using external 0.4 mm copper and the cutting process
were done using the Laser cutting service machine and the
antenna glued using the fast response epoxy glue PT-36 to
glue the antenna copper design to the bio-composite
substrate. In order to see the radiation behaviour, the plot for
both design normal circular and proposed Pac-man antenna
were conducted using simulation, while measured value (a) 1.6GHz Band (b) 2.4Ghz Band
were focused only for fabricated Pac-Man antenna with 200
of sectorial slot angle (α) and 2.5mm tuning radius circle Figure 7: Radiation pattern simulation and fabrication
(R1). Figure 5 below show the fabricated design. for Pac-man antenna (Phi=900)
 Most of the design result for simulation for circular
antenna and Pac-man antenna were given as Table IV
below.
TABLEIV: SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULT
IV. CONCLUSION
A new sectorial slot Pac-Man antenna with dual band
operation 1.6 GHz (EPIRB) and 2.4GHz (WLAN) was
simulated, fabricated and measured by using leucaena
leucocephala bio-composite substrate. It has been simulated
with CST cad simulation software, comparable with normal
circular type patch antenna to see the significant of adding
the sectorial slot angle (R) and also tuning small circle (R1)
to enhance the design from single band to dual band
operation with most of the physical design for normal circle
patch antenna maintained. The air gap method was chosen
since the design provide more bandwidth and gain. The
target of the Pac-man design is to enhance the frequency
band operation hence wider the bandwidth, but the process
of wider the bandwidth decrease some of gain performance
about 1dB when compared to normal circular. The
decrement was considered low since the Pac-man design
improve the bandwidth about 1.1GHz compared to normal
circular patch was only 0.28 GHz. For future work the design
will be used on other material to compare with this design to
see the effectiveness of the leucaena leucocephala bio-
composite substrate.
V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge Malaysian Timber
Industry Board (MTIB), Fidec (Banting, Malaysia)
especially En. Zulkepli bin Abd Rani, Director of Fibre and
Bio-composite centre (FIDEC), for allowing the author to
use the facility in FIDEC lab that possible of
accomplishment of this article.
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