477
SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT OF BROADBAND MICTROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA FOR 3G
WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS
R A Abd-Alhameed, K.Khalil, P S Excell and C H See.
Telecommunication Research Centre, Bradford University, Bradford, BD7 1DP
Abstract: Bandwidth enhancement and size reduction
techniques for microstrip patch antennas are
investigated, both theoretically and experimentally..
Two types of novel and small broadband stripline-fed
microstrip patch antennas for 3G mobile
communications are presented: a dual shorted
coplanar patch antenna and an E-shaped patch
antenna. By introducing thick substrates with low
permittivity, broad-band behaviour of the proposed
patch antennas can be easily achieved. B y optimising
the geomehy, using ground planes and short circuits,
the size of the antennas can be minimised
correspondingly. The predicted and measured results of
typical impedance behaviour of the proposed designs
are discussed.
1 INTRODUCTION
Microstrip patch antennas are widely implemented in
many applications. especially in wireless comm-
unication. This is due to attractive features such as low
profile, light weight, conformal shaping, low cost, high
efficiency, simplicity of manufacture and easy
integration to circuits. However, narrow bandwidth is
the,main limit?ion that restricts the scope of microstrip
patch antenna technology. It is well known that the
typical impedance bandwidth of standard microstrip
patch antennas is just a few percent. For this reason,
numerous methods have been suggested in order to
alleviate this problem. A i remedies, the use of thicker
substrate with low permittivity, multiple resonances,
and modifying and optimising the geometry of the
patch antenna have been proposed and investigated [l-
61.
While the bandwidth of microstrip patch antennas is
desired to be increased drastically, the size has to be
decreased correspondingly due to the demands of next
generation (3G) mobile communications. Therefore, the
challenge of miniaturisation of microstrip patch
antennas has also been given considerable attention by
researchers. By, implementing high permittivity
substrate, shorting pins h d altering the geometry of the
patch, the 'size of the antenna can be minimised
accordingly [7-81. It should be noted that reducing an
antenna's s u e will influence the overall performance of
the antenna, such as at the expense of bandwidth, gain
and efficiency. However, this ' is a necessary
compromise between bandwidth enhancement and size
reduction.
In this paper, two proposed microstrip patch antennas
have been studied. The proposed designs are much
simpler in construction compared to the traditional
wide-band patch antenna. For the E-shaped antenna,
two slots are inserted symmetrically into the radiating
edge of the normal rectangular patch antenna. The
@.?OK3 The Instilute of Electrical Engineers. Printed end Published by The IEE, Michael Faraday House, Six Hiil Wav, Steveneage SG 1 2AY
length and width of the slots play an important role in
achieving satisfactory performance [5,6]. For. the dual
shorted coplanar patch antenna, by electromagnetically
coupling the two shorted patches (driven and parasitic
patch), broad-band features can be obtained. It should
be noted that the parasitic patch can be either circular or
rectangular, while the driven patch is .fxed as a
rectangular patch [7].
2 THEORY OF BANDWIDTH ENHANCEMENT
AND SIZE REDUCTION TECHNIQUES
2.1 Review of Bandwidth Enhancement Methods
There have been many different element designs
proposed for bandwidth improvement methods [4],[9]:
In essence, these can be categorised into the following
three methods: impedance matching, increasing antenna
volume and using coplanar or multi-layer parasitic
elements. The impedance matching technique means
attachment of a separate lossless matching network'to a
proposed patch antenna, without altering the antenna
element itself. Normally, the matching network is used
in the feed port of the microstrip antenna. This can be
done conveniently i n ' the microstrip form using a
coplanar network, or with an off-board netivork.
Tuning stubs,. quarter-wave traisformers and active
devices can simply be implemented in microstrip.
The increase of antenna volume method is implemented
by employment of thicker substrate, stacking of several
substrates or adding parasitic elements. Thus thicker
substrate with low dielectric constant will reduce Q and
hence increase the bandwidth of the patch antenna.
Using coplanar or multi-layer parasitic elements is the
most popular method for bandwidth improvement. The
basic idea is to introduce additional patches to provide
two or more closely spaced resonances. In other words,
creation of multiple resonances in input, response by
addition of external passive networks or internal
resonant structures. However, this method invokes
additional dissipative losses and increases the thickness
of the antenna and hence the volume.
2.2 Review of Size Reduction Methods
Techniques for making antennas smaller have been
known for a long time [8,9-10].The main miniaturising
tools used are loading the antenna with lumped
elements, high-permittivity dielectric materials or
conducting additions; using a ground plane with short
circuits and optimising the geometry., Loading of an
antenna can be done by modifying the dielectric or
magnetic characteristics of the material surrounding it.
The antenna becomes smaller when embedded in high-
permittivity material, due to the wavelength ,being
shorter in such material. However, higher permittivity
leads to reduction of the bandwidth. This is the trade-
off between bandwidth and sue.
By connecting shorting pins from a patch antenna to the
ground plane, half of the sue of the patch can he
eliminated. This is due to the shorting pins acting as an
inductive element and perturbing the electric-field p a t h
in the patch. For microstrip patch antennas, the size
can also be reduced by inserting slots into it. These
slots force the surface current to meander, thus
artificially increasing the antenna's electrical length
without modifying its global dimensions
3 DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED ANTENNAS
As prototype examples, the proposed antennas currently
use relatively thick substrates with low permittivity
(e.g. air substrate, 4 = 1) in order to expand the
bandwidth. Microstripline feeding methods are also
implemented in all of the proposed designs in order to
simplify the structure in the design package.
3.1 E-Shaped Patch Antenna
The basic idea of the E-shaped antenna is to modify and
optimise the geometry of the typical rectangular patch
antenna by inserting a pair of slits from an appropriate
radiating edge of a rectangular patch. The sue of the
original rectangular patcb can then be reduced, due to
existence of the slits. This will change the resonance
features and will in turn excite the dual frequency
features of the E-shaped patch antenna. It should be
noted that the higher frequency is mainly determined by
the centre part of the proposed patch, while the lower
one is excited by the outer parts. In addition, the length
and width of the two symmetrical slots must be
critically selected and positioned for optimal
performance; otherwise, only a single resonant
frequency will be ohserved.
Fig. 1: Geometry of the wide-band E-shaped patch
antenna
Fig. 2: Practical configuration of the E-shaped patch
antenna
The proposed E-shaped antenna geomeby is shown in
Fig. 1. The antenna has only one patch, which is simpler
than traditional wide-band microstrip antennas. Two
parallel narrow slits with the same length and width
(43.25mm x Imm) are inserted to the rectangular patch.
The patch sue is about 105 mm x 44 mm (L x W) and
it is fed by a microstripline probe. The size of the
microstriplie is about 3mm x 1 mm (L x W) at the
centre of the patch. To achieve broadband performance,
the length, width and position of the slot and
microstripline are the most significant elements
throughout the design work. In Fig. 2, the practical
configuration of the antenna is shown with ground
plane 150 mm x 15Omm and 18mm thickness of air
substrate.
3.2 Antennas with Two Shorted Coplanar Patches
The basic idea of the shorted coplanar patch antenna is
to electromagnetically couple two coplanar shorted
rectangular or circular microstrip patch elements on low
permittivity substrate to achieve small and broadband
features. A microstripline feed is directly connected to
the driven patch element in order to excite the antenna.
The driven element is a rectangular patch and the
parasitic patch can be either circular or rectangular. The
driven patch will dominate the higher resonant
frequency while the lower one is stimulated by
electromagnetically coupling two of the shorted
patches. It should he clarified that the coupling gap
between two patches i s prudently selected for optimal
coupling, otherwise, only a single resonant frequency
with relatively narrow bandwidth will be excited [7].In
order to increase the bandwidth of the antenna, two
bandwidth enhancement methods were used, using
I . 33.00 -
multiple resonators and low permittivity air substrate.
--I -- ,
ob:r
OO'OE
Fig.3: Geometry of the proposed patch antenna.
Fig. 3 shows the geometry of the proposed patch By adjusting the width and length of the slits and
antenna. Two patches are coplanar and shorted to microstripline, the broad-band behaviour is obtained by
ground with a shorting pin. Between the patches and realising the dual-frequency property. According to the
ground plane is an air-filled substrate. The size of the simulated results in Fig.5, it is seen'that two adjaceut
driven patch is 22 x 30mm, while the other coplanar resonant modes exist, leading to a wide bandwidth.
patch is about 8 x 33 mm. A rectangular stub Two adjacent resonant frequencies in the range of
measuring 2 x 3.25 mmis attached to the radiating edge return loss 5 -10 dB are observed, i.e., 2GHz and
of the driven patch. The stub is symmetrically located 2.7GHz. The impedance bandwidth of the antenna,
in the middle of driven patch and coplanar with it. determined from -1OdB return loss points, is 0.950GHz
Likewise, the two shoiting pins and the microstripline or about 40% with respect to the centre frequency at
feed are placed along the centre line of the proposed 2.375GHz (average of measured lower and higher
patch. For optimal coupling, the coupling gap between frequencies with a -1OdB return loss). The impedance
the two shorted patches is about 4 h . The radius of the bandwidth (return loss 5 -1OdB) is 40% from 1.9GHz
shorting p& was chosen to he 0.65mm.The maximum to 2.85GHz, which fully covers the frequency spectrum
overall antenna height is about 1/15 of wavelength at of the IMT-2000 standard (1885 to 2200 MHz). Fig.
the frequency of .interest (1 Onin), while the maximum 5(b) illustrates the simulated typical broadband
horizontal dimension is only a quarter-wavelength. A impedance behaviour.
practical realisation of the patch antenna is displayed in
Fig. 4. .
4. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS . .
The HP ADS-2002 V1.5 Momentum package with
mixed potential integral equation (WE) formulation
was used for simulations and the input impedance of
the antennas was measured by using a . network
analyser.

-2

-
*.- w ..E352zaa%z m
Fig. 6a Measured rehun loss at the input port
z
-
= .,*

-20

.il

-21
I I , . e , P 2 . 0 2 . 3 2 1 21 2 .I 5 7 . 5 > . 7 2 . B 2 9 J 0
rrCOICnC,

Fig. 5a. Computed return loss at the input port.

('rq (1.7000wz
Fig. 5h Computed input impedance.
4.1 E-Shaped Patch Antenna Design
UrmT
I.- (H ..Ecs832z rn
Fig. 6b Measured input impedance.
The input impedance of the proposed design was
measured usmg an HP8510C network analyser. The
measured input impedance is also given in Figs 6. The
measured results have impedance bandwidth of 23%
(return loss <-lOdB) with the centre frequency 2.6 GHz
and fully cover the frequency spectra of 2.3-2.9 GHz.
The simulated impedance bandwidth is 17% higher
than the experimental results and the input impedance
t o 3.aoooHr)
of the experimental results have been transposed out of
the frequency band of interest. This is due to the use of
a ffite-size ground plane in the tests, instead of the
S m i t e ground plane in the simulations: this can he
corrected by adjusting the patch sues
 480
4.2 Twin shorted coplanar patch antenna
Fig.7 depicts the simulated input impedance behaviour
of the proposed patch antenna in Fig.4 which uses air-
fded subskate and two shorted rectangular patches. As
can be seen from the return loss plot, the simulated
impedance bandwidth (return loss 5 -10 dB) is 20.2%
from 1.78 to 2.18GHz. which fully covers the
frequency spectlum of UMTS from 1885 to 2200MHz.
It also CM be observed that the proposed antenna
clearly has two resonant frequencies: 1.825 and
2.IGHz. The impedance locus on the Smith chart
showed that good matching had been attained over a
broad frequency band.
m9-l
f IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagation, vol. AP-37,
-
Fig. 7 Computed return loss at the input port.
Fig. 8 Measured return loss at the input port.
The measured impedance bandwidth is shown in Fig. 8.
It shows that a 26.5% bandwidth, for return loss 5 -
4dB, has been achieved over a frequency range from
1.605 to 2.095GHz. It does not agree well with the
simulated results in that return loss is less than -1OdB.
This is probably largely a consequence of using a f i t e -
size ground plane in the tests instead of an infmite
ground plane, as in the simulations. It is well known
that microstrip antennas are ground-dependent
shuctures, thexefore, when mounted on a f ~ t grounde
plane, the antenna induces a current to flow on the
ground plane, which in turn alters the performance of
the antenna, such as changing the input impedance and
radiation pattern. In addition, disturbance will also be
caused by the input port being directly connected to the
edge of the driven patch in the simulation, but
indirectly connected in the tests. Nevertheless, the
experimental results demonstrate the general validity
and feasibility of the proposed antenna
CONCLUSIONS
Bandwidth enhancement and sue reduction techniques
for microstrip patch antennas have been discussed.
Two small and broad-band antennas were designed,
measured and characterised in detail. By modifying the
geometry of the patches and using shorting pins, the
size of the proposed antennas has been successfully
minimised. Likewise, by eleckomagnetically coupling
two resonators and altering the geometry of rectangular
or circular patches, wider bandwidth can be achieved.
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