A Comparison on Polypropylene and FR4 Dielectric Base of RLSA Antenna at 5.

8GHz Frequency Band

I.M. Ibrahim, Tharek A.R., P. Teddy, U. Kesavan

2 1 Wireless Communication Centre, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Faculty of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)

Email: imranibrahim@utem.edu.my, tharek@fke.utm.my, tptambusai@yahoo.com, kabilan2000@hotmail.com

Abstract The Radial Line Slot Array (RLSA) Antenna is known for its good characteristics such as low profile, low cost, aesthetically pleasing, ease of installation and simple structure. This paper presents a comparison of polypropylene and FR4 dielectric base for linearly polarized Beam Squinted Radial Line Slot Array (RLSA) antenna at 5.8 GHz band. Both antennas implemented the same radiating slot design with antenna diameter of 150mm. The antennas were simulated using CST STUDIO SUITE 2010 software. The results show an improvement of radiation pattern using FR4 dielectric base as compare to polypropylene dielectric base. This paper concluded the FR4 has a potential to be a major component for RLSA antenna development in future.
Keywords: RLSA, FR4 dielectric material

2. The Feeder Design

The Linear Polarized Beam Squinted RLSA (LP-BSRLSA) at 5.8 GHz antenna for Point to Point Application was designed based on LP BSRLSA GHz antenna for Direct Broadcast Satellite Receiver [3-4]. The LP-BSRLSA antenna structure consists of a dielectric material sandwiched by copper plate. The front plate bears the radiating element while rear plate acts as a ground plane with feed element at the center. The dielectric constant r> 1 was chosen to suppress the grating lobes. The radiating element are arrayed so that their radiation are added in phase along the beam direction. The structure of the investigated single-layer RLSA antenna is shown in figure 1. The orientation of slots is in such a direction so as to transmit and receive waves of proper polarization, linear, and proper coupling inside the cavity.

1. Introduction
RLSA antenna a popular candidate for the application of Point to Point Microwave Link and also RFID application.[1-2] This is due to its capability of carrying high speed signal.[1] RLSA prototypes has been designed and developed at the frequency range of 5725 5875 MHz by few researchers.[3-6] The classic design was using an air gap as a separator between radiation surface and ground plane.[7] Then, the polypropelene has been used as a slow wave element in the RLSA structure. This material normally give 2.33 dielectric value[3-4]. The usage of FR4 board is widely used in microstrip antenna. The implementation of FR4 board to RLSA design has allowed a reconfigurable and beam shaping of radiation pattern.[8]. The drawback of this board is it cannot handle the high power at the antenna. However, since it is going to be used as point to point microwave link, the limit EIRP of the antenna is only 1Watt.[9] Therefore, an investigation of using this board as a substrate material will be very interesting due to condition of easy to manufacture and durable.[6]

Figure 1: Structure within the radial cavity of RLSA antenna.

In this research, the 3 layers FR4 board was chosen as dielectric material for RLSA design. The thickness of overall boards is 4.8mm.The original thickness of dielectric based on polypropylene which is 8mm also has been constructed. The same radiating slot design has been implemented for both dielectric designed. However, the feeder parameters are different as shown in figure 2 and table 1.

0 -5 S11, dB -10 -15 -20 -25 Frequency, GHz

4.8mm FR4 Dielectric

4.5

5.5

6.5
8mm Polypropylene Dielectric

Figure 6: Simulated return loss of RLSA

Figure 2: The feeder position in the structure of the RLSA

Table 1: The RLSA feeder design parameters

Parameter Probe Disc Height, h (mm) Probe Disc Diameter, Da (mm) Air Gap Under Probe Disc, b1 (mm) Air Gap Upper Probe Disc, b2 (mm) Dielectric

Polypropylene Dielectric 3 3 4 1 2.33

FR4 Dielectric 2 3 1 0.8 4.7

Figure 7 and Figure 8 illustrate the 3D radiation pattern for both antennas. The FR4 based antenna show a directive characteristic of radiation pattern while polypropylene based antenna produce a multi direction characteristic. The gain of FR4 based antenna is better as compare to poplypropylene antenna. The summary of radiation pattern characteristic are shown in table 2.

3. The Radiating Slot Design

The theoretical slot design procedure is similar to what was proposed in [1-6]. Slot pattern has been arranged on the aperture to provide a linear polarization. A unit radiator is defined as an adjacent slot pair #1, #2, lying along the constant direction ().

Figure 7: Radiation pattern for FR4 dielectric base of RLSA

4. Results and Analysis

The RLSA was designed at Wireless Communication Center, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Radiation pattern measurements were obtained at 5.8 GHz. Figure 6 illustrate the simulated return loss of the RLSA. The simulation shows that the RLSA has resonant at 5.8GHz frequency for both polypropylene and FR4 dielectric based. However, the RLSA with polypropylene base give a wider bandwidth as compare to FR4 dielectric base.

Figure 8: Radiation pattern for polypropylene dielectric base of RLSA

Table 2: The summary of the simulation and measured result the RLSA RLSA Antenna Return Loss (dB) Directivity Gain (dBi) Polypropylene Dielectric -16.59 9.04 FR4 Dielectric -13.09 12.77

[3] I.M. Ibrahim, Riduan A, Tharek A.R. and Hasnain A., Beam Squinted Radial Line Slot Array Antenna (RLSA) Design for Point to- Point WLAN Application, in Asia Pacific Applied Electromagnetics Conference (APACE 2007), 46 December 2007, Melaka Malaysia. [4] Imran M.I. and Tharek A.R., Radial Line

5. Conclusion
The prototypes of RLSA have been successfully designed and simulated using polypropylene and FR4 dielectric material.. The FR4 based designed, nominated as good candidate for directional antenna in term of the performance. However, the beamwidth of the radiation pattern should be smaller for this antenna since it was proposed for high directional application. At 150mm antenna diameter size, the FR4 based design shows a better directivity compare to polypropelene base. In term of the bandwidth, polypropylene performs better than FR4 at this diameter.Since the proposed application was for Point to Point Link, this study concluded that the FR4 have a better characteristic for 150mm diameter RLSA antenna point to point application.

Slot Antenna Development For Outdoor Point to Point Aplication at 5.8GHz Band in RF and Microwave Conference(RFM2004), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2004.
[5] M.I. Imran, Tharek A.R. and Hasnain A., An Optimization of Beam Squinted Radial Line Slot Array Antenna Designat 5.8 GHz, in RF and Microwave Conference(RFM2008), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2008 [6] MdRafiul Islam, TharekAbdRahman, Novel and Simple Design of Multilayer Radial Line Slot Array (RLSA) Antenna Using FR4 Substrate in 19th International Zurich Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, 1922 May 2008, Singapore [7] Ando, M.; Sakurai, K.; Goto, N., Characteristics of a radial line slot antenna for 12 GHz band satellite TV reception, in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 34, issue 10, Oct 1986, pp. 1269 1272. [8] M. F. Jamlos, O.A. Aziz, T. A. Rahman, and M. R. Kamarudin, A Reconfigurable Radial Line Slot Array (Rlsa) Antenna For Beam Shape And Broadside Application, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Application, Vol. 24, 11711182, 2010 [9] Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (2002). Spectrum Plan 9kHz420THz. First edition. Kuala Lumpur.

6. Acknowledgement
The author would like to acknowledge and express sincere appreciation to UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia and Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) for funding this project under Research University Grant, title Rain Propagation Studies and Mitigation Technique at 26 GHz and 5.8 GHz for Point to Point Application, vote number Q.J130000.7123.01H05. Appreciation also goes to University Teknikal Malaysia Melaka and MOHE for funding the authors scholarship.

References
[1] Imran Mohd Ibrahim, Tharek Abdul Rahman, Pak Siau Wei, Johari Ahmad, AbGhaniCheWahab (2011), A Study on Effectiveness of FR4 as a Dielectric Material for Radial Line Slot Array Antenna for Wireless Backhaul Application, IEEE The 17th Asia-Pacific Conference on Communications (APCC2011), Sutera Harbour Resort, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 2-5 October 2011 [2] M. F. Jamlos, T. A. Rahman, and M. R. Kamarudin, Adaptive Beam Steering Of Rlsa Antenna With Rfid TechnologyProgress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 108, 65{80, 2010