Design of Aperture Coupled Fed Micro-Strip Patch Antenna for Wireless Communication

Manoj Singh, Ananjan Basu, and S.K. Koul

antenna fed by the microstrip line is shown in Fig. 1. The ACMPA analysis and design can be divided into three tasks, namely design of the microstrip patch antenna; the microstrip feed line, and, finally, the aperture. Each of these tasks is presented below.

Abstract-- In this paper design and fabrication of microstrip

line fed aperture coupled patch antenna is presented at 10 GHz using 0.762mm and .508mm thick (r=3.2) substrates. The maximum size of proposed antenna is 35.4mm by 35.4mm. The design is optimized by means of parameter-variation studies that have been performed using a 3D electromagnetic simulator. A novel bandwidth enhancing network is described, which is shown to improve the 10-dB bandwidth substantially. The simulated and measured radiation pattern is suited for wireless communication applications. The gain of proposed antenna is 6.21dBi at 10 GHz. The proposed antenna should be useful for X band communication systems, and scaled models for lower frequencies are easy to design. Index Terms-- Aperture-coupling, slot, microstrip patch antenna, broad band matching.

I. INTRODUCTION The aperture coupled microstrip patch antenna (ACMPA) is of great interest since it allows for the separation of the radiating element (the micro-strip patch) and the feed network (50 ohm microstrip transmission line) with a conductive layer (ground) between them. The micro-strip antenna is formed on a separate dielectric slab above the ground plane and the two structures are electromagnetically coupled through a narrow aperture in the ground plane. The aperturecoupled antenna offers many advantages over the conventional direct feed antennas. These include shielding of antenna from spurious feed radiation, use of different substrate for feed structure and antenna, and high bandwidth. The features offered by this antenna element are especially useful for millimeter-wave phased arrays. Aperture coupled microstrip patch antennas have been proposed earlier [1-2], where the performance of the Dpatch and the feed circuitry can be optimized by choosing the thickness and dielectric constants of the corresponding substrates independently. Aperture coupling is one of the important methods for exciting the microstrip antenna and many analyses of this type of structures have been presented [3-4]. II. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF ACMPA The structure of the aperture-coupled micro strip
Manoj Singh, Ananjan Basu and S.K.Koul are with the Centre for Applied Research in Electronics Indian Institute of Technology, Hauz-Khas, New Delhi-110016, INDIA (e-mail: mscare_iit@yahoo.co.in) 1-4244-0370-7/06/$20.00 2006 IEEE

Fig .1. Aperture Coupled Microstrip Patch Antenna (Exploded view).

A. Design of the Microstrip patch Antenna The rectangular-patch antenna is probably the most commonly used microstrip antenna. The design equations are very simple and yield results that are within 3% of experimental results. The rectangular patch has a radiating length Lp and a width Wp, as shown in Fig. 1.The thickness of the substrate is h1. The relative dielectric constant of the substrate is r. The cavity model of the patch assumes that the micro strip patch is a cavity with magnetic walls along the four sides and electric walls at the top and bottom surfaces of the patch. However, in practice, the sides of the patch are not perfect magnetic walls since these walls radiate energy. The fields in the patch extend beyond the physical dimensions of the patch. Based on the transmission - line model analysis, a design procedure is outlined which leads to practical design of microstrip antennas. For given parameters, the dielectric constant of the substrate (r), the resonant frequency (fr), and the height of the substrate (h). The width (Wp) and length

(Lp) of the patch can be calculated as follows [5]:

Wp =

2f r

2 r + 1

(1)

Lp =

v
2f r

2L
eff

(2)

where, v0 is the free-space velocity of light and fr is the resonant frequency of the antenna. Formulas for endcorrection and calculation of eff are well-known in the literature. B. Design of the Microstrip feed line The radiating patch is fed by a 50 microstrip line whose dimensions can be calculated using empirical formulas given in [6]. C. Design of the Aperture The aperture is one of the most important parts in the ACMPA structure. It determines the amount of coupling to the patch from the micro strip line. The dimensions of the aperture also influence the resonant frequency of the structure and the amount of the undesired radiation in the back direction. Simplistically, the parameter that determines the selection of a specific aperture size is the impedance of the patch at the slot. However, in practice, the region near the slot cannot be characterized by any simple circuit, and full-wave analysis is the only way to obtain any meaningful results. Fortunately, only two variables, the slot length and the stub length (discussed next), have to be optimized. The slot width is small, and has only a small effect on the antenna behavior. It was fixed at 1mm. D. Design of the stub. The stub refers to the length of the feed line after the slot (the length Lfs in Fig. 1). If the slot is modeled as shunt impedance connected to the feed line, then the stub can be visualized as reactance canceller. Again, this view is simplistic, and optimization based on 3D simulation is required. Practical experience has shown that the stub length should be close to g/4, and optimization started from this point. III. PARAMETRIC STUDY AND OPTIMIZATION In this section we will discuss the influence of various parameters on the response of ACMPA. The antenna structure is analyzed and optimized using transmission-line matrix (TLM) based simulator Micro Stripes (version 7) [8]. As the aperture length is reduced the input resistance of the antenna is decreases. This might be thought of as decreasing the coupling factor between the feed line and the antenna. The frequency versus return loss is plotted in

Fig.2. This analysis shows that slot length mostly affects the return loss, but it slightly affects the resonant frequency of antenna as well. The effect of feed line stubs length is plotted in Fig.3. The open stub length can be adjusted to obtain the desired reactance and the aperture length can be adjusted to obtain the desired resistive part of the impedance. It is also of interest to analyze the influence of feed substrate dielectric constant and the thickness on the return loss and resonant frequency. As dielectric constant and thickness are varied in these analysis the feed line width and stub length are modified to maintain a characteristic impedance of 50 and a stub length of g/4. The dielectric constant variation is shown in Fig.4.
0 -5 Return Loss (db) -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 8.5 3.0mm 3.3mm 3.5mm 3.9mm 4.3mm 9.0 9.5 10.0 10.5 Frequency (GHz) 11.0

Fig. 2. Simulated returns losses as function frequency for different slot Lengths Ls: Other parameters are: Lp=WP =7.5mm, Ws=1mm, Wf =1.224mm, Lfs=6.3mm, r = 3.2.

-5 Return Loss (dB)

-10

-15

-20

5.3mm 5.8mm 6.8mm 7.3mm 7.8mm 8.3mm 9.0 9.5 10.0 Frequency (GHz) 10.5 11.0

8.5

Fig. 3. Simulated returns losses as function frequency for different stub lengths Lfs. Other parameters are: Lp=WP =7.5mm, Ws=1mm, Wf =1.224mm Ls=3.7mm, r = 3.2. Lfs=6.3mm.

2 0

-5

-2 Return Loss (dB)

2.2 4.5 6.15 10.2 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Frequency (GHz) 14 15 16

Return Loss (dB)

-4 -6 -8 -10 -12 -14 -16 8 Simulated 9 10 Frequency (GHz) 11 12

-10

-15

-20

-25

Fig. 4. Simulated returns losses as function frequency for different dielectric Constant r. Other parameters are: Lp =WP =7.5mm, Ws=1mm, Wf =1.224mm Ls=3.7mm, Lfs=6.3mm.

Fig. 6. Simulated returns loss with double stub matching network.

IV. BANDWIDTH ENHANCEMENT OF ANTENNA Aperture coupled micro strip patch discussed above has a number of useful properties, but one of the serious limitation of this antenna is its narrow bandwidth characteristic. But it is possible to increase the bandwidth by using impedance matching networks or some other feeding techniques. In this section we use a novel two stub broadband matching network shown in Fig.5 to improve the bandwidth of this antenna.

The optimized parameters for double stub matching network are (L was fixed at 3mm and the other 3 lengths were optimized): L1=8.23 mm, L2=2.95 mm, and L3=6 mm. Further finetuning of this antenna should be carried out using 3D simulation of the whole structure. This is pending, and the fabrication and testing of the narrow-band antenna was carried out. V. FINAL FABRICATION AND RESULTS Initial values of slot length, stub length, patch length and width, and feed line width for given resonant frequency, dielectric constant and substrate thickness are obtained from standard equations given in section . The substrate selected for the patch is of size 25.4mm X 25.4mm, thickness =0.762 mm and relative dielectric constant of 3.2. The feed line substrate is of the same material, but of size 35.4 X 25.4 mm, thickness=0.508 mm. The design frequency is 10 GHz. The optimized parameters of antenna Refer to Fig.1 are given below. Lp=7.5mm,Wp=7.5mm.,Ls=3.7mm.,Ws=1mm.,Wf=1.224m m. Lfs=6.3mm. The low cost antenna is of compact size and easy to fabricate using conventional photolithography technique. Fig.7 shows the photograph of the fabricated antenna, the microstrip feed line is printed on the one side of 0.508mm thick substrate and aperture on the opposite site of the same substrate. The patch was printed on the 0.762mm substrate. The antenna structure was tested on a ZVK vector network analyzer. Figs. 8-9 shows the simulated as well as measured return loss characteristic of the antenna. It is observed that the antenna exhibits -37dB Return loss at the design frequency. The simulated and measured E- and Hplane radiation patterns at 10 GHz are shown in Figs. 1011.

Stub L3 L2 Aperture

L1

L Stub

Fig. 5. Geometry of double stub matching network for APCMPA.

The simulated return loss with using double stub matching network is shown in Fig.6. From this it can be seen that we can be achieved bandwidth enhancement by a factor 2.5 using this network.

90 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -50 -60 180 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 150 30 120 60

Simulated Measured

(a) Micro strip feed line (b) aperture in ground plane (c) Micro strip patch Fig. 7. Photograph of the printed aperture coupled antenna.

0 -5 Return Loss (dB) -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 8 Simulated 9

210

330

240 270

300

Fig. 10. Simulated and measured E-plane radiation pattern.

10 11 12 Frequency (GHz) Fig. 8. Simulated return Loss characteristics of the antenna for the optimized parameters given in section III.
0 -5 -10 Return loss (dB) -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 8 9 10 Frequency (GHz) 11 12

5 0 -5 -10 -15 150 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 180 -35 -30 -25 -20 210 -15 -10 -5 0 5

90 120 60

Simulated Measured

30

330

240 270

300

Fig. 11. Simulated and measured H-plane radiation pattern.

VI. CONCLUSION
Measured

Fig. 9. Measured return Loss characteristics of the antenna for the optimized parameters given in section III.

A rectangular microstrip patch antenna coupled to microstrip line through a small rectangular aperture in ground plane has been designed and fabricated. Parametric analysis has been performed to determine the effect of aperture length, stub length, and dielectric constant on return loss and resonant frequency. A novel bandwidth enhancement technique is also discussed. The fabricated antenna satisfies the < -10dB return loss for 2% bandwidth at 10 GHz and provides the expected radiation pattern. Simulation and experimental results show that the fabricated antenna should be useful for X band communication systems.

VII. REFERENCES Periodicals:

[l] D. U Pow, "A microstrip antenna aperture coupled to a microstrip line,"&ctronicsLetters, vol. 21, pp. 49-50, January 17, 1985. [2] P. L. Sullivan and D. H. Schaubert, "Analysis of an aperture Microstrip antenna," IEEE Trans. Antenms Propgat., vol. AP-34, pp. 977984, Aug. 1986. [3] D. M. Pozar,"A reciprocity method of analysis for printed slot and slot pp. 1439-1446, Aug. 1986. [4] M. Hima J. P. Daniel, and C. Terret, "Analysis of aperture-coupled microstrip antenna using cavity method," Electron. Lett., vol. 25, pp.

391-392, Mar. 1989.

Books:
[5] Balanis, C.A., Antenna Theory Analysis and Design, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1997. [6] Pozar, D.M. Microwave Engineering, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1998. [7] I.J. Bhal and P. Bhartia, Microstrip antenna, Artech House, Dedgham, MA, 1980. [8] Micro-Stripes 7 Users Manual, Flomerics Group PLC, 2005.

VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Manoj Singh received B.E. and M.Tech. Degree in Electronics and Communication Engg. From R.G.P.V., Bhopal, India, in 2001 and 2004 respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Centre for Applied Research in Electronics, I.I.T. Delhi. His research interests include reconfigurable microstrip antennas, microwave and millimeter wave antennas and electromagnetic compatibility.

1984-December 1984). He is on the board of Directors of M/S Astra Microwave Pvt. Ltd, involved in the Development of RF and Microwave systems in India. He has authored or coauthored 82 research papers and 7 books. He is a consultant to several Government organizations and private industries in India and abroad. He has successfully completed 23 major research projects and 55 consultancies. He is the Honorary Editor of the Journal of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) India (Electromagnetics Section). He is on the Editorial boards of the Journal of IETE, International Journal of RF and Microwave Computer-Aided Engineering and the Microwave and Optical Technology Letters. Dr. Koul is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Fellow of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (India), and a Fellow of the National Telematics Forum. He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, a member of the Micro and Nano Technology Foundation (MANCEF) (US), a member of the Indian Society of Smart Materials, a member of the General Advisory Committee (GAC) of Micro and Nano Technology Foundation (MANCEF) (US), and a member of the National Committee for URSI Commission C. He has served as the Chairman of IEEE Electron Devices (ED)/Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT) Chapter, India Council (1988, 1989, 1992-1995). He was the recipient of the 1977 Gold Medal presented by Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Calcutta , the 1986 S.K.Mitra Research Award presented by the IETE for the best research paper, the 1986 Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Young Scientist Award, the 1987 International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Young Scientist Award, the 1991 top Invention Award of the National Research Development Council for his contributions to the indigenous development of ferrite phase shifter technology, the 1994 VASVIK Award for the development of Ka- band components and phase shifters, the 1995 Ram Lal Wadhwa Gold Medal from the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) and the 1998 Academic Excellence award presented by the Defence Research and Development Organization (Ministry of Defence, Government of India) for his pioneering contributions to phase control modules for the Rajendra Radar.

Ananjan Basu (born Aug 12, 1969) did B.Tech in Electrical Engineering and M.Tech in Communication and Radar Engineering from I.I.T. Delhi in 1991 and 1993 respectively, and PhD. in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles in 1998. He has been employed at the Centre for Applied Research in Electronics, I.I.T. Delhi as Assistant Professor from 2000-2005 and as Associate Professor from 2005.His specialization is in Microwave and Millimetre-wave component design and characterization. Shiban K Koul (S81, M83, SM91) received the B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar, India, in 1977, and the M.Tech. and Ph.D degrees in Microwave Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India in 1979 and 1983 respectively. He was a Senior Scientific Officer (1979-1988), Associate Professor (1988-1991) and Professor (since 1991) with the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is currently a Professor with the Centre for Applied Research in Electronics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (I.I.T. Delhi), New Delhi, India. He has held several visiting assignments abroad as a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Department of Electrical Engineering, National University of Singapore (December 1996-December 1997), Japan Science Promotion Scheme Fellow with Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan (July 1995-September 1995), Visiting Scientist with Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan (October 1994-December 1994), and British Council Fellow with the University of North Wales, Wales, UK (July