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0018-926X/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE
2483
CPW-Fed Stair-Shaped Slot Antennas With Circular
Polarization
Chien-Jen Wang and Chih-Hsing Chen
Abstract—The design is described of a coplanar-waveguide (CPW)-fed
circularly polarized slot antenna. The slot antenna and the feeding struc-
ture are fabricated on the same plane of the substrate so that circuit process
and position alignment could be simplified. By etching a longitudinal slot
at a middle point of a stair-shaped slot and tuning geometrical parameters,
two orthogonal electric fields with quadrature phase difference excite a cir-
cularly-polarized wave. A bandwidth of 31.2% (2.30–3.15 GHz) is achieved
with an axial ratio 3 dB and reflection coefficient 10 dB. Details of
the design procedure for the proposed antenna are described, and the re-
sults of the antenna performance are presented and discussed.
Index Terms—Circularly polarized, orthogonal electric field, quadrature
phase difference, stair-shaped slot.
I. INTRODUCTION
Because of planar geometry, wide impedance bandwidth and easy
integration with active devises or MMICs, the microstrip slot antenna
receives much attention for wireless communication systems. Circular
polarization is achieved when two orthogonal electric filed vectors of
the antenna have equal amplitude and phase difference of 90 degree.
For the slot antenna, the requirements can be accomplished by ad-
justing the geometrical topology of the slot or the feeding line [1]–[7].
The CPW structure has the advantages of the low radiation loss, the
less dispersion in comparison to a microstrip feed and the easy incor-
poration of MMIC modules or semiconductor devices for the design
of the active-integrated antennas, so the CPW-fed circularly-polarized
(CP) slot antenna has attracted more attention recently [4]–[6]. By em-
ploying a quasi-loop feeding structure or protruding a metallic strip
from the ground plane, the wideband circular polarization is achieved.
A stair-shaped slot antenna has been proposed in [8]. From the results,
the power levels of the co- and cross-polarized radiation patterns at 2.4
GHzare similar. TheCP characteristics couldbe achievedif the cross-po-
larized power resulting from the horizontal surface current path increases
and the phase difference of the two orthogonal electric filed vectors is
tuned close to 90 degree. In this paper, a CPW-fed circularly-polarized
slot antenna with a modified-stair-shaped slot is presented. A longitu-
dinal slot is etched at the middle point of the stair-shaped slot, and then
a horizontal surface current density is generated. By optimizing geo-
metrical parameters of the slot, the requirements of the CP radiation are
satisfied and the wideband CP performance is obtained.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
The schematic configurations of the proposed CP slot antenna are
shown in Fig. 1. FR-4 is used as a substrate with the dielectric con-
stant of 4.4 and the thickness of 0.8 mm, respectively. A stair-shaped
W = 3 mm
slot is etched on the ground plane of the substrate. A protruded strip
of width f is connected to a 50- CPW transmission line.
The longitudinal slot is etched at the middle point of the stair-shaped
Manuscript received December 12, 2008; revised February 13, 2009. First
published June 05, 2009; current version published August 05, 2009. This work
was carried out at the RF Circuit and Antenna Laboratory, National University of
Tainan, under Grant NSC 96-2221-E-024-001 of the National Science Council,
Taiwan.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Uni-
versity of Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan (e-mail: cjwang@mail.nutn.edu.tw).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2009.2024586
2484 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 8, AUGUST 2009
TABLE I
GEOMETRICAL PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED CP STAIR-SHAPED SLOT ANTENNA AFTER THE OPTIMIZED DESIGN PROCEDURE
Fig. 1. Schematic configuration of the proposed stair-shaped slot antenna.
Fig. 2. Comparison of simulated impedance and CP performance of the stair-
shaped slot antenna by tuning the slot length (t).
slot in order to enhance the intensity of the horizontal magnetic surface
current density and increase the cross-polarized radiated power. Two
geometrical parameters (t and L2 ) of the proposed slot antenna are em-
pirically tuned to derive the good antenna performance, including cir-
cular polarization and impedance bandwidth. Table I gives the geomet-
rical parameters of the proposed CP stair-shaped slot antenna after the
optimized design procedure. Additionally, the impedance characteris-
tics and axial ratio of a cavity-backed CP slot antenna are studies. A
rectangular cavity, with a depth of 10 mm, has the same cross section
Fig. 3. Comparison of S and AR of the stair-shaped slot antenna when the
length (L ) is varied.
as the ground plane. Absorbing material is filled inside the cavity. It is
noted that the cross-sectional surface of the cavity, which connects to
the right side (g) of the ground plane, is open.
III. RESULTS
The performance of the antennas was simulated using Ansoft High
Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) and the scattering parameters
were measured with an Agilent N5230A network analyzer. Fig. 2
shows the comparison of simulated S11 and AR of the stair-shaped
slot antenna by etching a longitudinal slot and tuning the slot length
(t). It is found that this longitudinal slot could give significant ef-
fect to the antenna’s AR characteristics. Due to contribution of the
horizontal equivalent current, the requirement of equal magnitude
of the two orthogonal electric fields is satisfied. The AR bandwidth
is dramatically improved and the AR resonant frequency of circular
polarization is shifted down with large t. However, for the case of
t = 15 mm (g = 0 mm), the right side of the longitudinal slot is
open, and the AR response is narrow-band. Hence, t is chosen by 14
mm and then g is 1 mm. The comparison of S11 and AR of the tested
antenna is shown in Fig. 3 when the length (L2 ) of the lower slot is
varied. When decreasing L2 , the lower resonance moves up and the
upper resonance shifts down. Moreover, the impedance characteristics
nearby at the 3 GHz-band are improved. Although the AR for the case
of L2 = 11 mm is better, the impedance BW is narrower, especially
without covering the required band (3.5 GHz) of the WiMAX system.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 8, AUGUST 2009 2485

Fig. 4. Comparison of simulated and measured performance of the two opti-

mized CP slot antennas, including the no-cavity and cavity-backed topologies.

Hence, the suggested length (L2 ) is 13 mm and the impedance

bandwidth is 1.69 GHz (2.22–3.91 GHz).
The comparison of measured S11 and AR of the stair-shaped slot
antenna are shown in Fig. 4. The antenna attains a measured matching
bandwidth (S11 < 010 dB) of 55.0% (2.24–3.94 GHz). Moreover,
the antenna attains a measured AR bandwidth (AR < 3 dB at broad-
side direction) of 31.2% (2.30–3.15 GHz). The overlapped bandwidth,
which satisfies both AR < 3 dB and S11 < 010 dB, is 31.2%
(2.30–3.15 GHz) in measurement. The reflection coefficient and AR of
the cavity-backed CP stair-shaped slot antenna are also given in Fig. 4.
It is observed that the change of the input impedance is slight. The AR
bandwidth of the cavity-backed slot antenna decreases to about 29.1%
from 31.2% of that without the cavity. The AR frequency moves down.
The measured CP radiation patterns of the stair-shaped slot antenna
without the cavity at 2.4 GHz, 2.6 GHz, and 3.0 GHz are shown in
Fig. 5. A pattern for the cavity-backed configuration at 2.6 GHz is also
given in Fig. 5. The circular polarization of the proposed stair-shaped
slot antenna is right-hand (RH). For the no-cavity antenna, the CP of
the antenna in the boresight direction is the opposite polarization. The
reason is that the vertical component of the electric field on the top
and bottom surface of the substrate remains the same phase; however,
the horizontal component of the electric field on the top and bottom Fig. 5. Measured CP radiation patterns of the two proposed slot antennas, in-
surface of the substrate is 180 out of phase. By adding a cavity and
cluding the no-cavity and cavity-backed topologies. (a) No-cavity antenna at 2.4
GHz; (b) no-cavity antenna at 2.6 GHz; (c) no-cavity antenna at 3.0 GHz. (d)
filling absorbing material, a unidirectional radiation pattern is obtained. Cavity-backed antenna at 2.6 GHz.
The gain of the no-cavity antenna at 2.4 GHz is 3.7 dBi.

IV. CONCLUSION
The design procedure of the CPW-fed modified stair-shaped slot an-
tenna for wideband circular polarization has been shown in this paper.
Simulated results show that the technique of etching a longitudinal slot
at the middle point of the stair-shaped slot excites the circularly polar-
ized wave. The proposed antenna is very simple and may be a candidate
of a radiating element for multifunctional devices of wireless commu-
nication systems, such as Wi-Fi (at 2.45 GHz), the satellite digital audio
radio system (RHCP at 2.6 GHz) and WiMAX (at 3.5 GHz).
2486 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 8, AUGUST 2009
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Support of the simulation tools from the National Center for High
Performance Computing, Hsinchu, Taiwan is acknowledged.
REFERENCES
[1] C. Y. Huang and K. L. Wong, “Stripline-fed printed square spiral slot
antenna for circular polarisation,” Electron. Lett., vol. 34, no. 24, pp.
2290–2292, Nov. 1998.
[2] S. Shi, K. Hirasawa, and Z. N. Chen, “Circularly polarized rectangu-
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Antennas Propag., vol. 49, no. 11, pp. 1517–1524, Nov. 2001.
[3] K. L. Wong, C. C. Huang, and W. S. Chen, “Printed ring slot antenna
for circular polarization,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 50, no.
1, pp. 75–77, Jan. 2002.
[4] K. M. Chang, R. J. Lin, I. C. Deng, J. B. Chen, K. Q. Xiang, and C. J.
Rong, “A novel design of a CPW-fed square slot antenna with broad-
band circular polarization,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 48, no.
12, pp. 2456–2459, Dec. 2006.
[5] I. C. Deng, J. B. Chen, Q. X. Ke, C. J. Rong, W. F. Chang, and Y.
T. King, “A circular CPW-fed slot antenna for broadband circularly
polarized radiation,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 49, no. 11, pp.
2728–2733, Nov. 2007.
[6] I. C. Deng, K. Q. X. Ke, R. J. Lin, and Y. T. King, “A circular CPW-fed
slot antenna resonated by the circular loop for broadband circularly
polarized radiation,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 50, no. 5, pp.
1423–1426, May 2008.
[7] S. L. S. Yang, A. A. Kishk, and K. F. Lee, “Wideband circularly polar-
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56, no. 6, pp. 1780–1783, Jun. 2008.
[8] C. J. Wang and W. T. Tsai, “A stair-shaped slot antenna for the triple-
band WLAN applications,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 39, no. 5,
pp. 370–372, Dec. 2003.
Interleaved Array Antennas for FMCW Radar
Applications
Ioan E. Lager, Christian Trampuz, Massimiliano Simeoni, and
Leonardus P. Ligthart
Abstract—An effective and robust strategy for concurrently designing
the transmit and receive antennas of a frequency-modulated, continuos-
wave radar is discussed. The aperture architecture is based on the use of
non-periodic, interleaved sub-arrays. Deterministic element placement is
employed for ensuring design efficiency. The procedure yields controllable
sub-array radiation patterns and two-way side-lobe levels below 30 dB,
that are also stable over a wide frequency range.
Index Terms—Antenna arrays, array interleaving, frequency-modu-
lated, continuos-wave (FMCW) radar.
I. INTRODUCTION
Interleaving non-periodic sub-arrays provides a powerful and versa-
tile tool to implement multifunctionality in antenna systems [1]–[3].
Manuscript received April 22, 2008; revised August 27, 2008. First published
June 05, 2009; current version published August 05, 2009.
The authors are with the International Research Centre for Telecommu-
nications and Radar (IRCTR), Delft University of Technology, 2628 CD
Delft, the Netherlands (e-mail: i.e.lager@tudelft.nl; c.trampuz@tudelft.nl;
m.simeoni@tudelft.nl; l.p.ligthart@tudelft.nl).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2009.2024573
0018-926X/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE
One of the yet unexplored potentialities of this architecture is its in-
trinsic capability to attenuate the system phase noise in frequency-mod-
ulated, continuos-wave (FMCW) radars, a feature that is determinant
for ensuring the system’s ability to identify targets [4]. By virtually col-
locating the transmit (T) and receive (R) antennas, interleaving yields a
substantial reduction of the signal leakage paths and, thus, phase noise
suppression.1 At the same time, as in any radar application, the FMCW
front-end needs ensuring low side-lobe levels (SLL) and, frequently,
narrow beamwidths. Addressing simultaneously these complex, highly
demanding desiderata requires elaborate and often time-consuming de-
sign strategies.
One of the favored options for resolving the interleaving of sub-ar-
rays is by invoking stochastic optimization techniques, [1] providing
an example of using the genetic algorithm to this end. While allowing
for more flexibility in defining cost functions and creating conditions
for determining global optima, the statistical optimization carries very
large or even impractical computational costs, as indicated in the con-
clusions of [1]. A viable alternative for greatly increasing the design
process efficiency is offered by the deterministic placement strategies,
a particularly expedient physical implementation of the concept being
the one demonstrated in [2]. In it, an initial uniform two-dimensional
array with constant half-wavelength spacing is thinned by means of
the strategy described in [6], a method that exploits the convenient
properties of the cyclic difference sets (CDS) [7, Ch. 7]. Note that, un-
like other thinning techniques, the one advocated in [6] guarantees the
grating-lobes-free operation and the average SLL for both the sub-array
consisting of the retained elements and for its complement, consisting
of the eliminated ones. Since the method yields, in fact, two indepen-
dently usable, fully disjoint sub-arrays, it actually performs a comple-
mentary division of the initial fully populated aperture. This feature
was used in [2] for designing a multifrequency array antenna.
The present contribution discusses the design of a shared aperture
consisting of two interleaved sub-arrays that are taken to represent the
T and R antennas of an FMCW radar system. After complementarily
dividing a fully populated array antenna into two well-balanced sub-
arrays, an effective artifice is employed for reducing the peak SLL by 6
dB. The favorable radiation properties of the system are demonstrated
to be stable over a wide frequency range.
II. PREREQUISITES
The examined configurations are considered with respect to a Carte-
sian frame Oxyz . The shared aperture is located in the xOy plane and
radiates into the half-space fz > 0g where the medium is taken to be
vacuum. The far-field quantities are expressed with respect to a polar
reference frame Or#', with #(0 # ) measuring the tilting with
respect to Oz , and '(0 ' < 2) measuring the rotation from Ox
in xOy . The planes f' = 0 [ ' =  g and f' = =2 [ ' = 3=2g
will be referred to as the H - and E -planes, respectively.2
Since the present work focuses on an FMCW radar applica-
tion, two-way front-end parameters, defined with respect to the
product T-R radiation patterns, are applicable. The required two-way,
half-power beamwidths are #H ;1=2 0:9 in the H -plane and
6:5  E
# ;1=2 10 in the E -plane. Assuming that the antenna is

mechanically rotated, no electronic beam steering is required and the
sub-arrays are designed for broadside radiation. The center operating
1With reference to [5, pp. 14.5–14.6], shortening the relevant path by a factor
of 10 yields a 20 dB reduction in the system phase noise level.
2For simplifying the notation in the plots depicting # dependencies in the H -
and E -planes, the # coordinate will be conventionally taken to assume negative
values in the half-planes where ' .