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Unit IV Part 4

Microstrip antennas, also known as patch antennas, have applications in aircraft, spacecraft, satellites and missiles where size, weight, cost, performance and ease of installation are important. They have drawbacks of low efficiency, power, polarization purity and bandwidth. A microstrip antenna consists of a thin metal patch on a dielectric substrate with a ground plane. Various patch shapes and feeding techniques exist. Lens antennas collimate electromagnetic waves to produce directional characteristics using refraction through dielectric or metal plate lenses.

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46 views25 pages

Unit IV Part 4

Microstrip antennas, also known as patch antennas, have applications in aircraft, spacecraft, satellites and missiles where size, weight, cost, performance and ease of installation are important. They have drawbacks of low efficiency, power, polarization purity and bandwidth. A microstrip antenna consists of a thin metal patch on a dielectric substrate with a ground plane. Various patch shapes and feeding techniques exist. Lens antennas collimate electromagnetic waves to produce directional characteristics using refraction through dielectric or metal plate lenses.

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Vardhan
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Microstrip Antennas

Applications
• In high-performance aircraft, spacecraft,
satellite, and missile applications, where size,
weight, cost, performance, ease of
installation are constraints.
Drawbacks
• low efficiency, low power, poor polarization
purity, poor scan performance, spurious feed
radiation and very narrow bandwidth.
Basic Characteristics
• The microstrip patch is designed so its pattern
maximum is normal to the patch (broadside
radiator).
• There are three elements in MSA
1. Thin metal strip
2. Ground
3. Substrate
• For a rectangular patch, the length L of the
element is usually λ0/3 <L< λ0/2.
• The strip (patch) and the ground plane are
separated by a dielectric sheet.
• Often microstrip antennas are also referred to
as patch antennas.
• The radiating elements and the feed lines are
usually photoetched on the dielectric
substrate.
• The radiating patch may be square,
rectangular, thin strip (dipole), circular,
elliptical, triangular, or any other
configuration.
Patch shapes
RECTANGULAR PATCH
Fringing Effects
The amount of fringing is a function of the
dimensions of the patch and the height of the
substrate.
• For the principal E-plane (xy-plane) fringing is
a function of the ratio of the length of the
patch L to the height h of the substrate (L/h)
and the dielectric constant ϵr of the substrate.
Since for microstrip antennas L/h >> 1,
fringing is reduced;
• however, it must be taken into account
because it influences the resonant frequency
of the antenna.
• Fringing in this case makes the microstrip line
look wider electrically compared to its physical
dimensions. Since some of the waves travel
in the substrate and some in air, an effective
dielectric constant ϵreff is introduced to
account for fringing.
Design
Problem
1. Design a rectangular microstrip antenna using a substrate
(RT/duroid 5880) with dielectric constant of 2.2,h=0.1588 cm
so as to resonate at 10 GHz.

Ans: W=1.186 cm, 1.972, ΔL=0.081 cm, L=0.906 cm


FEEDING TECHNIQUEs OF MSA
There are different feeding techniques for
antennas.
• Line feed
• Co axial feed
• Aperture coupled feed
• Proximity coupled feed
Line feed
• In this type of feed technique, a conducting
strip is connected directly to the edge of the
micro strip patch as shown in figure.
• The conducting strip is smaller in width as
compared to the patch. This kind of feed
arrangement has the advantage that the feed
can be etched on the same substrate to
provide a planar structure.
• An inset cut can be incorporated into the
patch in order to obtain good impedance
matching without the need for any additional
matching element.
If the thickness of the dielectric substrate
increases, surface waves and spurious feed
radiation also increases, which hampers the
bandwidth of the antenna. This type of feeding
technique results in undesirable cross
polarization effects.
COAXIAL FEED
• The Coaxial feed or probe feed is one of the
most common techniques used for feeding
micro strip patch antennas.
• The inner conductor of the coaxial connector
extends through the dielectric and is soldered
to the radiating patch, while the outer
conductor is connected to the ground plane.
The main advantage of this type of feeding scheme is
that the feed can be placed at any desired position
inside the patch in order to obtain impedance
matching. This feed method is easy to fabricate and has
low spurious radiation effects.
APERTURE COUPLED FEED
• Generally, a high dielectric material is used for
bottom substrate and a thick, low dielectric
constant material is used for the top substrate
to optimize radiation from the patch.
• This type of feeding technique can give very
high bandwidth of about 21%. Also the effect
of spurious radiation is very less as compared
to other feed techniques.
• The major disadvantage of this feed technique
is that it is difficult to fabricate due to multiple
layers, which also increases the antenna
thickness.
PROXIMITY COUPLED FEED
• This type of feed technique is also called as
the electromagnetic coupling scheme. As
shown in two dielectric substrates are used
such that the feed line is between the two
substrates and the radiating patch is on top of
the upper substrate.
• The main advantage of this feed technique is
that it eliminates spurious feed radiation and
provides very high bandwidth of about 13%,
due to increase in the electrical thickness of
the micro strip patch antenna.
Lens Antennas
• It is an antenna which consists of
electromagnetic lens with a feed.
• They are usually made of polystyrene or
Lucite.
They are used to
• Control aperture illumination.
• Collimate electromagnetic rays.
• Produce directional characteristics.
• Produce plane wave front from spherical wave
front.
Principle
• When the feed antenna is kept at the focal
point of the lens antenna, the diverging rays
(spherical wave front) are collimated (parallel
rays) plane wave front after their incidence
and passing through it. This occurs due to
refraction mechanism.
• Similarly, incoming rays converge at focal point
after passing through the lens due to
refraction mechanism.
There are two types of lens antennas.
• 1. Dielectric lens
• 2. Metal plate lens
• Dielectric lens: (delay lens)
Outgoing electromagnetic rays are
collimated and retarded or delayed by the lens
material.
• Metal Plate lens:
Outgoing wave front is speeded up by the
lens material.
• They are bulky and heavy for f<3 GHz
• At f<10 GHz the lens becomes excessively and
undesirably bulk.
• Lens antennas are costlier for similar gain and
bandwidth in comparison with reflector
antennas.

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