Wideband Dipoles – Fan Dipoles

Due to the shape of the antenna arms these types of dipole antennas provides a broad
impedance bandwidth.

A bowtie antenna is a type for a fan dipole antenna. By using triangular elements instead of
rods, the bandwidth is greatly increased. The bowtie antenna has also a broad pattern with low
gain similar to the pattern of a dipole. The gain could be increased by arraying several
elements together and adding the reflecting screen.

Microstrip Antennas

Years after the invention in 1952 of the Microstrip Line by D.D. Grieg and H.F.
Engelmann, in 1969 E.J. Denlinger noted that rectangular and circular microstrip shapes could
efficiently radiate.
In 1972 J.Q. Howell published a paper about the basic rectangular microstrip radiator fed
with microstrip transmission line at a radiating edge. The microstrip resonator with
considerable radiation loss was now described as a Microstrip Antenna.
Also in 1972 R.E. Munson published a paper about “Microstrip Phased Array Antennas".
At that time many antenna designers received the Microstrip Antenna with considerable
caution. It was difficult to believe that a resonator of this type could radiate with high efficiency.
The narrow bandwidth of the Microstrip Antenna seemed to severely limit the number of
possible applications for which the antenna could prove useful.

 Microstrip Antennas generally refer to printed antennas used for narrowband

communication at high frequencies and microwave ranges.

There are three basic methods (models) of microstrip antenna designs:

 Transmission line model.
 Cavity model.
 Full-wave model.
Microstrip Antennas are classified based on their shapes.
 Some of the common shape types are the: Square, Circular disk, Disk with slot,
Rectangular, Disk sector, Triangle, Circular ring, Quintuple, Dipole, Elliptical, but any
continuous shape is possible and the most common type is the Rectangular Patch Antenna.

Advantages of Microstrip Antennas:

 Light weight.
 Low volume.
 Low-cost fabrication.
 Antenna thickness profile is small. This gives a low-profile planar configuration which can
be easily made conformal to host surface.
 Capable of dual and triple frequency operations.
 Can easily conform to a curved surface of a vehicle or product.
 Resistant to shock and vibration (most failures are at the feed probe solder joint).
 Many designs readily produce linear or circular polarization.
 Considerable range of gain and pattern options (2.5dBi to 10dBi).
 Other microwave devices realizable in microstrip may be integrated with a microstrip
antenna with no extra fabrication steps (e.g., branch line hybrid to produce circular
polarization or corporate feed network for an array of microstrip antennas).
 Easy to use in an Antenna Array or incorporate with other microstrip circuit elements.
 Antenna patterns are somewhat hemispherical, with a moderate directivity (about 6-8 dB
is typical).

Disadvantages of Microstrip Antenna:

Microstrip antennas suffer from a number of disadvantages as compared to conventional

antennas:
 Narrow bandwidth. BW = 5% to 10% (for 2:1 VSWR) is typical without special increase
bandwidth techniques.
 Low Gain.
 Dielectric and conductor losses can be large for thin patches, resulting in poor antenna
efficiency.
 Conductor and dielectric losses become more severe for thinner substrates.
 Surface-wave losses become more severe for thicker substrates (unless air or foam is
used).
 Extraneous radiation from feeds and junctions.
 Poor end-fire radiator except tapered slot antennas.
 Low power handling capacity.
 Surface wave excitation.
 Sensitivity to environmental factors such as temperature and humidity.

Selecting the substrate of Microstrip Antennas may include the following:

 Surface-wave excitation.
 Dispersion of the dielectric constant and loss tangent of the substrate.
 Anisotropy in the substrate.
 Cost.
Feeding Techniques for Microstrip Antennas

Microstrip patch antennas can be fed by various methods, these methods can be classified
into two main categories namely:
 Contacting methods
 Non-contacting methods

In the contacting method, the RF power is fed directly to the radiating patch using a connecting
element such as a microstrip line, whereas in the non – contacting scheme, electromagnetic
field coupling is done to transfer power between the microstrip line and the radiating patch.

The four most popular feeding techniques used are:

 Microstrip line.
 Coaxial probe feed.
 Aperture coupling.
 Proximity coupling.

While microstrip and coaxial probe feed are contacting schemes, aperture coupling and
proximity coupling are non-contacting methods.

Patch Antennas

The Patch Antenna is a popular resonant antenna used for narrow-band microwave
wireless communications that require semispherical coverage.
Some Patch Antennas avoid using a dielectric substrate and suspend a metal patch in the air
above a ground plane using dielectric spacers; the resulting structure provides increased
bandwidth.

A rectangular metal Patch Antenna with width W and length L is separated by a dielectric
material from a ground-plane by a distance h.
 The two ends of the antenna can be viewed as radiating due to fringing fields along each
edge of width W.
 The two radiating edges are separated by a distance L. The two edges along the sides
of length L are often referred to as non-radiating edges.

 The rectangular patch antenna is approximately a one-half wavelength long section of

rectangular microstrip transmission line.
  When air is the antenna substrate, the length of the rectangular microstrip antenna is
approximately one-half of a free-space wavelength.
 If the antenna is loaded with a dielectric as its substrate, the length of the antenna
decreases as the relative dielectric constant of the substrate increases.
The resonant frequency of the patch antenna is given by:

where εr is the substrate permittivity, and c is the speed of light.

 The resonant length of the antenna is slightly shorter than half-wavelength (λ/2) because
of the extended electric fringing fields, which increase the antenna’s electrical length
slightly.
 A higher substrate permittivity εr allows for a smaller antenna (miniaturization) but gives
also a lower bandwidth.
 The patch acts approximately as a resonant cavity (short circuit walls on top and bottom,
open-circuit walls on the sides).
In a cavity, only certain modes are allowed to exist, at different resonant frequencies.
If the antenna is excited at a resonant frequency, a strong field is set up inside the cavity,
and a strong current on the (bottom) surface of the patch. This produces significant
radiation making a good antenna.
 The dielectric loading of a microstrip antenna affects both its radiation pattern and
impedance bandwidth.
 As the dielectric constant of the substrate increases, the antenna bandwidth decreases.
 This increases the antenna’s Q-factor and, therefore, decreases the impedance
bandwidth.
 The length L should be slightly less (with ΔL) than λ/2 where λ is the wavelength in the
dielectric medium. A good rule of thumb is: ΔL ~ 0.5*h.
 Wavelength λ is equal to λo / √εeff , where λo is the free-space wavelength and εeff is the
effective dielectric constant of the patch.
 For a simple microstrip line the Width is much smaller than the wavelength, but for the
Patch Antenna, the Width is comparable to the wavelength to enhance the radiation from
the edges.
 On the other hand to get higher bandwidth usually W < 2*L (W = 1.5*L is typical).
 The value of εeff is slightly less than εr, because the fringing fields around the periphery
of the patch are not confined in the dielectric substrate but are also spread in the air.
 The electric field is zero at the center of the patch, maximum (positive) at one side, and
minimum (negative) on the opposite side.
 Feeding the patch antenna along the centerline is the most common situation
(minimizes higher-order modes and cross-polarization).
 The far-field radiation pattern is orientated orthogonal to the surface conductor.
 The surface conductor does not form the radiating element as it does in a dipole.
Instead, radiation occurs from along edges L and W, and which edge depends upon the
electromagnetic mode of radiation the antenna is operating in.

Patch Antenna - Effect of Feed-Point Location:

 With an increase in frequency, the input impedance moves to the clockwise direction
on the Smith chart.
 The width W of the patch antenna has significant effect on the Input impedance, Bandwidth,
and Gain of the antenna.
 With an increase in W, the input impedance decreases, so the feed point is shifted
toward the edge to obtain input resistance Rin in the range of 50 ohms to 65ohms.

Patch Antenna - Effect of the height h (substrate thickness):

 With the increase in h, the fringing fields from the edges increase, this increases the
extension in effective length L, however decreasing the resonance frequency.
 The input impedance plot moves clockwise (i.e., an inductive shift occurs) due to the
increase in the probe inductance of the coaxial feed.
 The Bandwidth of patch antenna increases with height.
 The directivity of the antenna increases marginally with increasing height because the
effective aperture area is increased marginally due to increase in ΔL.
 Generally, the antenna efficiency increases with an increase in the substrate thickness
initially due to the increase in the radiated power, but thereafter, it starts decreasing
because of the higher cross-polar level and excitation of the surface wave.
 The surface waves get excited and travel along the dielectric substrate (i.e., between
the ground plane and the dielectric-to air interface due to total internal reflection).
When these waves reach the edges of the substrate, they are reflected, scattered, and
diffracted causing a reduction in gain and an increase in end-fire radiation and cross-
polar levels.
 The excitation of surface waves is a function of εr and h. The power loss in the surface
waves increases with an increase in the normalized thickness h/λo of the substrate.

Patch Antenna - Effect of substrate Dielectric Constant εr:

 Decreasing substrate Dielectric Constant (εr) the Bandwidth of the patch increases.

Patch Antenna - Effect of Finite Ground Plane:

 In practice, the size of the patch ground plane is finite.

 When the size of the ground plane is greater than the patch dimensions by
approximately six times the substrate thickness all around the periphery, the results
are similar to that of the infinite ground plane.
 If the loss in the dielectric material increases the input impedance Zin of the patch
antenna decreases.

Patch Antenna Bandwidth:

Patch Antenna Bandwidth can be increased using the following techniques:

 Using thick and low permittivity substrates. For example by using a thick foam substrate
with εr = 1.2, a bandwidth of about 10% of resonant frequency can be achieved.
 Introducing closely spaced parasitic patches on the same layer of the fed patch
(provides 15% BW).
 Using a stacked parasitic patch (multilayer, BW reaches 20%).
 Introducing a U-shaped slot in the patch (to achieve 30% BW).
  Aperture coupling (provides 10% BW and high back-lobe radiation).
 Aperture-coupled stacked patches (40–50% BW achievable).
 Using L-probe coupling.
 The bandwidth is directly proportional to the width W, and a good rule is: W=1.5*L.

Patch Antenna Resonant Input Resistance

 The resonant input resistance is almost independent of the substrate thickness h.

 The resonant input resistance is proportional to εr, and is strong depending by εr if the
patch is fed at the edge. In this case for a typical patch, the input resistance may be
about 100-200 ohms.
 The resonant input resistance is directly controlled by the location of the fed point.
(maximum at edges, and zero at center of patch).
 Patch Antenna is usually fed along the centerline (y = W / 2) to maintain symmetry
and thus minimize excitation of undesirable modes.

Patch Antenna Radiation Efficiency

 Radiation efficiency is the ratio of power radiated into space, to the total input power.
 The radiation efficiency is less than 100% due to:
- conductor loss
- dielectric loss
- surface-wave power
 Conductor and dielectric loss is more important for thinner substrates.
 Conductor loss increases with frequency (proportional to f ½ due to the skin effect).
 Conductor loss is usually more important than dielectric loss.
 Surface-wave power is more important for thicker substrates or for higher substrate
permittivity.
 The surface-wave power can be minimized by using a foam substrate. For a foam
substrate, higher radiation efficiency is obtained by making the substrate thicker
(minimizing the conductor and dielectric losses). The thicker the better.

Patch Antenna Radiation Pattern

 The E-plane pattern is typically broader than the H-plane pattern.

 The truncation of the ground plane will cause edge diffraction, which tends to degrade
the pattern by introducing rippling in the forward direction back-radiation.
 The directivity is fairly insensitive to the substrate thickness.
 The directivity is higher for lower permittivity, because the patch is larger.

Patch Antenna Feeding Methods

 Coaxial Feed
 Advantages:
- Simple design.
- Easy to obtain input match.
Disadvantages:
- Difficult to obtain input match for thicker substrates, due to probe inductance.
- Significant probe radiation for thicker substrates

 Feed along a radiating edge

Advantages:
- Simple design.
- Allows for planar feeding.
Disadvantages:
- Needs a λ/4 transformer to match the 50 ohms feed line to about 200 ohms
impedance of the radiating edge of the patch.
- Causes slightly changes in the antenna pattern.

 Inset-Feed

Advantages:
- Simple design.
- Allows for planar feeding.
- Easy to obtain input match.
Disadvantages:
- Significant line radiation for thicker substrates.
- For deep notches, pattern may show distortion.

 Proximity (EMC) Coupling

Advantages:
- Allows for planar feeding
 - Less line radiation compared to microstrip feed
Disadvantages:
- Requires multilayer fabrication
- Alignment is important for input match

 Aperture Coupled Patch (ACP)

Advantages:
- Allows for planar feeding
- Feed radiation is isolated from patch radiation
- Higher bandwidth, since probe inductance problem restriction is eliminated and a
double-resonance can be created.
- Allows for use of different substrates to optimize antenna and feed-circuit
performance
Disadvantages:
- Requires multilayer fabrication
- Alignment is important for input match

The size of the patch antenna can be reduced by using the following techniques:
 Using materials with high dielectric constants.
 Using shorting walls.
 Using shorting pins.
To obtain a small size wide-bandwidth antenna, these techniques can be combined.

 Modified feeding structures can enhance the impedance performance of Patch

antennas.

For instance, the coaxial probe excites the planar radiator via a U-shaped or inverted-E
shaped transition which forms an impedance transformer for broadband impedance matching.

Calculations of the Patch Antenna:

1. Calculation of the Antenna Width (w)

where: c = velocity of the light, fo = the operation frequency, εr = dielectric constant of the substrate

2. Calculation of the Effective Dielectric Constant (εreff )

where: h = height of the path in mm, w = width of the patch in mm

 3. Calculation of the Effective Length of the patch (Leff)

4. Calculation of the length extension (ΔL)

where: ΔL = patch length extension in mm, h = patch height in mm, w = patch width in mm

5. Calculation of the Actual Length of the patch (L)

The radiator can theoretically be of any shape. Figure below shows a variety of shapes
which have been used in planar antenna design. Among these, elliptical planar antennas are
of importance to planar antenna design due to their broadband and high-pass impedance
performance. The slots or apertures in annular and slotted planar antennas are often
employed to improve the impedance bandwidth by changing the current distributions on the
radiators.

The impedance-matching networks can be used to increase the BW of the Patch Antenna.
Some examples that provide about 10% BW are the rectangular patch antenna with a coplanar
microstrip impedance-matching network and an electromagnetically coupled patch with single-
stub matching.

Matching networks for Patch Antennas

 Circular polarized Patch Antennas

Slot Antennas

The basic slot antenna is a λ/2 wave slot cut in a conducting sheet of metal. The feed
point is across the center of the slot and it is balanced. The feed impedance is high, typically
several hundred ohms.

λ/2 slot antenna complementary λ/2 dipole

Even if mechanically the slot antenna is the opposite of a dipole because is a non-
conducting slot in a sheet of metal (compared to a wire in a free space), the slot antenna has a
lot of similarities to a dipole.
However, it does exhibit some differences as follows:
 The feed point is across the center instead of in series, so the feed point impedance is
high instead of low.
 E and H fields are switched so that the polarity is opposite.
 When energy is applied to the slot antenna, currents flow in the metal sheet. These
currents are not confined to the edges of the slot but rather spread out over the sheet.
Radiation then takes place from both sides of the sheet. In the case of the
complementary dipole, however, the currents are more confined; so a much greater
magnitude of current is required to produce a given power output using the dipole
antenna.
 A horizontal slot is equivalent to a vertical dipole.
 The slot antenna may be of interest if the RF unit must be placed in a metal enclosure
where the slot antenna could be made in the enclosure itself.
  If the slot antenna is cut in the center, a λ/4 wave slot antenna is created which is
equivalent to the monopole.
 Impedance matching is accomplished by tapping across the slot close to the shorted
end.
 The slot antenna can be used if a metal enclosure is required or if considerable board
area is available.
 If a slot antenna is implemented in a PCB made with FR4 material, considerable
dielectric loading occurs which causes the physical length to be shorter than expected.

Inverted-L (ILA) and Inverted-F Antennas (IFA)

An Inverted-L antenna is an improved version of the monopole antenna.

The straight wire monopole is the antenna with the most basic form, but Inverted-L brings
some advantages as: reduced height, reduced backward radiation, and moderate to high gain
in both vertical and horizontal polarizations.
A disadvantage is that is a narrow band antenna.
Its dominant resonance appears at around one-quarter of the operating wavelength.

The Inverted-F antenna (IFA) is a printed trace on a PCB that is essentially a quarter-wave
vertical antenna, but that has been bent horizontally in order to be parallel with the substrate’s
copper ground pour, and then fed at an appropriate point that will supply a good input match.

 The antenna/ground combination will behave as an asymmetric dipole, the differences in

current distribution on the two-dipole arms being responsible for some distortion of the
radiation pattern.
 In general, the required PCB ground plane length is roughly one quarter (λ/4) of the
operating wavelength.
 If the ground plane is much longer than λ/4, the radiation patterns will become
increasingly multi-lobed.
 On the other hand, if the ground plane is significantly smaller than λ/4, then tuning
becomes increasingly difficult and the overall performance degrades.
  The optimum location of the IFA in order to achieve an omni-directional far-field pattern
and 50Ω impedance matching was found to be close to the edge of the Printed Circuit
Board.
 IFA is an excellent choice for small, low-profile wireless designs, and is not as adversely
affected by tiny, poorly shaped ground-planes as that of the monopole above.
 The IFA also supplies decent efficiency, is of a compact geometry, and has a relatively
omnidirectional radiation pattern (with some deep nulls).
 IFA antennas do have somewhat of a narrower bandwidth than the average monopole.

Planar Inverted-F Antennas - PIFA

PIFA can be considered as a kind of linear Inverted-F antenna (IFA) with the wire radiator
element replaced by a plate to expand the bandwidth.
 The shorting post near the feed probe point of usual PIFA types is good method for
reducing the antenna size, but these results into the narrow impedance bandwidth.
 Bandwidth is affected very much by the size of the ground plane. By varying the size
of the ground plane, the bandwidth of a PIFA can be adjusted. For example, reducing
the ground plane can effectively broadened the bandwidth of the antenna system. To
reduce the quality factor of the structure (and to increase the bandwidth), can be
inserted several slits at the ground plane edges.
 Use of thick air substrate to lower the Q and increase the bandwidth.
 Using parasitic resonators with resonant lengths close to main resonant frequency.
 Adjusting the location and the spacing between two shorting posts.
 Excitation of multiple modes designed to be close together or far apart depending on
requirements
 Using stacked elements it will increase the antenna Bandwidth.

The resonant frequency of PIFA can be approximate with:

L1 + L2 = /4
when W/L1 = 1 then L1 + H = /4
when W = 0 then L1 + L2 + H = /4
 The introduction of an open slot reduces the frequency. This is due to the fact that
there are currents flowing at the edge of the shaped slot, therefore a capacitive
loaded slot reduces the frequency and thus the antenna dimensions drastically. The
 same principle of making slots in the planar element can be applied for dual-
frequency operation as well.
 Changes in the width of the planar element can also affect the determination of the
resonant frequency.
 The width of the short circuit plate of the PIFA plays a very important role in
governing its resonant frequency. Resonant frequency decreases with the decrease
in short circuit plate width, W.
 Unlike micro-strip antennas that are conventionally made of half wavelength
dimensions, PIFA’s are made of just quarter-wavelength.
 Analyzing the resonant frequency and the bandwidth characteristics of the antenna
can be easily done by determining the site of the feed point, which the minimum
reflection coefficient is to be obtained.
 The impedance matching of the PIFA is obtained by positioning of the single feed and
the shorting pin within the shaped slot, and by optimizing the space between feed and
shorting pins.
 The main idea designing a PIFA is to don’t use any extra lumped components for
matching network, and thus avoid any losses due to that.
 The radiation pattern of the PIFA is the relative distribution of radiated power as a
function of direction in space.
 In the usual case the radiation pattern is determined in the far-field region and is
represented as a function of directional coordinates. Radiation properties include
power flux density, field strength, phase, and polarization.
 PIFA has very large current flows on the undersurface of the planar element and the
ground plane compared to the field on the upper surface of the element. Due to this
behavior PIFA is one of the best candidate when is talking about the influence of the
external objects that affect the antenna characteristics (e.g. mobile operator’s
hand/head).
 PIFA surface current distribution varies for different widths of short-circuit plates. The
maximum current distribution is close to the short pin and decrease away from it.
 Impedance bandwidth of PIFA is inversely proportional to the quality factor Q that is
defined for a resonator.
 Substrates with high dielectric constant (Er) tend to store energy more than radiate it.
This is equivalent by modeling the PIFA as a lossy capacitor with high Er, thus leading to
high Q value and obviously reducing the bandwidth. Similarly when the substrate thickness
is increased the inverse proportionality of thickness to the capacitance decreases the
energy stored in the PIFA and the Q factor decreases also.
 In summary, the increase in height and decrease of Er can be used to increase the
bandwidth of the PIFA.
 The efficiency of PIFA in its environment is reduced by all losses suffered by it,
including: ohmic losses, mismatch losses, feedline transmission losses, edge power
losses, external parasitic resonances, etc.
 The PIFA itself is an antenna of inherently low gain and narrow band, say about 1%–
2% when the antenna is placed on an infinite or comparable size of ground-plane.