Accepted Manuscript

Regular paper

Cylindrical ring dielectric loaded horizontally polarized omnidirectional anten-

na for wideband radiation

Taolin Liu, Hu Yang, Yan He, Junqi Lu

PII: S1434-8411(17)32587-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeue.2018.04.006
Reference: AEUE 52298

To appear in: International Journal of Electronics and Communi-

cations

Received Date: 2 November 2017

Revised Date: 27 February 2018
Accepted Date: 4 April 2018

Please cite this article as: T. Liu, H. Yang, Y. He, J. Lu, Cylindrical ring dielectric loaded horizontally polarized
omnidirectional antenna for wideband radiation, International Journal of Electronics and Communications (2018),
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeue.2018.04.006

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Author
Name: Taolin Liu
Title: Doctor
Institution: College of Electronic Science and Engineering, National University of Defense
Technology
Email: [email protected]

Co-author 1
Name: Hu Yang
Title: Professor
Institution: College of Electronic Science and Engineering, National University of Defense
Technology
Email: [email protected]

Co-author 2
Name: Yan He
Title: Doctor
Institution: College of Electronic Science and Engineering, National University of Defense
Technology
Email: [email protected]

Co-author 3
Name: Junqi Lu
Title: Doctor
Institution: College of Electronic Science and Engineering, National University of Defense
Technology
Email: [email protected]

Correspondent author: Taolin Liu ([email protected])

1
 Cylindrical ring dielectric loaded horizontally polarized
omnidirectional antenna for wideband radiation
Taolin Liu, Hu Yang, Yan He and Junqi Lu

College of Electronic Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology

Changsha, 410073, China;

Correspondence should be addressed to Taolin Liu: [email protected]

Abstract－A wideband horizontally polarized omnidirectional antenna with a

cylindrical ring dielectric (CRD) loaded is proposed. Compared with the conventional

alford-structure loop antenna (ASLA), the impedance and radiation pattern

bandwidths are broadened by loading a CRD to the ASLA with two wing sections.

The designed antenna is fabricated and measured, and good performance has been

obtained. The measured reflection coefficient is less than -10dB over the frequency

band 1.63GHz-2.8GHz, i.e., 52.8%, which can cover 2G/3G/LTE band totally. The

gain variation in all directions of horizontal plane is less than 1.4dB in the whole

band. The maximum gain is 1.56dBi throughout the operating band and it appears at

1.66GHz. It is worth noting that the gain is around 1dBi and almost constant from

1.9GHz to 2.7GHz. Besides, the designed antenna has a compact size of

0.55λ×0.55λ×0.057λ, λ is for the lowest frequency of the operating band.

Index Terms－Horizontally polarized antenna, omnidirectional antenna, cylindrical

ring dielectric, wideband antenna

2
1. Introduction

Omnidirectional antennas are widely used in airborne and ground wireless

communication systems for 3600 coverage. Due to easily obtained and good radiation

performance in the horizontal plane, the vertically polarized (VP) omnidirectional

antennas such as monopole and its analogous structures are greatly applied in most

urban and indoor wireless circumstances [1,2]. However, the polarization of the

propagating electromagnetic wave may change significantly after complicated

multiple reflections or scatterings [3,4]. Hence, two orthogonally polarized antennas

are usually needed in a polarization diversity system, and the addition of the

horizontally polarized (HP) omnidirectional antenna can increase the system’s

capacity definitely. Besides, compared with the VP antenna, the omnidirectional

antenna with horizontal polarization normally has a lower profile, which leads to a

more compact system.

Due to the data rate of communication is mainly determined by the bandwidth of

system’s antenna, to meet the requirements of higher data rate and multiple-band

coverage in modern wireless communication, the bandwidth of the antenna can never

be too broad. Many novel wideband VP omnidirectional antennas with excellent

performance have been proposed recently [5-14], while the reporters on the

broadband HP omnidirectional ones are relatively rare.

In [15], a HP omnidirectional antenna with a rather wide impedance bandwidth

of 70.2% and good radiation performance is presented. For widening the operating

band and enhancing the radiation in the azimuthal plane, two rows of arc parasitic

3
strips and one row of director are added, respectively, which cause that the

dimensions of the antenna is increased to 0.83λ×0.83λ, λ is for the lowest operating

frequency. Because of its complicated matching network, the gain of the proposed

antenna is decreased to 0.4-1.2dBi in the operating band. The reported HP

omnidirectional antenna in [16] has a compact size of 0.34λ×0.34λ, a broadband of

53.2% and an almost constant gain around 1.2dBi over the operating band. While the

profile of the antenna is increased to 0.11λ and the gain variation in the E-plane is

near to 2dB at high frequency portion of the operating band.

In theory, a small electronic loop is equivalent to a magnetic dipoles which has a

HP omnidirectional radiation pattern in its E-plane. Owing to the difficulty in

impedance matching, the small loop antenna can hardly be used directly. A new

printed alford-structure loop antenna with two wing sections is designed in [17], but

only two narrow operation band is achieved due to the absent of accessional matching

circuits or parasitic components. By adding special surface defects to the radiating

elements, annexing parasitic strips and a suitable matching circuit, the bandwidth of

the modified loop antenna in [18,19] can reach to 41% and 84.2%, respectively.

However, due to the non-uniform current distribution on each arc dipole, the radiation

performance in E-plane is undesirable at the portion of high operating frequency. A

3D HP omnidirectional loop antenna have been proposed in [20]. It has a very small

gain variation, but its bandwidth is not wide enough and it has a higher profile.

In order to design a wideband as well as good radiation performance HP

omnidirectional antenna, which can cover the 2G/3G/LTE band (that is

4
1.7GHz-2.7GHz) simultaneously, an ASLA with a cylindrical ring dielectric (CRD)

loaded is reported in this paper. The two different wing sections configuration of the

antenna is derived from the ASLA that is designed in [17] and the balun matching

circuits are based on [18]. The CRD is chosen here to enhance the impedance

bandwidth and the radiation performance of the ASLA, which is a novel design.

Compared with the original ASLA, the CRD loaded antenna exhibits a wider

bandwidth of 1.63-2.80GHz (52.8%) for │S11│ ≤ -10dB, which can cover the

2G/3G/LTE band totally. Compared with the presented antenna in [16], a smaller gain

variation (≤1.4dB) in the E-plane is obtained over the whole operating band.

Meanwhile, a lower profile of 0.057λ is gotten, which is owning to the bandwidth is

mainly widened by the loaded CRD.

2. Antenna Design

2.1. Antenna configuration

The geometry of the proposed wideband HP omnidirectional antenna with

detailed dimensions is illustrated in Fig.1. It consists of a printed ASLA and a CRD.

The two parts are adhered to each other. The ASLA has two wing sections with

different diameters, which are designed to acquire two different resonant frequencies.

Just as Fig.1(b) and Fig.1(c) shown, each section has four pairs of arms which are

clockwise printed on both side of the substrate. The two wing sections are matched

and connected by four pairs of transmission lines. On each side of the structure,

transmission lines are convergent at a circle patch. And the bottom circle patch is

larger than the top one, which is designed to obtain a better impedance matching. The

5
whole antenna is centre-fed by a coaxial cable with a 50-Ω SMA connector from the

bottom of the substrate.

(a)
y y
z z

x
A l2 x
D d1 d2
B l1
SMA

(b) (c)

Fig.1. Geometry of the proposed antenna: (a) 3D view, (b) top view (the CRD is hidden) and (c)

bottom view.

2.2. The design of ASLA

The ASLA with two different wing sections, i.e., the proposed antenna without

CRD, is designed at first. Similar to dipole antenna, the length of one arm is about a

quarter wave-length. According to [21], when the substrate doesn’t have a metal

ground plane, the effective relative permittivity used in metal strips design can be

calculated by (1+εr)/2, εr is the relative permittivity of the substrate. So the length of

the arms Li (i=1, 2) are determined by the equation (1)

Li=0.25×λei=0.25×λ0i×[(1+εr)/2](-0.5) (1)

6
 λ0i is the wave length in the free space, λei is the equivalent wave length in the

substrate. And then the angle of A and C can be estimated by the equation (2) and

equation (3), respectively.

A=L1×180/[π×(l1+w1/2)] (2)

C=L2×180/[π×(l2+w2/2)] (3)

Due to four pairs of arms are included in each wing sections, A and C are better

less than 450. Following the above design guides and matching the two wing sections

carefully, we designed a dual-band ASLA with HP omnidirectional radiation pattern

in the azimuthal plane. The two resonant frequencies are near to 1.7GHz and 2.7GHz,

separately. The higher and lower resonant frequency can be tuned by A and C,

respectively. As Fig.2 shown, the higher resonant frequency is decreased from

2.74GHz to 2.62GHz when A is increased from 40.20 to 42.20, while the lower one is

almost unchanged. The results are similar as C changed. This phenomenon verifies

the validity of our above design recommendations.

Fig.2. Simulated reflection coefficient of the ASLA with different A.

2.3. The design of ASLA with CRD loaded

7
 To cover the 2G/3G/LTE band completely, we presented a cylindrical ring

dielectric with a certain thickness to load the ASLA, which is adhered to the centre of

the top surface of the substrate. The diameters of the CRD is no more than 2l1, and its

thickness h should be as thin as possible for a lower profile.

Fig.3. Simulated reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna with different loaded when

h=9mm.

Fig.3 demonstrates the effect of the loaded CRD on impedance matching of the

proposed antenna when h=9mm. Compared the curves in Fig.3, the lower and higher

resonant frequencies are changed in a small range. And the bandwidth of reflection

coefficient≤-10dB is widened obviously when the ASLA is loaded with the CRD,

especially when the CRD’s relative permittivity εc=10, the operating band can reach

to 52.5%, i.e., 1.64GHz-2.81GHz. This improvement is mainly caused by the

appearance of the third resonant frequency, which is derived from the amelioration of

the impedance matching.

The plots of the current distributions of the ASLA without and with CRD loaded

are shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen that the current is mainly concentrated in the outer

wing section at 1.7GHz for both of the two antennas, so the outer wing section is the
8
main radiation component at lower operation band. Similarly, the current is mainly

concentrated in the inner wing section at 2.7GHz for both of the two antennas, so the

inner wing section is the main radiation component at higher operation band. This

phenomenon justifies the design guides in Section 2.2. Fig.4 (b) shows that the current

is mostly focused on the transmission lines at 2.25GHz when the ASLA is without

CRD loaded. So the antenna’s reflection coefficient is not low enough and its

radiation is poor. With the CRD loaded, the current can be transmitted to the two

wing sections, and the reflection coefficient of the antenna is decreased. So the

radiation performance of the antenna is improved. According to the above analyses,

the relative permittivity of the CRD is chosen as 10 here.

y
(a) (b) (c)

(d) (e) (f)

Fig. 4. Comparison of the simulated current distributions of the ASLA without and with CRD

loaded at three typical frequency points: (a) without-1.7GHz; (b) without-2.25GHz; (c)

without-2.7GHz; (d) with-1.7GHz; (e) with-2.25GHz; (f) with-2.7GHz.

9
 Then we tried to reduce the thickness of the CRD. Although the impedance

bandwidth can still cover the target bandwidth when h is decreased, the maximum

radiation direction of the high frequency portion (≥2.45GHz) is deflected from the

horizontal plane, which is depicted in Fig.5. As the thickness is increased further, the

third resonant frequency is shifted downwards and the bandwidth becomes narrower.

Take both the maximum radiation direction and bandwidth into account, h=9mm is

chosen here.

(a) (b)

Fig.5. The simulated results of the proposed antenna with different h when εc=10: (a) normalized

radiation patterns in elevation (xoz) plane at 2.5GHz and (b) reflection coefficient.

The gain variation in all directions of horizontal plane (at a certain frequency) is

defined as the maximal gain subtracts the minimal gain (in dB), which is a key

parameter in omnidirectional antennas design. The gain variation of the proposed

antenna among the entire operating band is affected a lot by the angle of C. To

demonstrate this characteristic, the normalized radiation patterns at a typical

frequency point (2.25GHz) in the horizontal plane is displayed in Fig.6(a). The larger

C is, the smaller gain variation is obtained. However, Fig.6(b) shows that the
10
reflection coefficient is increased to more than -10dB in a large portion of the target

frequency band if C is above 42.80. Take both the gain variation and bandwidth into

account, C=42.80 is chosen here. In this condition, the simulated maximal gain

variation is less than 0.9dB throughout 1.64GHz-2.81GHz.

(a) (b)

Fig.6. The simulated results of the proposed antenna with different C: (a) normalized radiation

patterns in the horizontal (xoy) plane at 2.25GHz and (b) reflection coefficient.

2.4. The optimized design results

The designed CRD loaded wideband HP omnidirectional antenna is printed on a

RT/Duroid 5880 substrate (εr=2.2) with a thickness of 1.5mm and a diameter of

100mm. The proposed antenna is optimized by the Quasi Newton optimization tool of

HFSS software. Three optimization goals are set. The first goal is that the reflection

coefficient is less than -10dB in the range of 1.6GHz-2.8GHz and its weight

coefficient is 0.4. The second goal is that the gain variation in the horizontal plane is

less than 1dB in the same frequency band and its weight coefficient is 0.3. The third

goal is that the gain in the horizontal plane is more than 1dBi throughout the above

11
frequency band and its weight coefficient is 0.3. The antenna’s optimized parameters

are listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Optimized parameters of the proposed antenna.

Parameters Value (mm) Parameters Value

D1 28.6 A 41.20
D2 4.6 B 3.40
h 9 C 42.80
l1 16.9 D 50
l2 39.4 d1 4.8mm
w1 5 d2 19.4mm
w2 3.1 εc 10

3. Simulation and Measurement Results

To verify the characteristics of the proposed CRD loaded antenna, the optimized

model is fabricated and measured. The prototype of the antenna is displayed in Fig.7.

Fig.7. The prototype of the proposed antenna.

The simulated and measured reflection coefficient of the designed antenna are

matched well with each other, which is shown in Fig.8. The measured reflection

coefficient is less than -10dB over the frequency band of 1.63GHz-2.8GHz (52.8%),

which can cover the 2G/3G/LTE band totally.

12
 M1 (1.63GHz, -10.7dB) M2 (2.8GHz, -10.6dB)

M1 M2

Fig.8. The reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna.

Fig.9. Measured and simulated normalized radiation patterns of the proposed antenna in E-plane

(the figures on the left) and H-plane (the figures on the right) at (a) 1.63GHz. (b) 2.2GHz. (c)

2.8GHz.

13
 As depicted in Fig.9, the normalized radiation patterns in E-plane (horizontal

plane) and H-plane (elevation plane) are compared with the simulated ones at three

representative frequencies of 1.63GHz, 2.2GHz and 2.8GHz, respectively. It can be

seen that good omnidirectional radiation patterns in the azimuthal plane are achieved

simultaneously by measurement and simulation. According to the H-plane radiation

patterns in Fig.9, we can easily find the maximum radiation direction of the antenna is

in the horizontal plane throughout the operating band. The measured polarization

purity in the horizontal plane (the maximum radiation direction) varies from 15dB to

22dB over the whole band, which is higher than the simulated one. This mismatch is

mainly caused by the coaxial cables that have to be used in the far-field measurement.

Based on the measured results of far-field radiation patterns, gain variation is

calculated and it is shown in Fig.10 (a). We can easily find the measured maximum

gain variation of the designed antenna is less than 1.4dB over the frequency band of

1.63-2.8GHz, which is larger than the simulated one (0.9dB). This deterioration is

mainly caused by fabrication tolerances and measurement imperfections. Fig.10 (b)

shows the simulated and measured gain of the designed antenna in the horizontal

plane. The measured gain is a little lower than the simulated one, which is possibly

caused by the loss of the SMA and metal loss of the strips. And the measured

maximal gain is 1.56dBi at 1.66GHz and the minimal gain is 0.81dBi at 2.02GHz.

Besides, the measured gain is almost constant and around 1dBi in the frequency band

of 1.9GHz-2.7GHz. In order to enhance the gain of the proposed antenna in the

horizontal plane, one or more rows of arc strips can be employed as directors around

14
the boundary of the substrate [15]. But the dimensions of the antenna are increased

correspondingly.

(a) (b)

Fig.10. (a) Measure gain variation of the proposed antenna in the E-plane (or horizontal plane); (b)

Simulated and measured gain of the proposed antenna.

Table 2: Comparisons of the existing HP omnidirectional antennas with the proposed antenna
Operating Antenna size Gain in the
Gain variation
Reference bandwidth (λ at the lowest horizontal plane
(dB)
(|S11|≤-10dB) frequency) (dBi)
[15] 70.2% 0.85λ×0.85λ×0.005λ ~1.5 0.4-1.2
[16] 53.2% 0.34λ×0.34λ×0.11λ ~2.8 1.1-1.2
[18] 41% 0.59λ×0.59λ×0.009λ Not mentioned 3.6-4.2
[19] 84.2% 0.63λ×0.63λ×0.01λ ~2.2 0.1-2.1
[20] 24.7% 0.31λ×0.31λ×0.23λ ~0.4 <1.5
Proposed
52.8% 0.55λ×0.55λ×0.057λ ≤1.4 0.81-1.56
antenna

A comparison of the proposed antenna to some similar published referenced

works is made in Table 2. It is observed that the proposed antenna provides smaller
gain variation as well as enhanced bandwidth and compact size, which shows better
performance compare to the listed references when all of the evaluation indicators are
considered.

4. Conclusion

A HP omnidirectional antenna has been designed in this paper. Loaded by a

15
CRD, not only the impedance bandwidth is enhanced obviously, but also the radiation

pattern bandwidth improved tellingly. Based on this, a prototype of the optimized

CRD loaded antenna is fabricated and measured. Both simulation and experimental

results show that it can operate over 1.63GHz-2.8GHz effectively. A small gain

variation, an almost constant gain and a compact size make the proposed antenna to

be a good alternative in 2G/3G/LTE and other high-data-rate communication systems.

In our work, the idea that by loading a CRD to the ASLA with multiple wing sections

to broaden the antenna’s operating bandwidth provides a new way to design ultra

wideband HP omnidirectional antennas.

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