Wireless Corner

Naftali (Tuli) Heracovici Lincoln Laboratory - Group 61 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 244 Wood Street Lexington, MA 02420-9108 USA Tel: +1 (781) 981-0801 Fax: +1 (928) 832-4025 SkypeIAOL: tuliOl

E-mail: nherscovici@ll.mit.edu

Christos Christodoulou Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131-1356 USA Tel: +1 (505) 277 6580 Fax: +1(505) 277 1439 E-mail: christos@eece.unm.edu

New Multi-Band Microstrip Antenna Design for Wireless Communications

1, Karim Y. Kabalan2 Al EI-Hajj, and Mohammad Rammal 3 Joseph Costan tine 1

'Electrical and Computer Engineering Department University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NMV USA 2 Elcrcland Computer Engineering Department American University of Beirut P0 Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon E-mail: Kabalan@aub.edu.lb
3

Lebanese University IUT, Saida, Lebanon

Abstract
This paper presents a new approach for the design of a multi-wideband microstrip-patch antenna. The radiating elements in this antenna are composed of rectangular slots following a Chebyshev distribution of order 10 around a center rectangular slot, and an additional triangular slot. These slots are engraved in the rectangular and triangular patch, joined together in one structure, and fed by one probe feed. A sample antenna was analyzed, simulated, fabricated, and tested. There was good agreement between the computed and test results. The new antenna can be used for several applications, especially in the GSM domain, and for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and several other applications, as detailed in this paper. Keywords: Microstrip antennas; multifrequency antennas; mobile antennas; WLAN; GSM; Bluetooth; wideband antennas

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 49, No. 6, December 200718

181

1. Introduction
and/or wideband methods for obtaining multi-band S everal antenna characteristics have been developed. In [1], a dual wideband folded microstrip-patch antenna was introduced for possible wireless local-area network (WLAN) applications in the 3.54 GHz frequency range. The proposed antenna operated in a wide frequency band by utilizing a unique coupling mechanism between the radiating elements and the ground plane. In [2], a novel reconfigurable patch antenna with switchable slots (PASS) was proposed to realize various functionalities, such as dual-frequency operation, dual-band circularly polarized (CP) performance, and polarization diversity with only one patch and a single feed. A cavity-model-based simulation tool, along with a genetic optimization algorithm, was presented in [3] for the design of dual-band microstrip antennas. This used multiple slots in the patch, or multiple shorting strips between the patch and the ground plane. The optimization of the positions of the slots and shorting strips was then performed via a genetic optimization algorithm to achieve acceptable antenna operation over the desired frequency bands. A similar approach was presented in [4], where a single low-profile printed antenna, which provided dual-band operation by having loading from two-step slots embedded close to the radiating edge. In [4], it was also shown that the ratio of the two frequencies can be well controlled by the aspect ratio of the step-loading dimension. A low-profile cylindrical monopole with a top-loaded meander-line patch, for K-PCS operation, and a corner-truncated squarering microstrip-patch antenna with four slits for GPS operation, were presented in [5]. In [6], an antenna was presented consisting of two parts: a fundamental-mode truncated square patch antenna, and a higher-order-mode annular-ring patch antenna. The truncated square patch operated with right-hand circular polarization at 1575 MHz with and 8 MHz CP bandwidth, making the desigu suitable for GPS applications. Furthermore, more slots were embedded into a ground plane to meander the current path of the annular-ring patch at the TM mode, which considerably lowered the resonant frequency, and effectively increased the impedance bandwidth. In [7], a multi-band microstrip antenna operating at frequencies of 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz was presented. The dimensions of the single elements of the operating frequencies were calculated using the transmission-line model. Two elements of an inset-fed microstrip antenna were used for each frequency band. In [8], microstrip-linefed, printed isosceles-triangular slot antennas, with a small rectangular slot for broadband operation, were proposed and experimentally investigated. Experimental results indicated that a 2:1 VSWR was achieved over a bandwidth of 2.9 GHz, between 2.33 and 5.23 GHz. This was nearly 4.6 times that of a conventional microstrip-line-fed, printed isosceles-triangular slot. This paper presents a multi-band antenna-design approach based on inserting rectangular slots, following a Chebyshev distribution, in addition to a triangular slot into the patch, which represents a combination of a rectangular and an isosceles-tri angular patch. The part of the patch formed by the isosceles triangle has the same area as the part formed by the rectangle. The triangular slot is inserted into the isosceles-triangular part, and the rectangular slots are inserted into the rectangular part of the patch. The whole system is fed by a coaxial probe into the substrate, with an input impedance of 50 Q. A sample antenna was analyzed, simulated, fabricated, and tested. The agreement between the computed and experimental results was very good.

The proposed antenna has many applications, and can be used to cover GSM, GPS, Wi-Fi, WiMax, video wireless communication, and Bluetooth applications. The concept of inserting slot array following a known antenna-array distribution has proven to give remarkable functionality to an antenna. It causes it to radiate significantly at different ranges of frequencies, using only one single feed point.

2. Geometry and Formulation of the Problem

The proposed antenna geometry is based on joining a rectangular patch and a triangular patch, in order to increase the radiation area, as shown in Figure 1. The structure is fed by a 50 Q2 coaxial probe. The radiation pattern of the proposed structure with this feeding technique is determined by adding the fields radiated by the rectangular patch to those radiated by the triangular patch. The substrate used in the formulation process was of thickness h =0.32 cm. The far electric fields of the rectangular patch were given in [9] as

E e-kr Cos (koh_[_ cs

sin
7

sin 0cosq') cos~o sin 0sin qj)Cos ( AO sin~sinq'

1

(I)

E, -Ker

jkor

Cos (koh~e Cos 0)

sinf'AO sin 0 sin (p)Costj4sinocos~p)Cos 0 sin Os

Figure 1. A rectangle added to an equilateral triangle patch, fed by a probe.

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In Equations (1) and (2), Ic 0 is the wavenumber, ,4 is the wavelength, e, is the dielectric permittivity, and W and L are the width and the length dimensions of the rectangular patch, respectively. Moreover, the far electric fields radiated from an equilateral triangle were given in [10] as E0 E(
=

study, shown in Figure 3, clearly indicated dual-band operation of the new structure, as was indicated earlier.

3. Antenna Structure and Results

The basic structure of the proposed antenna, shown in Figure 4, consists of three layers. The lower layer, which constitutes the ground plane, covers all the substrate and has a width of 6 cm and a length of 15 cm. The middle substrate, which is Polyflon Norclad, has a dielectric constant c, 2.55 and a height of

-joeqo (F, cos Ocos V+ FY cos Osin o), - i 0)7o( - Fsi n (p+ FYco s (P).

(3) (4)

In Equations (3) and (4), )7 = 120)r Q, and the terms F, and F are the electric potential components. These latter were given in detail in [10], and will not be repeated here, for convenience. By specifying the lowest-order mode, TM010, for approximating the rectangular dimensions to a length, L, of 4 cm and width, W, of 3 cm, and for an equilateral triangle 3 cm on a side, for an operating frequency, fo, of 3.24 GHz, Equations (1) and (2) become
Ke=

300 E9
JKot

r sin (0.9448 sin 0 sin r)cos (0.7086 sin 9 cos (p) cos 9 , (5) sin 9 sin V9 E Ke-.o cos(0.322cos9) r sn(0.9448 sin 9 cos v)cos (0.707 sin 9 cos (p) cos 9. (6) sin 9

cos (0.322 cos90)

'0

It is clear from Equation (5) that for V = 0' and (p=90', both components of the electric field vanish, due to the terms sin (p and cos o, respectively. Moreover, for (p = 90', Equation (6) becomes Ep=Ke-.o co(.22oO sin (0.9448 sin 9) cos9. (7) r co(.2cs) sin90 For an equilateral triangular patch, the 4p components of the electric field are given by the product of the terms A and C, given by

ISO Eplu simulated for phi=90 degrees Figure 2a. The simulated electric field, to be compared to Figure 2b.

30
'I ~

330

A:

f 21(139.6258 + j39. 1789 sin 0) rsin (1.01 789 sinO)

I.
6498.455 -1534.986 sin 2 9 +2jcos(1.01789 sin90) -2j + 39.1789sin9 (8)
60

3013

C= -jo0 17o [(47rr)- 1e0 he-jKOr ] e -j39.1

7 9

go~~~
0

40

~'30

20

~Q
20I -2

.~

7
---0

8 sing Costp 2 jwf Co I (9)

C I is a constant defined in [10]. The total electric field of the new 01 structure is obtained by adding the electric field radiated from the rectangular patch, defined in Equation (7), to that of the triangular patch, derived in Equations (8) and (9). A comparison between calculated and simulated results is shown in Figure 2. In order to prove that joining a triangular and a rectangular patch increases the radiation area and provides a multi-resonating antenna, the S, parameter of a simple rectangular patch of dimensions similar to those of the structure of Figure 1 was compared to

120

S-~.

240

15~11

I210

180

Ephi ".cubt~edof the structure Figure 2b. The calculated electric field, to be compared to Figure 2a.
183

the S,I parameter of the combined structure. The comparative

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 49, No. 6, December 2007

antenna, and to monitor the effect of both the triangular and the Chebyshev apertures, At first, the feeding point was chosen near the edge of the rectangle on its left-hand side. Results showed the non-functioning of the antenna under 2 GHz, and wideband operation at 2.8 GHz. This result was expected, since the feeding point was a bit far from the radiating elements represented by the Chebyshev distributed rectangular slots, and also very far from the triangular slot, where the multi-band operation is triggered. Second, the feeding point was moved close to the radiating elements, in order to obtain optimum operation of the antenna. If the feeding point was placed just at the edge of the rectangular slots, where radiation should be optimum, then the S, t parameter results showed a clear resonance at 1.6-1.7 GHz, close to the GSM 1.8 GHz operation; at 2.4 GHz, the Bluetooth operation; and wideband operation at 2.8 GHz for wireless video operation. More results on this feeding point can be found in [ 13]. this point, it became clear that moving the feed deeper into the structure and putting it closer to the triangular slot made the functioning of that triangular slot more effective, and gave the total response. Figure 4 shows the final position of the feeding point, and the results obtained are shown in Figure 5. Figure 5 shows clear GSM 900 MHz wideband operation, in addition to operation at 2.8 GHz and 3.5 GHz. It is also clear from Figure 5, and by varying the geometry, that the resonant frequencies below 2 GRz were severely affected by the presence of the tri angular slot and the position of the feed, closer or further from the triangle. However, the rectangular Chebyshev slots were responsible for the wideband operation at the frequencies above 2 GHz and, in particular, at 2.8 GHz. The resonant frequency at 3.5 GHz was also affected by the presence of the feed near the triangular slot, where the S 1 parameter suddenly decreased to under -10 dB. The input impedance of the antenna is shown in Figure 6, where the solid line represents the real part of the impedance, and the dashed line shows the imaginary part. The return to zero of the imaginary part revealed the resonances of the antenna, and the clear functioning.

-5-~

U I,

to -10CL

7 is-

-20 -obtained Nbaja~Pc

-25NNm~r

12

1!5

2.5

35

FrecercVin hz

X1(?At

Figure 3. The S, parameter of a simple rectaagular patch, and the S, parameter of the structure shown in Figure 1.

4. Experimental Results: Fabrication and Testing

Figure 4. The new antenna structure. The antenna was fabricated and tested in the facilities of the high-frequency institute of Munich University of Technology c
-6-

0.32 cm. The upper layer, which is the patch, consists of a rectangle with a width of 3 cmn and a length of 4 cm, joined with an isosceles triangle having the same area as the rectangular patch and a base of 3cm. and a height h =8 cm. Inside the rectangular patch, ten rectangular slots, following a-1 Chebyshev distribution around a center rectangular slot, were inserted. According to Babinet's principle [I11], the pattern of the slot was identical in shape to that of a dipole, except that the E and H fields were interchanged. Moreover, as was shown in [12], a Chebyshev distribution applied to an antenna array decreases folsidelobes and increases directivity. Accordingly, a slot array lowing the Chebyshev distribution inserted into a structure will increase the beamwidth and increase resonances. Also, inside the triangular patch, a triangular slot with a base of 1.5 cm and a height
of 1 .2124 cm was inserted.

-16

-2-

-25
__________0________1___

0.6

1.5

A parametric study and an optimization were done, in order to find the best feeding point of the structure. Several points were tested in order to get an overview of the defined functioning of the
184

25 2 Freqcieny inG~zX1

3.6

Figure 5. The S, parameter of the new antenna structure. 184 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 49, No. 6, December 2007

'JOLURealpart(TUM) IrnadnaiyPart

in Munich, Germany. The antenna was based on the substrate Polyflon Norclad, and was fabricated using the printedcircuit technique. The testing took into consideration the S, I parameter of the antenna, where a complete analogy was found between simulation results and fabrication results. A picture of the fabricated antenna and the testing process is given in Figure 7. Figure 8 shows a comparison between the tested and the simulated S, parameter of this antenna. The results obtained in Figure 8 emphasized the correctness of the simulated results. They proved that the functioning envisioned was accurate, and demonstrated a great similarity between the simulated and the fabricated results.

00r

500

em00

Frequecy in G~n

1(?

5. Antenna Applications
Various applications can be the subject for this newly designed antenna, since it is a multi-functional and multi-resonant antenna, according to simulation and fabrication results. Each resonant frequency can be the subject of various applications in today's modem wireless communication world. The S, I parameter going under -10 dB; in Figure 8 also indicated the presence of three resonant frequencies. This new wideband operation of the antenna shares the presence of resonances at the wireless CCTV application at 2.8 GHz, and two other completely new applications: I1. 900 MHz. GSM, ISM, WLAN, RFID applications 2. 2.8 GHz: wireless CCTV and wireless video links, WLAN applications 3.5 GHz: WLAN, WiMax, 802.1 6a applications wireless WiMax,

Figure 6. The antenna's input impedance.

3.

Figure 7. The fabricated antenna, and testing the S, parameter.

As shown and discussed, the designed antenna has multiple bands of operation and a wide range of applications. By a simple change of feeding position, the functioning of the antenna varies completely, while maintaining certain constant applications.

Me-~jasured

Simulated

Id
-5

6. Conclusion
A new multi-band antenna design has been presented. The design consists of joining a rectangular and a triangular patch

-10
-

-15idea

-2

I
-25 -30 1it

0.5

1.5 2 25 Frequency in Gi

3.5
x

together in one patch, and inserting several forms of slots. The new behind this design also includes the insertion of rectangular slots following a Chebyshev distribution around a central rectangular slot, in addition to a triangular slot inserted into the triangle, which has the same area as the rectangular patch. The concept of inserting slot arrays following a known antenna-array distribution has proven to give remarkable functionality to an antenna. It causes to be highly radiating in different frequency ranges, using only one single feed, represented by a 50 Q2SMA connector, where the

position has been optimized.

Figure 8. A comparison between the simulated and measured S1 parameter, with feeding at a point with coordinates (x= 2.1,y =-).

The antenna has many applications, such as GSM, GPS, WiFi, WiMax, video wireless communication, and Bluetooth applications, in one single instrument, using this type of antenna.
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IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 49, No. 6, December 200715

7. Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge Prof. Peter Russer from the High-Frequency Institute of Munich University of Technology (TUM) for providing the facilities to fabricate and test the antenna.

12. S. Jazi, "A New Formulation for the Design of Chebyshev Arrays," IEEE Transactionson Antennas and Propagation,AP-42, 3, March 1994, pp. 439-443. 13. J. Costantine, New Multi Wide Band Design for a Microstrip Patch Antenna Masters thesis, American University of Beirut, October 2006.

8. References
1. T. Sittironnarit and M. Ali, "Analysis and Design of a DualBand Folded Microstrip, Patch Antenna for Handheld Device Application," IEEE Southeast Conference Proceedings, 2002, pp. 255-258. 2. F. Yang and Y. Rahmat-Samii, "A Compact Dual Band Circularly Polarized Antenna Design For Mars Rover Mission," IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation Digest, 3, June 22-27, 2003, pp. 858-861. 3. 0. Oziemn, M. Selma, M. 1. Aksun, and L. Alatan, "Design of Dual-Frequency Probe Fed Microstrip Antennas with Genetic Algorithm," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 19 47 1 95 4 . AP-51, 8, August 2003, pp. 4. M. Khairul, H. Ismail, and M. Esa, "Low Profile Printed Antenna With A Pair Of Step Loading For Dual-Frequency Operation," Proceedings of the 2003 Asia Pacific Conference On Applied Electromagnetics (APACE 2003), Shah Alamn, Malaysia, 2003. 5. H. Y. Kim, Y. A. Lee, C. H. Won, and H. M. Lee, "Design of a Compact Dual-Band Microstrip Patch Antenna for GPS/K-PCS Operation," IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation Digest, 4, June 2004, pp. 3529-3532. 6. S. Y. Lin and K. C. Huang, "A Compact Microstrip Antenna for GPS and DCS Application," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation,AP-53, 3, March 2005, pp. 1227-1229. 7. A. Asrokin, M. K. A. Rahim, and M. Z. A. Abd Aziz, "Dual Band Microstrip Antenna for Wireless LAN Application," Proceedings of the 2005 Asia Pacific Conference on Applied Electromagnetics, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, December, 2005, pp. 10698-10701. 8. W. S. Chen and F. M. Hsieh, "A Broadband Design for a Printed Isosceles Triangular Slot Antenna for Wireless Communications," Microwave Journal,48, 7, July 2005, pp. 98-112. 9. C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory Analysis and Design, Second Edition, New York, Wiley, 1997. 10. K. F. Lee, K. M. Luk, and J. S. Dahele, "Characteristics of the Equilateral Triangular Patch Antenna," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation,AP-36, 10, November 1988, pp. 15 101518. 11. R. F. Harrngton, Time-Harmonic ElectromagneticFields, New York, IEEE Press, 2001.

Introducing the Authors

Joseph Costantine was born in Saida, Lebanon. He received the BE degree in Electrical, Electronic, Computer and Communication Engineering from the second branch of the Faculty of Engineering in the Lebanese University in 2004, and the ME in Computer and Communication Engineering from the American University in Beirut in 2006. He started his PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico in January 2007. He received the Abdul Hadi Debs award for academic excellence from the American University in Beirut for the year 2007. He was chosen during his masters degree to spend a sixmonth semester at the Munich University of Technology, as part of the TEMPUS program. His research interests are reconfigurable systems and antennas, antenna designs applied to wireless communications, electromagnetic fields, and communication systems.

Karim Y. Kabalan was born in Jbeil, Lebanon. He received

the BS degree in Physics from the Lebanese University in 1979, and the MS and PhD degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Syracuse University in 1983 and 1985, respectively. During the 1986 fall semester, he was a visiting Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Syracuse University. Currently, he is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, American University of Beirut. His research interests are numerical solution of electromagnetic-field problems and software development. All EI-Hajj was born in Aramnta, Lebanon, in 1959. He received the Lisense degree in Physics from the Lebanese University, Lebanon in 1979; the degree of lngenieur from L'Ecole Superieure d'Electricite, France, in 1981; and the Docteur Ingenieur degree from the University of Rennes 1, France, in 1983. From 1983 to 1987, he was with the Electrical Engineering Department at the Lebanese University. In 1987, he joined the American University of Beirut, where he is currently Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research interests are numerical solution of electromagnetic-field problems and engineering education. Mohamed Rammal was born in Lebaonon. He received his BE in Engineering from the Lebanese University in 1988, his DEA from the University de Limoges in 1989, and his PhD from the same university in 1993. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the Lebanese University, and the Director of the Radio Communication Lab. His areas of interest are numerical solutions of EM problems, antenna design, and numerical filters.'1

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