Patch Antenna analysis

using Ansoft Designer

By: Pejman Taslimi

Shahed University of Tehran – IR IRAN
Represented to: Dr. Moghadasi
Tehran - August 2005
1. Introduction
1.1. Properties of a Basic Microstrip Patch
A microstrip or patch antenna is a low profile antenna that has a number of
advantages over other antennas it is lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to integrate with
accompanying electronics. While the antenna can be 3D in structure (wrapped around an
object, for example), the elements are usually flat; Hence their other name is planar
antennas. Note that a planar antenna is not always a patch antenna.
The following drawing shows a patch antenna in its basic form: a flat plate over a
ground plane (usually a Printed Circuit board). The centre conductor of a coax serves as
the feed probe to couple electromagnetic energy in and/or out of the patch. The electric
field distribution of a rectangular patch excited in its fundamental mode is also indicated.

The electric field is zero at the centre of the patch, maximum (positive) at one
side, and minimum (negative) on the opposite side. It should be mentioned that the
minimum and maximum continuously change side according to the instantaneous phase
of the applied signal.
The electric field does not stop abruptly at the patch's periphery as in a cavity;
Rather, the fields extend the outer periphery to some degree. These field extensions are
known as fringing fields and cause the patch to radiate. Some popular analytic modelling
techniques for patch antennas are based on this leaky cavity concept. Therefore, the
fundamental mode of a rectangular patch is often denoted using cavity theory as the
TM10 mode.
1.2. Feeding methods
There are many configurations that can be used to feed microstrip antenna. The
four most popular methods are the microstrip line, coaxial probe, aperture coupling and
proximity coupling. Here I focus on the first.
The microstrip feed line is also a conducting strip, usually of much smaller width
compared to the patch. The microstrip line feed is easy to fabricate, simple to match by
controlling the inset position and rather simple to model. However as the substrate
thickness increases, surface waves and spurious feed radiation increase, and for practical
designs these limit the bandwidth.
2. Design procedure
2.1. General dimensions: W and L
At the start of design procedure, we need to decide about some parameters, may
problem or practical and commercial factors affect. So I assume that the specified
information includes dielectric constant of substrate (relative permittivity), the resonant
frequency, and the height of the substrate. In this simulation, these parameters are
ε r = 2.2 f r = 10GHz h = 0.1588cm respectively.
For an efficient radiator, a practical width that leads to good radiation efficiencies
1 2 v 2
is: W = = 0 where v0 is free-space velocity of light. Here
2 f r µ 0ε 0 ε r + 1 2 f r ε r + 1
we have W = 1.186 cm.
Then I need to determine the effective dielectric constant of the microstrip
−1 / 2
εr +1 εr −1 ⎡ h⎤
antenna using: ε eff = + 1 + 12 ⎥ = 1.972
2 2 ⎢⎣ W⎦
Once W is found, I must calculate effective length to find physical length as is
described below.
⎛W ⎞
(ε eff + 0.3)⎜ + 0.264 ⎟
∆L ⎝h ⎠ → ∆L = 0.081cm
= 0.412
h ⎛W ⎞
(ε eff − 0.258)⎜ + 0.8 ⎟
⎝h ⎠
1
L= − 2∆L → 0.906cm
2 f r ε eff µ 0 ε 0
2.2. Resonant input resistance
With the inset feed-point moving from the edge towards the centre of the patch, re
resonant input impedance decreases monotonically and reaches zero at the centre. When
the value of the inset feed-point approaches the centre of the patch (y0 = L / 2), the
cos 2 (πy 0 / L) function varies very rapidly; therefore the input resistance also changes
rapidly with the position of the feed point. To maintain very accurate values, a close
tolerance must be preserved.
 Now I’m going to find the position of the feed-point where the input impedance is
⎛⎡ ⎛ k W 2
⎞
⎜ sin ⎜ 0 cosθ ⎞⎟ ⎤ ⎟
π⎜
⎢ ⎥
1 1 ⎢ ⎝ 2 ⎠ ⎥ J (k L sin θ ) sin 3 θ ⎟dθ
2 ∫0 ⎜
Rin = • G12 = ⎟
2(G1 ± G12 ) 120π ⎜⎢ cosθ ⎥
0 0
⎟
⎜ ⎢⎣ ⎥
⎦ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
50 ohms: G1 = 0.00157 siemens G12 = 6.1683 × 10 − 4 R in = 228.3508ohms
π
50 = 228.3508 cos 2 ( y 0 ) ⇒ y 0 = 0.3126cm
L
2.3. Feed line width
Two parameters must be found to finish design procedure: W0 and W1. W1 must
be as small as the construction procedure let. I’ve chosen it 0.2 millimetres.
W0 must be found to fit the characteristic needed. Here I use an optimisation
procedure to find it with best radiation pattern. As I’ll show later, W0 must be 0.4 mm.

3. Results
3.1. Drawing layout
While I am not sure about W0, I draw all parts of the patch leaving the width of
microstrip feed parametric. Then I can define an optimisation procedure to find best value
or I can set parameter sweeping to tune it manually. I select the latter case to find out
effect of changing line width. When there are numbers of factor interfering, response to
changing line width is quite nonlinear. The antenna in ‘Layout Editor’ is shown.

This consists of four rectangle and one excitation port named my_p1.
Stackup:
Name Material Thickness Lower Level Roughness
t1 Copper 10um 1.583mm 0mm
d1 My_d1 0.1588cm 0mm 0mm
g1 Copper 0mm 0mm 0mm
 As you can see, I’ve defined my own material for substrate, with its relative
permittivity 2.2.

The 3D layout

3.2. Simulation setup

I choose fixed mesh to simulate this antenna. Its frequency must be kept as small
as possible, because for each change in parameter, the whole setup will be analysed and it
must be fast enough. I think 5.00 GHz is fast enough to let us change two parameters and
accurate enough to let us find desired variable. The mesh overlay for 5.00 GHz is like
this:

When I select desired variables, I’ll go on with a more accurate mesh; its
frequency equals 25.00 GHz. Its mesh overlay is also shown. As you can, it has more
complex configuration.
3.3. Optimisation
The parameter W0 is changing between .2 mm to 1.8 mm. The total far field
criterion finds optimise value for W0. Figure below shows the procedure.
3.4. First results
When analysis finished, first results can be surface current distribution, near and
far field of the antenna. Following images shows these.

Surface current distribution

Total electric near field

 Total electric far field

You can also see animations for these results, where frequency sweep from 8 GHz
to 12 GHz is animated. Note that there are two different far field animations. The first
shows total electric far field simply, but next one is a normalised pattern to compare gain
for different frequencies.
3.5. Final results
Now it is time to view final results. Radiation pattern in different planes and input
impedance are most important results. More results can be obtained if needed. From
scattering parameters results we can see if the calculations in previous sections were
accurate or not.
References:
• Antenna theory: analysis and design – Constantine A. Balanis
• The Basics of Patch Antennas - D. Orban and G.J.K. Moernaut