Design of Circular Polarization Microstrip Patch

Antennas with Complementary Split Ring Resonator

Hui Zhang, You-Quan Li, Xi Chen, Yun-Qi Fu, and Nai-Chang Yuan
College of Electronic Science and Engineering
National University of Defense Technology
Changsha, Hunan Province, 410073, P. R. China
huizhange@gmail.com

Abstract- A novel design of circular polarization microstrip

patch antenna based on the complementary split ring resonator is
evaluated numerically and experimentally verified. Unlike the
previous application of its resonant performance, the non-
resonant property of complementary split ring resonator is used
as an asymmetric perturbation to excite the square microstrip
patch antenna for a good circular polarization radiation. Good
agreement is observed between the measurement and simulation
results.

I. INTRODUCTION
RECENTLY, the complementary split ring resonator (CSRR)
(a)
(see Fig. 1) structures have already received considerable
attentions due to its potential applications to the synthesis of
negative permittivity and left handed (LH) metamaterials in
planar configuration [1], [2]. As explained in [1], the CSRR is th back
the dual counterparts of split ring resonator (SRR) originally gr und plane

proposed by Pendry [3]. The CSRR, composed of two

concentric metallic ring slots with slits etched in each ring at
its opposite sides, exhibits a strong electric response when
driven by an external time-varying electric field parallel to the
ring axis at its resonant frequency. This behavior has been
interpreted by an effective medium with a negative permittivity.
In microstrip technology, CSRRs have been etched either in
the conductor strip (provided there is space enough) or in the
ground plane to design compact pass-band or band-stop filters
with high performance and controllable characteristics [4]-[7].
Also, it has been demonstrated by the authors that CSRRs can
be efficiently applied to the phase shifter in planar circuits [10].
Over the past several decades, there have been significant
advances in circular polarization (CP) microstrip antenna
technology. These developments have spawned wide
applications of military and the mobile wireless
communications because they are not only able to reduce the
multi-path effect but also allow more flexible orientation of the
transmitter and receiver antennas. The CP radiation can be
achieved by the introducing of some symmetric [5] or
asymmetric [6] perturbations into patch antenna by exciting
two orthogonal modes with equal magnitudes and a 90° phase
difference. We develop a new probe-fed CP antenna by simply
embedding a CSRR on the square patch antenna. The splits on
the ring slots is asymmetric to the surface current paths of the
original patch antenna and thus its fundamental resonant mode
(b)
Fig. 1. Configuration for the square patch antenna loaded with a
complementary split-ring resonator (CSRR): (a) profile and (b) the CSRR
structure with its geometric parameters. Grey zones represent the
metallization.
is split into two resonant modes which can be tuned for a good
circular polarization (CP) radiation.
II. PROPERTY OF CSRR
As it is well known, the complementary of a planar metallic
structure is obtained by replacing the metal parts of the original
structure with apertures, and the apertures with metal plates
[13]. Due to symmetry considerations it can be demonstrated
that, if the thickness of the metal plate is zero, and its
conductivity is infinity (perfect electric conductor), then the
apertures behave as perfect magnetic conductors. In that case
the original structure and its complementary are effectively
dual and if the field F = (E, H) is a solution for the original
structure, its dual F v defined by

978-1-4244-2609-6/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE

 loss and axial ratio is provided in Fig. 3. Measurement and
simulation results agree quite well and both show a CP
radiation performance. This is attributed to that the composite
mode is equivalent to the two orthogonal modes with the same
amplitude and 90° phase difference at the operating frequency.
As the full-wave simulation did not consider the metal
thickness and metal losses, the Q- factor of the antenna in the
-a=3.6mm
- - - - a=3.8mm simulation is slightly higher than that in the measurement,
········a=4.2mm
_._._. a=4.6mm
which results in the simulated CP bandwidth slightly narrower.
The 3-dB axial-ratio CP bandwidth is observed to be 27.2
-20 +----r-----,r---.......----r--..---,.---,.-,-----r----f
2 4 5 MHz or about 0.7% with respect to the center frequency at 4.2
Frequency (GHz) GHz (the center frequency is defined here to be the frequency
Fig. 2. Simulated transmission magnitude for the single CSRR with with minimum axial ratio in the CP bandwidth.) and the return
different geometric parameters a.
loss is better than -15 dB over the CP bandwidth. A small dip
is observed in the curve of the return loss at 5.07 GHz, which
FV=(EV,HV)=(_j¥H,jfE) (1)
is introduced by the resonance of the CSRR. It is also worth
mentioning that the CP antenna is excited by the non-resonant
is the solution for the complementary structure (rigorously
6.--------::--..--------------,
speaking F v is the solution on one side of the plane, and ~ ~I
iii 5 I •
- F v on the other side, due to the lack of magnetic charges in
the apertures[14].
;
~
4
3
II I.
Il:: ~I
For a quantitative analysis, the isolated CRSS as a function ro 2 , - Simulation
of the dimension a is investigated and its simulation model is ~ 1 • -. - Measurement

j-;: \ . ,
shown in Fig. l(b). To make the element more easily O'----'--......&...---'------'-----'-..L---'--......L.----'-----""-"--....a.....-......&...----'
~t-=.8::=::=::==::=:::::4.==0_ _4.;.;.;;.2~~4~.4;:Dl:A=4·iR6......
4.8...........5".0~~5.2
detectable, CSRR structure embedded in a single-mode hollow
~..
TEM waveguide are simulated. The perfect electric conductor
(PEC) boundary conditions are employed on the x faces, which
guarantee that CSRR are properly excited by an electric field E '\ '
.a -15 '\.
polarized in the axial direction of the ring slots and the ~
waveguide is terminated in the z direction by two wave ports -20 '----'--......&...---'------'-----''"''--..L---'--......L.----'-----''"_''--....a.....-......&...----'
3.8 4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2
through which the electromagnetic waves enter and exit the Frequency (GHz)
model. The simulated transmission magnitude for the single Fig. 3. Measured and simulated results of axial ratio and return loss for the
CSRR with different geometric parameters a is provided in Fig. proposed antenna with: a=4.24 mm, s=3.8 mm, w.~/ot=O.25 mm, w.~trip=O.2
3. It can be seen that increasing the size of the CSRR will shift mm, g=O.2 mm, d=3.5mm,
down the bandgap location.
CSRR and the size of the CSRR is only about 1/16 of operating
III. DESIGN OF CIRCULARLY POLARIZED ANTENNAS wavelength.

Fig. l(a) depicts the geometry of the square patch microstrip

antenna etched with a square-shaped CSRR on the square
patch. A copper clad Duroid substrate with a thickness (h) of 1
mm and an approximate relative dielectric constant (Gr ) of
2.65 is used. In the original square patch, whose length (L) is
20 mm, the probe feed is placed on the y-axis with a distance d
away from the center of the patch, which stimulates the
original antenna to radiate a linear polarization radiation at
4.37 GHz and the surface current path on the patch is parallel
to the y-axis direction.
When the resonant frequency of the CSRR is greatly larger 4.14 4.16 4.18 4.20 4.22 4.24 4.26 4.28 4.30
or smaller than that of the square patch, the effects of the Frequency (GHz)
CSRR on the proposed antenna can be ignored. When the Fig. 4. Measured results of antenna gain at 4.2 GHz.
value a is about 4.4 mm, there is the presence of a special
composite mode for the antenna. The composite mode will be
simulated by the full-wave analysis with the finite-element The measured antenna gain and the radiation pattern at the
method and measured by the vector network analyzer. The center frequency are shown in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. The
measured results compared with the simulated results of return antenna gain within the CP bandwidth is about 5.9 to 6.2 dB.
 planar transmission lines," IEEE. Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vo1.53,
90 noA, pp.1451-1461, Apr. 2005

[3] 1. B. Pendry, A. J. Holden, D. J. Robbins, and W. 1. Stewart, "Magnetism

from conductors and enhanced nonlinear phenomena," IEEE Trans.

... ,
, "" ... Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 47, no. 11, pp. 2075-2084, Nov. 1999.
I \
I [4] 1. Bonache, I. Gil, , et.al., "Complementary split ring resonators for
\
... .... _--
180 o
--RHCP microstrip diplexer design," Electron. Lett., vol. 41, No.14, Jul. 2005.
----LHCP
[5] P. Mondal, M. K. MandaI, et.al. "Compact bandpass filters with wide

controllable fractional bandwidth," IEEE Microw. Wireless. Compon.

Fig. 5. Measured results of radiation pattern at 4.2 GHz
Lett., vol. 16, no. 10, pp. 540-542, Oct. 2006.

The radiation pattern in E-plane is shown and a good right- [6] 1. Garcia-Garcia, F. Martin, et.al., "Microwave filters with improved
hand CP perfonnance is observed. The left-hand CP radiation
stopband based on sub-wavelength resonators," IEEE. Trans. Microw.
can be easily obtained by etching the splits on the opposite side
of the concentric ring slots. Also, a slight asymmetry in the Theory Tech., vo1.53, no.6, pp.1997-2006, Apr. 2005
radiation patterns is observed, which is probably owing to the
introduced asymmetry (the CSRR) on the patch structure. [7] 1. Garcia-Garcia, F. Martin, et.al., "Spurious passband suppression in

microstrip coupled line bandpass filters by means of split ring

III. CONCLUSION resonators," IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 14, no. 9, pp.
A novel square microstrip patch antenna loaded with the
416--418, Sep. 2004.
non-resonant CSRR is demonstrated to produce a good CP
radiation perfonnance. With the introduction of the asymmetric [8] J. Y. Wu, C. Y. Huang, and K. L. Wong, "Compact broadband circularly
CSRR to the square patch, the fundamental resonant mode is
polarized square microstrip antenna," Microwave Optical Technol. Lett.
split into two resonant modes which can be tuned to radiate a
good circularly polarized electric field. The proposed CP 21,423--425, June 20,1999.
antenna is more suitable for the practical application of
[9] K. L. Wong and Y. F. Lin, "Circularly polarized microstrip antenna with
military especial narrow bandwidth communication systems
because they are not only able to reduce the multi-path effect a tuning stub," Electron. Lett. 34, 831-832, April 30, 1998.
but also allow more flexible orientation of the transmitter and
[10] W. S. Chen, C. K. Wu, and K. L. Wong, ''Novel compact circularly
receiver antennas.
polarized square microstrip antenna," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat. 49,

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 340-342, March 2001.

The authors extend their thanks to X.-F. Zhang, C. Zhu, and [11] K. L. Wong and M. H. Chen, "Single-feed small circular microstrip
others for their many helpful comments and discussions and
gratefully acknowledges the Natural Science Foundation of antenna with circular polarization," Microwave Opt. Techno!. Lett. 18,
China under contract No.6040 I011. 394-397, Aug. 20, 1998.

[12] K. L. Wong and J. Y. Wu, "Single-feed small circularly polarized square

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