Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium, Beijing, China, March 23–27, 2009 627

THz Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna on Multilayered

Substrate for Advance Wireless Communication Systems
Aditi Sharma1 , Vivek K. Dwivedi2 , and G. Singh1
1
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Jaypee University of Information Technology, Solan 173 215, India
2
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University, Noida 201724, India

Abstract— In this paper, we have simulated a rectangular microstrip patch antenna using mul-
tilayered dielectric substrate materials at THz frequencies for advanced wireless communication
systems. The 10 dB impedance bandwidth of the single-pin-shorted microstrip-line fed rectan-
gular microstrip patch antenna on multilayered dielectric substrate is 33.67%. The electrical
parameters of antenna depend on the structural parameters and feed positions. The simulation
of this antenna has been performed by using CST Microwave Studio, which is a commercially
available finite integral based electromagnetic simulator.

1. INTRODUCTION
Gigabit-data-rate for future wireless communication systems has opened the door to variety of
applications demanding ultra-broad bandwidth. Among the applications that are already foreseen
is the wireless extension of the next generation broadband access fiber-optic networks, which will
support data rates tens of gigabits, and are expected to replace xDSL and cable-modem access
network [1–4]. A multi-gigabit communication system could also be operated as wireless bridge
between lower data rate WLANs/WPANs (wireless local area network/wireless personal area net-
works) and access network, and thus could enhance their interoperability by providing fixed multi-
gigabit wireless access. Most of the present efforts towards higher data rates are aimed at enhancing
the spectral efficiency of existing or currently developing microwave and millimeter wave wireless
systems. However, the spectral bandwidth of such a system is limited, and they will not able to
support data rates exceeding a few Gbps [4]. In communications several order of magnitude of
increase in bandwidth as compared to current wireless technology is expected [1, 5]. Terahertz
(THz) technique is considered as one of the method to solve this problem. Since it is commonly
accepted that such high-data rates can not be achieved with IR systems, the THz range is a logical
choice [1–10]. Using carrier frequencies above 300 GHz, oscillator and amplifier sources with ∼10%
fractional bandwidths would enable very high data rate (> 10 GB/s) wireless communications with
high security protection [3, 4]. THz band covers a wide rage, which is relatively free of spectrum
users, offers many advantages for wireless communication and radar system such as broad band-
width for high data rate information transmission, low transmission power (due to high antenna
gain) and low probability of interference/interception (due to narrow antenna beam width) [1–8].
The microstrip antennas are most important component of several wireless communication appli-
cations with demand of multi-band and/or broadband frequency operation, high power gain and
omnidirectional radiation patterns. The technology and propagation constants serve as boundary
conditions for the determination of the required antenna gain to support ultra-broadband commu-
nication. They have the benefit of high data rate up to tens of Gbps, whereas in atmosphere the
attenuation is very high. Therefore, the design of printed antennas suitable to meet the require-
ments of multiple operational services becomes a difficult task. The multi-band microstrip antennas
have been developed in the past using multilayered substrate at lowered frequencies to obtain the
multi-frequency operational characteristics [11–13].
In this paper, we have proposed a single-pin-shorted multilayered-dielectric (with different dielec-
tric permittivity and thickness) substrate rectangular microstrip patch antenna at THz frequency
for faster wireless communication systems. The design of this antenna is based on the philosophy
of maximizing the current path for a given surface area to decrease the resonant frequency by
shorting post [14] and use of multilayer substrate material to reduce the radiation losses by surface
waves to enhance the efficiency [11–13]. The surface waves can be reduced by shorting post due to
surface wave discontinuity used in the three dielectric layer structure. The organization of paper
is as follows. The Section 2 concerns with the simulation model of THz microstrip antenna. The
Section 3 discusses the simulated results and finally, Section 4 concludes the work.
628 PIERS Proceedings, Beijing, China, March 23–27, 2009

2. SIMULATION MODEL OF THz MICROSTRIP ANTENNA

The proposed microstrip patch antenna consists of a rectangular patch on multilayer dielectric sub-
strate materials with different dielectric permittivity and thickness. The geometrical configuration
of the antenna is as shown in Fig. 1. The dimension of the ground plane and radiating rectangular
patch of the antenna is 400 × 400 µm2 and 100 × 150 µm2 , respectively. The substrate materials
of the antenna are arranged as follows. The first substrate layer on ground plane is 50 µm thick
having ε1 = 2.42 with tan δ = 0.0009. This layer is followed by 350 µm thick substrate layer with
ε2 = 2.2 and last layer with 55 µm thick having ε3 = 6.15 with tan δ = 0.0019. The selection of
the dielectric permittivity and dimension of the substrate will determine the surface wave losses.
A thicker middle substrate layer has been used to achieve wide bandwidth [16]. The reason to
take high dielectric constant (upper layer) is to reduce the radiation loss from the feed line and
thin substrate material has been used for maximizing the bandwidth. The proper selection of the
permittivity and dimensions of the substrate layers will reduce the surface wave loss and results
in significant increase in impedance bandwidth and radiation efficiency. When the high relative
permittivity substrate is over the low relative permittivity substrate, the suppression of the surface
wave will takes place [15, 16]. The shorting post with a diameter of 5 µm is loaded at the radiating
end of rectangular patch. This loading position can ensure maximum reduction in the resonant
frequency of the microstrip antenna that is maximum patch size reduction for the antenna can
be obtained at a fixed frequency. Microstrip line feed has been used in the proposed antenna is
one of the most commonly used feeding techniques. Since feeding technique influences the input
impedance, it is often exploited for matching purpose. In this feeding technique, a conducting strip
is connected directly to the edge of the rectangular patch microstrip antenna. The advantage of
this technique is that both the feed and patch lie on the surface of the substrate and therefore is
plane in construction and provide the right impedance match between the patch and feed line. The
simulation of the proposed rectangular microstrip patch antenna is performed on CST Microwave
Studio simulator, which is finite integral based solver.

Figure 1: Geometrical configuration of the multilayer dielectric substrate single pin shorted microstrip line
fed rectangular patch antenna.

3. SIMULATION RESULTS
The current and emerging systems use bandwidths between a few MHz to several GHz. Conse-
quently, they cannot provide high enough data rates to satisfy the needs of the future wireless
communication requirements. One can expect that wireless short-range communication networks
will soon push towards the THz frequency range, which will provide several tens of Gb/sec to
terabit data rates [1]. To compensate for the high free space losses one will need high gain emitter
and receiver antennas. The return loss of the proposed rectangular microstrip patch antenna at
the THz frequencies is shown in Fig. 2. The 10 dB bandwidth obtained from Fig. 2 is 33.67%. This
simulated result shows two dip at which the return loss is minimum. This means, proposed antenna
can operate efficiently at these two frequencies (796.95 and 916.65 GHz).
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium, Beijing, China, March 23–27, 2009 629

Figure 2: The return loss (dB) versus frequency (GHz) of the proposed rectangular microstrip patch antenna.

(a) (b)
Figure 3: Far-zone radiation patterns for (a) the gain and (b) directivity at the THz frequencies.
630 PIERS Proceedings, Beijing, China, March 23–27, 2009

The far-zone radiation pattern of the gain (Fig. 3(a)) and directivity (Fig. 3(b)) of the proposed
THz rectangular microstrip patch antenna is as shown in Fig. 3. The radiation efficiency and gain
of the microstrip antenna are 90.69% and 10.05 dB, respectively at the center frequency of operation
(875 GHz). At this frequency, the main lobe magnitude of gain is 10 dB with angular width 37.2◦
in H-plane configuration. The main lobe magnitude of the directivity and its angular width are
10.5 dBi and 37.2◦ , respectively in H-plane. The electrical parameters of the multilayer rectangular
patch microstrip antenna at three THz frequencies are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Electrical parameters of the rectangular microstrip patch antenna at THz frequencies.

Frequency/Electrical Parameters 875 GHz 796.95 GHz 916.65 GHz

Gain (dB) 10.05 7.291 9.708
Directivity (dBi) 10.47 7.928 10.45
Radiation Efficiency (%) 90.69 86.36 84.27

The radiation efficiency and gain of the microstrip antenna are 86.36% and 7.291 dB, respectively
at frequency (796.95 GHz), which is first dip in Fig. 2. At this frequency the gain of main lobe
magnitude is 7.3 dB and angular width is 90◦ in E-plane configuration. For directivity, the main
lobe magnitude and angular width are 7.9 dBi and 90◦ , respectively in H-plane. The radiation
efficiency and gain of the microstrip antenna are 84.27% and 9.708 dB, respectively at the frequency
(916.65 GHz), which is second dip of Fig. 2. At this frequency for gain, the main lobe magnitude is
9.7 dB and angular width is 90◦ in H-plane configuration. For directivity, the main lobe magnitude
and angular width are 10.5 dBi and 90◦ , respectively in H-plane.
The radiation efficiency and gain varies with distance of shorting post from the feed point as
shown in Fig. 4. The radiation efficiency and gain of the rectangular microstrip patch antenna
increases with increase in the distance of the shorting post from the feed point. The interesting
point of simulation is highlighted in the Fig. 4. The radiation efficiency and gain at this point are
90.69% and 10.05 dB at 875 GHz, respectively. The distance of a shorting post from the feed point
is 10 µm at this point. Here (at the marked point) the gain and efficiency are low as compare to
other points but we get the dual frequency band of operation of the proposed antenna with broader
bandwidth, that is the reason for considering this point.

Figure 4: Variation of radiation efficiency and gain with distance of shorting post from the feed point.

4. CONCLUSIONS
Among the practical advantages of using THz region for satellite and indoor wireless communication
system is the ability to employ robust and compact transmitting and receiving antennas. THz
communication link is most likely secure communication for short-distance, point-to-point, and
demanding high information data rate (Gb/s to Tb/s). The 10 dB impedance bandwidth of the
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium, Beijing, China, March 23–27, 2009 631

proposed antenna is 33.67%. The radiation efficiency and gain of the antenna are 90.69% and
10.05 dB at 875 GHz, respectively. Increased atmospheric absorption at the THz frequencies is
unattractive in certain applications but the secure and ultrahigh bandwidth make attractive THz
communication systems.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors are sincerely thankful to the Professor Dr. D. S. Chauhan (Vice-Chancellor, JUIT) for
critical discussion and suggestions.
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