2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)
Design of Multiband Segmented Loop Antenna for
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Applications
Do-Gu Kang1, Jaehoon Choi1, 2
1
Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
2
choijh@hanyang.ac.kr
Abstract—A multiband segmented loop antenna for
unmanned aerial vehicle applications is proposed. The antenna
is composed of a segmented loop including eight segments, a
patch element, and a shorting strip. The antenna operates with
an omnidirectional radiation at 956 MHz because the eight
segments are electrically connected with seven capacitive
reactances. Due to the addition of both the patch element and
shorting strip, the impedance matching characteristic is
improved. The proposed antenna has the multiband
performance covering GPS L1, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS,
LTE2300, LTE2500, and 2400 MHz ISM bands. The antenna
has quasi-omnidirectional radiation over the above listed
frequency bands.
Index Terms—multiband antenna, segmented antenna, loop
antenna, unmanned aerial vehicle.
I. INTRODUCTION
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have drawn great
attention in military, civilian, and scientific applications [1].
To realize the minimum air resistance for UAV applications,
a UAV antenna should have a low profile. Furthermore, a
UAV antenna should have a compact size and be light
weight [2]. A UAV antenna should have an omnidirectional
radiation to achieve the reliable communication link between
a UAV and the ground control station [3]. Although the
vertical monopole has the omnidirectional radiation, the
vertical monopole is not appropriate for UAV antennas due
to the large height [4].
Low-profile segmented loop antennas with an
omnidirectional radiation was studied [5, 6]. By
(a) (b)
Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed antenna (a) top view, (b) bottom view.
978-88-907018-7-0/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
generating an in-phase current due to the capacitive coupling
between segments, a segmented loop antenna has an
omnidirectional radiation [5]. A balun is required to operate
the segmented loop antenna [6]. The addition of the balun
increases both the antenna size and fabrication cost.
Moreover, these antennas have a disadvantage of a narrow
bandwidth.
In this paper a multiband segmented loop antenna is
proposed. The antenna is fed by a SMA connector without
balun and operates at 956 MHz with an omnidirectional
radiation characteristic. By adding both the patch element
and a shorting strip, the antenna has multiband characteristic
covering GPS L1 (1575 MHz), GSM1800 (1710 MHz ~
1880 MHz), GSM1900 (1850 MHz ~ 1990 MHz), UMTS
(1920 MHz ~ 2170 MHz), LTE2300 (2300 MHz ~ 2400
MHz), LTE2500 (2500 MHz ~ 2690 MHz), and 2400 MHz
ISM (2400 MHz ~ 2485 MHz) bands and has a quasi-
omnidirectional radiation characteristic over the multiband.
II. ANTENNA GEOMETRY
Because the proposed antenna has the low-profile planar
structure on a FR4 substrate with a 0.8 mm thickness and a
total size of 75 mm × 75 mm as shown in Fig. 1, the
minimum air resistance can be realized when the antenna is
placed on the surface of the airframe [6]. Because the
segmented loop operates by a SMA connector without a
balun, the antenna can be easily fabricated at a low cost and
be light weight.
The antenna is composed of eight segments, a patch
element, a shorting strip, an FR4 substrate, and an SMA
connector. Segments 1, 3, 5, and 7, and a part of a segment 8,
the patch element, and the shorting strip are placed on the top
of the FR4 substrate as shown in Fig 1(a). Segments 2, 4, and
6 and a part of a segment 8 are located on the bottom of the
FR4 substrate as shown in Fig 1(b). The two parts of
segment 8 are connected by via. Segments 1 and 8 are
connected to the inner and outer conductors of a PAF-S05-
001 SMA connector, respectively, in order to operate the
eight segments as a segmented loop antenna [7]. Due to the
capacitive coupling between the overlapping gaps of the
eight segments located on the top and bottom of the FR4
substrate, the antenna has seven capacitive reactances.
Therefore, the antenna operates with an omnidirectional
radiation at 956 MHz. Since the addition of both the patch
element and shorting strip improves impedance matching at
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 2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)

Fig. 4. Simulated surface current distribution of the proposed antenna at

956 MHz.

using the high frequency structure simulator (HFSS 15) [8].

Reference 1 has the same geometry as the proposed antenna
except for both the patch element and shorting strip. A patch
element is added to the reference 1 antenna in the reference 2
antenna. When the reflection coefficients of references 1 and
2 are compared, it can be concluded that the addition of the
patch element not only improves the impedance matching of
Reference 1 Reference 2 the second resonance but also forms the third resonance
(No patch, No shorting strip) (No shorting strip)
additionally.
As shown in Fig. 3 by adding the shorting strip, the
Fig. 2. Simulated reflection coefficients of references 1 and 2. impedance matching over a high frequency band is
improved. Consequently, due to the addition of both the
patch element and shorting strip, the proposed antenna has a
multiband characteristic over GPS L1, GSM1800,
GSM1900, UMTS, LTE2300, LTE2500, and 2400 MHz
ISM bands.
Because the first resonance frequencies of reference 1
and the proposed antenna are close to each other, one can
conclude that the first resonance of the propose antenna is a
resonance of a segmented loop at 956 MHz.
Fig. 4 shows the simulated surface current distribution of
the proposed antenna at 956 MHz. In-phase and uniform
currents flow along a segmented loop because of seven
capacitive reactances. This phenomenon makes the antenna
operate as a magnetic dipole with an omnidirectional
radiation.
The simulated radiation patterns of the proposed antenna
are shown in Fig. 5. The antenna has an omnidirectional
Fig. 3. Simulated reflection coefficients of the proposed antenna and radiation at 956 MHz and quasi-omnidirectional radiation at
reference 2. 1600 MHz, 2050 MHz, and 2610 MHz. Maximum gains are
0.76 dBi, 3.85 dBi, 4.67 dBi, and 3.85 dBi at 956 MHz, 1600
high frequency band, the proposed antenna has multiband MHz, 2050 MHz, and 2610 MHz, respectively.
characteristic.
IV. CONCLUSION
III. SIMULATED RESULTS A multiband segmented loop antenna with a low-profile
Fig. 2 shows the simulated reflection coefficients of planar structure is proposed. Because the antenna is fed by
references 1 and 2. The simulations were carried out by an SMA connector without a balun, the antenna has the

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[4] J. Tak, and J. Choi, “A low-profile dipole array antenna with

monopole-like radiation for on-body communications,” KIEES J.
Electromagn. Eng. Sci., vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 245–249, 2015.
[5] R.D. Hasse, W. Hunsicker, K. Naishadham, A.Z. Elsherbeni, and D.
Kajfez, “Design of a planar segmented circular loop antenna for
omnidirectional radiation at 5.8 GHz,” IEEE Antennas Wireless
Propag. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 1402-1405, 2012.
[6] D. Kajfez, A.Z. Elsherbeni, V. Demir, and R. Hasse,
“Omnidirectional square loop segmented antenna,” IEEE Antennas
Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 15, pp. 846-849, 2016.
[7] http://www.amtechs.co.jp/PAF-S05-Series_gigalane.pdf.
[8] Ansys High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), ver.15, Ansys
(a) (b) Corporation.

(c) (d)

Fig. 5. Simulated radiation patterns of the proposed antenna (a) 956 MHz,
(b) 1600 MHz, (c) 2050 MHz, (d) 2610 MHz.

advantages of compact size, light weight, a low fabrication

cost, and an easy-fabrication. Due to seven capacitive
reactances of a segmented loop, the antenna operates at 956
MHz with an omnidirectional radiation characteristic. The
antenna has a multiband (1567 MHz ~ 2746 MHz) by adding
both the patch element and shorting strip, which makes the
antenna operate over GPS L1, GSM1800, GSM1900,
UMTS, LTE2300, LTE2500, and 2400 MHz ISM bands
with a quasi-omnidirectional radiation characteristic. Thus,
the proposed antenna is a suitable candidate for unmanned
aerial vehicle applications.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by the MSIP (Ministry of
Science, ICT & Future Planning), Korea, under the ITRC
(Information Technology Research Center) support program
(IITP-2016-H8501-16-1006) supervised by the IITP
(Institute for Information & communications Technology
Promotion)

REFERENCES
[1] M.S. Sharawi, O.A. Rawashdeh, and D.N. Aloi, “Evaluation and field
testing of an embedded antenna in a small UAV wing structure,” in
Proc. IEEE Radio Wireless Symp., pp. 589–592, 2010.
[2] Z.Q. Liu, Y.S. Zhang, Z. Qian, Z.P. Han, and W. Ni, “A novel broad
beamwidth conformal antenna on unmanned aerial vehicle,” IEEE
Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 196-199, 2012.
[3] L. Sun, B. Sun, J. Yuan, W. Tang, and H. Wu, “Low-profile, quasi-
omnidirectional substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) multihorn
antenna,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 15, pp. 818-
821, 2016.

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