MICROSTRIP ANTENNAS

Microstrip or patch antennas are becoming increasingly useful because they can be
printed directly onto a circuit board. Microstrip antennas are becoming very widespread
within the mobile phone market. Patch antennas are low cost, have a low profile and
are easily fabricated.

The patch antenna, microstrip transmission line and ground plane are made of high
conductivity metal (typically copper). The patch is of length L, width W, and sitting on top
of a substrate (some dielectric circuit board) of thickness h with permittivity Er . The
thickness of the ground plane or of the microstrip is not critically important. Typically,
the height h is much smaller than the wavelength of operation, but should not be much
smaller than 0.025 of a wavelength (1/40th of a wavelength) or the antenna
efficiency will be degraded.

The frequency of operation of the patch antenna of Figure 1 is determined by the

length L. The center frequency will be approximately given by:

c
f c≈
2 L √ Er

How do they work?

The microstrip consists of a very thin metallic strip placed on a ground plane with a
dielectric material in-between. The radiating element and feed lines are placed by the
process of photo-etching on the dielectric material. Usually, the patch or microstrip is
chosen to be square, circular or rectangular in shape for the ease of analysis and
fabrication.

The length of the metal patch should be λ/2. When the antenna is excited, the waves
generated within the di-electric undergo reflections and the energy is radiated from the
edges of the metal patch which is very low.
Radiation Pattern

The radiation pattern of the microstrip patch antenna is broad. It has low radiation
power and narrow frequency bandwidth. And lesser directivity as compared to other
antennas. But just like other directive antennas, an array of these patch antennas can
be made, in order to increase directivity.

The azimuth plane pattern is obtained by slicing through the x-z plane, and the
elevation plane pattern is formed by slicing through the y-z plane. Note that there is
one main lobe that is radiated out from the front of the antenna. There are three back
lobes in the elevation plane (in this case), the strongest of which happens to be 180
degrees behind the peak of the main lobe.