Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology (2019) 14:339–345

https://doi.org/10.1007/s42835-018-00033-5

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Design and Fabrication of VHF Band Small Antenna Using Composite

Right/Left‑Handed Transmission Lines
Hee Jae Jun2 · Jonghyup Lee1 · Seongro Choi1 · Yong Bae Park1

Received: 18 July 2018 / Revised: 7 September 2018 / Accepted: 16 September 2018 / Published online: 4 January 2019
© The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers 2019

Abstract
This paper presents a small VHF antenna using a composite right/left-handed (CRLH) transmission lines. The proposed
antennas have 3 and 7 unit cells that consist of interdigital capacitors and shunt spiral inductors. The size of the antenna with
3 unit cells is 0.039λ × 0.025λ × 0.0008λ (72.9 × 47.5 × 1.52 mm3) at 161 MHz and its peak gain is − 33 dBi. To enhance the
gain, the antenna with 7 unit cells is fabricated. Its size is 0.089λ × 0.025λ × 0.0008λ (167.2 × 47.5 × 1.52 mm3) at 161.4 MHz
and its peak gain is − 26.5 dBi. The radiation pattern of both antennas is omni-directional. The electrical size in kr of each
antenna is 0.055 and 0.11, respectively. The effects of frequency characteristic of lumped elements on the impedance match-
ing are discussed.

Keywords  Composite right/left handed transmission line · VHF antenna · Zeroth-order resonance

1 Introduction RH property at high frequency. As the frequency is changed

The military communications in the VHF band typically use
monopole antennas, dipole antennas, and whip antennas [1,
2]. The size of those antennas is proportional to the wave-
length so that they have disadvantage in terms of mobility
and convenience in the VHF band. In order to overcome
these disadvantages, the small antennas are needed in the
VHF band.
There are many types of miniaturized antennas [3, 4].
Recently, small antennas using composite right/left-handed
transmission line (CRLH TL) have been extensively studied
[5–11]. CRLH TL shows LH property at low frequency and
Hee Jae Jun and Jonghyup Lee equally contributed first authors.
* Yong Bae Park
yong@ajou.ac.kr
Hee Jae Jun
hjjun@moasoftware.co.kr
Jonghyup Lee
indestructible@ajou.ac.kr
Seongro Choi
axwzs4869@ajou.ac.kr
1 also discussed.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ajou
University, Suwon, South Korea
2
MOASOFT Corporation, Seoul, South Korea
from low to high, the propagation constant is changed from
negative to positive, and CRLH TL structure has a size-inde-
pendent zeroth-order resonant frequency and the antenna can
be made smaller using the CRLH TL [12–15]. The small
antennas using CRLH TL have been investigated intensively
in the UHF band. However, the study of the VHF antennas
using CRLH TL seems to be lacking.
In this work, the antenna based on CRLH TL is designed
at VHF band. The proposed antennas have 3 and 7 unit
cells that consist of interdigital capacitors and shunt spi-
ral inductors. The size of the antenna with 3 unit cells is
0.039λ × 0.025λ × 0.0008λ (72.9 × 47.5 × 1.52  mm 3) at
161 MHz and its peak gain is − 33 dBi. To enhance the
gain, the antenna with 7 unit cells is fabricated. Its size is
0.089λ × 0.025λ × 0.0008λ (167.2 × 47.5 × 1.52  mm3) at
161.4 MHz and its peak gain is − 26.5 dBi. The electrical
size in kr of each antenna is 0.055 and 0.11, respectively.
The ‘k’ is the wavenumber. The physical size ‘r’ is the radius
of the smallest hemi-sphere that can enclose the antenna.
Usually, antennas with sizes less than 0.2 in kr are consid-
ered to be very small antennas. Therefore, our proposed
antennas are very small. The effects of frequency charac-
teristic of lumped elements on the impedance matching are

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340 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology (2019) 14:339–345

2 Design of CRLH TL Antenna

Figure 1 shows an equivalent circuit of a CRLH transmission

line. Since a left-handed (LH) transmission line consists of
a series capacitor and a shunt inductor, there is magnetic
flux between the series capacitors and it generates a para-
sitic series inductance in the transmission line. A parasitic
parallel capacitance is also generated by the top conductor
and the ground plane. Because of these phenomena, the LH
transmission line structure has also RH property. CRLH TL
has a zeroth-order resonant frequency in which the propaga-
tion number (β) becomes zero so that the antennas using the
CRLH TL can be made smaller. The zeroth-order resonant
frequency is determined by the shunt resonant frequency in
the case of open termination [11]:

1
𝜔sh = √ . (1)
CR LL

Figure  2 shows the unit cell of the proposed CRLH

transmission line. It consists of an interdigital capaci-
tor and a shunt spiral inductor. The interdigital capacitor
has a series capacitance (­ CL). The shunt inductance (­ LL)
is made of spiral inductor and via. The shunt capacitance
­(CR) and series inductance ­(LR) are parasitic components
as described above. The zeroth-order resonance of the unit
cell is designed at 160 MHz through optimization using
the Ansys HFSS software. The substrate is Taconic TLY-
5(εr = 2.2) with thickness of 1.52 mm and Table 1 shows
optimized dimensions of the unit cell. The size of the unit
cell is 0.013λ × 0.025λ × 0.0008λ (23.6 × 47.5 × 1.52 mm3).
The inductance of the spiral inductor (­ LL) is 99.6 nH and the
shunt capacitance (­ CR) is 9.93 pF. The spiral inductor is con-
nected to ground plane by via. Figure 3 shows the structure
of the CRLH TL antenna. The antenna is designed using
the Ansys HFSS software. It consists of 3 unit cells and the
size is 0.039λ × 0.025λ × 0.0008λ (72.9 × 47.5 × 1.52 mm3)
Fig. 2  Unit cell of CRLH TL
at 161 MHz. The electrical size in kr of the antenna is 0.055.
The simulated return loss characteristic of the antenna is
shown in Fig.  4. The zeroth-order resonant frequency
is 161 MHz. The fractional bandwidth of the antenna at
zeroth-order resonant frequency is 0.18%. The resonant
frequency of − 1 mode is 119 MHz. Figure 5 illustrates
with 3 unit cells at 161 MHz the electric field distributions
at zeroth-order resonant frequency. It is seen that there is
no phase difference of the field due to zero phase constant
(β = 0). Figure 6 shows the simulation results of normalized
Table 1  Dimensions of the unit cell
Design parameter Value

Substrate thickness 1.52 mm

Dielectric constant 2.2
 idc 1 mm
 Lc 19 mm
 s 0.7 mm
 wc 33.3 mm
Number of IDC’s finger 20
Spiral inductor turns 5
Via radius 0.2 mm
 ws 4 mm
 Pitch 1.2 mm
 Rin 0.4 mm
 lw 0.6 mm
Fig. 1  Equivalent circuit of CRLH TL

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Fig. 3  The structure of CRLH TL antenna with 3 unit cells

-5
return loss (dB)

-10 Fig. 6  Simulated normalized radiation pattern of CRLH TL antenna,

N = 3

-15

-20
100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180

frequency / MHz

Fig. 4  Return loss of CRLH TL antenna with 3 unit cells

Fig. 7  The structure of CRLH TL antenna with 7 unit cells

0.11. The antenna gain can be enhanced by increasing the

Fig. 5  Electric field distribution of CRLH TL antenna
radiation pattern of the antenna. The antenna has an omni-
directional radiation pattern and its peak gain is − 33 dBi.
To enhance the gain, we design the antenna with more unit
cells of CRLH TL. Figure 7 shows the CRLH TL antenna
with 7 unit cells. Its real size is 0.089λ × 0.025λ × 0.0008λ
(167.2 × 47.5 × 1.52 mm3) and its electrical size in kr is
number of unit cells because the gain of small antennas
is proportional to antenna’s size. However, an impedance
mismatch occurs if the number of the unit cells increases.
Figure 8 shows input impedances of the 3 cell antenna and
the impedance mismatched 7 cell antenna. Note that the 3
cell antenna has a zeroth-order resonance at 161 MHz but
the 7 cell antenna does not have a zeroth-order resonance
near 160 MHz. Two inductors are used for the L-section
impedance matching of the proposed 7 cell antenna. Fig-
ure 9 illustrates the simulated return loss before and after
applying the L-section matching. The zeroth-order resonant
frequency is 163 MHz. The zeroth-order resonant frequency
is almost equal to that of the three-cell antenna. Figure 10
shows simulation results of the normalized radiation pattern.

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342 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology (2019) 14:339–345

-5
return loss (dB)

-10

-15
3 Cell
7 Cell
-20
130 140 150 160 170 180
frequency / MHz

Fig. 8  Return loss of the 3 cell antenna and the impedance mis-

matched 7 cell antenna

0 Fig. 10  Simulated normalized radiation pattern of CRLH TL antenna,

N = 7
return loss (dB)

-5

-10

-15
Before Matching
After Matching
-20
130 140 150 160 170 180
frequency / MHz

Fig. 9  Return loss of CRLH TL antenna with 7 unit cells

The antenna has omni-directional pattern and its peak gain

is − 26.5 dBi. The gain is enhanced by 6.5 dBi compared
with 3 unit cells.

3 Fabrication and Measurement
Figure 11 shows the fabricated antennas. The L-section
matching network with CTC Ceratech CI-B1608-271 series
chip inductor with a value of 270 nH and CTC Ceratech
CI-B1608-181 shunt inductor with a value of 180 nH is used
for impedance matching.
Figure 12 shows the simulated and measured return loss
of the antenna with 3 unit cells. The comparison between
simulation and measurement shows a good agreement. Note
Fig. 11  Photograph of fabricated antenna
that the return loss is − 10.58 dB at 161 MHz. Figure 13
illustrates the simulated and measured return loss of the
including calculation result antenna with 7 unit cells. It seen
that the zeroth-order resonant frequencies are almost equal at
around 161.4 MHz, but the measured data has a wider band-
width than the simulation result. The fractional bandwidth of

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Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology (2019) 14:339–345 343

5 10
real-sim
real-meas
0 8

-5 6
return loss (dB)

)
Impedance (
-10 4

-15 2
simulation
measurement
-20 0
100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 150 155 160 165 170 175 180

frequency / MHz frequency / MHz

(a) real part

Fig. 12  Return loss of fabricated antenna with 3 unit cells
-50

-100
0
)
Impedance (

-5
return loss (dB)

-10 -150

-15
imag-sim

-20 imag-meas
-200
simulation 150 155 160 165 170 175 180
-25
measurement
frequency / MHz
-30
130 140 150 160 170 180
(b) imaginary part
frequency / MHz
Fig. 14  Input impedance of fabricated antenna with 7 unit cells

Fig. 13  Return loss of fabricated antenna with 7 unit cells

series chip inductor(270nH)

600
fabricated antenna is 2.97%, and that of simulated antenna is
0.24%. In order to analyze this error, the impedances of the
400
antenna and lumped elements are measured and compared
with ideal impedances. Figure 14 shows the measured and
)

200
simulated input impedance of the 7 cell antenna. It is seen
Impedance (

that the real part of the measured input impedance is smaller 0

than that of the simulated input impedance and the imagi-
nary parts of them are almost the same. Figures 15 and 16 -200 real(extraction)
depict the actual impedances extracted from measurements imag(extraction)
of the series inductor and the shunt inductor, respectively. -400 ideal
We measured the impedance of the antenna without the
lumped element using network analyzer. Then, we measured 150 155 160 165 170 175 180
the impedance of the antenna with the lumped element. By frequency / MHz
subtracting the impedance of the antenna without the lumped
element from that with the lumped element, we can extract Fig. 15  Extracted impedance of series chip inductor

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344 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology (2019) 14:339–345

paraller chip inductor(180nH) Table 2  Performance comparison between 3 cell antenna and 7 cell
antenna
600
3 cell antenna 7 cell antenna

400 Size (kr) 0.055 0.11

Resonant frequency (MHz) 161 161.4
)

200 Return loss (dB) − 10.58 − 23.78

Impedance (

Fractional BW (%) 0.18 2.97

Gain (dBi) − 33 − 26.5
0

real(extraction) should be considered for the impedance matching. Table 2

-200 imag(extraction) shows the antenna performance comparison between 3 cell
ideal antenna and 7 cell antenna.
-400
150 155 160 165 170 175 180

frequency / MHz
Fig. 16  Extracted impedance of shunt chip inductor
the actual impedance of the lumped element and obtain its
frequency characteristic. Note that the actual impedances
deviate from the ideal impedances in terms of frequency.
Figure 17 shows the measured data and the calculated data.
The calculated data is acquired by using the measured input
impedance of the antenna without the lumped element and
the extracted impedances of two inductors. The comparison
between calculated data and measured data shows a good
agreement since the actual impedances are used for the
analysis. We have figured out that the actual impedance is
different from the ideal impedance of the lumped element.
It means that the impedance mismatch occurs if we use the
ideal values of lumped elements for the impedance match-
ing. Therefore, the frequency dependent characteristic of
lumped elements and the actual impedance of the antenna
5
4 Conclusion
The small antennas using CRLH TL has been designed
and fabricated at VHF band. The proposed antennas have
3 and 7 unit cells which consist of interdigital capacitors
and shunt spiral inductors. The antenna with 3 unit cells has
size of 0.039λ × 0.025λ × 0.0008λ (72.9 × 47.5 × 1.52 mm3)
at 161  MHz and its peak gain is − 33 dBi. The
size of 7 cell antenna is 0.089λ × 0.025λ × 0.0008λ
(167.2 × 47.5 × 1.52 mm3) at 161.4 MHz and its peak gain
is − 26.5 dBi. Increasing the number of unit cells, the gain of
antenna has been enhanced. The effects of frequency char-
acteristic of lumped elements on the impedance matching
also have been discussed. The antenna based on CRLH TL
can overcome the physical limitation of the conventional
military antenna. Therefore, the proposed antennas can be
used for military communication in the VHF band.
Acknowledgements  This work has been supported by the Future Com-
bat System Network Technology Research Center program of Defense
Acquisition Program Administration and Agency for Defense Develop-
ment (UD160070BD).

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Fig. 17  Return loss of fabricated antenna with 7 unit cells

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Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology (2019) 14:339–345 345

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sion line theory and microwave applications. Wiley, New York trical engineering from the
Korea Advanced Institute of Sci-
ence and Technology, South
Hee Jae Jun  received B.S and Korea, in 1998, 2000, and 2003,
M.S. degree in the department of respectively. From 2003 to 2006,
Electrical and Computer Engi- he was with the Korea Telecom
neering from the Ajou Univer- Laboratory, Seoul, South Korea.
sity, Suwon, Rep. of Korea, in In 2006, he joined the School of
2016 and 2018, respectively. He Electrical and Computer Engi-
is currently with MOASOFT neering, Ajou University, South
Corporation. His research inter- Korea, where he is now a Profes-
ests include electromagnetic sor. His research interests
field scattering analysis and include electromagnetic field
metamaterial antennas . analysis, metamaterial antennas,
and electromagnetic interference and compatibility .

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