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0018-926X/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE
Broadband Circularly Polarized Annular-Ring Microstrip
Antenna
Yong-Xin Guo, Lei Bian, and Xiang Quan Shi
Abstract—A wideband circularly polarized (CP) annular-ring patch an-
tenna with two proximity-coupled L-probe feeds orientated to have phases
of 0 and 90 , using a broadband 90 hybrid feed, is proposed. It is found
that the current distribution for CP operation can be improved by cutting
a smaller concentric circular slot on the original larger circular patch to
form an annular-ring patch. With such an arrangement, the proposed an-
tenna delivers a wider axial ratio (AR) bandwidth than that of the conven-
tional circular patch with the identical feeding technique. Considering the
common overlapped bandwidth limited by the impedance, AR and gain,
the proposed annular-ring patch antenna exhibits an effective bandwidth
of 38% from 1.5 to 2.2 GHz, which is wider than the corresponding band-
width of 29.7% from 1.35 to 1.82 GHz for the conventional circular patch.
Moreover, the effective bandwidth of 38% for the proposed annular-ring
antenna is also much wider than those for the other annular-ring patch an-
tennas in the literature.
Index Terms—Circular-polarization, microstrip antennas, wideband an-
tennas.
I. INTRODUCTION
Circularly polarized (CP) patch antennas have attracted much atten-
tion for mobile wireless and satellite communications because they al-
lows for greater flexibility in orientation angle between transmitter and
receiver antennas, better mobility and weather penetration, and reduc-
tion in multipath reflections. The general limitations of the CP patch an-
tennas are the achievable impedance and axial-ratio (AR) bandwidths.
Traditionally, the allowable 3-dB AR bandwidth is typically less than
10% for the single-feed cases [1]–[4]. Much wider impedance and AR
bandwidths can be achieved for dual-feed and quadruple-feed CP patch
antennas [5]–[13]. Patch antennas [12], [13] with quadruple broad-
band feeds [14], [15] were found to experimentally achieve 10 dB
impedance bandwidths of around 70  80% and 3 dB AR bandwidths
of 80%. Although the quadruple-feed CP patch antenna offers much
wider impedance and AR bandwidths, it may result in a larger footprint
beneath the patch and could be a problem for forming antenna arrays.
Thus, the dual-feed CP patch antennas are still much of interest.
Annular-ring patch antennas have received considerate attention
[16]–[22]. When operated in the fundamental TM11 mode, the size
of the annular ring patch antenna is smaller than that of the circular
or rectangular patch for a given frequency. In application to array
designs, this allows the antenna elements to be more densely packed,
thereby reducing the grating-lobe problem. When operated at the
TM12 mode, it has a relatively wider impedance bandwidth. Most
CP annular ring patch antennas in the reported articles have narrow
bandwidths less than 10% [17]–[22].
Manuscript received November 02, 2008; revised January 19, 2009. First pub-
lished June 05, 2009; current version published August 05, 2009. This work was
supported in part by the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research
Fund Tier 1 project R-263-000-534-133.
Y.-X. Guo is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore (e-mail:
yxguo@ieee.org).
L. Bian and X. Q. Shi are with the Nanjing University of Science and Tech-
nology, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, 210094.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2009.2024584
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 8, AUGUST 2009
G = 180 mm, L = 11 mm, R = 1 mm, H = 20 mm, t = 0 8 mm,
Fig. 1. Geometry of the CP circular patch antenna and the annular-ring patch antenna
" = 3 38 = 1
: ," ; Patch antenna: D = 76 5 mm d = 0 mm L = 35 mm S = 9 mm; Annular-ring patch antenna: D = 70 mm, d = 20 mm,
: , , ,
L = 30 mm S = 19 mm
, .
In this paper, a wideband CP annular-ring patch antenna with two
L-probe feeds is presented. The current distributions on the conven-
tional circular patch are found not in order for CP operation at higher
frequencies of the passband. A smaller concentric circular slot cut on
the original larger circular patch is proposed to form an annular-ring
patch antenna. As such, the current distributions at the upper band
can be improved to be more symmetrical. Thus the proposed antenna
delivers a wider AR bandwidth than that of the circular patch using
the identical feeding technique. Considering the common overlapped
bandwidth limited by the impedance, AR and gain, the proposed
annular-ring patch antenna exhibits an effective bandwidth of 38%
from 1.5–2.2 GHz, which is wider than the corresponding bandwidth
of 29.7% from 1.35–1.82 GHz for the conventional circular patch.
Moreover, the obtained effective bandwidth of 38% for the proposed
antenna is much wider than those for the other annular-ring patch
antennas in the literature [17]–[22].
II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION AND DESIGN
The antenna shown in Fig. 1 has a copper circular patch (d = 0 mm)
of diameter D1 = 76:5 mm positioned at a height of 20 mm above
a square PCB ground plane of 180 mm by 180 mm. The two copper
L-probe feeds are of diameter 2.0 mm, horizontal length, Lh , 11 mm,
and vertical length, Lv1 , 35 mm, were soldered onto the respective
output ports of a wideband feed network. The circular patch is excited
by the two copper L-probe feeds orientated to have phases of 0 and
90 . The employed broadband microstrip feed network provides equal
amplitude and 90 phase shift across a wide bandwidth [12]. In this
design, a planar feed network operating at the central frequency of 1.8
GHz was designed on the microwave substrate RO4003 having thick-
ness 0.8 mm and dielectric constant 3.38.
By investigating the current distributions for the circular patch as
shown in Fig. 2, it is found that the current distributions on the circular
patch are not in order for CP operation at the center part at higher fre-
quencies. From Fig. 2, a current corner was found for the case at 2.2
GHz, which could exhibit more linear polarization. As such, to improve
the AR bandwidth of the circular patch antenna, a smaller concentric
circular slot is proposed to be cut on the original larger circular patch
to form an annular-ring patch, as shown in Fig. 1. With such an ar-
rangement, the current distribution at 2.2 GHz has been improved to
be more symmetrical and a wider AR bandwidth is achieved. The an-
nular ring patch antenna has a copper annular patch of outer diameter
D2 = 70 mm and inner diameter d = 20 mm at a height of 20 mm
above the square PCB ground plane of 180 mm by 180 mm. The two
2475
:
copper L-probe feeds are of diameter 2.0 mm, horizontal length, Lh ,
11 mm, and vertical length, Lv2 , 30 mm. It is seen from the simula-
tion in Fig. 4 that the operating frequencies for the annular-ring patch
are from 1.15–2.23 GHz with a relative bandwidth of 64% for AR less
than 3 dB. These results reveal significant enhancements in the AR
bandwidth for the annular-ring patch over the circular patch antenna.
The circular slot cut on the patch only improves the AR bandwidth by
adjusting the current distribution in the patch especially at higher fre-
quencies. The software IE3D is used in the optimization. Note that the
current distributions for both circular patch and annular-ring patch an-
tennas were taken at a certain time. In the simulation by IE3D, it is
observed that the currents for CP antennas rotate all the time and the
current directions can be at any angle. Moreover, we also changed the
feed substrate dielectric constant to shift the operation frequency and
found that the effect of using the ring slot cut on the patch to improve
the current distribution was still valid.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Figs. 3–5 depict simulated and measured results for the SWR, AR
and gain of the proposed CP annular-ring patch antenna. It is observed
from Fig. 3 that the CP annular-ring patch antenna exhibits measured
and simulated impedance bandwidths of 67% from 1.1–2.2 GHz and
65% from 1.12–2.2 GHz for SWR < 2, respectively. Note that the
regular single L-probe single element rectangular patch antenna has
a typical impedance bandwidth (SWR < 2) of around 30% [23].
It is observed that the circular patch antenna fed by two proximity-
coupled L-probes orientated to have phases of 0 and 90 , using a
narrow-band 90 hybrid couplers, delivers a 10-dB return loss band-
width of 42% [11]. As compared with the results in [11], [23], it is seen
that much wider impedance bandwidth was achieved for the CP an-
nular-ring patch antenna with the proposed wideband 90 hybrid feed
networks. Referring to Fig. 4, the CP annular-ring patch antenna ex-
hibits a measured 3-dB AR bandwidth of 60% from 1.23–2.28 GHz,
which is derived from the measured E- and H-plane linear radiation pat-
terns. The standard linear-polarization horn antennas were employed
for the antenna radiation measurements. The simulated 3-dB AR band-
width is 64% from 1.15–2.23 GHz. From Fig. 5, it is seen that the CP
annular patch antenna exhibits a measured and simulated gain band-
widths of 38% from 1.5–2.2 GHz and 41% from 1.5–2.28 GHz for the
gain > 3 dBi, respectively. Meanwhile, it is seen from Figs. 3–5 that
the patch antenna shows a simulated impedance bandwidth of 60.4%
from 1.18–2.20 GHz for SWR < 2, a simulated AR bandwidth of 43%
from 1.18–1.82 GHz for AR < 3 dB, and a simulated gain bandwidth
2476
Fig. 2. Current distributions on the circular patch and the annular-ring patch
(a) 1.4 GHz (b) 1.8 GHz (c) 2.2 GHz.
Fig. 3. SWR of the CP circular and annular-ring patch antenna.
of 50% from 1.35–2.25 GHz for gain >3 dBi. Considering the common
overlapped bandwidth limited by the impedance, AR and gain, the pro-
posed annular-ring patch antenna exhibits an effective bandwidth of
38% from 1.5–2.2 GHz, which is much wider than the corresponding
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 8, AUGUST 2009
Fig. 4. Axial ratio of the CP circular and annular-ring patch antenna.
Fig. 5. Gain of the CP annular-ring patch antenna.
bandwidth of 29.7% from 1.35–1.82 GHz for the conventional circular
patch. Moreover, the obtained effective bandwidth of 38% for the pro-
posed antenna is much wider than those for the other annular-ring patch
antennas in the literature [17]–[22].
Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show the measured radiation patterns in the X-Z
and Y-Z planes for the CP annular-ring patch antenna at three different
frequencies 1.5, 1.8, and 2.1 GHz. The radiation patterns are stable in
the passband.
The results reveal a significant enhancement in the AR bandwidth
for the proposed annular-ring over the circular patch antenna and the
other annular-ring patch antennas in the literature [17]–[22]. The CP
bandwidth of the annular-ring patch antenna is enhanced because its
current distributions can be adjusted by the circular slot cut on it. The
impedance bandwidths of the antennas are enhanced due to using the
L-probe feeding technique and a thick substrate.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a wideband CP annular-ring patch antenna with two
proximity-coupled L-probe feeds connected to the broadband 90 hy-
brid has been presented. Considering the common overlapped band-
width limited by the impedance, AR and gain, the proposed annular-
ring patch antenna exhibits an effective bandwidth of 38% from 1.5–2.2
GHz, which is wider than the corresponding bandwidth of 29.7% from
1.35 to 1.82 GHz for the conventional circular patch. Moreover, the ef-
fective bandwidth of 38% for the proposed annular-ring antenna is also
much wider than those for the other annular-ring patch antennas in the
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 8, AUGUST 2009 2477

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