Microstrip antennas

• In high-performance aircrafts, spacecraft, satellite and missile applications,

where siza, weight, cost, performance, ease of installation and aerodynamic
profile are constraints, low profile antennas may be required.

 microstrip antennas can be used.

These antennas are low profile, conformable to planar and nonplanar

surfaces, simple and inexpensive to manufacture using modern printed-
circuit technology, mechanically robust when mounted on rigid surfaces,
are very versatile in terms of resonant frequency, polarization, pattern and
impedance.
Major operational disadvantage of microstrip antennas are their low
efficiency, low power, high Q, poor polarization purity, poor scan
performance, spurious feed radiation and very narrow frequency
bandwidth.
 Microstrip antennas

• Increasing the height of the substrate can be used to extend the efficiency
and bandwidth. However, as the height increases, surface waves are
introduced which usually are nor desirable because they extract power from
the total power available for direct radiation. The surface waves travel
within the substrate and they are scattered at bends and surface
discontinuities and degrade the antenna pattern and polarization
characteristics.
 Microstrip antennas: basic
characteristics
• Microstrip antennas consist of a very thin metallic strip placed above
a ground plane. The microstrip patch is designed so its pattern
maximum is normal to the patch. This is accomplished by properly
choosing the mode of excitation beneath the patch. The strip (patch)
and the ground plane are separated by a dielectric sheet (the
substrate).
 Microstrip antennas: basic
characteristics
• There are numerous substrates: their dielectric constants in
range of (2.2,12).
• Most desirable: thick substrate whose dielectric constant is in
the lower end of the range because they provide better
efficiency, larger bandwidth, loosely bound fields for radiation
into space, but at the expense of larger element size.
• Thin substrates with higher dielectric constants are desirable
for microwave circuitry: they require tightly bound fields to
minimize undesired radiation and coupling and lead to smaller
element sizes; however, because of their greater losses, they
are less efficient and have relatively smaller bandwidths.
• Since microstrip antennas are often integrated with other
microwave circuitry, a compromise has to be reached between
good antenna performance and circuit design.
 Microstrip antennas: basic
characteristics
• Often microstrip antennas are also referred to as patch
antennas. The radiating elements and the feed lines are
usually photoetched on the dielectric substrate. The
radiating patch may be square, rectangular, thin strip
(dipole), circular, elliptical, triangular etc.
 Feeding methods
• There are many configuration that can be used to feed
microstrip antennas.
• The four most popular are:
- the microstrip line,
- coaxial probe,
- aperture coupling
- proximity coupling.
The microstrip feed line is also a conducting strip, usually of
much smaller width compared to the patch. The line feed
is easy to fabricate, simple to match by controlling the
inset position and rather simple to model.
 Rectangular patch
• A rectangular microstrip antenna can be represented as an
array of two radiating narrow apertures (slots) each of
width W and height h, separated by a distance L.

Fringing effects (efectul de margine)

• Because the dimensions of the patch are finite along the
length and width, the fields at the edges of the patch
undergo fringing:
 Rectangular patch

• The amount of fringing is a

function of the dimensions
of the patch and the height
of the substrate.
• For the principal E-plane
(xy-plane), fringing is a
function of the ratio of the
length of the patch L to the
height h of the substrate
(L/h) and the dielectric
constant of the substrate.
 Rectangular patch
• For a microstrip line below, typical electric field lines are
shown.

• This is a nonhomogeneous line of two dielectrics (substrate and

air).
• most of the electric field lines concentrate mostly in the
substrate.
• Fringing in this case makes the microstrip line look wider
electrically compared to its physical dimensions.
 Rectangular patch
• Since some of the waves travel in the substrate and some
in air, an effective dielectric constant is introduced to
account for fringing and the wave propagation in the line:
1 / 2
r 1 r 1  h
 eff   1  12
2 2  W 

• Because of the fringing effects, electrically the patch of

the microstrip antenna looks greater than its physical
dimensions. The length of the line increases on each end
by a distance given by:
L
 eff  0.3  0.264 
W 
 0.412 h 
h
 eff  0.258  0.8 
W 
h 
 Rectangular patch
• Since the length of the patch has been extended by ΔL on each side, the
effective length becomes:

Leff  L  2L
• For the dominant TM010 mode, the microstrip antenna resonant frequency
is:
1
fr 
2L  2L   eff 0 0
 Conductance
• Each radiation slot: a parallel equivalent admittance Y
(with conductance G and susceptance B). For slot 1:
• Y1=G1+jB1

• Where for a slot of width W:  2

G1 
W
1 
1
k 0 h  
1200  24

B1 
W
1  0.636 ln k 0 h 
1200
 Conductance
• Slot 2 is identical to slot 1
• In general the
conductance is defined
as: 2P
G1  rad 2
V0

• The radiated power is

written as: 2
  k 0W 
2   sin  cos   
V0   2   sin 3 d
Prad  
2Z 0 0  cos  
 
 
• Therefore the
conductance is: sin( X )
I1 I1  2  cos X  XSi ( X ) 
G1  X
120 2
X=k0W
• Asymptotic values of G are:
2
1 W 
G1    W  0
90  0 

1 W 
  W  0
120  0 
 Resonant input impedance

• The total admitance at slot 1 (input adm) is obtained by

transferring the adm. of slot 2 from the output terminals to
input terminals
• Distance between lines=λ/2; fringing effect d< λ/2
• The transformed admitance of slot 2 becomes:Y~2  G~2  jB~2  G1  jB1
~
• Threfore the total input admitance is real: Y  Y  Y  2G   in 1 2 1

• To account for mutual effects between slots: R  1

2G  G 
in
1 12

• => the mutual conductance in the Far field zone (V_0=volt

across slot; J0 –1st kind& order 0): 2
  k 0W 
 sin  cos  
1  *  1   2   J k L sin  sin 3 d
G12  Re  E1  H 2 ds  2 
120 0  cos  
2 0 0
V0
 
 
• The resonant input impedance is referenced at slot 1. it can be changed
by using an inset feed. This technique can be used to match the patch
using a microstrip feed of Z_c

 60  8h W0  W0
 ln   , 1

 eff  0 W 4 h  h

Zc   120 W0
 1
  W0  1.393  0.667 ln  W0  1.444  h
 eff  h  h


• The input imp becomes:
1  2    G12  B12 2  B1  2 
Rin ( y  y 0 )  cos  y0   sin  y 0   sin  y 0 
2(G1  G12 )  L  Yc2
 L  Yc  L 

1    
Rin ( y  y0 ) G1 / Yc 1  cos 2  y0   Rin ( y  0) cos 2  y0 
B1 / Yc 1 2(G1  G12 ) L  L 
 Rectangular patch. Design
• A design procedure is outlined which leads to practical designs of
rectangular microstrip antennas. The procedure assumes that the
specified information includes the dielectric constant of the substrate,
the resonant frequency and the height of the substrate. The procedure
is as follows:
– -specify eps_r, f_r and h
– -determine W, L.
Design procedure:
– For an efficient radiator, a practical width that leads to good
radiation efficiencies is:
1 2 c 2
W   0
2 f r 0 0  r  1 2 fr r 1
 Rectangular patch. Design
• determine the effective dielectric constant of the microstrip antenna
• once W is found, determine the extension of the length
• the actual length of the patch can now be determined by solving L:

1
L  2L
2 f r  reff 0 0
 The radiated fields (for the TM010 mode)

• The microstrip antenna can be represented by two

radiating slots along the length of the patch (each of width
W and height h).
• Similarly it will be shown here that while there are a total
of four slots representing the microstrip antenna, only two
(radiating slots) account for most of the radiation; the
fields radiated by the other two which are separated by the
width W of the patch, cancel along the principal planes.
The radiated fields (for the TM010 mode)
 Rectangular patch

• The total field is the sum of the two element array with each
element representing one of the (identical) slots.

Er  E  0
k0hWE0e jk0 r sin X sin Z k L 
E  j sin  cos 0 e sin  sin  
r X Z  2 
k0 h
X  sin  cos 
2
k0W
Z cos
2

• voltage across the slot V0  E0 h

 Rectangular patch
• For the microstrip antenna, the x-y plane (θ=0) is the
principal E-plane.
• The H-plane is x-z plane. For small values of h (k0h<<1):

  k0 h   k0W 
 jk 0 r  sin  sin  sin  sin  
k0WV0e  2   2 
E  j sin  
r  k 0 h
sin 
k 0W
sin  
 2 2 
• Directivity
U max 4U max
D0  
• The directivity is: 2
U0 Prad
 2W  1
• for one slot: D0  
 0

 I1
sin( X )
I1  2  cos X  XSi ( X )  X  koW
X
 Rectangular patch
5.2dB,W  0

D0    W 
4 ,W  0
  0 

• For two slots the directivity asymptotically it

varies as:
8.2dB,W  0

D0    W 
8 ,W  0
  0 