Hindawi Publishing Corporation

International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

Volume 2016, Article ID 9845392, 5 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/9845392
Publication Year 2016

Research Article
A Dual-Band Printed End-Fire Antenna with DSPSL Feeding

Daofeng Ye,1,2 Yuanxin Li,1,2 Zhixi Liang,1,2 and Yunliang Long1,2

1
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
2
SYSU-CMU Shunde International Joint Research Institute, Shunde 528300, China

Correspondence should be addressed to Yuanxin Li; liyuanx@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Received 17 December 2015; Revised 28 April 2016; Accepted 9 May 2016

Academic Editor: N. Nasimuddin

Copyright © 2016 Daofeng Ye et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A novel dual-band printed end-fired antenna with double-sided parallel-strip line (DSPSL) feeding is presented. The DSPSL acts
in wideband transition using balanced transmission. Two different modes of the parasitic patches allow the antenna to work in
different bands. The printed antenna is designed as a quasi-Yagi structure to achieve directivity in the lower band, and the parallel
rectangular patches serve as the parasitic director. These patches act as radiation patches with end-fire direction characteristics
in the upper band. The measured bandwidths were 18.3% for the lower frequency band (2.28–2.74 GHz) and 12.6% for the upper
frequency band (5.46–6.2 GHz).

1. Introduction bandwidth due to the limited transmission structure. The

use of double-sided parallel-strip line (DSPSL) has potential
Owing to excellent characteristics including a low profile,
to overcome this problem. Due to its balance structure,
simple structure, and low cost, printed end-fire antenna
more freedom can be provided in the microwave circuit
has been widely studied and used in many applications.
design. In the past, most studies of DSPSL focused on the
Microstrip-fed quasi-Yagi antenna [1] is a conventional
microwave circuit design, such as the ultrawide band balun
printed antenna. To increase its bandwidth, it changes its
and the low-pass filter [9, 10]. Additional characterization and
transmission structure [2]. Another approach used a wide-
optimization of DSPSL have led to its wide application in the
band quasi-Yagi antenna with a microstrip-to-slotline as its
design of antenna performance [11, 12].
balun [3]. Another application used an I-shape resonator to
In this paper, a new dual-band printed end-fired antenna
obtain a gain enhancement of about 4–6 dB [4].
is presented. The antenna is fed by DSPSL to achieve two
Because of more diverse applications required for mobile operation bands. Two modes of this printed antenna allow
wireless communication, some antennas for those devices function with dual-band characteristic. In different operating
require not only broad-band capabilities but the dual-band bands, the proposed antenna uses parallel rectangular patches
property. A conventional approach to achieve dual-band either as a director element or as radiation patches, and the
activity is using branch structure. In [5], the antenna with driver dipole alternatively acts as the radiation part or feeding
a simple branch structure allowed nonfixed base station part. The lower band (2.28–2.74 GHz) is centred at 2.4 GHz
backhaul in GSM communication. A printed antenna [6] for and its upper band (5.46–6.2 GHz) is centred at 5.8 GHz.
dual-band operations of L1-band Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS) and S-band China Mobile Multimedia Broad- 2. Antenna Design
casting (CMMB) was realized by using a meandered driven
dipole and a concave parabolic reflector, and an analogous Figure 1 shows the layout of the proposed dual-band printed
dual-band quasi-Yagi Wi-Fi antenna was proposed in [7]. end-fired antenna. Each side of the antenna is symmetrical,
Another method was used for a proposed dual-band quasi- with an arm of driver dipole, the DSPSL, a parallel rectangular
Yagi antenna [8] based on application of split ring resonators patch, and a bent reflector. Figure 2 shows the top side of
(SRRs) to provide dual-mode, but this device had a narrow the proposed antenna. In order to operate in dual-band,
2 International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

y Director
z
Driver

Reflector

Top layer
Bottom layer

Figure 1: A dual-band printed end-fire antenna geometry.

x L5
S2 W2
y W1
z W1
L4
W1
L1 L2 L3
S1 W1

Figure 2: Dimensions of proposed dual-band printed end-fired antenna’s top side.

Table 1: Parameter of the proposed antenna. ensure end-fire direction without offset. The characteristic
impendence of DSPSL is calculated with the modified ratio
Symbol 𝐿1 𝐿2 𝐿3 𝐿4 𝐿5 𝑊1 𝑊2 𝑆1 𝑆2
of the patch’s width to the thickness of the substrate in [11];
Size (mm) 25 35 20 25.35 17.6 2 5 0.5 1 that is,
120𝜋
the parallel rectangular patches are positioned on the top 𝑍0 = , (1)
√𝜀eff [𝑊 + 1.393 + 0.667 ln (𝑊 + 1.444)]
plane in place of the conventional parasitic dipole, allowing
two independent modes, parasitic mode and radiation mode. where 𝜀eff is the effective dielectric constant of the substrate.
The DSPSL acts as the feeding structure because it can The suitable expression of 𝜀eff is
provide balanced current at any frequency and broaden the
bandwidth. Overall, the structure is simple. The reflector 𝜀𝑟 + 1 𝜀𝑟 − 1 1
dipole is bent and its overall length is about twice the 𝜀eff = + , (2)
2 2 √1 + 10/𝑊
length of the driver dipole. The difference in the arms of the
reflector allows changing the directivity of the two operating where 𝜀𝑟 is the relative dielectric constant of the substrate. 𝑊
frequencies. The parameters of the proposed antenna are is the modified ratio. For the nonoffset DSPSL,
shown in Table 1.
All the patches, including the driver dipole, the parallel 𝑇
𝑊= − 1, (3)
rectangular patches, the periodic offset DSPSL structure, and ℎ
the bent reflectors, are printed on a Wangling Teflon woven
glass fabric substrate with relative dielectric constant of 𝜀𝑟 = where 𝑇 is the width of the patch and ℎ is the thickness of the
2.65, the dielectric loss tangent of tan 𝜃 = 0.0015, and the substrate in the DSPSL.
thickness of ℎ = 0.8 mm. In the traditional design, the length According to (2), the characteristic impendence of this
of the driver dipole (2×𝐿4) is approximately a half wavelength DSPSL is about 50 Ω. The bandwidth is wider compared to
(𝜆/2) and about twice the length of the DSPSL (𝐿1). To the conventional printed quasi-Yagi antenna because of its
achieve a good match between the DSPSL and the driver, the balanced transmission structure.
widths of them are the same. The 𝐸-field magnitudes of two operating frequency are
shown in Figure 3, and they are obviously different. This
difference results from two different modes of the parallel
3. Antenna Analysis rectangular patches, a director mode and a radiation mode.
Due to the opposite current direction in DSPSL, the trans- In Figure 3(a), the proposed antenna is a traditional quasi-
mission structure has no electromagnetic wave radiation and, Yagi antenna, and the electric field distributed in the dipole
compared with the antenna presented in [8], the current is apparently stronger than the rectangular patch at 2.4 GHz.
directions of the double arms of the dipole are the same to The radiation of the antenna is mostly generated by the
International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 3

E-field (V/m)
1.0000e + 004
9.2861e + 003
8.5722e + 003
7.8584e + 003
7.1445e + 003
6.4306e + 003
5.7167e + 003
5.0028e + 003
4.2890e + 003
3.5751e + 003
2.8612e + 003
2.1473e + 003
1.4334e + 003
7.1955e + 002
5.6716e + 000

(a)
E-field (V/m)
1.0000e + 004
9.2858e + 003
8.5716e + 003
7.8574e + 003
7.1432e + 003
6.4291e + 003
5.7149e + 003
5.0007e + 003
4.2865e + 003
3.5723e + 003
2.8581e + 003
2.1439e + 003
1.4297e + 003
7.1556e + 002
1.3729e + 000

(b)

Figure 3: 𝐸-field magnitude of the antenna at (a) 2.4 GHz and (b) 5.8 GHz.

driver dipole and the parallel rectangular patches operate 0

in parasitic mode to act as a conventional parasitic director
element, identical to the mechanism of the traditional print
quasi-Yagi antenna.
When antenna resonates at 5.8 GHz in Figure 3(b), the −10
power mainly radiates out from the parallel rectangular
patches. The 𝐸-field magnitude of the edge of rectangular
patches as well as the part of the dipole that is located below
S11 (dB)

the rectangular patches is stronger. The driver dipole has an

alternative mode of operation in this operation band and −20
acts in feeding, not as radiation parts. In this condition, the
dipole of the antenna forces a time-varying magnetic field in 1.227 GHz
the axial direction of the rectangular patches, thus forcing 1.575 GHz
1.8 GHz
the parallel rectangular patches to resonate at 5.8 GHz. This
−30
reveals that the parallel rectangular patches are in radiation 0.9 GHz
mode and behave like a radiation source at high frequency.
In this situation, two frequencies are generated indepen- 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1
dently of each other. The frequencies are easily controlled by Frequency (GHz)
changing the length of the dipole and the patches, the length
of the dipole is approximately a half wavelength of the lower L4 = 75 mm, L5 = 65 mm
frequency, and the patches have the same length of about half L4 = 57.1 mm, L5 = 76.7 mm
the wavelength of the upper frequency. The 𝑆-parameter (𝑆11) Figure 4: The simulated 𝑆11 with different lengths of the dipole and
of the antennas with different lengths of the dipole and the the patches.
patches are shown in Figure 4 and they can work separately
in the GMS band and GNSS band.

were measured and are shown in Figure 6. The proposed

4. Measured Result antenna works at two bands: a low operating frequency
A dual-band printed end-fire antenna was fabricated and is of 2.4 GHz with 18.3% bandwidth which is provided from
shown in Figure 5. The 𝑆11 results of the proposed antenna 2.28 GHz to 2.74 GHz and an upper operating frequency of
4 International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

x x

330
30
y z
y

300
60

−10 dB

−20 dB
−30 dB

270
90
(a) Top layer

120

240
x

y
z

150

210
180
Copolarization (2.4 GHz) Cross-polarization (2.4 GHz)
Copolarization (5.8 GHz) Cross-polarization (5.8 GHz)
(a)
x

330
30
(b) Bottom layer z

300
Figure 5: Fabricated dual-band printed end-fired antenna.
60

−10 dB

−20 dB

−30 dB

270
90

−10
S11 (dB)

−20

−30
120

240
−40

−50
150

210

1 2 3 4 5 6
180

Frequency (GHz)

Measurement Copolarization (2.4 GHz) Cross-polarization (2.4 GHz)

Simulation Copolarization (5.8 GHz) Cross-polarization (5.8 GHz)
Figure 6: Measured and simulated 𝑆11 for the antenna. (b)

Figure 7: Measured radiation pattern of the antenna in (a) x-y plane

and (b) x-z plane.

5.8 GHz that is generated by the radiation mode of the parallel

rectangular patches, with a bandwidth of about 12.6%.
The far-field radiation patterns are measured and shown 5. Conclusion
in Figure 7. End-fire radiation patterns were detected in the
x-y and the x-z planes at two frequencies. The main lobe of the A dual-band printed end-fired antenna with DSPSL feeding
antenna points to the +x direction. Figure 8 shows the gains is presented. The proposed antenna has dual-band capacity
and efficiencies of the dual-bands. In different bands, the peak resulting from substitution of the conventional director of the
gain of the proposed antenna was about 5.2 dB. The measured linear parasitic element with parallel rectangular patches. The
total efficiency was 83%∼95% from 2.2 GHz to 2.8 GHz and application of the DSPSL easily simplifies the transmission
84% ∼98% from 5.4 GHz to 6.3 GHz. structure. This antenna has a simple structure and will
International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 5

6 1 6 1

Measured peak gain (dB)

Measured peak gain (dB)

5 0.8 5 0.8

Total efficiency

Total efficiency
4 4
0.6 0.6
3 3
0.4 0.4
2 2
1 0.2 1 0.2

0 0 0 0
2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 5.4 5.6 5.8 6 6.2
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)
(a) (b)

Figure 8: Gain and efficiency of (a) lower operating band and (b) upper operating band.

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