A Capacitive Fed Microstrip Patch Antenna with Air Gap for

Wideband Applications
Portilla, Maria., Rivera, Cristhian., Zambrano, Jenny ,
majitotkm 13@hotmail.com, cristhian.rivera@hotmail.com,
jenny.zambrano.palacio@hotmail.com

Abstract- In this paper, two types of mi- radiations from the feed network while improv-
crostrip antennas, one that will perform the ing the impedance bandwidth[3,4]. Many of
functions of transmitter and that will be per- these have relatively complex assembly, which
formed on a suspended substrate with capaci- in some cases is contrary to the fundamen-
tive feed is presented, and the other that will tal attraction of MSAs. The coaxial probe is
perform the functions of transmitter and that a simple feeding method for electrically thick
for its design has been assigned an array of substrates. In these substrates, the inductance
2 antennas that work at the same frequency. of the probe may create the impedance mis-
Capacitive feed of the transmitting antenna is match which can be compensated by wideband
created by a slot within the rectangular patch impedance-matching networks, edge-coupled
around the feed point. The proposed antenna patches, stacked elements, shaped probes, and
exhibits a much higher impedance bandwidth finally capacitive coupling and cutting slots
of about 13.25 percent (S11 < -10 dB). Effects on the patch[5, 6]. Several innovative feeding
of key design parameters such as the air gap techniques have also been suggested to improve
between the substrate and the ground plane, the bandwidth which included modification to
the gap width between radiator patch and feed a meandered[7] and L-probe[8] feeds. Alterna-
point, and the location of the feed point on the tively, recently capacitive fed suspended MSA
input characteristics of the antenna have been configurations with improvement of bandwidth
investigated and discussed. are found in the literatures[9,10]. A rectangu-
lar MSA with a small coplanar capacitive feed
Keywords:Microstrip, patch antenna, capaci- strip is reported in[9]. In this antenna the radi-
tive fed, suspended, wideband ator patch and a smaller feed patch are located
on the same plane and the antenna substrate is
I. INTRODUCTION located above the ground plane with an air gap
Microstrip patch antennas are widely preferred separation. A circularly polarized (CP) MSA
for wireless communication systems that typ- on a suspended substrate with a capacitive
ically require antennas with small size, light feed and a slot within the rectangular patch is
weight, low profile, and low cost[1]. However, proposed[10]. Moreover, an annular ring and
basic geometries of these antennas suffer from narrow rectangular slots around the feed point
a small bandwidth, which is of the order of in the radiating patch are presented in liter-
a few percent of the operational frequency. ature[12], respectively. By choosing suitable
Therefore, it has been investigated by several dimensions of the ring or rectangular slot, the
researchers that the bandwidth of Microstrip large probe reactance can be compensated. A
Antenna (MSA) can be significantly improved. good impedance matching over a wide band-
These alterations include, increasing the height width can be also obtained.
(or thickness) of the substrate, cutting slots in
the basic shapes, changing the shape of the II. ANTENNA DESIGN AND CONFIGURA-
geometry, using multi layer techniques, meta- TION
materials, or adding a shorting pin and so on
[2,3]. Typically, aperture and electromagnetic II.I ANTENNA WITH CAPACITIVE COU-
coupling methods of feeding are also used in PLING
stacked configurations to avoid the spurious

1
The basic geometry of proposed antenna is scribed here is to etch a rectangular gap on
shown in Figure 1. The antenna substrate the patch concentric with the probe feed. This
is placed above the ground plane with a dis- introduces a series capacitance at the patch
tance of H. As will be shown in Section III, input and results in a much lower input re-
this distance has an important role in maxi- sistance and therefore a usable input stripline
mizing the obtained bandwidth. The antenna impedance of 40 to 120 ohms, depending on the
structure is fabricated on an FR4 substrate magnitude of the capacitance[11]. The idea be-
with dielectric constant of 4.4, loss tangent of hind the capacitive feed is quite simple. At
0.02 and thickness of h=1.58mm. The patch resonance, the probe inductance and capaci-
dimensions are designed for central frequency tance inherent to the antenna equivalent circuit
(3.5GHz) with regards to necessary corrections cancel each other out, leaving real impedance.
for the suspended dielectric[1]. A typical set of The probe admittance is determined by enforc-
dimensions for the design are listed in Table 1. ing a continuity of power flow at the aperture.
The equivalent circuit elements for the probe
that included in the patch impedance evalua-
tion are:

Lp = −µ0 h2π[ln(kd4) + γ] (1)

d=diameter of probe with ω = 2π ∗ f , 4π ∗

10−7 H/m and γ = 0.5772 (Euler's constant)
The capacitor is chosen such that its reactance
(a)Cross-sectional view
is sufficient to cancel the residual reactance of
the probe inductance. The required capaci-
tance is:

Cm = 1ωr2 Lp (2)

(b)Top view where,ωr is the resonant frequency and Lp is

the probe inductance. Thus, the extra capaci-
tance brings the impedance back to resonance,
and the wider bandwidth of the ticker substrate
can be realized. Reference[12] gives approxi-
mate expression for the etched capacitors. The
capacitors is:

√
(c)Simulation Patch Cm = π(q 0 p)0 (r + 1)(q 0 + p) (3)
Figure 1. Geometry of the proposed patch
antenna with capacitive fed. q 0 = q − 2s, with s being the gap width; p and
TABLE 1. Dimension of the Optimized q are the capacitor length and width, respec-
Antenna Design. tively.
√  
Cm = π q−2s p 0 (r + 1) (q − 2s + p)

√  
Cm = π 3.3−2(1) 8.854x10−12


4.2

(1 + 1) (3.3 − 2(1) + 4.2)

Cm = 53.34pF (4)
The configuration is based on the method of
suspended capacitive fed MSA. The method de-

2
 II.II ARRAY ANTENNA TRANSMIT-
TER TO 3.5Ghz
It is necessary to design antennas with very di-
rective characteristics (very high gains) to meet
the demands of long distance communication.
This can only be accomplished by increasing
the electrical size of the antenna. Enlarging
the dimensions of single elements often leads to
more directive characteristics. Another way to
enlarge the dimensions of the antenna, without
necessarily Increasing the size of the individual
elements, is to form an assembly of radiating
elements in an electrical and geometrical con-
figuration. This new antenna, formed by mul-
tielements, is referred to as an array. Inmost
cases, the elements of anarray are identical This
is not necessary, but it is convenient, simpler,
and more practical. The individual elements of
an array may be of any form (wires, apertures,
III. IMPLEMENTATION
etc.). The total field of the array is determined
Having already reviewed the respective simu-
by the vector addition of the radiated fields by
lations of the transmitter (Figure 3) and the
the individual elements. This assumes that the
receiver (Figure 4), it was exported in auto-
current in each element is the same.
CAD format and printed in a photographic
paper. Then the design impression was stuck
on the FR4, taking into account that this an-
tenna was designed with that material, after
having covered the plate with the marker, it
was immersed in acid, reaching to remain only
material conductive and finally proceeded with
the welding of the port on the receiver as in the
transmitter. In the same way the same is done
with the receiver, but in the bakelite plate.

Figure 2. Array antenna with 3.5Ghz

Figure 3. Antenna Patch with Tx

TABLE 2. Dimension of Array Antenna

Design.

3
 Figure 5. Reflection Coefficient

With the software it was possible to observe the

radiation patterns, in order to achieve this an
impedance must be had in this case zero in the
imaginary part and 50 in the real part, in this
Figure 4. Array antenna Rx
simulation there are values close to the ideal
ones, -1.5 in the imaginary part and 55 in the
real part, whose results are shown in figure 6.
IV. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
The antenna shown in Figure 1 with dimen-
sions described in Table 1 has been fabricated
on an FR-4 substrate with dielectric constant
of 4.4, loss tangent of 0.02, and thickness of
1.6mm. This substrate is assembled above an
copper ground plane.The antenna is exited by
connecting a coaxial probe to the rectangu-
lar patch by a long pin SMA connector.Energy
from this feed patch is electromagnetically cou-
pled to the radiating patch.

IV.I CAPACITIVE COUPLED CORNER

TRUNCATED MICROSTRIP PATCH AN-
TENNA SIMULATION
The measured S11 is better than - 10dB
(VSWR <2) for frequencies in the range of
3,279 - 3,743 GHz. This corresponds to a per- Figure 6. Impedance Antenna
centage bandwidth close to 13.25, Figure 5
also shows the graph of the reflection coefficient
that says that this microstrip antenna works at The measured radiation pattern of the pro-
the desired frequency that was proposed in the posed antenna is expressed in Figure 7, which
design, of 3.5Ghz. The data obtained in figure represents the graph of the distribution of elec-
5 are considered as approximations to reality tromagnetic energy in space, which in this case
since small differences can be attributed due to shows that the radiation pattern in its farthest
manufacturing inaccuracies with the simulated lobe is concentrated in An angle of 30 degrees
result. that indicates that the proposed antenna will
radiate the energy at that same angle.

4
 Figure 7. Radiation Pattern.

The width of the average power beam (HPBW)

Figure 9. Reflection Coefficient of Antenna
is 40, known as the angular separation where
Array
the magnitude of the radiation pattern de-
creases by -3 dB from the top of the main lobe. The impedance should in this case have 0 imag-
Another angle of coverage commonly cited is inary part, and 50 in the real part, which re-
the null in the width of the null beam (FNBW) sults are shown in Fig.10.
which is 100, is the angular separation in which
the magnitude of the radiation pattern is re-
duced to zero of the main lobe. It is seen in
figure.8.

Figure 10. Impedance Antenna Array

In the radiation pattern you can see how the
Figure 8. Reflection Coefficient of Antenna set of antennas radiates in radiation lines, when
Array phi is zero degrees. The results are shown in
Fig.11.
IV.II ARRAY ANTENNA TRANSMITTER
SIMULATION
The antenna arrays help solve specific problems
that can not be solved with a single antenna.
For this project, arrangements of 2 patches
were chosen, which will work at the same fre-
quency of said 3GHz transmission antenna,
managing to increase the gain and the radia-
tion pattern will also improve, as can be seen
in figure.9.

Figure 11. Radiation Pattern of Antena Array.

5
The radiation diagram of Figure 7 indicates the
main lobe, with the angular margin around the
direction of maximum radiation, the secondary
lobes are the rest of the relative maxima of
lower value than the main one of our receiving
antenna.

The width of the average power beam (HPBW)

is 40, known as the angular separation where
the magnitude of the radiation pattern de- Figure 14. Frequency Sweep
creases by -3 dB from the top of the main lobe.
Another angle of coverage commonly cited is
the null in the width of the null beam (FNBW) Variation of the Angle phi
which is 113, is the angular separation in which
the magnitude of the radiation pattern is re-
duced to zero of the main lobe. It is seen in
the figure.12.

Figure 15. Radiation Pattern (variation phi)

Figure 15. Shows the behavior of the signal re-

ceived by the receiving antenna at a frequency
of 3.5GHz, with respect to Phi, with variations
of 10 degrees, which allows us to analyze the
gains and losses of gain that could be obtained
by such variation.
Variation of the Angle phi

Figure 12. Reflection Coefficient of Antenna

Array

IV.III EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Aided by a spectrum analyzer, it was possi-
ble to obtain the expected graph, in which the Figure 17. Theta Angle Variation
matrix of the antenna works like a receiving
antenna at 3.5 GHz, the antenna was placed at
a safe distance for the measurement, the result Figure 17. shows the behavior of the signal
of the spectrum is shown in Figure 13, where received by the receiving antenna at the fre-
several samples are observed with respect to quency of 3.5GHz, with respect to theta, with
the analysis in each of the frequencies. variations of 10 degrees, which allows us to
In Figure 13, the results are shown in the far analyze the gain and loss of gain that could be
field of the Designed antenna, obtaining the obtained by said variation, in addition of the
frequency at 3.5GHz with a gain of -38dBm scope of radiation and reception of the anten-
nas was checked.

6
V. CONCLUSION cal Engineering, Vol. 7, No. 3, (2013), 25-34.
It could be seen that the type of antenna de-
[4]. Fakharian, M. and Rezaei, P., ”Para-
signed radiates at an angle of 30 degrees which
metric study of UC-PBG structure in terms
implies that the receiving antenna also be in
of simultaneous AMC and EBG properties
a ratio of 30 degrees to obtain the main fo-
and its applications in proximity-coupled frac-
cus of radiation this, it was possible to know
tal patch antenna”, International Journal of
the ideal procedure to obtain the same results
Engineering-Transactions A: Basics, Vol. 25,
through the process of design, simulation and
No. 4, (2012), 347.
implementation.
[5].Kasabegoudar, V. G., Upadhyay, D.
This antenna design with capacitive coupling S. and Vinoy, K., ”Design studies of ultra-
and air could be seen that improves the gain of wideband microstrip antennas with a small ca-
the antenna and consequently the bandwidth pacitive feed”, International Journal of Anten-
since if you were to remove that capacitive nas and Propagation, Vol. 2007, (2007).
coupling could be determined in the simula- [6].Vandenbosch, G. A. and Van de
tion that alters the gain of the system, besides Capelle, A. R., ”Study of the capacitively
it was observed that the results obtained in the fed microstrip antenna element”, Antennas and
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In the results obtained in the laboratory, one of [7]. Lai, H. W. and Luk, K. M., ”Wide-
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wifi frequencies, that is, 2.4Ghz. [8].Islam, M. T., Shakib, M. and Misran,
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