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Design of an S-band rectangular microstrip Patch antenna

Article · June 2011

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European Journal of Scientific Research
ISSN 1450-216X Vol.55 No.1 (2011), pp.72-79
© EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2011
http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.htm

Design of an S-Band Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna

K. O. Odeyemi
Department of Electrical/Electronic, Federal University of Technology
P.M.B 704, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria
E-mail: kesonics@yahoo.com

D. O. Akande
Department of Electrical/Electronic, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
P.M.B 4000, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria
E-mail: akandedamilare@yahoo.com

E. O. Ogunti
Department of Electrical/Electronic, Federal University of Technology
P.M.B 704, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria
E-mail: oguntig@gmail.com

Abstract

There are various types of microstrip antenna that can be used for many
applications in communication systems. This paper presents the design of a rectangular
microstrip patch antenna to operate at frequency range of 2 GHz to 2.5 GHz. The study
involves using Matlab program in conjunction with Sonnet-Lite to obtain the antenna
dimensions and to determine its performance. This antenna is based on a thickness of
1.6mm Flame Retardant 4 (FR-4) substrate with a dielectric constant of approximately 4.4,
is a probe feed and has a partial ground plane. After simulation, the antenna performance
characteristics such as antenna input impedance, VSWR, Return Loss and current density
are obtained.

Keywords: Rectangular Microstrip Antenna, Coaxial/Probe Feeding, Matlab, Sonnet-Lite,

Flame Retardant 4 (FR-4)

1. Introduction
Antennas play a very important role in the field of wireless communications. Some of them are
parabolic reflectors, patch antennas, slot antennas, and folded dipole antennas with each type having
their own properties and usage. It is perfect to classify antennas as the backbone and the driving force
behind the recent advances in wireless communication technology.
Microstrip antenna technology began its rapid development in the late 1970s. By the early
1980s basic microstrip antenna elements and arrays were fairly well establish in term of design and
modeling. In the last decades printed antennas have been largely studied due to their advantages over
other radiating systems, which include: light weightiness, reduced size, low cost, conformability and
the ease of integration with active device (Pozar et al 1995). A Microstrip Patch antenna consists of a
radiating patch on one side of a dielectric substrate which has a ground plane on the other side as
shown in Figure 1. The patch is generally made of conducting material such as copper or gold. The
Design of an S-Band Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna 73

radiating patch and the feed lines are usually photo etched on the dielectric substrate (Balanis, 2005).
Microstrip patch antennas radiate primarily because of the fringing fields between the patch edge and
the ground plane. Therefore, the antenna can be fed by a variety of methods. These methods can be
classified into two categories- contacting and non-contacting. In the contacting method, the RF power
is fed directly to the radiating patch using a connecting element such as a microstrip line or probe feed.
In the non-contacting scheme, electromagnetic field coupling is done to transfer power between the
microstrip line and the radiating patch this includes proximity feeding and aperture feeding (Ramesh et
al, 2001).
Microstrip antennas are characterized by a larger number of physical parameters than
conventional microwave antennas. They can be designed to have many geometrical shapes and
dimensions but rectangular and circular Microstrip resonant patches have been used extensively in
many applications (Ramesh et al, 2001). In this paper, the design of probe feed rectangular microstrip
antenna is for satellite applications is presented by using MATLAB program in-conjunction with
Sonnet-Lite; and is expected to operate within 2GHz - 2.25GHz frequency span. This antenna is
designed on a double sided Fiber Reinforced (FR-4) epoxy and its performance characteristics which
include Return Loss, VSWR, and input impedance are obtained from the simulation.

Figure 1: Rectangular Microstrip Antenna

2. Antenna Geometry
The structure of the proposed antenna is shown in Figure 2 below. For a rectangular patch, the length L
of the patch is usually 0.3333 λo< L < 0.5 λo, where λo is the free-space wavelength. The patch is
selected to be very thin such that t << λo (where t is the patch thickness). The height h of the dielectric
substrate is usually 0.003 λo <= h <= 0.05 λo (Balanis, 2005). Thus, a rectangular patch of dimension
40.1 mm×31mm is designed on one side of an FR4 substrate of thickness 1.6mm and relative
permittivity 4.4 and the ground plane is located on the other side of the substrate with dimension
50.32mm x 41.19mm. The antenna plate is fed by standard coaxial of 50Ω at feeding location of
11.662mm by 20.286mm on the patch. This type of feeding scheme can be placed at any desired
location inside the patch in order to match with the desire input impedance and has low spurious
radiation.
74 K. O. Odeyemi, D. O. Akande and E. O. Ogunti
Figure 2: Proposed Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna

3. Design Requirement
There are three essential parameters for design of a coaxial feed rectangular microstrip Patch Antenna.
Firstly, the resonant frequency ( f o ) of the antenna must be selected appropriately. The frequency range
used is from 2GHz -2.5GHz and the design antenna must be able to operate within this frequency
range. The resonant frequency selected for this design is 2.25GHz with band width of 46MHz.
Secondly, the dielectric material of the substrate ( ε r ) selected for this design is FR-4 Epoxy
which has a dielectric constant of 4.4 and loss tangent equal to 0.002. The dielectric constant of the
substrate material is an important design parameter. Low dielectric constant is used in the prototype
design because it gives better efficiency and higher bandwidth, and lower quality factor Q. The low
value of dielectric constant increases the fringing field at the patch periphery and thus increases the
radiated power. The proposed design has patch size independent of dielectric constant. So the way of
reduction of patch size is by using higher dielectric constant and FR-4 Epoxy is good in this regard.
The small loss tangent was neglected in the simulation.
Lastly, substrate thickness is another important design parameter. Thick substrate increases the
fringing field at the patch periphery like low dielectric constant and thus increases the radiated power.
The height of dielectric substrate (h) of the microstrip patch antenna with coaxial feed is to be used in
S-band range frequencies. Hence, the height of dielectric substrate employed in this design of antenna
is h= 1.6mm.

4. Physical Parameters of the Antenna

The antenna parameters of this antenna can be calculated by the transmission line method (Balanis,
2005), as exemplified below. To ease our design process, this model is written in Matlab script and the
results of each parameter are shown in table 1 below.
Design of an S-Band Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna 75

4.1. Width of the Patch

The width of the antenna can be determined by (James et al, 1989):
c
W= (1)
2f o ( ε + 1)
r
2

4.2. Length of the Patch

The effective constant can be obtained by (Pozar et al, 1995):
1
−
 h  2
ε εr + 1 εr − 1 1 + 12 w  (2)
reff = +
2 2
where
εreff = Effective dielectric constant
εr = Dielectric constant of substrate
h = Height of dielectric substrate
W = Width of the patch
The dimensions of the patch along its length have now been extended on each end by a distance
∆L, which is given empirically by (Ramesh et al, 2001):
w
(ε reff + 0.3)( + 0.264)
∆L = 0.412h h (3)
w
(ε reff − 0.258)( + 0.8)
h
The actual length L of the patch is given as (Pozar et al, 1995):
λo
L= − 2∆L (4)
2

4.3. Feed Location Design

The position of the coaxial cable can be obtained by using (Dr. Max Ammnan):
L
Xf = (5)
2 ε reff
Where
X f is the desire input impedance to match the coaxial cable and εreff is the effective dielectric
constant
W
Yf = (6)
2

4.4. Ground Dimension

For practical considerations, it is essential to have a finite ground plane if the size of the ground plane
is greater than the patch dimensions by approximately six times the substrate thickness all around the
periphery. Hence, the ground plane dimensions would be given as (Huang, 1983,) (Thomas, 2005):
L g = 6h + L (7a)
Wg = 6h + W (7b)
76 K. O. Odeyemi, D. O. Akande and E. O. Ogunti
Table 1: Antenna Parameters

Length 31.43 mm
Width 40.57 mm
Xf 11.66 mm
Yf 20.29 mm
Lg 41.19 mm
Wg 50.32 Mm

5. Simulation and Results

The antenna was simulated by interfacing Matlab script to control Sonnet-Lite (Sonnet-Lite), which
uses the Method of Moments approach in its modeling equations with the final patch obtained shown
in figure 3 below.

Figure 3: The Final Patch Obtained after Simulation

The return loss of the antenna obtained is -23 dB at the center frequency of 2.25 GHz as shown
in figure 4. This indicates that 9.61% of power is reflected and 90.84% of power is transmitted. Thus,
the bandwidth obtained from the return loss result is 2% which signifies 46MHz.

Figure 4: The Return Loss

Γ vs Frequency

-5

-10
Γ (dB)

-15

-20

-25
1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8
F (GHz)
Design of an S-Band Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna 77

Moreover, VSWR is a measure of how well matched antenna is to the cable impedance. A
perfectly matched antenna would have a VSWR of 1:1. This indicates how much power is reflected
back or transferred into a cable. VSWR obtained from the simulation is 1.13 dB which is
approximately equals to 1.1:1 as shown in figure 5. This considers a good value as the level of
mismatched is not very high because high VSWR implies that the port is not properly matched.

Figure 5: VSWR Vs Frequency

VSWR vs Frequency
3

2.5
VSWR

1.5

1
2.24 2.245 2.25 2.255 2.26
F (GHz)

Figure 6 shows that the input impedance of the antenna at the center frequency 2.25 GHz is
47.98 Ω; this is very close to the expected 50 Ω.

Figure 6: The Input impedance (ReZin)

Re(Zin) vs Frequency
50

40
Re(Zin ) ( Ω )

30

20
2.24 2.245 2.25 2.255 2.26
F (GHz)

Also, the radiation pattern of the antenna is obtained as figure 7 shows the E-plane and H-plane
pattern at 2.25GHz center frequency. It can be observed from this radiation that the design antenna has
stable radiation pattern throughout the whole operating band.
Figure 7: E-plane and H-plane Radiation Pattern
78 K. O. Odeyemi, D. O. Akande and E. O. Ogunti

E- and H-plane Patterns of Rectangular Microstrip Antenna

θ=90 E (E-plane)
φ
φ =0 E (H-plane)
120 60 φ
330 30

150 30
300 60

180 270 90 0
0 -15 -30 -45 dB -45 -30 -15 0

The 3D current distribution plot gives the relationship between the co-polarization (desired) and
cross-polarization (undesired) components. Moreover, it gives a clear picture as to the nature of
polarization of the fields propagating through the patch antenna. The average current density is shown
clearly in figure 8 as different colors on the surface of the antenna which implies that the patch antenna
is linearly polarized.

Figure 8: Current Distribution of the Antenna

The scattering parameter S11 for this design at the range of frequencies 2GHz -2.5GHz on the
smith chart is shown in figure 9.
 Design of an S-Band Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna 79
Figure 9: Scattering parameter S11 versus frequency on the Smith chart

6. Conclusion
In this paper, we presented the design of a rectangular patch antenna covering the 2GHz−2.5 GHz
frequency spectrum. It has been shown that this design of the rectangular patch antenna produces a
bandwidth of approximately 2% with a stable radiation pattern within the frequency range. The design
antenna exhibits a good impedance matching of approximately 50 Ohms at the center frequency. This
antenna can be easily fabricated on substrate material due to its small size and thickness. The simple
feeding technique used for the design of this antenna make this antenna a good choice in many
communication systems.

7. Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thanks Serhend Arvas (sarvas@syr.edu) for his programming support on this
work.

References
[1] Pozar D.M., and Schaubert D.H (1995) Microstrip Antennas, the Analysis and Design of
Microstrip Antennas and Arrays, IEEE Press, New York, USA
[2] Balanis C.A. (2005) Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, John Wiley & Sons
[3] Ramesh G, Prakash B, Inder B, and Ittipiboon A. (2001) Microstrip antenna design handbook,
Artech House.
[4] James J. R. and Hall P. S. (1989) Handbook of microstrip antennas, Peter Peregrinus, London,
UK.
[5] Dr. Max Ammnan, “Design of Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antennas for the 2.4 GHz Band”
Dublin Institute of Technology
[6] J. Huang (1983) The finite ground plane effect on the Microstrip Antenna radiation pattern,
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagate, vol. AP-31, no. 7, pp. 649-653
[7] Thomas A. Milligan, (2005) Modern Antenna Design, 2th edition, IEEE Interscience Press
New York, chpp. 2, 6.
[8] Sonnet-Lite, ‘’Electromagnetic Simulation Software’, [www.Sonnetsoftware.com].

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