A Compact Flexible Antennas for ISM and 5G Sub-6-

GHz band Application

Wahaj Abbas Awan1, Niamat Hussain2, Adnan Ghaffar3, Abir Zaidi4,Xue Jun Li3
1
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal, Pakistan
wahajabbasawan@gmail.com
2
Department of Computer and Communication Engineering, Chungbuk National University, Republic of Korea
hussain@osp.chungbuk.ac.kr
3
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
3 5
{aghaffar ; xuejun.li }@aut.ac.nz
4
Department of Electrical Engineering Laboratory EEA & TI, Hassan II University, Faculty of Science and Techniques (FSTM)
Mohammedia Casablanca, Morocco

Abstract—The design and realization of a flexible broadband

coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed patch antenna, characterized by
a compact size are presented in this manuscript. The proposed
antenna is dedicated for Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM)
as well as 5G sub-6-GHz band, particularly at the frequency of
3.5 GHz. The design of antenna is evolved from a traditional
rectangular patch antenna, where stubs are used to improve
antenna’s bandwidth. The antenna shows good results
compared to related works in the same domain. The good results
of proposed work with state of the art work in terms of
bandwidth, impedance matching, and radiation patterns
demonstrates the potential of the proposed antenna for ISM and
5G applications
Index Terms—Flexible antenna, CPW, broadband antenna,
compact size antenna.

I. INTRODUCTION
The demand for flexible devices is exponentially Fig. 1. Geometery of proposed antenna for ISM and 5G sub-6-GHz
band: (a) Front view and (b) side view
increasing due to numerous advantages including reduced
weight, durability, and low power consumption. Moreover, On the other hand, frequency switchable flexible antennas
modern day technologies including Internet of Thing (IoT) operating in sub-6-GHz band spectrum were presented for
and 5th generation of communication also known as 5G multiband operation [12–13]. In [12], a CPW-fed T-shaped
requires high data rate transmission [1–2]. antenna is proposed. The presented antenna in this paper is
Co-planar waveguide (CPW) fed antennas are well known operating at dual-bands of 2.36 GHz and 3.64 GHz, with
due to their compactness and stable gain while maintaining respective impedance bandwidth of 180 MHz and 270 MHz,
broad bandwidth as compared to other types of antenna, while in [13], a split-ring CPW-fed antenna is proposed to
therefore, widely used in modern communication systems. operate at dual bands of 2.6 GHz and 3.48 GHz with
Researchers have proposed many kinds of antennas for respective bandwidth of 100 MHz and 330 MHz. Although
2.45 GHz Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band and dual band antennas having the advantages of flexibility have
3.5 GHz 5G sub-6-GHz band [3–11]. Although the works been realized in these designs, however, they suffer from a
presented in [3–7] provides excellent radiation characteristics narrow band especially in the lower resonance, besides having
have resonance at just single band of ISM. In [8], a stub loaded other drawbacks such as its larger size, disqualifying them to
fractal antenna was proposed for 2.45 GHz band; the antenna be used in modern compact devices.
is characterized by compact size as well as a wide bandwidth We can infer from aforementioned discussion that a
of approximately 444 MHz. In [9–11], dual band rigid broadband flexible antenna with stable gain and compact size
antennas were proposed for ISM band application. A CPW- is still a need of the time. Therefore, stub loaded CPW fed
fed double inverted triangular geometry was used in [9] to flexible and compact antenna is proposed for future 5G and
achieve a miniaturized antenna along with broad bandwidth of ISM band applications. The antenna geometry includes an
330 MHz. However, the antenna presented in [10–11] not only octagonal patch, extracted from conventional rectangular
have drawback of rigid structure but they had deficiency of antenna by truncating all ends, while stubs were utilized to
very narrow bandwidth. Moreover, all of these antennas only enhance the bandwidth of the antenna. Furthermore, slots in
work at a single ISM band. radiator are employed to lower the resonance in order to reach
 (a) (a)

(b)
(b)
Fig. 3. Bending analysis of proposed antenna: (a) 5G sub-6-GHz band
Fig. 2. Return loss of proposed antenna: (a) 5G sub-6-GHz band
antenna.(b) ISM band antenna.
antenna. (b) ISM band antenna
for a compact antenna resonating at 2.45 GHz. The rest of the proposed antenna were enlisted here: W = 25mm; L = 32mm;
manuscript adheres to the following pattern: Section-II Cx = 11mm; Cy = 5mm; A = 12.45mm; B = 10.89mm; G =
contains the configuration of proposed antennas, Section-III 4mm; c = 2mm; d = 4.4mm; e = 1mm; Sy = 2.98mm.
presents the results while whole discussion was wind up in
Section-IV. III. ANTENNA CHRACTERSTICS
The various performance parameters of the proposed
II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION antenna such as reflection coefficient, conformability
The geometry of the proposed flexible antenna is depicted analysis, gain, radiation efficiency, and radiation patterns
in Fig. 1. The radiating element is engraved over a flexible were investigated in this section.
substrate Rogers 5880 (εr = 2.2 and tanδ = 0.0009) with a Fig. 2 (a-b) presents the scattering parameters of both
standard thickness of 0.254 mm. The antenna consists of an proposed antennas. It can be seen from Fig. 2(a) that the
overall compact size of 32 × 25 × 0.254 mm3 with length L, proposed antenna without slot covers complete 5G sub-6-GHz
width W, and height h. The antenna geometry is extracted band, covering the wide impedance bandwidth of 2.85 – 4.15
from a conventional monopole antenna, the inadequacy of GHz with respect to |S11| < -10 dB. On the other hand, after
narrow band of the rectangular radiator was removed by the introduction of the slot, the antenna starts resonating at
truncating the patch. A detailed discussion of the effect of 2.45 GHz, as shown in Fig. 2(b), while covering complete
truncated patch on the bandwidth of the antenna is presented ISM band by showing a broad impedance band width of 2.35–
in [14–15]. To improve the impedance mismatching of the 2.56 GHz.
antenna, a stub was inserted between main radiator and feed Figure 3 depicts a comparison of antenna’s return loss for
line [16]. Besides, slot was introduced in antenna’s radiating bending conditions. Both antennas show nearly similar results
element because of their well-known ability to lower the compared to non- bended antennas, as shown in Fig. 3(a) and
resonant frequency. To do this, a modified U-shaped slot was 3(b) for 5G and ISM band antenna, respectively. This
inserted into the antenna structure, which caused a disruption observation verifies the potential use of the antenna in flexible
of the antenna surface current distribution, and thus provided devices. The antenna shows a stable gain and high radiation
a longer patch for the antenna current flow. Therefore, the efficiency at the desired frequency bands. The simulated gain
introduction of the slots resulted in a shift of the resonances to values are observed 1.74 dB and 2.51 dB, while efficiency
the low frequencies. value 94% and 92.7% at 2.45 GHz and 3.5 GHz for ISM band
The parameters of the slot were optimized to get the desired and 5G band, respectively.
resonating frequency. To minimize the fabrication error, a Radiation patterns of the proposed antenna are presented
SMA connector having impedance of 50-Ω is designed in in Fig. 4(a-b). In both cases the antenna exhibits nearly
electromagnetic solver Higher Frequency Structural Software omnidirectional pattern in E-plane, while an 8 shaped pattern
(HFSS), to excite antenna. The optimized parameters of the in H-plane like a conventional monopole.
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