Analysis of Dual Frequency Equilateral Triangular

Microstrip Patch Antenna with Shorting Pin

Reena Pant*, Pradyot Kala
1
, R. C. Saraswat
2
and S. S. Pattnaik
3
*Department of Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering, Institute of Engineering &
Technology, M J P Rohilkhand University, Bareilly-INDIA email:pradyot_bly@yahoo.co.in
1
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, College of Engineering &
Technology, Allahabad Agricultural Institute-Deemed University, Allahabad-INDIA
email:pradyot_bly@yahoo.co.in
2
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, S. G. S.I.T.S, Indore-INDIA email:rcswat@yahoo.co.in
3
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, NITTTR, Chandigarh-INDIA
email:shyampattnaik@yahoo.co.in



Abstract: The effects of position of shorting pin
and feed-probe in an equilateral triangular
microstrip patch antenna are theoretically taken
into account using transmission line model. At
d
s
/d
h
=0.33, frequency ratio (FR) of upper
resonant frequency to lower resonant frequency is
minimum. It is observed that the minimum FR
decreases if substrate permittivity increases and it
varies from 2.811.68 for
r
1.0 to 9.8. While the
FR increases if the distance of the shorting pin
from that point (d
s
/d
h
=0.33) increases. Maximum
FR is observed at the triangle tip. The maximum
FR varies from 5.435.07, and it decreases if
substrate permittivity increases. It is also observed
that the resonance frequencies are almost constant
with probe position.

Index Terms: Shorting pin, Dual-band, ETMSA.

I. INTRODUCTION
The first study on Triangular Microstrip
Antenna (TMSA) dates back to 1978 when
Helszajn and James [1] reported theoretical and
experimental investigation on Equilateral
Triangular Microstrip Antenna (ETMSA) as disk
resonator, filter and circulator. TMSA have
received much attention due to increased
demand of small antennas for personal
communication equipment. The triangular MSA
is known to require small patch size that of a
square or circular MSAs [2]. In many
applications, compact MSA capable of operating
in multibands are highly desirable.

The conventional ETMSA antennas were
studied in [3]-[17]. The basic formulas to design
ETMSA antennas are presented in [18]-[19].
The ETMSA has been analyzed and modeled
using different techniques, namely, cavity
resonator model [3],[5]-[14],[17], geometrical
theory [4], Method of Moment (MoM) [10] and
genetic algorithm (GA) [14]. It is apparent that
most of the analyses are based on the cavity
resonator model resulting in simple computer
aided design formulas for determining the
operating frequencies.

To obtain dual band, a few attempt have been
made [20-27]. Dual frequency operation of an
ETMSA is demonstrated by using stacked
patches [20], using a pair of spur lines [22],
using a slit [23], using a V shaped slot [24], by
loading two pair of narrow slots in the triangular
patch [25] and [26], and also by using shorting
pins [27].

Pan and Wong [27] first time presented a
working model of a dual band ETMSA with
tunable frequency ratio. This patch generates
two different operating bands mainly due to the
shifting of the null-voltage point, and divide the
flow of current in two different streams, having
different path lengths.

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Recently, Hong and Li [28] investigated the
dual-mode operation of microstrip triangular
patch resonators in realizing dual-mode
microwave planar filters.

In this endeavor the effect of position of shorting
pin and feed-probe are theoretically taken into
account using transmission line model.
Considering the triangular patch as a number of
cascaded transmission lines of varying width
derives the input impedance.


II.THEORY





















The geometry and transmission line equivalent
of the proposed dual-frequency design is shown
in Figs. 1-2. Considering the effect of fringing
field, dimensions of the triangular MSA has
been modified (Fig. 3). In this paper the effect of
position of shorting pin and feed-probe are taken
into account. It has two different cases: (I)
shorting pin is closer to vertex compared to
feeding probe and (II) feeding probe is
closer to vertex compared to shorting pin. Case-I
(Fig. 4), the total input impedance at the feed
point may be obtained using transmission line
theory as



















































Shorting pin
Feeding probe
Z
in3
2
3
p
s
n
1
Fig 2: Cascaded T. L. sections
Z
in2
Z
in1
Probe feed
Shorting pin
h
r
substrate
d
d
p
d
s d
h
Fig 1: Top and side views
) 1 (
2 1
2 1
in in
in in
p in
Z Z
Z Z
L j Z
+
+ =
Shorting pin
Z
in2
Z
in1
Feeding probe
Z
in3
d

d
s
d
p1
d
p
d
s1
L

d
eff
Fig 3: Contribution of fringing field on ETMSA
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T. L.
between
probe
& vertex
Z
in3
Z
in1
Z
in2
T. L.
between
probe &
shorting pin
Z
L2
Shorting pin
Feeding probe
Z
L1
Z
in
Lp
Ls
Fig. 5: T.L. equivalent of ETMSA if probe is towards vertex

T. L.
between
shorting pin
& bottom
Fig. 4: T.L. equivalent of ETMSA if shorting-pin is towards vertex

Ls
T. L.
between
shorting-pin &
vertex
Z
in3
Z
in1 Z
in2
T. L. between
probe &
shorting-pin
T. L.
between
Probe
& bottom
Z
L2
Shorting pin
Feeding probe
Z
L1
Z
in

Lp

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where L
p
is an inductance offered by the current
flowing through the center conductor of the
feeding probe [19], is the operating frequency,
and Z
in1
is the impedance at probe looking
towards bottom and may be written as


where Z
in1k
is the input impedance of k
th
section
looking towards bottom end (k p), and is
defined by


where Z
ok
and Z
Lk1
are the characteristic and load
impedances for that particular section. Z
ok
may
be obtained by [19]


where W
k
is width of k
th
transmission line
section and L is distance between vertex and
bottom of the patch

where and
eff
are fringing field width and
effective permittivity respectively [19 ].

Z
Lk1
for any section is equal to the input
impedance of the previous section and may be
written as


On the other hand Z
in2
is the input impedances at
probe towards vertex and may be given by


where Z
in2k
is the input impedance of k
th
section
looking towards vertex (skp), and is defined
by

where Z
LK2
for any section is equal to the input
impedance of the previous section and may be
written as


Z
in3

is the impedance at shorting pin position,
looking towards vertex and may be written as


where Z
in3k
is the input impedance of k
th
section
looking towards vertex (k s), and is defined by


(

+ + +

+
=
) 444 . 1 log( 667 . 0 393 . 1
120
) 4 (
1
4
8
log 60
h
W
h
W
otherwise
h
W
if
h
W
W
h
Z
k k
eff
k
eff
k
k
ok

( )
) 5 ( 15 . 3
) 5 (
3
2
) 5 ( ,
c d d
b
d
L
a
n
k n d
W
eff
eff
eff
k
+ =
=

=
) 2 (
1 1
p k Z Z
k in in
= =
) 7 (
2 2
p k Z Z
k in in
= =
) 9 (
) 1 ( 2
3
2

=
=
+
otherwise Z
s k if L j Z
Z
k in
s in
Lk

) 10 (
3 3
s k Z Z
k in in
= =
) 3 (
) tan(
) tan(
1 1
1
1
n
L
jZ Z
n
L
jZ Z
Z Z
Lk k o
ok Lk
ok k in

+
+
=
) 8 (
) tan(
) tan(
2
2
2
n
L
jZ Z
n
L
jZ Z
Z Z
Lk ok
ok Lk
ok k in

+
+
=
) 11 (
) tan(
) tan(
3
3
3
n
L
jZ Z
n
L
jZ Z
Z Z
Lk ok
ok Lk
ok k in

+
+
=
) 6 (
1
) 1 ( 1
1

=
=

otherwise Z
k if
Z
k in
eff
Lk

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Z
Lk3
for any section is equal to the input
impedance of the previous section and may be
written as


Similarly one may obtain the patch impedance if
shorting pin is connected between probe and
bottom of the patch as shown in Fig. 5.


III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Resonant frequency (which is indicated by the
zero input reactance value) and frequency ratio
are calculated at different shorting-pin and probe
positions for different values of n for the antenna
designed parameters:
r
= 4.4, h = 1.6 mm, d =
50 mm, and r
s
= 0.32 mm. These are also
calculated for different substrate permittivities
having other parameters remain same. The
results are plotted and shown in Figs. 6-11.

It is evident from Fig. 6 that at d
s
/d
h
=0.33, the
first resonant frequency (f
r1
) has a maximum
value, while the second resonant frequency (f
r2
)
has a minimum value consequently frequency
ratio (FR) is minimum. The minimum FR varies
from 2.811.68, and it is also observed that it
decreases if substrate permittivity increases.
While the FR increases if the distance from that
point (d
s
/d
h
=0.33) increases. Maximum FR is
observed at the triangle tip. The maximum FR
varies from 5.435.07, and it is also observed
that it decreases if substrate permittivity
increases.

Fig. 7, revels that the obtained theoretical results
are in good agreement with experimental results
obtained by Pan and Wong [27]. It is also
observed that the resonance frequencies are
almost constant with probe position as shown in
Fig. 8.

From Figs. 9-11, it is observed that the nature of
graph for variation of resonant frequency with


















































) 12 (
) 1 ( 1
3

=
=
+
otherwise Z
n k if
Z
k in
eff
Lk

Fig 7: Variation of Frequency Ratio with
shorting pin position.
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

r
=1.0

r
=2.1

r
=4.4

r
=4.4 Experimental

r
=6.4

r
=9.8
d
s
/d
h
F
R
E
Q
E
N
C
Y

R
A
T
I
O

1
0.8
1.6
2.4
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Fr1 Theoretical Fr2 Theoretical Fr1 Exp Fr2 Exp
d
s
/d
h
F
R
E
Q
E
N
C
Y

G
Hz
Fig 6: Comparison of theoretical and
experimental results [27]
Fig 8: Variation of resonance frequencies with
shorting pin position for different probe
positions (
r
=4.4 and d= 50 mm).
0
1

2

3
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
d
s
/d
h
F
R
E
Q
E
N
C
Y

G
Hz
d
p
/d
h
=0.0
d
p
/d
h
=0.2
d
p
/d
h
=0.4

d
p
/d
h
=0.6
d
p
/d
h
=0.8
d
p
/d
h
=1.0

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0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

[
G
H
z
]
n=10
n=20
n=50
n=100
n=10000






1.8
2
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
3
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

[
G
H
z
]
n=10
n=20
n=50
n=100
n=10000





1.9
2.4
2.9
3.4
3.9
4.4
4.9
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

[
G
H
z
]
n=10
n=20
n=50
n=100
n=10000



shorting pin position for values as small as n=10
is similar to higher values of n such as n=10000
and it is also observed that the graph is in good
approximation for n=100. The error between
n=100 and n=10000 is less than 3%.


IV. CONCLUSION

In this study we have presented an approximate
but computationally very fast method for solving
the problem of probe fed ETMSA with a
shorting pin. The Transmission Line model is
used for the calculation of input impedance.
Comparison with the measured results
demonstrates the accuracy of the proposed
method.


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Fig 10: Variation of upper resonant frequency
with shorting pin position for different values of
n.
Fig 9: Variation of lower resonant frequency with
shorting pin position for different values of n.
Fig 11: Variation of Frequency Ratio with
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