Figure 12

Evolution of d 2

REFERENCES
1. E.E. Altshuler and D.S. Linden, Design of a loaded monopole
having hemispherical coverage using a genetic algorithm, IEEE
Trans Antennas Propagat 45 1997., 14.
2. E. Michielssen, J. Sajer, S. Ranjithan, and R. Mittra, Design of
lightweight, broad-band microwave absorbers using genetic algorithms, IEEE Trans Microwave Theory Tech 41 1993., 10241031.
3. Z.Q. Meng, T. Takenaka, and T. Tanaka, Image reconstruction of
two-dimensional impenetrable objects using genetic algorithm, J
Electromag Waves Appl 13 1999., 95118.
4. W.C. Chew, Waves and fields in inhomogeneous media, Van
Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1990.
2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

A WIDEBAND CIRCULAR
PATCH ANTENNA
Wen-Hsiu Hsu1 and Kin-Lu Wong1
Department of Electrical Engineering
National Sun Yat-Sen University
Kaohsiung, Taiwan 804, R.O.C.

Recei ed 14 December 1999

ABSTRACT: A new design of a circular patch antenna with an
impedance bandwidth greater than 25% and a peak antenna gain about
8.3 dBi is presented. The circular patch antenna has a thick air substrate,
and a pair of wide slits are cut in the circular patch to facilitate the
antennas impedance matching. The circular patch is supported by a
conducting post, which is also connected to a 50 microstrip feed line.
The ground plane of the microstrip line also ser es as the ground plane
of the circular patch antenna, and the substrate of the microstrip feed
line and the circular patch are on the same side of the ground plane.
Details of the antenna design and experimental results are described.
2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 25:
327328, 2000.

achieving good impedance matching, and related design

methods to solve the problem are of significant interest. For
the design methods applicable to a circular patch antenna, it
is reported that, by embedding a U-slot w1, 2x or an arc-shaped
slot w2x in the circular radiating patch, an impedance bandwidth about 24 and 14%, respectively, can result. In this
paper, we propose another promising design of a wideband
circular patch antenna with a thick air substrate see Fig. 1..
A thick conducting post supports the circular radiating patch
above the grounded substrate of a 50 microstrip line, with
one end of the conducting post connected to the circular
radiating patch, and the other end to the microstrip line. By
cutting a pair of wide slits in the circular radiating patch, the
large inductance of the conducting post can be compensated,
and good impedance matching for a wide operating bandwidth can be obtained. Also note that, in the present proposed design, the feed substrate and the radiating patch are
on the same side of the ground plane, and thus no via holes
in the ground plane are required for connecting the conducting post to the microstrip line, which simplifies the fabrication process of the proposed antenna. A design example of
the proposed antenna has been implemented and studied.
Details of the results are presented and discussed.
2. ANTENNA DESIGN

The proposed antenna design is given in Figure 1. The

circular radiating patch has a diameter of D, and is supported by a conducting post of length h on top of the
grounded substrate feed substrate . of thickness t and relative permittivity r . The length h, which can be considered to
be the airsubstrate thickness, should be much greater than
the feedsubstrate thickness t. The circular patch antenna is
excited by a conducting postmicrostrip line feed, and the feed
position is along the circular patchs central line or resonant
direction at a distance d p away from the patch boundary. The
microstrip line is printed on a grounded feed substrate, and
has a width of wf . Two identical wide slits of width w and
length L are cut in the circular radiating patch, and are
placed in parallel with and symmetrically to the patchs
central line. The spacing between the two slits is S. By
adjusting the slits dimensions w and L and their spacing S,
it is found that good impedance matching for a wide operating bandwidth can be obtained for the proposed antenna.
3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A design example of the proposed antenna with a circular

radiating patch of diameter 76 mm D . and airsubstrate
thickness 12 mm h. was implemented. The optimal length

Key words: patch antenna; wideband patch antenna

1. INTRODUCTION

It is well known that, with the use of a thick foam or air

substrate, microstrip patch antennas can have a much improved impedance bandwidth. However, when excited by using a probe feed, for large probe inductance due to the thick
foam or air substrate usually presents a serious problem for

Figure 1
antenna

Geometry of the proposed broadband circular patch

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 25, No. 5, June 5 2000

327

Figure 2 Measured return loss for the proposed broadband patch

antenna; h s 12 mm, t s 0.8 mm, D s 76 mm, L s 47.8 mm, w s
5 mm, d p s 16.8 mm, ground-plane size s 150 mm = 150 mm

L. of the pair of slits is found to be 47.8 mm about 63% of

the patchs diameter., and the slits optimal width is 5 mm
about 10% of the slits length.. The optimal feed position is
at d p s 16.8 mm, and the feed substrate has a thickness of
0.8 mm and a relative permittivity of 4.4. Measured results of
the return loss of the design example are presented in Figure
2. The 10 dB return-loss bandwidth is found to be as large as
460 MHz or about 26% referenced to the center operating
frequency at 1768 MHz s f L q f H .r2, f L s 1538 MHz.
and f H s 1998 MHz. are the frequencies with 10 dB return
loss.. Also, with respect to 1768 MHz, the airsubstrate
thickness selected in this study is about 7% of the free-space
wavelength of the center operating frequency.
The radiation characteristics are also studied. Figure 3
presents the radiation patterns in the E-plane xz plane.
and H-plane yz plane. for two typical operating frequencies, and measured results of the antenna gain in the broadside direction of the proposed antenna are shown in Figure 4.
Good broadside radiation patterns are observed, and the
cross-polarization radiation in the E-plane is seen to be less
than y20 dB. However, relatively larger cross-polarization
radiation is seen in the H-plane. This behavior may be partly
due to the microstrip line being on the same side as the
circular radiating patch, and partly due to the perturbation
effects of the pair of slits introduced in the circular patch. As

Figure 4 Measured antenna gain in the broadside direction of the

proposed antenna with parameters given in Figure 2

for the obtained antenna gains for the operating frequencies

within the impedance bandwidth, it is seen that the gain
variations are less than 1.5 dBi, with a peak antenna gain of
about 8.3 dBi.
4. CONCLUSIONS

With an airsubstrate thickness chosen to be about 0.07

times the free-space wavelength of the center operating frequency, the proposed wideband circular patch antenna can
have an impedance bandwidth of about 26%. Within the
obtained impedance bandwidth, good radiation characteristics are also observed, especially in the E-plane radiation
pattern. The proposed antenna also shows a peak antenna
gain of about 8.3 dBi, with gain variations less than 1.5 dBi
within the impedance bandwidth.
REFERENCES
1. K.M. Luk, K.F. Lee, and W.L. Tam, Circular U-slot patch with
dielectric superstrate, Electron Lett 33 1997., 10011002.
2. K.M. Luk, Y.W. Lee, K.F. Tong, and K.F. Lee, Experimental
studies of circular patches with slots, Proc Inst Elect Eng 144
1997., 421424.
2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

DUAL-BAND DUAL-POLARIZED
COMPACT MICROSTRIP ANTENNA
S. O. Kundukulam,1 Manju Paulson,1 C. K. Aanandan,1
P. Mohanan,1 and K. Vasudevan1
1
Department of Electronics
Cochin University of Science and Technology
Cochin 682 022, India
Recei ed 21 December 1999
ABSTRACT: Experimental studies on a compact dual-frequency microstrip antenna are presented. This antenna configuration pro ides an
area reduction of 40% compared to a standard rectangular antenna
operating at the same frequency without much degradation of the gain.
The antenna structure can be modified to achie e the desired ratio
between the two resonant frequencies. 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Microwave Opt Technol Lett 25: 328330, 2000.
Figure 3 Measured E-plane xz plane. and H-plane yz plane.
radiation patterns for the proposed antenna with parameters given in
Figure 2. a. f s 1575 MHz. b. f s 1875 MHz

328

Key words: compact; microstrip antenna; dual frequency;

dual polarization; frequency ratio

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 25, No. 5, June 5 2000