JOURNAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VOLUME 13, ISSUE 1, MARCH 2012 1

A Novel Design of Triple Frequency Dipole Antenna for Wireless Applications

Krishnendu Chattopadhyay, Soumava Mukherjee, Santanu Das and Sekhar Ranjan Bhadra Chaudhuri
Abstract A novel method for designing multi-frequency dipole antenna using proximity coupled feeding technique has been presented in this paper. A comparative study with two distinguished design methods (proximity coupling through longitudinal orientation of feed line & proximity coupling through transverse orientation of feed line) has been presented. The proposed antenna is designed to operate in Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-SH: 2.170 GHz 2.20 GHz), GPS (1.575 GHZ) & Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting (2.635 GHz 2.660 GHZ) respectively. The design is fabricated and a comparative study between measured & simulated results is also discussed in this paper. Index Terms Longitudinal fed dipole, Microstrip dipole, Proximity coupling, Transverse fed dipole, Triple frequency antenna.

1 INTRODUCTION

N recent years, microstrip antenna is found to be very advantageous to be used in wireless communication handset terminals and mobile vehicular terminals due to its light weight, low profile, low manufacturing cost etc. The increasing use of microwave in mobile communication requires the antennas for different systems and standards with properties like broadband, multiband operation, moderate gain etc. The multi-frequency operation can be achieved by using parasitic resonator beside the driven microstrip dipole. A novel design was proposed recently where a parasitic dipole was added beside the non-radiating edge of the driven dipole to get dual frequency operation [1]. However, an alternative method of obtaining enhanced bandwidth from a microstrip antenna, using a microstrip feed line, proximity-coupled to a patch antenna printed on a superstrate above the feed line is also available [2]. First introduced by Oltman & Huebner, the electromagnetically coupled (EMC) dipole antenna has many advantages compared to other feeding techniques e.g. greater bandwidth and efficiency, simplicity of design etc [3],[4],[5]. A comparative study of proximity coupled microstrip dipole antenna with co-axial fed dipole is reported recently, which reveals the potential for enhancement of bandwidth and greater performance in the design of proximity coupled dipole antenna [6].

Another dipole antenna is EMC transverse dipole where a dipole is oriented transverse to an embedded microstrip line. Current excitation on the dipole is governed by the amount of offset and the dipole length. Weak coupling from the line to dipole can be achieved through a slight lateral displacement of the dipole from its centered position [7]. Because of this weak coupling large number of elements can be fed through a single microstrip line. The length of the stub at the open end of the array is g/2, so that the input impedance is purely resistive but the stub can be tuned to cancel any spurious reactance introduced due to tolerance problem [8]. The transverse dipole antenna is easier to design than the longitudinal one. Nevertheless, it is important to note that crosspolarization level for transverse dipole is higher than the longitudinal one [9],[10]. In this paper, the proposed design incorporates both longitudinal and transverse dipole, fed by a single microstrip line embedded between two layers of different substrates. The problem of loading effect (mutual coupling) due to addition of the parasitic elements in the longitudinally fed dipole antenna, in view of multi-frequency response is also addressed in the proposed design. The bandwidth of the design is optimized by proper tuning between feed and radiating structure. Also, the area of the substrate in the design is efficiently minimized for its operation in multiple frequency domain, in comparison with transversely fed dipoles, to get compact multi-frequency antenna, suitable for use in defined wireless communicaKrishnendu Chattopadhyay is with Dept. of Electronics & Communication tion bands. Although the GPS antenna needs to be circuEngineering, MCKV Institute of Engineering, Howrah, W.B, India. Soumava Mukherjee is with the Department of Electronics & Telecommu- larly polarized with axial ratio of 3dB or better and renication Engineering, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibquired gain is 4 dBi but a user terminal may have linearly pur, Howrah 711103, India. polarized receiving antenna, with a loss of 3dB power [1]. Santanu Das is with the Department of Electronics & Telecommunication The simulation has been carried out by MOM based Engineering, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, Howrah 711103, India. IE3D simulation software. The simulated & measured Sekhar Ranjan Bhadra Chaudhuri is with the Department of Electronics & results have been presented and discussed.
Telecommunication Engineering, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, Howrah 711103, India.

2012 JOT www.journaloftelecommunications.co.uk

TABLE 1 DIMENSION OF THE DESIGN

(a)

3 RESULTS
The simulation results show that the EMC longitudinal fed antenna resonates at 2.192 GHz with a bandwidth of 19 MHz and the two EMC transverse fed antennas resonate at 1.576 GHz with a bandwidth of 10 MHz and 2.652 GHz with a bandwidth of 32 MHz respectively. The fabricated antenna is shown in fig. 1(b) and return loss measurement of the fabricated antenna has been done by using Agilent Technology Vector Network Analyzer model no. N5320A (10 MHz 20 GHz). The simulated and measured results of return loss are shown in Fig. 2.

(b)
Fig. 1. (a) Proposed Design Structure ; (b) Fabricated antenna.

(a) The schematic diagram of proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 1(a).The proposed antenna uses two different substrates in upper & lower layers. The glass-epoxy substrate of dielectric constant 4.36 with a height of 1.6 mm. is used as lower layer and PTFE substrate of dielectric constant 2.55 with a height of 1.524 mm. is used as upper layer. The dimension of the dipoles and there positions are given in the table 1. The centre of the first element having length(L1) and width(W) is placed 19.075 mm. above(H1) from the open end of the feed line to get matching. The centre of the second element (b) having length 58.5mm(L2) & third element having length 33.7mm(L3) are placed Fig. 1. (a) Proposed Design Structure ; (b) Fabricated antenna. 29.05mm(H2) & 18.74mm(H3) above from the centre of the feed line. The second & third elements are placed at a distance of 48.16 mm. & 55.87 mm. respectively from the open end of the microstrip line to maintain a stub length of g/2 in each of the two cases. The total length of the feed line is about 116 mm. A little offset of the position of the EMC transverse fed dipole is implemented to obtain matching with the feed line. To maintain same polarization for all of the three elements, the feed line is bent 900 at the open end and the other end is also bent to optimize the antenna area as shown in fig. 1(a).

DESIGN

Fig. 2. Simulated & Measured Return loss of the proposed antenna

The measured radiation patterns are shown separately for E-plane and H-plane in Fig. 3 for 1.576GHz, 2.192GHz and 2.652GHz respectively. For 1.576GHz frequency the maximum cross polar levels both for E and H plane are about 25dB below the co-polar level. For 2.192GHz and 2.652 GHz operation, the maximum cross polar level is 15dB below for E-plane pattern and 10dB below for Hplane pattern as compared to co polar level. The degradation in cross-polar level in H-plane may be due to feed radiation. The front to back ratio for E-plane are 26dB, 20dB and 28dB for 1.576GHz, 2.192GHz and 2.652GHz respectively. For H-plane the front to back ratio is 28dB,

2012 JOT www.journaloftelecommunications.co.uk

34dB and 28dB for the above three frequencies respectively. The proposed antenna gains are 4.96 dBi, 4.99 dBi and 4.98 dBi for 1.576 GHz, 2.192GHz and 2.652GHz respectively. The radiation patterns are measured in Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR).

(e)

(a)

(f) (b)
Fig. 3. E-plane (a) and H-plane (b) radiation patterns (co-polar and cross polar) at 1.576 GHz, E-plane (c) and H-plane (d) radiation patterns (co-polar and cross polar) at 2.192 GHz, E-plane (e) and Hplane (f) radiation patterns (co-polar and cross polar) at 2.652 GHz.

(c)

The status of mutual coupling between adjacent elements is also exhibited by showing the current distributions in three defined resonance frequencies of aforesaid wireless communication bands as shown in fig. 4. At 1.576GHz frequency, where the GPS antenna is radiating, the amplitude of current on the adjacent Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting(MMB) antenna at right hand side is very weak. It indicates very weak electromagnetic coupling between GPS and MMB antenna at GPS frequency and radiation is mainly due to GPS antenna. The reverse is also true when the MMB antenna is operating at 2.652GHz, and there is very weak electromagnetic coupling with GPS antenna. So there individual radiations are not affected by strong mutual coupling. The antenna for Digital video Broadcasting (DVB) is excited through longitudinal coupling, and at its resonance frequency, influence on both GPS and MMB antenna is negligible. So this may be concluded, that there is no significant electromagnetic coupling in between the radiating elements and individual resonance frequencies are not influenced by coupling with adjacent elements.

(d)

Fig. 5. EMC Longitudinal fed Triple Frequency Dipole

(a)

Fig. 6. EMC Transverse fed Triple Frequency Dipole

(b)

(c)
Fig. 4. Current distribution of proposed design at (a) 1.576 GHz, (b) 2.192 GHz, (c) 2.652 GHz

4 COMPARISON WITH CONVENTIONAL PROXIMITY-COUPLED DESIGN

The triple frequency operations can also be achieved by conventional methods of longitudinal and transverse coupled feeding technique. While comparing with the performance of proposed antenna, they differ in each case. The longitudinal EMC dipole antenna is shown in fig. 5 where the driven patch is fed by placing the feedline beneath the patch and two parasitic dipoles are placed on the both side of the driven patch to get three different resonances of the antenna. Here also two different substrates are used in upper & lower layers. The glass-epoxy substrate of dielectric constant 4.36 with a height of 1.6

mm. is used as lower layer and PTFE substrate of dielectric constant 2.55 with a height of 1.524 mm. is used as upper layer. The dimension of the dipoles are having lengths and widths of 41.8 mm. and 5 mm.(driven element), 60 mm. and 5 mm.(right parasitic element), 37 mm. and 5 mm.(left parasitic element) respectively as shown in figure. The parasitic patches are placed at a distance of 0.5 mm. apart from the driven patch and the left & right parasitic patches are placed such that the centre of the parasitic patches are 3mm. & 13 mm. above the centre of the driven patch respectively. The feed line of length 111.58 mm. and width 4.09 mm. is placed below the driven patch such that the open end of the feed line is placed 18.55 mm. below the centre of the driven element. The simulation results (return loss & radiation pattern) of the design are shown in Fig. 7 & 8. Similarly the EMC transverse fed triple frequency antenna is also designed which is shown in fig. 6. The design uses same set of substrates here. The dimensions of the dipoles are having lengths and widths of 41.25 mm. and 5 mm., 58.5 mm. and 5 mm., 33.7 mm. and 5 mm. respectively(from left to right elements). The feed line is placed below the dipoles at the intersection of the two layers with a length of 111.58 mm. and a width of 4.09 mm. The dipoles are placed at a distance of 25.57 mm., 39.51 mm. & 55.21 mm. from the open end of the microstrip line to get a stub length of g/2 in each of the three cases. Little offset in the position of the dipoles are done to get matching from the feed line and the final position of the dipoles are such that the centers of the dipoles are 21.45 mm., 30.20 mm. & 18.17 mm. above respectively(left to right element) from the centre of the feed line. The simulation results (return loss & radiation pattern) of the design are shown in Fig. 9 & 10.

TABLE 2 COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PERFORMANCES OF THE ANTENNAS

Fig. 7. Return loss of EMC Longitudinal fed Dipole Antenna

Fig. 8. Radiation pattern of EMC Longitudinal fed Dipole Antenna

is easier to design but it has the disadvantage of parasitic loading effect (mutual coupling) which degrades the performance of the driven element. On the other hand, the transverse fed design is not affected by such loading effect but it requires larger substrate area in design. The proposed antenna, which is a combination of longitudinally & transversely coupled dipole with proximity feed, is found suitable for multi-frequency operations in the desired wireless bands where the problem of loading effect is taken care off.

CONCLUSION

Fig. 9. Return loss of EMC Transverse fed Dipole Antenna

A novel method of designing a multi-frequency dipole antenna is presented in this paper. The antenna operates in three wireless communication standards DVBSH (2.170 GHz 2.20 GHz), GPS (1.575 GHz) & Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting (2.635 GHz 2.660 GHz). The proposed design is compared with longitudinal fed as well as with transverse fed proximity coupled dipole antenna and it is found that the proposed antenna incorporates advantages of both the designs and is a good design trade off showing better performances. The simulated results & measured results are found to be in good agreement.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank SAMEER, Kolkata for their support of this work.

REFERENCES
[1] Fig. 10. Radiation pattern of EMC Transverse fed Dipole Antenna Sen A., Roy J. S., Bhadra Chaudhuri S.R, Investigation on a Dual-Frequency Microstrip Antenna for Wireless, Proc. International Workshop on Antenna Technolog., p. 1-4, IWAT 2009, Pozar D. M., Kaufman B., Increasing the bandwidth of a Microstrip antenna by proximity coupling, Electronics Letters, Vol. 23, No. 8, p. 368 369, 1987. Oltman H. George, Electromagnetically Coupled Microstrip Dipole Antenna Elements, Proc. Europ. Microwave Conf., 1977 Oltman H., and Huebner D., Electromagnetically Coupled Microstrip Dipoles, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propaga-

The comparative study of the performances of the antennas is presented in tabular form in table 2. From the results, it is evident that the proposed design shows better performance for multi-frequency operation of the dipole antenna. The substrate area of the proposed antenna is greater than longitudinal fed design but it is less than that of the transverse fed design. The longitudinal fed antenna

[2]

[3] [4]

tion,Vol. 29, No 1.,p. 151 157, 1981 [5] Lepeltier P., Floch J. M., Citerne J.;Complete and Rigorous Analysis of Electromagnetically Coupled Transverse Microstrip Dipole, Electronics Letters, Vol. 23 No. 16, pp. - 822 824, 1987 [6] Chattopadhyay Krishnendu, Mukherjee S., Das, S. and Bhadra Chaudhuri S. R., Bandwidth Enhancement of Microstrip Dipole Using Proximity Coupling Method, 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting, USA, p. 17581761, 2011 [7] Yang Hung-yu, Alexopoulas Nicolas G., Lepeltier Philippe M. and Stern George J., Design of Transversely Fed EMC Microstrip Dipole Arrays Including Mutual Coupling," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 38., No. 2. p.145-151, 1990. [8] Das Nirod K., Pozar David M., Analysis and Design of SeriesFed Arrays of Printed Dipoles Proximity-Coupled to a Perpendicular Microstripline, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 37, No. 4. p. 435-444, pp. 8-16, 1989. [9] Das Nirod K., Pozar David M., Design of Array of Printed Dipoles Proximity-coupled to a Perpendicular Microstripline, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, AP-S. Digest, 1988, vol 2, p. 454-457, 1988 Krishnendu Chattopadhyay is an AMIETE graduate of 1996 from IETE, New Delhi. He received his Master of. Engineering degree in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering from Bengal Engineering & Science University (BESU), Shibpur, West Bengal, India, in 2000.He is pursuing his PhD research work in the Dept. of Electronics & Telecomn.Engg.at BESU in the area of Performance Enhancement of Microstrip Antennas & UWB Antennas. He is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, M.C.K.V. Institute of Engineering, Howrah, West Bengal, India. He is a life member of IETE, India. Soumava Mukherjee was born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He received his Bachelor of Technology degree from MCKV Institute of Engineering, under West Bengal University of Technology in 2009 and Master of Engineering degree from Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur in 2011. His research interest is in the area of Planar Antennas for Wireless Communication. Santanu DAS received his B.E.degree in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering from the then Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur under Calcutta University in 1989 and M.E in Electronics & Telecommunication Engg. as well as .Ph.D. (Engineering) degree from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India in 1992 & 1998 respectively.. He is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, Bengal Engineering & Science University (BESU), Shibpur, West Bengal, India. His research interest is in the area of Microwave & RF Technology, Metamaterials, EBG Technology & Planar Antennas. He has guided 1(one) PhD scholar and at present 3(three) doctoral scholars are working at BESU under his guidance. He has 55 research publications in Engineering/Technology in various International/National Journals & Conferences. He is a Life Member of the Institution of Engineers, India. Sekhar Ranjan Bhadra Chaudhuri was born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He received his B.E. & M.E. degree in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering from the then Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur under Calcutta University (C.U.) in seventies and M.B.A. degree from IISWBM under C.U. & Ph.D. (Engineering) degree from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India in eighties. He is a Professor in the Department of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, Bengal Engineering & Science University (BESU), Shibpur, West Bengal, India. His research interest is in the area of Microwave & Communication in general & Planar & Non Planar Antennas for Wireless Communication in particular. He has guided 3(three) PhD scholars. At present 6(six) doctoral scholars are work-

ing at BESU under his guidance. He has 80 research publications in Engineering/Technology in various International/National Journals & Conferences. He is a Life Member of ISTE & Member of IEEE, USA.