Design and Implementation of Microstrip Patch

Antenna Array
George Casu1, Ctlin Moraru2, Andrei Kovacs (Corresponding author)1*
Military Technical Academy, Faculty of Electronics and Informatics, Bucharest, Romania
*Corresponding author (E-mail: andreikovacs@mta.ro)
Abstract This paper refers to a detailed analysis on the
design and implementation of 4x1 and 8x1 microstrip patch
antenna (array) of given specifications using IE3D software and a
dielectric material FR4 with dielectric substrate permittivity of
4.28, tangent loss of 0.002 and height of 1.6 mm. The microstrip
patch antenna array is designed for WLAN applications, at an
operating frequency of 2.4 GHz with microstrip line feed and
power dividers.
Keywords - microstrip antenna; microstrip antenna arrays;
antenna; simulation; microstrip line feed.

are usually in the range of 2.2<Er<12 . The most popular

models for the analysis of microstrip patch antennas are the
transmission line model, cavity model and full wave model.
The transmission line model is the simplest of all and it gives
good physical insight but it is less accurate [4].

I. INTRODUCTION
As an interface between the transmitter/receiver and the
propagation media, antenna is an essential part of any wireless
communication (satellites, radars, aviation, medical
applications, ground penetrating radar etc.).
[1] [2] [3] The key features of a microstrip patch antenna are
ease of construction, light weight, low cost, the antenna can
take an arbitrary form of the space that occupies if the
substrate is flexible and the production process has a highly
level of integration, the same circuit can include the microstrip
antenna and also the feeds [3] . These advantages of microstrip
antennas make them popular in many wireless communication
applications such as telemetry and communications, aviation,
naval communications, automatic guidance of intelligent
weaponry, radar, GPS systems. The disadvantages of
microstrip patch antennas are: narrow frequency band with
low efficiency, feeds have high losses and disability to operate
at high power levels of waveguide [3] [4]. Therefore, reliable
solutions must be found to increase bandwidth and to achieve
higher gain.

Figure 1. Geometry of microstrip patch antenna

The width of the microstrip patch antenna was computed with

the following equation [6][7]:
38

where c is the speed of light (3x108 m/s), fr is the operating

frequency of 2.4 GHz and Er is the dielectric permittivity of
4.28.
The length of microstrip patch antenna is given by the
following equations:
1

978-1-4799-2385-4/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

12

3.979

(2)

where Ereff is the effective dielectric constant and h is the

thickness of the dielectric substrate.

II. MICROSTRIP ANTENNA DESIGN

In this paper, the microstrip patch antenna array ( 4x1, 8x1 )
has been designed to operate at a center frequency of 2.4 GHz
with an input impedance of 50 using a dielectric material
FR4 with r = 4.28, tangent loss tg=0.002 and thickness (h)
of 1.6 mm. For microstrip antennas, the dielectric constants

(1)

0.412

31

.
.

.
.

7.417

(3)

10
(4)

In the equation above L stands for length extension.

Therefore, the actual length of the microstrip patch antenna is

given by:
2
30
(5)

III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

For designing the microstrip antenna and the microstrip
antenna arrays it has been used Zealand IE3D Software.

To compute the width w of the feed for an impedance Z0 of 50

the following equations were used:
0.23

(6)

(7)
1
0.39

31

(8)
Figure 3. The designed antenna and its current distribution

Furthermore, for achieving impedance adaptation the width of

the power divider was also computed.
Taking into consideration that one section of the power divider
2
, to achieve impedance adaptation
is equal with
with the 50 line feed the impedance of the power divider
was calculated :
70.711

(9)

Therefore, for an impedance of 70 the following value of w

was obtained: w=1.64 mm.
Figure 4. Frequency characteristic (S11 parameter)

Figure 2. Top view of antenna

The effective wave length is given by:

0.063

(10)

Figure 5. Polar and cartesian plot for the directivity characteristic

To compute the distance between the feed and the lower

side of the antenna for a given impedance Zin of 50 it
was used the equation:
50

300

(11)

9.123

(12)

Figure 6. 3D directivity characteristic for microstrip antenna

For the phased array with 4 antennas, a center operating

frequency of 2.375 GHz was obtained.

Figure 11. Current distribution of the 8x1 array

Figure 7. Designed array and its current distribution

Figure 12. S11 parameter and VSWR

Figure 8. S11 parameter and VSWR

Figure 13. Polar and cartesian plot for the directivity characteristic
Figure 9. Polar and cartesian plot for the directivity characteristic

Concerning the phased array [8] [9], a 28 degrees orientation

of the maximum radiation pattern was achieved by modifying
the length of the feeds of the array comparing with the sinfazic
array, where all the elements are fed with the same amplitude
and phase [8].

Concerning the main difference between the microstrip patch

antenna and the array is that the directive characteristic
increases in directivity with the number of antennas.
For implementing the microstrip patch antenna the dielectric
material FR4 was used [6].

Figure 14. Implemented microstrip patch antenna

Figure 10. Designed 8x1 array

Figure 15. Implemented sinfazic array

IV. CONCLUSIONS
The directive characteristic of these microstrip patch antennas
were measured using a power generator, a horn antenna used
as reference and a power measurement tool .

Figure 16. The horn antenna used as reference

250
200
150

Antena
Retea simfazica

100
50
0
1

11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33

Figure 17. Directive characteristic of the antenna vs. sinfazic array in the
horizontal plane

The results obtained in simulation proved that the 3dB

bandwidth of the microstrip patch antenna is smaller than the
3dB bandwidth of the array (90 MHz and 140 MHz). The S11
parameter of the antenna (-12 dB) is greater than the S11
parameter of the sinfazic network (-18 dB) and the phased
network (-14 dB). In practice, the measured S11 parameters
are almost the same as the simulated parameters: the antenna
(-16 dB), the sinfazic network (-18 dB). Concerning VSWR,
the values obtained in each case were between (1,2), meaning
that there werent very high power losses, therefore, the
impedance adaptation between the antenna and the feed line
was achieved. The measured and simulated directive
characteristics are almost identical and confirms us that a
microstrip patch antenna has a larger directive characteristic
than the array, where it is applied the group directive function.
Moreover, the antenna doesnt contain secondary lobes
comparing with the array which means that there arent power
losses.

In the figure above, on the Oy axis the power level (W) is

represented and on the Ox axis the orientation of the
directivity feature ( ) is represented.

REFERENCES

[1]

[2]

Figure. 18 Measured S11 parameter of the antenna

[3]

[4]

[5]

Figure 19. Measured S11 parameter of the array

[6]

[7]
[8]

[9]
Figure 20. S11 Smith Chart of the antenna and the array

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