8-Element Circularly Polarized Microstrip Array

Antenna
Qianqian Wu, Jingzhao She, Zhenghe Feng
Department of Electronic Engineering
Tsinghua University
Beijing, 100084, China
Abstract-In this paper, the development of an eight-element
circularly polarized microstrip array at 5.8 GHz is presented.
Theory and experiment demonstrate both axial ratio 3 dB
bandwidth and the voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) 2:1
bandwidth of 8.6%. Different half power beamwidth at
horizontal plane (16) and vertical plane (36) is achieved, and
the measured array peak gain is 14 dBi at center frequency. The
sequential rotation method for the element arrangement and
array arrangement is employed to meet these objectives. The use
of coplanar corporate feeds for microstrip patch arrays leads to
constructional simplicity.

I.

INTRODUCTION

This coplanar feeding CP array is to be surface mounted

onto the Highway Electronic Toll Collection System.
Rigorous requirement of the half power beamwidth leads to
the arrangement of the 42 elements array. Although a CP
array can be composed of both LP and CP elements, in the
case of the array developed here, since the array size is small
and element spacing is larger than 0.7 wavelengths, CP
element is selected to achieve a higher gain [1]. Each patch
element of the array is excited at a single feed point to
minimize the insertion loss that occurs in the microstrip
transmission line feed network and to get a larger CP
bandwidth. The given antenna aperture size calls for a
coplanar design of the feed network, which significantly
affects the performance of the array [2]. It is a challenge to
minimize the arrays feed network loss and to attain the
required axial ratio with a coplanar feed network.
The microstrip array developed here resonates at 5.8 GHz
and radiates a broadside beam with right-hand circular
polarization. It provides a peak gain of 14 dBi at center
frequency and achieves the impedance and CP bandwidth of
greater than 500MHz.
II.

ARRAY DEVELOPMENT

This circularly polarized microstrip array is developed from

two 22 sub-arrays, each of which develops from four CP
elements. The single patch element development, the 22 subProject 60771009 supported by National Natural Science Foundation of
China.

978-1-4244-1880-0/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE.

array development, and the eight-element array development

are all presented below.
A. Single-Element Development
Each patch element is designed circularly polarized to
achieve higher radiation efficiency. Single-feed patch is
selected to simplify the feed network and reduce the insertion
loss. There are several configurations of the single-feed patch
to generate CP [3] [4], the truncated corner configuration
(shown in Fig.1) is used here because only one parameter is
needed to be adjusted.
The design of the truncate-corner square patch is assisted by
both the Cavity Modal Theory and the Variational Method [3].
With these mathematical techniques, the truncated corner
square patch was designed with the following parameters (see
Fig. 1): L = 15.5 mm, L = 4 mm, relative dielectric constant
= 2.25.
Simulation shows that the 3 dB CP bandwidth is about 3%,
and the axial ratio achieves 0.2 dB at 5.8 GHz. The single
element is directly used in the development of the 22 subarray.
B. 4-Element Sub-Array Development
One technique to increase the CP quality is to arrange four
neighboring elements, each being a CP element, sequentially
both in orientation and in phases as shown in Fig. 2. The four
elements are arranged in 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees,
270 degrees fashion to achieve symmetry and purer
polarization [5] [6].
In Fig. 2, the element spacing is 0.78 free-space wavelength.
The required differential phases between elements are
achieved by designing different length transmission lines,
concretely 0.25 guided wavelengths increase corresponds to
90 degrees delay in phase. A vertically launched OS-50 Coax
input connector is used to feed the microstrip array.
The 4-element array radiates a signal of 5.8 GHz and a
linear polarized horn antenna receives it every 30 degrees. The
radiation pattern of a principal plane is shown in Fig. 3 where
an axial ratio of less than 4 dB is achieved in the broadside
direction. The performance of the 22 sub-array was not
further optimized in order to minimize development time.

ICMMT2008 Proceedings

Figure 1. Single-fed circularly polarized square patch with one truncated

corner.
Figure 4. 8-element circularly polarized array

III. ARRAY MEASUREMENT RESULTS

Figure 2. 4-element circularly polarized sub-array

RELATIVE POWER (dB)

-30

-40

-50

-60

-70

-80

-90
-200

-150

-100

-50

50

100

150

200

ANGLE (deg)

The measured input return loss of the array is shown in Fig.

5. The 2:1 VSWR bandwidth is about 500 MHz, and the
return loss is -24.1 dB at 5.8 GHz. The relatively wide
impedance bandwidth is partly because the full arrays input
match is better designed. The width of the microstrip line
besides of the input connector is adjustable, which can be
noted in Fig. 4, to eliminate mismatch in the transmission line
and achieve a wider impedance bandwidth.
The radiation patterns of the array are measured at 5.8 GHz
with horn antenna in the two principal planes (horizontal and
vertical plane in Fig. 4) with the same method, and are
presented in Figs. 6 and 7. The 3 dB beamwidth of the main
beam in the two principal planes are 16 degrees and 36
degrees. These patterns show a peak sidelobe level of -7.5 dB
and an axial ratio of less than 3 dB (corresponds to more than
15 dB XPS [3]). The 3 dB axial ratio is better than the 4 dB of
the sub-array, which is believed to be mostly caused by the
improvement in the feed network. The axial ratio is all less
than 3 dB within the half power beamwidth, and near the
HPBW the axial ratio is smaller than the 0 degrees angle.
Further measurement shows that the axial ratios in frequencies
within the impedance bandwidth are all less of 3 dB.

Figure 3.Measured pattern of the 4-element sub-array.

0

-10

RETURN LOSS (dB)

C. 8-Element Array Design

To provide the required half power beamwidth, the number
of radiating elements is needed to be eight. This number is
also determined by the given antenna aperture size and the
dielectric constant of the substrate material.
The 8-element array is also arranged by the sequential
rotation method, the only difference is to treat the sub-array as
an independent element [7]. The two sub-arrays are arranged
in 0 degrees and 180 degrees fashion, and the spacing between
the two adjacent sub-arrays is also 0.78 free-space
wavelengths. This full array is illustrated in the photograph
given in Fig. 4. The dimension of the array is 190 mm 100
mm, relative dielectric constant is 2.25.

5.6 GHz -10.0 dB

6.07GHz -10.1dB

-20

-30

5.8GHz -24.1dB
5.82GHz -43.6dB

-40

5.0

5.2

5.4

5.6

5.8

6.0

6.2

6.4

6.6

FREQUENCY (GHz)

Figure 5. Measured input return loss of the 8-element array

.

IV.

CONCLUSION

-30

In this paper, the development of an eight-element

circularly polarized microstrip array at 5.8 GHz is presented.
The sequential rotation method is employed twice in the
development of the CP array, and achieves a relatively wide
impedance and CP bandwidth. Although this 8-element CP
array has met the requirement of the system, further
development may focus on the decrease of the axial ratio by
changing the feed network fashion or the sequential degree of
the elements.

RELATIVE POWER (dB)

-35
-40
-45
-50
-55
-60
-65
-70
-75
-200

-150

-100

-50

50

100

150

REFERENCES

200

ANGLE (deg)

[1]
Figure 6. Measured horizontal-plane pattern of the array shown in Fig. 4.
[2]

RELATIVE POWER (dB)

-30

[3]

-40

[4]
-50

[5]

-60

-70

[6]

-80
-200

-150

-100

-50

50

100

150

200

ANGLE (deg)

Figure 7. Measured vertical-plane pattern of the array shown in Fig. 4

[7]

P. S. HALL, J. HUANG, Gain of circularly polarized arrays composed

of linearly polarized elements, ELECTRONICS Letters 19th, January
1989, Vol. 25 No. 2 pp124-125
P.S. Hall, C.M. Hall, Coplanar corporate feed effects in microstrip
patch array design, IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 135, Pt. H, No. 3, JUNE
I988 pp180-186.
Shunshi Zhong Microstrip antenna theory and application, Xidian
University Press, pp. 127-151, June 1991.
Ramesh Garg, Prakash Bhartia, Inder Bahl, Apisak Ittipiboon
Microstrip Antenna Design Handbook, Artech House, Boston London
pp493-532, 2001
P.S. Hall, J.S. Dahele, J.R. James, Design principles of sequentially fed,
wide bandwidth, circularly polarized microstrip antennas, IEE
PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 136, Pt. H, No. 5, OCTOBER 1989 pp381-389.
T. Teshirogi, M. Tanaka, and W. Chujo, Wideband circularly polarized
array antenna with sequential rotations and phase shift of elements,
Intl Symp. On ant. and Prop., ISAP85, pp.117-120, 1985.
P.S. Hall, Application of sequential feeding to wide bandwidth,
circularly polarised microstrip patch arrays, IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol.
136, Pt. H, No. 5, OCTOBER I989 pp390-398.