2008 International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing with Applications

Wideband Stacked Microstrip Patch Antenna for Wireless Communication

Mohammad Tariqul Islam1, Norbahiah Misran1,2, Mohammed Nazmus Shakib2, and Baharudin
Yatim1
1
Institute of Space Science (ANGKASA), 2Dept. of Electrical, Electronics & System
Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor , Malaysia
Email: titareq@yahoo.com,engmdns@yahoo.com

Abstract gain and a narrow bandwidth. To overcome its inherent

A wideband stacked microstrip patch antenna is
presented. The proposed structure combines the merits
of the stacked patch antennas and L-shaped feed for
broadband operation. This paper presents extended E
and H shaped patch stacked with rectangular patch
(53mm 35mm). The composite effect of integrating
inverting techniques and by introducing the proposed
patch, offer a low profile, high gain, and compact
antenna element. The simulated impedance bandwidth
of the proposed antenna is 680 MHz (33%). It is shown
that the wide bandwidth is caused by a two-frequency
resonance. The study showed maximum achievable
gain of about 9.58 dBi and gain variation of 0.76 dBi
between the frequency ranges of 1.72GHz to 2.4GHz.
Details of the proposed compact and broadband
design is presented and discussed in this paper.
1. Introduction
The promising pervasive computing technology
aims to support user activities and perform tasks on
behalf of the users, while adapting the application to
changes in the computing environment. This vision is
beginning to take shape with the advancement in
various wireless technology infrastructures (e.g.
WLAN, Bluetooth, 3G), proliferation of new devices
(e.g. wearable computers), sensors and actuators
embedded into users living environment, as well as
software models for integrating these disparate
technologies [1]. The need for compact and
multifunctional wireless communication systems has
spurred the development of wideband antennas with
small size. Microstrip patch antennas have several
well-known advantages, such as low profile, low cost,
light weight, ease of fabrication and conformity [2].
However, the microstrip antenna inherently has a low
limitation of narrow impedance bandwidth and low
gain, many techniques have been suggested e.g., for
probe fed stacked antenna, microstrip patch antennas
on electrically thick substrate, slotted patch antenna
and stacked shorted patches have been proposed and
investigated [3]. In general, the impedance bandwidth
of a patch antenna is proportional to the antenna
volume, measured in wavelengths.
However, by using two stacked patches with the
walls at the edges between the two patches, one can
obtain enhanced impedance band width. There has
recently been considerable interest in the two layer
probe fed patch antenna consisting of a driven patch in
the bottom and a parasitic patch [4], [5]. By stacking a
parasitic patch on a Microstrip patch antenna, the
antenna with high gain or wide bandwidth can be
realized [6]. These characteristics of stacked microstrip
antenna depend on the distance between a fed patch
and a parasitic patch. When the distance is about 0.1
(wavelength), the stacked Microstrip antenna has a
wide bandwidth [6].
Recently, aperture-coupled fed stacked patch
antenna [7] have been investigated and bandwidths up
to 69% have been reported, however, the major
drawbacks are the level of back radiation due to the use
of a resonant aperture and the surface wave excitation.
Other feeding techniques such as the use of L-shaped
or F-shaped probes have also been proposed yielding to
wide impedance bandwidths [8], [9], at the expense of
increased complexity of the design and fabrication,
especially of the probe. In [8], an L-probe fed stacked
U-Slot patch antenna was proposed with a bandwidth
up to 44.4% being achieved. V-slotted rectangular
microstrip antenna with a stacked patch has been
shown able to achieve bandwidths as high as 47% [10].

978-0-7695-3471-8/08 $25.00 2008 IEEE 547

DOI 10.1109/ISPA.2008.76
 In this paper, a novel extended E and H shaped 1.373 0 1.236 0 and thickness of 1 mm is used as the
patch stacked with rectangular patch antenna is
ground plane.
investigated for enhancing the impedance bandwidth
and gain. The design employs contemporary techniques l1
namely, the L-probe feeding, inverted patch, and
stacked patch techniques to meet the design w1
requirement.
l2
W
2. Antenna layout and structure
W
The geometry of the proposed stacked patch we
antenna structure is depicted in Figure 1. The antenna
is composed of two stacked patches, two layers of air, w2
L
and a L-probe fed to the driven patch. The driven
patch, with width W and length L is supported by a low
L
dielectric substrate with dielectric permittivity 1 and
(a) (b)
thickness h1.
h3 Upper substrate
The parasitic patch with the width W and length L Parasitic patch
stacked at the height h2 above the lower substrate and h2
supported by lower dielectric substrate with Air
h1 Lower substrate
permittivity 1 and thickness h3. Two air-filled layers
are used in between the lower substrate and ground Driven patch
plane with permittivity 0 and thickness h0 and in h0 fp Air
hp
between two patches with permittivity 0 and thickness L-Probe
h2 respectively. Ground Plane
SMA Connector
The proposed driven patch with dimension of
0.591 0 0.357 0 (where 0 is the guided (c)
wavelength of the center operation frequency) Figure 1. Geometry of the proposed stacked patch
integrates both the extended E and H shaped patch on antenna: (a) Top view of driven patch,(b) Top view
the same radiating element. For the extended E-shaped, of parasitic patch, (c) Side view of proposed
the slots are embedded in parallel on the radiating edge antenna.
of the patch symmetrically with respect to the
TABLE I
centerline (x-axis) of the patch and for the H-shaped PROPOSED PATCH ANTENNA DESIGN PAEAMETER
the slots are embedded in serial on the non-radiating
edge of the patch. The extended E and H shaped slots Parameters Value [mm]
on the patch are shown in Figure 1(a), where, l and w W 86
are the length and width of the slots. The proposed W 53
parasitic patch is a rectangular patch with dimension of w1 10
w2 21
0.364 0 0.220 0 as shown in Figure 1(b).The we 18
driven patch is fed by an L-shaped probe with height, L 52
L 32
hP along the centerline (x-axis) at a distance fP from the
edge of the patch as shown in Figure 1(c). Table 1 l1 1
shows the optimized design parameters obtained for the l2 40
proposed stacked patch antenna. A Rogers RT 5880 h0 16
Duroid dielectric substrate with dielectric
h1 1.5748
permittivity, 1 of 2.2 and thickness of 1.5748 mm has
been used at the lower and upper patch respectively in h2 11
this research. An Aluminum plate with dimensions of h3 1.5748
fP 4
hp 14

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 It is well known that using the stacked patches with the designed antenna displays good broadside radiation
somewhat different lengths, the impedance bandwidth patterns in the xz-plane and yz-plane at second resonant
increases by virtue of close double resonance. The frequency of 2.18 GHz. It can be seen that 3-dB
degree of the impedance widening operation usually beamwidth of 62 and 50 for xz-plane and yz-plane
depends on the gap between the two patches and their respectively at 2.18 GHz. The cross polarization
length ratio. If their length ratio is significant, dual pattern is lower than about -35dB in xz-plane. The
resonance occurs instead of broadband behavior. proposed stacked patch antenna exhibits better cross
Broadband operation we obtain using stacked patches polarization than the design reported in [11]. Notable,
has limitations in this sense. It has also been found that the radiation characteristics of the proposed stacked
by adopting a L-probe feeding and extended E shape patch antenna are better to those of the conventional
slotted patch technique, the impedance bandwidth is patch antenna.
also broadened considerably and by the use of H shape 0
0
slots technique basically for reduction patch size and 330 -10 30
cross polarization. -20
-30
300 60
3. Results -40
-50

The resonant properties of the proposed antenna -60

270 -70 90
have been predicted and optimized using a frequency
domain three- dimensional full wave electromagnetic
field solver (Ansoft HFSS). Figure 2 shows the
simulated result of the return loss of the proposed 240 120
stacked patch antenna. The two closely excited
resonant frequencies at 1.84 GHz and at 2.18 GHz as 210 150
shown in the figure gives the measure of the wideband
180
characteristic of the patch antenna. The simulated
impedance bandwidth of 33% from 1.72 GHz to 2.4
GHz is achieved at 10 dB return loss (VSWR2) and xz-plane: Co-polar, Cross-polar
27.32% from 1.77 GHz to 2.33 GHz is achieved at yz-plane: Co-polar, Cross-polar
14dB return loss (VSWR1.5). Figure 3. Normalized radiation pattern of proposed
stacked patch antenna at upper resonance frequency
of 2.18 GHz.
0
-5
The simulated gain of the proposed stacked patch
1.72-2.4GHz (BW=33%) at RL=-10dB
antenna at various frequencies is shown in Figure 4. As
-10
shown in the figure, the maximum achievable gain is
Return loss [dB]

-15 9.58 dBi at the frequency of 2.1GHz and the gain

-20 variation is 0.76 dBi between the frequency ranges of
-25 1.72GHz to 2.4GHz (i.e. a gain bandwidth of 33%).
-30 11
-35 10
-40 9
1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5
8
Gain [dBi]

Frequency [GHz]
7
6
Figure 2. Simulated return loss of the proposed
5
stacked patch antenna.
4
The simulated radiation pattern is at the second 3
resonant frequency in the xy-plane and yz-plane are 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5
plotted in Figure 3. For the sake of brevity, only Frequency [GHz]
simulated radiation pattern for second resonant Figure 4. Simulated gain of proposed stacked patch
frequency is given in this paper. As shown in Figure 3, antennas at different frequencies.

549
 In Figure 5, a parametric study was conducted to
investigate the effects of the antenna parameters on the
impedance matching. The effect on return losses with
different slot widths is illustrated and the width equals
18 mm is used in the control model. When the slot
width (we) increases, the lower resonance shifts
upward. In addition, the variation on the width of the
slots would affect the matching on the upper resonance
more seriously than that of the lower resonance.
Therefore, it is concluded that the slot width governs
both the lower and upper resonances.
0
-5
-10
Return loss [dB]
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 2.1 2.2
Frequency [GHz]
-2mm, 0mm, +2mm,
Figure 5. Effect on return loss of different slot
widths (we) of the proposed stacked patch.
4. Conclusions and discussions
A stacked microstrip patch antenna has been
designed for wireless communication system. A novel
technique for enhancing bandwidth of microstrip patch
antenna is successfully designed in this research.
Simulation results of a wideband microstrip patch
antenna covering 1.72 to 2.4 GHz frequency have been
presented.
The proposed stacked microstrip patch antenna
achieves a bandwidth of 33% (1.72 to 2.4 GHz) at 10
dB return loss. The maximum achievable gain of the
antenna is 9.58 dBi. The design has demonstrated that
extended E and H shape patch stacked with a
rectangular patch and L-probe fed can be used to form
an antenna with the broad bandwidth of 33%,
furthermore due to its better gain and broad bandwidth
more applications can be anticipated.
5. References
[1] S. Balasubramaniam, T. Pfeifer, and J. Indulska, Active
Node supporting Context-aware Vertical Handover in
Pervasive Computing Environment with Redundant
Positioning in 1st International Symposium on
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reconfigurable U-slot microstrip patch antenna, IEEE
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 7, pp.
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[3] D.M. Pozar and D.H. Schaubert, Microstrip antennas,
the analysis and design of microstrip antennas and
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[4] K.L. Wong and W.H. Hsu, A broadband rectangular
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[5] J.Y. Sze and K.L. Wong, Slotted rectangular microstrip
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[6] S. Egashira and E. Nishiyama, Stacked microstrip
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+4mm [7] S.D. Targonski, R.B. Waterhouse, and D.M. Pozar,
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[8] B.L. Ooi and C.L. Lee, Broadband Air-Filled Stacked
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[9] B.L. Ooi, C.L. Lee, P.S. Kooi, and S.T. Chew, A novel
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Antennas and Propagation Society International
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[10] G.Z. Rafi, and L. Shafai, V-slotted rectangular
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