594 PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 19–23, 2012

Design and Simulation of Different Types of Meander Line

Antennas with Improved Efficiency
A. Jahanbakhshi1 , Gh. Moradi2 , and R. Sarraf Shirazi2
1
Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran
2
Electrical Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran

Abstract— The advent of new technology in communication systems and widespread use of
this technology, leads engineers to design cheaper and simpler communication equipments. One
of the most usage aspect of communication field is WLAN and RFID systems. Antenna is an
inseparable part of these systems. Meander line antenna is the most usage of antenna that use
in design of these applications. Classic meander line antenna has low efficiency in some aspects,
such as antenna bandwidth and operation in only one resonance frequency (single band). In
this present various kind of these antennas have been proposed, to get better characteristics and
efficiency such as log periodic meander line antenna, meander line antenna with different length
of vertical segment and symmetrical meander line antenna.

1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the wireless communication business has expanded greatly. Wireless systems such
as WLAN has been popular [1, 2]. With development of communication equipment, control and
security devices are commonly use such as RFID. As we know, in these system the antenna is an
important part of devices that determining system size and performance.
Recently, meander line antenna has extremely used in design of these systems such as RFID
tags and WLAN systems [1–7].
Meander line antenna has significant advantages, it is electrically small, low profile antenna
and has simple structure [8]. But these antennas have some disadvantages, low radiation efficiency.
When the size of antenna is reduced, the radiation resistance is reduced. This results in the problem
of decreased radiation efficiency because the ratio of the Ohmic loss of the antenna conductor to
the radiated power is increased [9].
The other problem with classic meander line antennas, is their low bandwidth. As the meander
line antenna is one of the microstrip antenna, so it has low bandwidth (less than 5%) [10]. Having
a Dual band response is the other key factor for meander line antennas. As wireless communication
systems are becoming more and more flexible and even a less expensive than today cable based
systems, equipment working in these systems requires a low profile, dual band and wide band
antennas [11].
Meander line antennas, which has small size, wideband and ability to operate in dual band
frequency is suitable choice for these applications.
In this paper, for obtaining better characteristics different kinds of meander line antenna have
been proposed. For each one, the antenna design procedure, simulation for return loss, current
distribution, 3D pattern and Co and Cross Pol component are presented.
2. DESIGN DIFFERENT TYPE OF MLA
2.1. MLA with Different Thickness of Vertical Segment
An important application of meander line antenna is in wireless communication systems such as
WLAN. In these applications, bandwidth is an important factor. As it mentioned before meander
line antenna has low efficiency [10]. So if this kind of antenna want to use in WLAN systems, it
must to improve it bandwidth.
If we analysis current distribution of classic meander line antennas it could be observed that
vertical segment of meander line antenna has more role in constructing electrical field of this
antenna. Fig. 1 shows the current distribution of classic meander line antenna.
Therefore, with applying some changes in this segment, such as different thickness, it might get
better results. Fig. 2 shows MLA with different thickness of vertical segment.
In this structure, thickness of vertical segment and feed line are 2 mm and thickness of horizontal
segment is 1 mm. Fig. 3 shows the return loss of this antenna, as it seen, bandwidth has improved
significantly.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 19–23, 2012 595

Figure 1: Current magnitude distribution of classic Figure 2: Illustration of MLA with different length
meander line antenna [12]. of vertical segment.

Figure 3: Return loss of MLA with different length Figure 4: Illustration of Log periodic Meander line
of vertical segment. antenna.

Figure 5: Return loss of log periodic MLA. Figure 6: 3D electrical pattern of log periodic MLA.

2.2. Log Periodic Meander Line Antenna

The increasing use of wireless communication systems, demands the antennas for different systems
and standards with properties like compact, broadband and multiple resonant frequencies. Classic
meander line antenna is able to perform in single band. Log periodic antenna is a kind of frequency
independent antenna and is able to achieve multi-band performance [13]. Therefore, log periodic
technique has been combined with classic meander line antenna to get dual band antenna. Fig. 4
shows illustration of this antenna.
Log periodic MLA with dimension of 30 × 42 × 0.55 mm has been designed. Fig. 5 shows the
return loss of this antenna. Of course, with nearing two resonance frequencies it can be used to
increase bandwidth of this antenna. Radiation pattern is another important factor of antenna. For
RFID and WLAN applications Omni-directional is a key property. Fig. 6 shows 3D pattern of this
antenna.
596 PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 19–23, 2012

Figure 7: Illustration of symmetrical MLA. Figure 8: Return loss of symmetrical MLA.

(a) (b)

Figure 9: (a) Co-Pol and Cross-Pol component of H-plane pattern. (b) Co-Pol and Cross-Pol component of
E-plane pattern.

2.3. Symmetrical Meander Line Antenna

Nowadays, communication devices which have more properties are more usable than other devices.
One of its properties is devices that able to operate in dual band frequencies [14]. As it mentioned
before, log periodic MLA approach is one of them. Another technique to get dual-band resonance is
two segment MLA. In this mode main antenna, composes in two sub MLA. Each one can be designed
to operate in one resonance frequency. These segments can be symmetrical or asymmetrical [15].
In this paper symmetrical meander line antenna has been presented. Fig. 7 shows the illustration
of this antenna. In this structure taper plane has been designed to get better matching network.
This symmetrical MLA has been proposed to operate in dual band frequencies, which are 3.6 GHz
and 5.2 GHz for WMAX and WLAN application. Fig. 8 shows the return loss of this antenna.
Figures 9(a) and 9(b) show Co-Pol and Cross-Pol of this antenna in H-plane and E-plane
respectively. As seen, the designed antenna has a very linear-polarized characteristics.

3. CONCLUSIONS
Classic meander line antenna has good properties such as, small, low profile, simple and cheap.
These nice features make meander line antenna very popular and usable in many aspect of com-
munication systems such as RFID and WLAN.
Classic meander line antenna has some disadvantages. They have low efficiency, low bandwidth
and can not operate in multi band frequencies.
In this paper, with applying some changes in classic meander line antenna, different shape of
meander line antennas have been proposed to improve these issues. Meander line antenna with
different length of vertical segment has been presented to get better bandwidth.
Furthermore, log periodic and symmetrical meander line antennas have been designed to operate
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 19–23, 2012 597

in dual-band frequencies.
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