A Compact Circularly Polarized Multiband Microstrip Patch Antenna with Defective Ground Structure

In this paper, a novel double-layer multiband circularly polarized microstrip patch antenna is proposed. The design employs the concept of slotted patch fed with proximity coupled feed having defected ground plane (DGS). The proposed antenna achieves multiple operating frequency bands including FB1 (11.15 GHz), FB2 (4.17 GHz), FB3 (4.87 GHz) and FB4 (1.98 GHz). The proposed antenna has obtained bandwidth of 12.98%, 4.7%, 4.69% and 5.39% at FB1, FB2, FB3 and FB4 bands, respectively. The proposed antenna also exhibits circular polarization in the frequency band FB4. The 3dB ARBW of the antenna is 9.23% at 11.2 GHz. Finally, a metallic cavity is used with the antenna to achieve a unidirectional radiation pattern. The designed antenna radiation characteristics are verified with the experimental results

A Compact Circularly Polarized Multiband Microstrip Patch Antenna with Defective Ground Structure

In this paper, a novel double-layer multiband circularly polarized microstrip patch antenna is proposed. The design employs the concept of slotted patch fed with proximity coupled feed having defected ground plane (DGS). The proposed antenna achieves multiple operating frequency bands including FB1 (11.15 GHz), FB2 (4.17 GHz), FB3 (4.87 GHz) and FB4 (1.98 GHz). The proposed antenna has obtained bandwidth of 12.98%, 4.7%, 4.69% and 5.39% at FB1, FB2, FB3 and FB4 bands, respectively. The proposed antenna also exhibits circular polarization in the frequency band FB4. The 3dB ARBW of the antenna is 9.23% at 11.2 GHz. Finally, a metallic cavity is used with the antenna to achieve a unidirectional radiation pattern. The designed antenna radiation characteristics are verified with the experimental results

Magneto-Electric Dipole Antenna Arrays

A planar magneto-electric (ME) dipole antenna array is proposed and demonstrated by both full-wave analysis and experiments. The proposed structure leverages the infinite wavelength propagation characteristic of composite right/left-handed (CRLH) transmission lines to form high-gain magnetic radiators combined with radial conventional electric radiators, where the overall structure is excited by a single differential feed. The traveling-wave type nature of the proposed ME-dipole antenna enables the formation of directive arrays with high-gain characteristics and scanning capability. Peak gains of 10.84 dB and 5.73 dB are demonstrated for the electric dipole and magnetic-dipole radiation components, respectively.Comment: 9 pages, 17 figure

Design and Synthesis of Dual Polarized Millimetre Wave Array Antennas for Advanced Wireless Communications

The millimetre-wave (mmWave) antenna arrays in traditional designs are usually very complicated, bulky and expensive. They suffer compromised radiation efficiency because of high insertion loss caused by the intricate feed networks. In addition, the cross polarization level is degraded, especially for the multibeam antenna arrays. To reduce the complexity and improve the electric characteristics, it is significant to develop mmWave antenna arrays with multi-functionality such as dual polarization, cross polarization suppression, beam switching and power splitting/combining, etc.In this thesis, four designs of sub-mmWave and mmWave dual polarized antenna arrays with low complexity, compact size and good electrical performance are proposed. Firstly, a dual slant polarized cavity-backed slot-coupled patch antenna arrays with modified feed networks is developed. This antenna array features high XPD, simple structure and low profile. Then, a dual polarized 2D multibeam shorted-patch antenna array with high XPD when beams scan to the maximum pointing angles is developed. Differential feed technique is used to design the multibeam antenna array for the first time. The third design is a dual polarized frequency-scanning cross slot antenna array realized on a single laminate. To enable high port isolation and excitation from orthogonal directions, a SIW crossover is proposed. This antenna array shows advantages in terms of low complexity, high XPD, high aperture efficiency and wide beam scanning range. A dual polarized slot-coupled patch antenna array differentially fed by an orthomode transducer is developed in the last design. The feed networks are taken into consideration of designing the subarray antenna. The via-loaded crossover is used to enable structure simplification and triple resonance is excited to improve operation bandwidth. This antenna array features low complexity, high XPD, high radiation efficiency, high gain and high integration.In this thesis, the design methods and synthesis procedures are detailed in order todeliver a comprehensive guide of designing the dual polarized antenna arrays. The design concept and outcomes of these antenna arrays are evaluated in the high frequency fullwave solver. All of the antenna arrays are prototyped and measured for validating the simulations. The measurements are in good agreement with the simulations, evidencing that the proposed antenna arrays have advantages in terms of high XPD, high aperture efficiency, high port isolation, low complexity and low profile. The design concepts depicted in this thesis and the developed antenna arrays could find potential applications in mobile communication systems and satellite communication systems

Reconfigurable antennas for adaptive MIMO communication systems

The requirements for the next generation wireless systems seek to provide reliable high data rate at low cost. Unfortunately the current wireless communication infrastructure is notfully equipped to over this unprecedented quality of service. Major obstacles include: limited bandwidth availability, limited transmit power, and signal strength uctuations which are intrinsic to the multivariate wireless channel. Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna systems have emerged as one of the most significant technical breakthrough in modern wireless communications able to satisfy these stringent requirements. However the necessity of assuring a high data rate in a large variety of environments while reducing the antenna array space occupation on portable devices requires an improvement in current MIMO technology. To overcome these limitations, we propose in this thesis, the use of reconfigurable antennas that adaptively change, through RF switches, their radiation properties and frequency of operation according to wireless channel characteristics.The key idea of this work is to show that reconfigurable antennas, through their capability to dynamically change their electrical and radiation properties, can be used to change the propagation characteristics of the wireless channel existing between the transmitting and receiving antennas. The proposed MIMO system breaks from the conventional wisdom that the wireless propagation channel cannot be changed intentionally by the transceivers in the link.Three different novel classes of electrically multi element reconfigurable antennas are proposed as suitable candidates for reconfigurable MIMO systems: i ) a reconfigurable printeddipole antenna array that exploits inter element mutual coupling to achieve pattern reconfigurability, ii ) circular patches capable of exciting higher order modes to achieve pattern and polarization diversity, and iii ) a metamaterial leaky wave array that can be reconfigured in pattern to achieve unprecedented degrees of pattern reconfigurability.To effectively use such antennas with actual communication systems, a low power consumption method for selecting the array configuration is proposed. This technique exploits the close relationship between the environment that surrounds the antenna array and the antenna radiation characteristics in order to select optimal array radiation patterns without the need for intense channel sensing or excessive training. A complete reconfigurable antenna system composed of mutli-element reconfigurable antennas and a control unit capable of efficently driving the antennas is proposed to deliver unprecedented system performance.Analytical models of the proposed system are used to fully characterize the functionality and performance of the technology. A complete evaluation of the proposed system is conducted through electromagnetic simulations and eld measurements collected with a channel sounder speciiically designed to measure the performance of multi element antennasystems. It is demonstrated that the novel multi element reconfigurable antenna system is capable of providing i ) increased data rate compared to common non reconfigurable antennas in single link communications as well as in multi-link ad hoc networks, ii ) reduced space occupation by the antenna on the communication device exploiting the principles of pattern and polarization diversity, iii ) reduced number of radio-frequency chains needed at the receiver/transmitter and iv ) reduced amount of transmit power for achieving performancecomparable to that of standard non reconfigurable antenna systems.Ph.D., Electrical Engineering -- Drexel University, 200

A study of planar inverted-F antennas in a dielectric enclosure

Demand for small and low-profile antennas has greatly increased due to the desire for miniaturisation of modern-day mobile radio electronic terminals. Such an antenna is often integrated into the dielectric casing of a terminal, or independently enclosed within a dielectric radome to provide a protection from operating environments and keep the system more compact. However, the dielectric casing or radome may interact strongly with the antenna and result in losses in performance. The primary focus of this dissertation is to investigate and enhance the performance of Planar Inverted-F Antennas (PIFAs) when enclosed in dielectric casings or radomes for applications in mobile radio communications. PIFAs have attracted much interest due to their small volume, low profile structures and electrical characteristics compatible with existing specifications, making it a promising candidate for mobile radio applications. Therefore, the design of a single band PIFA on a finite ground plane, operating in the 900 MHz band is first presented. It is found that the effect of the finite ground plane must be considered to achieve an optimum performance of the PIFA. Then the performance of this antenna in the presence of a dielectric cover layer is investigated and evaluated in terms of resonant frequency, bandwidth and efficiency. In this study, the dielectric layer represents the dielectric casing of a device where the antenna is much closer to the top part of the casing than to the other side parts whose effect can then be ignored. Computer simulations of performance are based on the Method of Moments (MOM) and have been validated by measurements. This study shows that a dielectric cover layer will strongly interact with the antenna with the result that the antenna performance may move outside the design specifications.Therefore, it is concluded that the dielectric cover layer must always be taken into account in the design stage. In addition, the input and radiation characteristics of a PIFA enclosed within a rectangular dielectric radome for both the 900 MHz and 2400 MHz frequency bands are analysed using the MOM. This research concentrates on the effect of each individual part of the rectangular dielectric radome on the overall performance. It is observed that each individual part has a different degree of effect on both the input and radiation characteristics of the PIFA, and that the effect is more significant at the higher frequency band. The study indicates that the effect of the dielectric radome on the performance of the antenna can be minimised by carefully choosing its location and orientation within the radome. Another indication is that an optimised dielectric radome design can both miniaturise the antenna and at the same time improve the bandwidth without sacrificing other performance parameters such as the gain. Furthermore, an analytical approach based on the Transmission Line Model (TLM) is applied to estimate the input characteristics of a PIFA having a dielectric cover layer. The results calculated based on this approach are compared with MOM computed results. A reasonably good agreement between them has been demonstrated. It is suggested that the TLM model could form part of an efficient Computer Aided Design (CAD) tool for design engineers to provide initial design parameters.Finally, a new dual-band PIFA is proposed. A design example for the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency bands of 900 MHz and 2400 MHz is given. Measurement validation of the design is presented. The influence of the dielectric cover layer on the resonant frequency, bandwidth, gain and radiation patterns of this antenna is also examined by simulation. In this study, it is found that a simple capacitive disk arrangement not only provides a single feed for dual-band operation but also gives flexibility to allow individual control of the two desired band resonances