2013 International Conference on Mechatronic Sciences, Electric Engineering and Computer (MEC)

Dec 20-22, 2013, Shenyang, China

Design of a Spherical Array by Orthogonal

Projection of a Planar Microstrip Antenna Array
Ferhat Haroun, Hongda Lu, Yu Sun, Xin Lv,
School of Information and Electronics
Beijing Institute of Technology
Beijing, China
[email protected]

 difference between the radiating elements. One famous of the

existing feed networks is the corporate feed network; it will be
Abstract—In this work we will present a design and analysis of the used one in our design and we will compensate its corner
a spherical conformal microstrip antenna array, which is discontinuities to improve the array’s performance.
obtained by the orthogonal projection of a predesigned 2x2 Lot of non planar shapes are common in conformal
planar microstrip antenna array operating at X-band frequency,
where the antenna elements are fed, via their non-radiating edge, microstrip antennas, in particular the cylindrical and spherical
by a microstrip corporate feed network. The designed spherical forms. The analysis of cylindrical arrays, with one curved
conformal microstrip array can become integrated to a spherical surface, give accurate results, but the spherical shape present
structure where it is mounted on. A comparison between the double curve surface and present a difficult problem to
predesigned planar array and the orthogonally projected analyze. In many references, the radiation pattern of such
spherical array is presented and simulation results are discussed. antenna or array is obtained using the existing simplified
The substrate material used in the design is Rogers RT/
Duroid5880 with 2.2 relative permittivity. models [4, 5,7].
In this work, we will design a 2x2 planar microstrip patch
Keywords: microstrip patch antenna array, conformal antenna antenna array operating in the center frequency of 8 GHz,
array, spherical antenna array. before proceeding to its direct orthogonal projection onto a
spherical surface of 100mm radius to get a conformal
spherical microstrip patch antenna array which can be,
I. INTRODUCTION depending on the application, mounted on any appropriated
Nowadays microstrip antennas are widely used in lot of form support. The simulations will be done using the FEM
method based HFSS software and the work will be presented
domains, such as modern communications, aerospace, radar
beginning by the single element design to the feed network,
and medical etc…, this is for their low profile, easy fabrication
then the planar array and finishing by the spherical microstrip
way, simple and non expensive cost, mechanical robustness array.
and the possibility of mounting in different geometrical
structure needed in so many applications. In term of II. SINGLE ELEMENT ANTENNA DESIGN
performance, one element microstrip patch antenna can reach
a gain of 7 dB [1]. Depending on the application, the seven dB In our antenna design we opted for the transmission line
gain of a single element, if obtained, is not sufficient to theory model, which is the simplest among the existing
achieve the required pattern, so we need to assemble more analysis models, where we need the operating frequency, the
than one element, in an array form, to improve the material’s dielectric constant and its thickness. Using the
performance and satisfy the application’s requirements. It is relations given in [1], these three parameters let us to calculate
very easy to assemble microstrip patch antenna elements the width W of the patch and its length L. The material used in
practically, due to their low profile and simplicity as the design is Rogers RT/ Duroid5880 with relative
mentioned before, but not without taking in count the permittivity  = 2.2 and thickness of h=0.787mm. The
geometrical configuration of the overall array, the relative operating frequency is 8GHz.
displacement between the elements, the excitation amplitude The antenna dimensions, after optimization using the full
and phase of each element of the array [1]. wave analysis under HFSS software, and where the ground
Most of microstrip patch antenna arrays use microstrip feed plane is taken as square of 30x30mm, are W=14.82mm and
networks to excite radiating elements. The feed network L=11.4mm. For antenna excitation we opted for the non-
design must be very accurate to avoid phase and or amplitude radiating edge feed, which is more practical in the geometrical
configuration of lot of microstrip arrays [9].The antenna will
be excited by a microstrip line with characteristic impedance
of 100 ohm, so for impedance matching we adjust the feed

978-1-4799-2565-0/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 3375

 A. The feed network design

The feed network is very important in antenna arrays, it

must distribute exactly the required power and phase to each
element. Depending on the application, it can feed the
elements equally or with ratio. In our work, the feed network
is designed also using the transmission line theory; the type of
the network will be the corporate one. The power splitting is
provided by the microstrip T-junction which has, even not
isolated, an acceptable VSWR [3]. The width of the microstrip
line of 100 ohm characteristic impedance is w=0.705mm .The
bends of the corner in the microstrip line reaching the
radiating elements were compensated by a swept bend of an
average radius of 1.3mm .The calculus of the width of a
microstrip line is explained and presented in [2].
As shown in Fig.2, the input power provided by the probe
feed point at the center of the array, is divided equally to the
four radiating elements. The impedance matching in the feed
network is between the microstrip lines of 100 ohm and 50
ohm characteristic impedance values. This is achieved by
using the quarter wave transformers which have characteristic
impedance Zq obtained by the formula: Zq= (Z100Z50)1/2=70.71
ohm, where Z100,Z50 are the microstrip line characteristic
impedance of the 100ohm and 50ohm microstrip line
Fig. 1 The designed single element patch antenna. b) Return loss respectively.
of the single element patch antenna.
B. The planar antenna array design
point’s position along the side of the non-radiating edge so
that it meets the desired impedance value. A good simulation In array design, the geometrical disposition of its elements
start point of the value of the distance to the edge is obtained must meet the condition that the contribution of each element
by the relation Rd = R0 cos2 (Y0/L), Where Rd is the desired is constructive in the desired direction and destructive in the
to match impedance (Rd = 100ohm), R0 is the patch antenna non desired one. The radiation pattern of each element in the
input impedance at the edge, L is the length of the patch, and array is the same as when it is alone, when assembled, the
Y0, to be determined , is the distance from edge corner to the pattern is multiplied by the array factor which has terms of
feed point. We found after optimization, that Y0=2.19mm, but amplitude and phases function of the feed current [1].
this value may change when the elements are assembled to For proper operation the spacing between the radiating
form the array [8] elements is OdO, where O is the wave length. The higher
Fig.1 shows the designed single element antenna fed via the d increase the level of side lobes, and if d < Othe mutual
non-radiating edge by a microstrip line. For a finite ground coupling becomes high so increasing the loss energy and
plane structure, the antenna’s frequency resonance is 8.0GHz impedance mismatch. [6]
and has a gain of 7.32dB with -22dB of return loss.
This designed single element will be used to construct the
planar array.

III. THE PLANAR ARRAY AND THE FEED NETWORK DESIGN

Most microstrip antenna array systems consist of two
parts, the radiating elements and the feeding system where the
structure depends on the design requirements. In general
microstrip antenna arrays contain identical radiating elements,
this is because they are simpler to analyze and design than the
non identical ones. For microstrip feed networks we can find
two arrangements; the first one is a single microstrip line
feeding all the elements and known as the Series feed network,
the other one is the Corporate feed network and used to
provide power splits of 2n, n=2,4,6,8…The corporate feed
networks are versatile and allow the designer to have more
control of the phase and or the amplitude of the excitation of Fig. 2 The designed planar microstrip antenna array
each element.

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 The Fig.2 shows the designed microstrip planar array after
optimization, with the four radiating elements, all identical to After analysis , and as expected, the curvature of the
the single element presented before, and excited by the spherical surface affected the characteristic impedance of the
corporate feed network which is probed fed at the center. The microstrip lines of the feed network and caused a deviation
microstrip array’s resonance frequency is 8GHz. of the resonant frequency of the array, which is desired to
be 8GHz and also lead to impedance mismatch between
the elements and the feed network. Because the radius of
IV. THE ORTHOGONAL PROJECTION OF THE PLANAR ARRAY
the hemisphere used in our work is relatively high comparing
to antenna’s dimensions, a simple adjustment in the length of
The face of the designed 2x2 microstrip planar array is the patch antenna or its feed point position of the predesigned
centered in the origin of a Cartesian coordinate system XYZ. planar array can correct the frequency shift and the impedance
If we sweep this face along a normal vector v(0,0,110) , which mismatch. It is very important to note that the symmetry of the
is the projection point by point of the planar structure onto the structure of the planar array is of great importance; otherwise
plane Z=110, we construct, as shown in Fig.3.b), its shaped the design will be more complex and the presented technique
3D body with high of 110mm. The intersection of the obtained will be useless.
shape with a centered sphere of radius of R=100mm will give
a patched conformal spherical form of the planar array antenna V. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
integrated into the smoothly curved spherical surface, which
present also the orthogonal projection of the planar array onto A. The planar microstrip antenna array
the spherical surface of the same radius. For physical The predesigned planar microstrip patch antenna array’s
considerations, we take only the positive hemisphere. Hence radiation pattern is shown in Fig.4.a), the peak gain is about
the detached spherical face gives the spherical conformal 12.63 dB which is a common obtained gain for four radiating
microstrip array as shown in Fig.3.d). The supposed thickness elements in microstrip antenna arrays, and the side lobe is
of the substrate is h=0.787mm, so the ground surface is the 14dB less than the main lobe. The return loss is -32.6dB, and
hemisphere’s top face with finite conductivity and of radius the -10dB bandwidth is about 300 MHz.
r=99.213mm, so that the substrate thickness is h = R – r.

After the projection, we remove the planar structure and the

3D shape formed body, the obtained patched structure, which
is formed by the four quasi-rectangular microstrip patches, is
probe fed at the center point p(0,0,100), will give the
spherical conformal microstrip antenna array.
Using the full wave analysis, based on FEM method under
the software HFSS, we get the radiation pattern and the
different parameters of the obtained spherical array.

(a)
0

-10
S11(dB)

-20

-30

-40
7 7.5 8 8.5 9
Frequency (GHz)
(b)

Fig. 4 a) The radiation pattern of the planar antenna array

b) Return loss of the planar antenna array

Fig. 3 a) The planar microstrip antenna array. b).Sweep surfaces along

the normal v(0,0,110) .c)Intersection between sphere and the
swept surface. d) Obtained spherical conformal array.
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B. The spherical conformal microstrip antenna array
The optimization by adjusting the planar array’s configuration
gave the optimized spherical conformal array. In our design
we remarked that by only changing the position of the feed
point of the array elements, all by the same amount in its
planar form, without changing the dimension of the patch
elements or that of the feed network, the frequency shift is
eliminated. This is for a null value ofwhich mean that the
microstrip feed line is at the corner of the non-radiating edge.
The Fig.5 shows the radiation pattern in 3D polar
representation of the designed conformal spherical microstrip
antenna array, the gain obtained is about 12.55dB, with side
lobe of 11dB less than the main lobe. The return loss is -
21.42dB which is greater than that obtained by the planar
array because of the mismatch caused by the curvature effect,
for the -10dB bandwidth, it is about 450MHz, which is larger
than that obtained one by the planar array. Fig. 5 a)-b) The radiation pattern representation of the spherical
array c) Return loss of the spherical conformal microstrip
antenna array

VI. CONCLUSION
A 2x2 spherical conformal microstrip antenna array was
designed by a predesigned microstrip planar antenna array
projected orthogonally in a spherical shape. The full wave
analysis based on FEM method under the HFSS software, of
the obtained spherical conformal microstrip antenna array
shows that it is possible to get good performance approaching
those obtained for a microstrip planar array with simpler tool
which is the direct orthogonal projection of the predesigned
structure point by point onto a spherical shape. The next step
may will the fabrication of the conformal spherical array to
confirm the agreement between the simulated and the
experiment results.

REFERENCES

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