2020 Mоsсow Wоrkshоp on Electrоnic and Netwоrking Technоlоgies (MWENT)

Study of the Micro-Strip Antenna Characteristics

with Controlled Metamaterials
Hamed E.A. Mahyоub N. N. Kisel A.I. Panychev
Depаrtment of аntennas and radiо Depаrtment оf аntennas and radiо Department of antennas and radio
transmitting devices, trаnsmitting devices, trаnsmitting devices,
Institute of radio engineering systems Institute of rаdio engineering systems Institute of radio engineering systems
and control Southern Federal University and control Sоuthern Federal University and control Sоuthern Federаl University
Taganrog, Russia Taganrog, Russia Taganrog, Russia
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract - The simulation results of microstrip antennas presence has practically no effect on the characteristics of the
using a substrate of metamaterial consisting of split ring antenna.
resonator (SRR) are presented in the work. The combined It was shown numerically and experimentally in [1-11]
substrate based on metamaterials allows to minimize the using numerical simulation programs that the use of
geometric dimensions of patches, increase the radiation metamaterials as part of microstrip antennas improves the
efficiency and expand the operating frequency band. The directional properties of the antenna, in some cases,
correspondence between the characteristics of the SRR narrowing the radiation pattern for fixed transverse
metamaterial and a homogeneous layer with effective dielectric dimensions of the antenna. In [2-8], data are presented that
and magnetic permeabilities obtained through the transmission
the use of a metamaterial using SRR elements located above
and reflection coefficients was established in the work. In
addition, the study of the possibility of controlling the
the microstrip antenna allows one to obtain a significant
characteristics of the metamaterial using concentrated loads increase in the gain of a symmetrical cross-shaped antenna in
(diodes, MEMS switches) connected between the rings of the the region of realization of negative permittivity values.
SRR resonator was carried out. Turning on / off concentrated The paper presents the results of calculating the
loads leads to a change in the resonant frequency of the characteristics of microstrip antennas using a substrate of
microstrip antenna, which allows you to get the additional SRR metamaterial (double open resonators) and establishes a
ability to adjustthe operating range of the antenna without relationship between the effective values of permittivity and
changing its geometric dimensions. It is shown that the usage of permeability and antenna characteristics; in addition, the
a layer of metamaterial with SRR resonators as a substrate possibility of using tunable metamaterial with lumped
makes it possible to shift the working strip of the microstrip elements included is considered.
antenna to lower frequencies, for the selected type of resonator
this is equivalent to a decrease in the geometric dimensions of
the microstrip antenna to 40% compared with the case of a II. ANALYSIS OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SRR-
antenna constructed using standard technology. For the METAMATERIAL USING TRANSMISSION AND
considered type of resonators (square SRR resonators), when REFLECTION COEFFICIENTS
the switches are turned on or off, the resonance frequency
changes within 300 MHz, which is small compared to the As is known, the electrophysical characteristics of a
complexity of the voltage control system for a set of such material are determined by magnetic, dielectric permeability
switches. and conductivity. The calculation of these effective material
The study of the characteristics of the microstrip antenna parameters (εeff and µeff) can be approximated using the S-
was performed using specialized electromagnetic modeling parameters of the ordered structure of SRR elements (Fig.1).
programs Ansys HFSS and Altair FEKO.

Keywords ‒ micrоstrip antennа, metаmаterial, SRR-

resonаtor.
I. INTRODUCTION
The usage of metamaterials can be promising for the
creation of microstrip antennas with better characteristics:
smaller dimensions compared to standard microstrip
antennas, increasing the antenna gain, expanding the working
band of the antenna. To do this, a layer of metamaterial is Fig. 1 to the calculation of S-parameters
placed between the patch and the substrate.
In this work, the case of double-open resonator On the basis of numerical modeling the metamaterial
metamaterial is studied and the efficiency of its use as an layer is determined through S_11 and S_21 under the
antenna substrate reduce geometric dimensions of the condition of normal plane wave incidence on the structure
microstrip antenna in the field of realization of negative refractive index n and impedance W:
dielectric or magnetic permeability values of the
metamaterial and improve the directional properties of the (1 + 𝑆11 )2 − 𝑆21 2
𝑊 = ±√ ,
antenna. In the frequency band where the substrate of SRR (1 − 𝑆11 )2 − 𝑆21 2
elements does not have the properties of a metamaterial, its

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2020 Mоsсow Wоrkshоp on Electrоnic and Netwоrking Technоlоgies (MWENT)

1 𝑆21
𝑛= [{𝐼𝑚 [ln 𝑊−1] + 2𝑚𝜋}
𝑑𝑘0 1 − 𝑆11
𝑊+1

𝑆21
− 𝑖𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑙 [ln ( 𝑊−1)] ],
1 − 𝑆11
𝑊+1

where S11 and S21 are the reflectance and transmission

coefficients, respectively; n is the refractive index; W is the
impedance; k0 is the wave number; d is the thickness of the
metamaterial; m is an integer. Since the dimensions of the
elements forming the metamaterial of structure are generally
less than one tenth of the wavelength in the material, in the Frequency, Hz
first approximation, the metamaterial can be replaced by a
layer with effective values of dielectric εeff and magnetic
permeability μeff in the material:
𝑛
𝜀𝑒𝑓𝑓 = , 𝜇𝑒𝑓𝑓 = 𝑊 ∗ 𝑛.
𝑊
The paper presents a model of a microstrip antenna with
a substrate of metamaterial based on SRR elements and a
conventional substrate (Fig. 2).

Frequency, Hz

Fig. 3. Frequency dependence of effective values of magnetic and dielectric

permeability of layer of SRR metamaterial antenna in free space

Fig. 2. Microstrip antenna made according to the standard technology and

metamaterial

The microstrip patch is rectangular in shape with coaxial

excitation. The metamaterial layer has a height h and consists
of 8 blocks with a thickness t=1 mm. Each block has five SRR
resonators oriented perpendicular to the antenna screen, the
Fig. 4. Frequency dependence s-parameters of microstrip antenna with /
repetition period of the blocks s=3 mm, the distance between
without substrate of SRR metamaterial
the resonators d=1 mm. Below are the effective permeability
values εeff, μeff for the metamaterial used.
The frequency dependences of the gain of the standing
wave coefficient are shown in Fig. 5.

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 2020 Mоsсow Wоrkshоp on Electrоnic and Netwоrking Technоlоgies (MWENT)

operating frequency and change the operating frequency band

of the antenna.

Fig. 5. Frequency dependence gain of antenna with/without SRR

metamaterial substrate

The calculation results showed that a conventional Frequency, GHz

microstrip antenna without SRR elements has an operating
Fig. 8. S-parameters of antenna with substrate of SR metamaterial with
frequency in the region of 5.28 GHz, replacement of the
loads (load connection options-s1, s2, s3)
dielectric substrate with a layer of metamaterial leads to a
decrease in the resonant frequency to 4.07 and 3.24 GHz. For
Next, the antenna parameters are considered when
this frequency domain, the metamaterial substrate yields
controlling the on/off loads, the possible connection options
negative effective permittivity and magnetic permittivity
are presented in Fig. 9. As can be seen from S-parameters
values (Fig. 3). The geometric dimensions of the antenna can
pairwise switching on / off loads leads to a change in the
be minimized by almost 40% with comparation to the case of
resonant frequency of the antenna, which allows you to get
a microstrip antenna built with standard technology, although
an additional opportunity to adjust the operating range of the
the antenna gain is practically unchanged.
antenna without changing its geometric dimensions.
III. STUDY OF THE POSSIBILITY OF CONTROLLING
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF METAMATERIAL
The paper also investigates the possibility of controlling
the characteristics of the metamaterial due to the concentrated
loads included between the rings of the SRR resonator. The s1s2on,
similar load configurations were previously used in recent s1s2s3on s1s3on, s2off s2s3on, s1off
s3off
SRR filter structures [10-11]. In practice, these loads can be Fig. 9. Variants of pairwise on-off of lumped elements between the rings of
diodes or MEMS switches. Below are the various options for the SRR resonator
inclusion (Fig. 6) concentrated elements.

s s2 s2

s1 s1

s3 s3

Fig. 6. The options for inclusion of lumped elements between rings of the SRR
resonator: (s, s1, s2, s3)

Frequency, GHz
Fig. 10. S-parameters of antenna with substrate of SRR metamaterial with
loads between rings

IV. CONCLUSION
Thus, it is shown that the use of a metamaterial as a
substrate allows to shift the working band of a microstrip
antenna towards lower frequencies, which is equivalent for
Frequency, GHz the considered case to a reduction in the size of the antenna
up to 40% with comparation to the usage of a microstrip
Fig. 7. SWR antenna with substrate of SR-metamaterial with loads
between rings (load connection options-s1, s2, s3) antenna built according to standard technology. The
possibility of using a controlled metamaterial by using
As can be seen from the frequency dependencies for SWR concentrated loads (switches) included between the rings of
and S11 (Fig. 7,8) short circuit switches leads to a shift in the the SRR resonator is tested. For the considered type of
resonators when switching on loads, there is a change in the

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2020 Mоsсow Wоrkshоp on Electrоnic and Netwоrking Technоlоgies (MWENT)

resonant frequency. In this case, the value of the resonant

frequency significantly depends on the selected pairs of
included loads and its change is observed within 300 MHz,
which is small, compared to the complexity of the voltage
control system for a set of such switches.

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