Antenna Design

& Modulation
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Table of Contents
Introduction to Patch Antenna.................................................................................................3
Fringing Effects...................................................................................................................... 3
Pros and Cons of Microstrip Antenna..................................................................................4
Design Topology of Patch Antenna in AWR:.......................................................................4
Part-1....................................................................................................................................... 4
Part-2..................................................................................................................................... 10
Part-3..................................................................................................................................... 13
Conclusion:.............................................................................................................................. 13
References............................................................................................................................... 13

List of Figures
Figure 1: Geometry of Microstrip patch Antenna [2]..............................................................3
Figure 2 Microstrip line and electric field lines [2]..................................................................4
Figure 3: 3-Dview of Antenna...................................................................................................7
Figure 4: Layout of Patch Antenna...........................................................................................8
Figure 5: : Return loss of stimulated Antenna-1.....................................................................8
Figure 6: real part input impedance of stimulated Antenna-1................................................9
Figure 7: Imaginary part input impedance of stimulated Antenna-1....................................9
Figure 8: VSWR of stimulated Antenna-1..............................................................................10
Figure 9: Graphical Representation of input Impedance on smith chat of Antenna-1.......10
Figure 10: 3-D view of Antenna-2...........................................................................................11
Figure 11: Layout of Patch antenna-2....................................................................................11
Figure 12: Return loss of stimulated Antenna-2...................................................................12
Figure 13: Real part of input impedance of stimulated Antenna-2......................................12
Figure 14: Imaginary part of input impedance of stimulated Antenna-2.............................13
 PART-A: Antenna & Circuit Simulation using AWR
In this part theory of patch antenna, its stepwise designing procedure using AWR and
their performance would be discussed.

Introduction to Patch Antenna

In high-performance application like aircraft, satellite spacecraft, missile, sensing and
monitoring system and amateur radio where size, cost, weight, aerodynamics profile
and ease of installation are the big limitations, low profile antennas are required. That’s
why microstrip antennas are very attractive and suitable because they can be directly
printed on the board. These antennas are low profile and easily manufacturable [1].
A microstrip patch antenna depicted in figure1, fed by transmission line. The patch,
microstrip feed line and ground plane are made up of highly conductive material like
copper.

Figure 1: Geometry of Microstrip patch Antenna [2]

The length of patch is L and width W is fabricated on the substrate of heigh h and
dielectric constant Er. Ground plane thickness is not important as compared to
substrate thickness. Because as the h of substrate increases, electrical field lines
between patch and ground plane would be loosely held hence it radiate more waves
compared to substrate of lower h. Typically, the height of substrate is smaller than that
of wavelength of operation. Patch antennas radiates along width as shown in figure 1.
the input impedance of patch is being controlled width of microstrip feed line. Larger the
width of microstrip can also enhance the bandwidth operation. The input impedance can
be lowered by increasing the width. The width also controls the radiation pattern.

Fringing Effects:
As the length and width of patch is finite hence the fields at the edges of the patch
undergo fringing. Since for the microstrip patch antennas (length of the patch L to the
height h of the substrate) 𝐿/ℎ ≫ 1.
 Figure 2 Microstrip line and electric field lines [2]

The effective value of the dielectric constant is given by:

Er +1 Er−1
Er ( eff ) = + ¿ W/h>1
2 2

AS W/h>1 and Er>1 then most of electric field lines willl remain concentated inside the
substrate hence in this case the Fringing effect will make the microstrip lineto look
wider electrically incontrast to its physical dimensions.
It is the fringing field which is accountable for the patch radiation. The radiation of
antenna. The fields of patch antennas are linearly polarized.

Pros and Cons of Microstrip Antenna

Patch antennas are extensively use in wireless applications because of due to their
lower volume, profile and weight as compared to other antennas. It can also support
both circular and linear polarization. Consequently, they are more compatible in
handheld devices such as cellular phones [3].
Patch antennas also have a lot of disadvantages like it provides narrow bandwidth
operation, have low gain and efficiency as well as less power handling capability.

Part-1
Design Topology of Patch Antenna in AWR:
A patch antenna is designed using “AWR AXIEM -Async EM structure” [4]. The step-
wise designing process of patch in AWR has been discussed below:
 Define substrate: Initially a window of AXIEM -Async EM will be open then
define the substrate: FR4 with 1.575mm thickness
 Define the layer of patch and feedline: After that corresponding patch and
feedline was drawn of given parameters, its layer was also defined.

 Adding Ground Plane: Then ground plane of dimension bigger than this patch
is placed. In this case the size of Ground plane is 139.8*75.4 mm^2 then specify
the layer of ground plane as shown
 Application of Port: Apply port either auto or connect to lower

 3-D visualization of Antenna:

 Figure 3: 3-Dview of Antenna

 Then simulate the results and generate corresponding graphs

Figure 4: Layout of Patch Antenna

 Figure 5: : Return loss of stimulated Antenna-1

Figure 6: real part input impedance of stimulated Antenna-1

Figure 7: Imaginary part input impedance of stimulated Antenna-1

Figure 8: VSWR of stimulated Antenna-1

The designed patch antenna along with matching circuit is shown above in figure. The
port impedance is 50ohm whereas the input impedance of the patch antenna is

Zin= √ Zin(real) + Zin (imag)

2 2

Hence Zin=24.1 ohm. Both real and imaginary part of impedances are positive hence
this impedance lies in the upper half of smith chart as shown.

Figure 9: Graphical Representation of input Impedance on smith chat of Antenna-1

This shows that input impedance of patch antenna is not perfectly matched but still it is
almost half the port impedance thereby providing Voltage standing wave ratio and
dB(S11) of 2.9 and -6.5 dB respectively.

Part-2
The design antenna-2 is same as that of antenna-1 except there is a strip in-between
patch and feedline. The dimension of ground plane is 143.4*85.9mm^2.

Figure 10: 3-D view of Antenna-2

 Figure 11: Layout of Patch antenna-2

Figure 12: Return loss of stimulated Antenna-2

 Figure 13: Real part of input impedance of stimulated Antenna-2

Figure 14: Imaginary part of input impedance of stimulated Antenna-2

The designed patch antenna along with matching circuit is shown above in figure. The
port impedance is 50ohm whereas the input impedance of the patch antenna is

Zin= √ Zin(real) + Zin (imag)

2 2

Zreal =-11.75 ohm

Zimag=+j9.6 ohm
 We can observe that real part of impedance is negative which is not
possible
 negative real part means VSWR is negative (as VSWR varies from 1 to
infinity)
  A reflection coefficient magnitude greater than one would normally
indicate the reflected wave is greater than incident
 For VSWR=1 means all the energy is transferred from source to the load
but VSWR= negative means load is providing energy to the source which is
impractical.
But here due to inappropriate matching network the input impedance has negative real
part which is not applicable, hence in order to fully matched it with port impedance at
desired frequency we need to re-design the matching circuit of patch.
S11 signifies that how much power is reflected from the antenna port. If S11=0 dB, then
all the transmitted power would be reflected from the antenna port and nothing will
radiate.
S11(dB)=quantity RL(dB)= Incident power ( Pi)/Reflected power (Pr),
In our design, S11 is positive means reflected power is more than that of incident power
which is pointless.

Part-3
In this section performance of both antennas will be compared. Few performance
parameters of both antennas are tabulated in table:1

Parameters Ant-1 Ant-2

dB(S11) @2.5 GHz -6.5 dB 4 dB
Zin @2.5 GHz 19.6+j14.1 -11.75+j9.6
VSWR @2.5 GHz 2.9 -4.45

After comprehensive analysis of both antennas, it is concluded that Ant-1 has much
better performance as compared to Ant-2 because design or response of Ant-2 is quite
impractical. Ant-1 is radiating the energy while Ant-2 is not radiating due to imperfect
matching circuit.
Return loss(S11) is the loss of signal power due to signal reflection or return by a
discontinuity in a transmission line.
The main reason of impedance mismatch is inappropriate matching. Furthermore,
return loss (S11) is the relationship between the standing wave ratio (SWR) and the
reflection coefficient (Γ). Moreover, if one increases the return loss(S11) with suitable
impedance matching network then it will correlate to a lower SWR (inverse relation b/w
RL and VSWR).
The Ant-1 has the low the reflection factor (-6 dB) whereas Ant-2 has high reflection
factor (+4 dB) means Ant-1 will radiate more power. On the other hand, response of
Ant-2 is quite unrealistic.

Conclusion:
After in-depth study of microstrip patch antenna, two different patch antennas were
realized using AWR tool and after their performance analysis, it is concluded that
performance of Ant-1 need to be improved further to make S11<-10 dB but still its
VSWR is better than Ant-2.

References
[1] Singh, Vivek, Brijesh Mishra, and Rajeev Singh. "A compact and wide band
microstrip patch antenna for X-band applications." 2015 Second International
Conference on Advances in Computing and Communication Engineering. IEEE,
2015.
[2] Balanis, Constantine A. Antenna theory: analysis and design. John wiley & sons,
2015.
[3] Waterhouse, Rod. Microstrip Patch Antennas: A Designer’s Guide: A Designer's
Guide. Springer Science & Business Media, 2003.
[4] AWR Microwave Office layout Guide