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Enhanced Low-Angle GPS Coverage Using Solid and Annular Microstrip


Antennas on Folded and Drooped Ground Planes

Article in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation · December 2009


DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2009.2032104 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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3668 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009

degrades at larger antenna scan angles. Fig. 3(a) clearly indicates that Enhanced Low-Angle GPS Coverage Using Solid and
power transmission efficiency for the hy-VTR design is superior to that Annular Microstrip Antennas on Folded and
of both the extreme hy-CTR design cases. Drooped Ground Planes
The depolarization characteristics of the hy-VTR and hy-CTR de-
signs are shown in Fig. 3(b). In the case of hy-VTR design, the X-pol Hussain M. Al-Rizzo, Ken G. Clark, Jim M. Tranquilla,
power transmission is well below 030 dB throughout the antenna scan Rami A. Adada, Taha A. Elwi, and Daniel Rucker
range and it is superior to the hy-CTR designs. For the hy-CTR1 de-
sign, X-pol power transmission is much higher, especially around the
nose-cone region, which is undesirable for airborne radar systems. Fur-
thermore, the hy-VTR design proposed here has far superior blending Abstract—Folded and drooped microstrip antennas are investigated in
this communication for their potential applications in GPS marine naviga-
characteristics for X-pol than those reported in [1]. tion. Numerical and experimental results are reported to identify the ef-
The elevation BSE characteristics are shown in Fig. 3(c). It is readily fects of the percentage of the patch extending around to the folded side,
inferred that the BSE for the hy-VTR design is again, better than that position, and angle of the bend on the performance of the proposed an-
of hy-CTR designs. The BSE for the hy-CTR1 design shows a sharp tennas in comparison to the conventional flat counterparts. The folded an-
tennas provide marginally improved 3-dB beam width and excellent phase
variation around the nose-cone sector of the radome, which is not de- center stability without degrading the bore-sight gain. A novel drooped
sirable. Further, the hy-VTR design, though not optimized for the BSE, square annular element operating in the TM mode is proposed and vali-
has resulted in acceptable BSE performance as well. dated both numerically and experimentally. The drooped annular antenna
In order to analyze the frequency response of the hy-VTR, the EM is shown to have substantially improved above-horizon coverage to suit ap-
performance parameters are computed at the end-frequencies of the plications requiring acquisition of satellites from horizon to horizon with
a pattern ripple less than 2 dB over the upper hemisphere and with an
given radar antenna [Fig. 4(a)–(c)]. It is observed that the deterioration impedance bandwidth of 2%. The polarization rejection is marginally de-
of power transmission is more at 9.8 GHz than that at 9.0 GHz in the graded at bore-sight. At the horizon, the cross component becomes domi-
critical nose-cone sector [Fig. 4(a)]. Regarding the cross-pol transmis- nant by 1.5 dB.
sion characteristics, it is high at 9.0 GHz as compared to that at 9.8 GHz Index Terms—Drooped microstrip antenna, GPS, low-elevation pattern
in the nose-cone sector [Fig. 4(b)]. Even though the boresight error at coverage, marine navigation, pyramidal ground plane, TM square an-
9.8 GHz shows a sharp increase in the nose-cone sector as compared nular patch.
to that at 9.0 GHz [Fig. 4(c)], it is well within the acceptable limits.

I. INTRODUCTION
V. CONCLUSION
It is well known that a conventional microstrip antenna, typically
The EM performance parameters are evaluated for a novel hy-VTR mounted on a flat ground plane, suffers a remarkable decrease in gain
design based on 3-D ray-tracing with aperture integration method. The toward low-elevation angles (10 to 30 above the horizon). There-
hy-VTR design based on optimized power reflection offers superior fore, interest exists for improving this inherent coverage performance
EM characteristics due to the minimization of internal reflections. The to allow for early signal acquisition from rising satellites, to avoid loss
EM analysis for the present work is more accurate than the conven- of contact and cycle slips, and to maintain signal continuity and proper
tional approach due to the incorporation of antenna and radome as a system’s dilution of precision. The research reported in this communi-
system, and the finite-dimensional nature of the antenna. A compara- cation focuses on real-time dynamic GPS marine applications. The de-
tive study of radome performance parameters establishes the superior sign goal is to compensate for the motion (pitch and roll) by extending
electromagnetic performance of the hy-VTR design over the conven- coverage over a wide range of elevation angles including 20 below the
tional constant thickness designs. antenna’s horizon plane [1].
Some work has been reported on improving the hemispherical cov-
erage of a crossed dipole antenna using a cylindrical ground plane with
REFERENCES a flat elevated center surrounded by sloping sides [2]–[4]. The struc-
ture was found to be successful in improving the radiation pattern at
[1] R. U. Nair and R. M. Jha, “Novel design for a monolithic hybrid vari- low-elevation angles. Additional elements were also examined such as
able thickness radome (hy-VTR),” in Proc. IEEE Antennas Propag.
monofilar and quadrifilar helices [5], although none achieved the same
Soc. Int. Symp., 2004, pp. 878–881.
[2] R. U. Nair and R. M. Jha, “Novel A-sandwich radome design for air- degree of pattern modification as the crossed dipoles. This is attributed
borne applications,” Elect. Lett., vol. 43, pp. 787–789, Jul. 2007.
[3] R. H. J. Cary, “Radomes,” in The Handbook of Antenna Design.
Manuscript received July 28, 2008; revised March 19, 2009. First published
London, U.K.: Peter Peregrinus, 1983.
September 11, 2009; current version published November 04, 2009. This work
[4] D. J. Kozakoff, Analysis of Radome-Enclosed Antennas. Norwood, was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR under
MA: Artech House, 1997. Grant EPS-0701890.
[5] K. Siwiak, T. B. Dowling, and L. R. Lewis, “Boresight errors induced H. M. Al-Rizzo is with the Systems Engineering Department, Donaghey Col-
by missile radomes,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. AP-27, pp. lege of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Arkansas at
832–841, Nov. 1979. Little Rock, Little Rock, AR 72204-1099 USA (e-mail: [email protected]).
R. A. Adada, T. A. Elwi, and D. Rucker are with the Applied Science De-
partment, Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology, Uni-
versity of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR 72204-1099 USA (e-mail:
[email protected]).
K. G. Clark and J. M. Tranquilla are with EMR Microwave Technology Cor-
poration, Fredericton NB E3X 1N2, Canada.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are avail-
able online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2009.2032104

0018-926X/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009 3669

in part to the degree of ground plane illumination produced by the dif-


ferent sources and serves to highlight the importance of the ground
plane as a secondary source with which to produce pattern changes.
Success with the crossed dipoles inspired our interest in exploring
the prospects of applying a similar concept to the more appealing mi-
crostrip antenna [6]. A fundamental distinction, however, exists in the
relationship between a patch and the ground plane when compared with
helical or dipole elements. The ground plane of a microstrip antenna Fig. 1. Geometry of the two downward bend antennas.
forms an integral part of the radiating structure and may not best be
defined as a “secondary” source.
The potential benefits of the drooped microstrip antenna are such and drooped antennas considered to facilitate comparison against their
that one patent has been issued [7] proposing only downward drooped respective reference benchmarks. The measured far-field radiation pat-
structures, although neither the dimensions nor the performances were terns, however, are recorded at the measured resonant frequency which
disclosed. Later, a few attempts were reported for improving the perfor- is slightly different from the simulated 1.575 GHz resonant frequency
mance of patch antennas placed on ground planes with shaped profiles due to the inevitable fabrication tolerances and simulation inaccuracies.
to increase the gain, adjust nulls and resonant frequency [8], meet spe- This approach is justified since the radiation patterns were found not to
cific requirements of WLAN base station antennas [9], or increase the significantly change with respect to the observed shift in the measured
impedance bandwidth [10]. A corner truncated square patch, partially resonant frequency.
enclosed within a flatly folded conducting wall as described in [11], Fig. 1(a) and (b) show the two prototypes that were constructed
was reported in [12] with an axial ratio of 130 when mounted on a and tested to verify the performance of the CPFDTD model. The first
pyramidal ground plane. consists of a 45 mm 2 45 mm patch, 40 mm square elevated section,
It should be emphasized that research reported in [7]–[12] focused printed on a 1.5 mm thick substrate with a relative permittivity of "r =
only on the desired performance enhancement. There seems to be no 4:2. The antenna is constructed from a 100 mm square flat ground plane
information available on the comprehensive characterization of folded with a 60 droop angle, starting from the edges of the flat section.
and drooped microstrip antennas intended to broaden the beamwidth The second is a 61 mm 2 61 mm patch, 50 mm square elevated sec-
coverage. This is particularly difficult to achieve without degrading tion, printed on a 3 mm substrate, "r = 2:2, 100 mm square flat ground
other important performance metrics such as cross-polarization dis- plane, and a 30 droop angle. A vector network analyzer was used
crimination and phase center stability. This communication is the to measure the reflection coefficient (S11 ) in an anechoic chamber.
first to our knowledge that pursues numerical simulations, parametric Fig. 2 presents the numerically and experimentally determined fre-
studies, and measurements on prototypes of folded and drooped quency spectrum of S11 for the antennas shown in Fig. 1. The measured
microstrip elements operating in the fundamental and TM30 modes, and simulated E and H plane far-field radiation patterns measured in-
respectively, in an effort to investigate their suitability for GPS marine side an anechoic chamber are shown in Fig. 3 at the resonant frequency
navigation. of the dominant mode.
Unique elements involving an extreme 180 bend and an annular Evidently, the accuracy of the computed S11 spectrum shown in
drooped antenna, operating in the TM30 mode, are designed, analyzed, Fig. 2 deteriorates for frequencies well above the dominant mode. This
and tested. The drooped annular element produced significant pattern is caused by the inevitable numerical dispersion since the mesh was
flexibility as a result of interference between the widely-spaced radi- optimized at the desired L1 resonant frequency for the purpose fast
ating edges. convergence and reasonable simulation times. The resonant frequen-
The rest of the communication is organized as follows. Sections II cies of the dominant mode computed by the CPFDTD model match
and III present the design concept and approach followed for the folded their corresponding measured values within less than 0.5%. The reso-
solid patches operating in the fundamental mode and the annular ele- nant frequencies evaluated from the CPFDTD model for the antennas
ments operating in the TM30 modes, respectively. The conclusions are shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b) are 1.5755 GHz, 3.1809 GHz, 3.5452 GHz;
given in Section IV. and 1.5751 GHz, 3.2298 GHz, 3.5953 GHz, respectively. The corre-
sponding measured values are 1.5832 GHz, 3.1912 GHz, 3.5986 GHz;
II. FOLDED MICROSTRIP ANTENNA STRUCTURES and 1.5685 GHz, 3.2971 GHz, 3.5482 GHz. The maximum difference
is 1.48%. The measured impedance bandwidths of the GPS L1 band
We have developed a versatile conformal path finite-difference time for the antennas shown in Fig. 1(a) and Fig. 1(b) are 16.5 MHz and
domain (CPFDTD) algorithm, which incorporates the coaxial feed and 26.7 MHz, respectively, which are in good agreement with the cor-
detailed geometrical features, to characterize the radiation properties responding values of 13.2 MHz and 21 MHz as predicted form the
of the folded and drooped microstrip antennas. Our CPFDTD model CPFDTD model.
has been verified against experimental measurements and then used to The success of the CPFDTD model, as evidenced by the excellent
conduct a systematic parametric study to identify the critical parame- agreement observed between simulated and measured resonant fre-
ters that affect the performance of the proposed antennas. The CPFDTD quencies of the dominant mode (L1 GPS band) and far-field radia-
formulation for solving Maxwell’s equations is explained in detail in tion patterns as demonstrated in Figs. 2 and 3, respectively, prompted
[13] and thus will not be presented here. further investigation to explore the feasibility of improving the perfor-
In this study, probe-fed square and annular reference antennas, de- mance by further manipulating the ground plane.
signed to resonate at a center frequency of 1.575 GHz, were constructed The folded antenna is derived by extending the bend to 180 . Specif-
and tested. Since the resonant frequency varies slightly with the folding ically, the edges are folded completely under and flat against the back,
and bending, we adopted the following procedure to compare the per- creating a section of enclosed ground plane with the element corners
formance of the proposed antenna structures. As far as the simulations projecting towards the center of the back. This resulted in a flat an-
are concerned, the length of the patch and feed position are adjusted tenna, where the backside resembles a pair of crossed slots as shown
through several iterative simulation steps in order to restore resonance in Fig. 4. A possibility exists that resonant modes with little radiation
around 1.575 GHz with good impedance matching for all the folded losses could replace the fundamental mode for the extreme bend case.

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3670 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009

Fig. 3. Simulated (at 1.575 GHz) and measured elevation patterns for the an-
tennas shown in Fig. 1(a) (measured at 1.583 GHz), and Fig. 1(b) (measured at
1.5685 GHz).

Fig. 2. Measured and simulated S for the antennas showed in Fig. 1(a) and
(b).

The initial folded structure was examined experimentally. A folded


microstrip antenna was constructed on a Teflon substrate with a 50 mm
fold width (45 mm enclosed ground plane) using a 75 mm wide patch,
which created a 5 mm slot gap. A swept frequency measurement of Fig. 4. Geometry of the 180 folded structure.
S11 was performed to obtain the Q factor. The structure was found to
have a Q of approximately 30 compared to 40 for a flat antenna of a
similar size. Because of the low losses associated with the construction error between the measured and ideal case. The origin of this hemi-
material, this reduction accounts for a radiation loss comparable to that sphere is defined as the apparent source of radiation. The difference
of the flat microstrip. between the measured and ideal phase is defined as the phase residual
The radiation patterns were measured from which the gain was ob- or phase error.
tained from a comparison against a half wavelength dipole. The folded A summary of the performance of the folded antenna element is pro-
structure exhibits a bore-sight gain (slot side) of slightly more than 3 dB vided in Table I as the fraction of the element wrapped around increases
compared to a dipole gain of 2.1 dB. Having realized that the structure from 0 to 50 %. It is observed that the beam width and the near horizon
did perform adequately as a radiator, we next employed the CPFDTD gain roll off improved slightly with respect to the flat microstrip an-
model to determine if the antenna could achieve any significant advan- tenna for the "r = 2:2 substrate without degrading the bore-sight gain.
tage over the flat structure. Once the element size is selected, the size In addition, the RMS phase error is lower than the fat case for the two
of the ground plane is the only remaining parameter, and this could substrates considered which is advantageous for applications requiring
only be adjusted within limits. If too small, the element would wrap improved phase center stability.
around, and the distance separating the element tips on the back would An examination of the field distribution between the element and
disappear (zero slot width). If too large, the element would not reach ground plane revealed that the folded corners are not part of the prin-
the edge, and the structure reverts to a simple flat microstrip. For the cipal resonance but rather act as sub-resonant loads along the edge of
case of the 40 mm wide element, the ground plane limits ranged from an otherwise flat rectangular element. For this reason, the crossed slot
30 to 50 mm. assumption may not be adequate to explain the antenna operation.
The phase error is evaluated following the procedure described in
[14]. The measured upper hemispherical phase pattern is matched in a III. THE DROOPED ANNULAR MICROSTRIP ANTENNA
5 2 5 grid to an ideal hemisphere using equal solid angle weighting. The antennas examined in Section II resonate at the fundamental
The position of the ideal hemisphere is adjusted to minimize the RMS mode of the solid patch. Simulated and experimental results revealed a

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009 3671

TABLE I
RESULTS FOR THE FOLDED MICROSTRIP ANTENNA, " = 2:2 AND 4:2

Fig. 5. Geometry of the drooped annular structure and range of parameter vari-
ations studied.

limited ability to alter the radiation pattern of the flat microstrip for the
wide range of parameters examined. In this section, additional struc-
tures are considered based on the use of multiple array elements.
Because the individual microstrip element radiates normal to the
ground plane, this suggests that a discrete element on each drooped face Fig. 6. Elevation patterns of the drooped annular antenna with fixed bend angle
could provide the desired low-angle coverage by varying the amplitude (top) and fixed bend position (bottom).
and phase of the excitation on each element. However, this requires a
complex feeding network to excite the elements with the proper ampli-
tude and phase. An alternative solution is to connect the discrete ele- our design, a prototype was constructed and tested. The prototype con-
ments in a manner that would allow them to be driven as a single unit. sists of a square annular element, 18.6 cm in side length, with a 6.6 cm
Once this is accomplished, the structure emerges as that of a square an- square inner hole, printed on a 26 cm 2 26 cm grounded substrate. The
nular patch placed on the drooped ground plane with the open section substrate is 4 mm in thickness with a relative permittivity of "r = 2:2.
coincident with the flat area on the top of the ground plane, as seen in The drooped antenna is then formed by bending the flat element by
Fig. 5. 60 beginning at the edge of the flat opening. The dimensions of the
A higher order TM30 mode is excited in order to create a discrete drooped annular element are chosen in the CPFDTD model to ensure
element resonating in the fundamental TM10 mode on each face of the that the TM30 mode is resonating at a central frequency of 1.575 GHz.
drooped plane. This causes opposing arms to oscillate with two radi- The simulated and measured elevation patterns shown in Fig. 7 support
ating edges, the inner and outer, in a manner similar to the single el- the model prediction of above horizon coverage with minimum ripples.
ement in the TM10 mode. The resulting structure allows the radiating The bandwidth for a 2:1 standing wave ratio was found to be 2%.
edges to produce the interference required to introduce nulls into the Further testing revealed that, along with the pattern improvement,
upper hemispherical pattern. To this end, the design objective is to ma- other performance measures have been degraded with the higher mode
nipulate the drooped edges to control these nulls and create a pattern operation. First, the polarization rejection near the horizon is reduced
with minimal ripples. to the point where the cross component becomes dominant by 1.5 dB.
The radiation patterns were examined as a function of the width of Second, the measured phase pattern as shown in Fig. 7 displays large
the open region and the bend angle. The most promising case predicted variations in the elevation cut. However, the position of the phase
by the model was then tested experimentally. A selection of the ele- center has moved by 6.12 cm (116 at 1.5703 GHz), down from the
vation patterns is displayed in Fig. 6 for a 4 mm-thick substrate with top of the ground plane where the calculated and measured patterns
"r = 2:2. are referenced.
Fig. 6 shows that the structure is capable of producing a wide range
of radiation patterns in the upper hemisphere. The final design, which IV. CONCLUSION
reduces the pattern ripple to about 2 dB above the horizon, is obtained In this communication, folded and drooped microstrip antennas have
by choosing a 6 cm open center, coupled with a 60 bend. To validate been investigated for potential applications in GPS marine navigation,

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3672 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009

[10] C. L. Tang, J. Y. Chiou, and K. L. Wong, “A broadband probe fed patch


antenna with a bent ground plane,” in Proc. Microw. Conf., 2000, pp.
1356–1359.
[11] C. L. Tang, J. Y. Chiou, and K. L. Wang, “Beamwidth enhancement of
a circularly polarized microstrip antenna mounted on a three-dimen-
sional ground structure,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 32, no. 1,
pp. 149–153, 2002.
[12] C. W. Su, S. K. Huang, and C. H. Lee, “CP microstrip antenna with
wide beamwidth for GPS band application,” Electron. Lett., vol. 43,
no. 20, Sep. 27, 2007.
[13] T. G. Jurgens, A. Taflove, K. R. Umashankar, and T. G. Moore, “Finite-
difference time-domain modeling of curved surfaces,” IEEE Trans. An-
tennas Propag, vol. AP-40, pp. 357–366, Apr. 1992.
[14] J. M. Tranquilla and S. R. Best, “Phase center considerations for the
monopole antenna,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag, vol. AP-34, pp.
741–744, May 1986.

Fig. 7. Amplitude and phase of the elevation patterns for the drooped annular
antenna. The measured patterns are shown at the measured resonant frequency
of 1.5703 GHz and the simulated patterns at 1.575 GHz.

High-Gain Yagi-Uda Antennas for Millimeter-Wave


particularly by observing the effects of shape and orientation of the Switched-Beam Systems
ground plane upon the amplitude and phase patterns. Results showed
Ramadan A. Alhalabi and Gabriel M. Rebeiz
that the beam width has been slightly increased for the folded antenna
without altering the bore-sight gain accompanied with improved phase
center stability. A novel drooped antenna operating in the TM30 mode
has been presented using a square annular element. The drooped an- Abstract—A high-efficiency microstrip-fed Yagi-Uda antenna has been
nular element permits significantly greater control over the radiation developed for millimeter-wave applications. The antenna is built on both
pattern as a result of the interference between the four radiating edges. sides of a Teflon substrate ( = 2 2) which results in an integrated
Balun for the feed dipole. A 7-element design results in a measured gain
Variations of the angle and position of the bend revealed a certain com- of 9–11 dB at 22–26 GHz with a cross-polarization level of 16 dB.
bination, giving complete upper hemispherical coverage with the pat- The antenna is matched to 50 (microstrip feed). A mutual coupling of
tern ripple reduced to 2 dB. Notably, in general, there is a tradeoff in 20 dB is measured between two Yagi-Uda antennas with a center-to
achieving coverage over the entire upper hemisphere and low cross po- center spacing of 8.75 mm (0 7 at 24 GHz), and a two-element array re-
sults in a measured gain of 11.5–13 dB at 22–25 GHz. The planar Yagi-Uda
larization. If a broad beam width is of precedence, it may be necessary
antenna results in high radiation efficiency ( 90%) and is suitable for
to operate the drooped antennas under less than optimal conditions in mm-wave radars and high data-rate communication systems.
regard to cross polarization performance.
Index Terms—Automotive radars, endfire antennas, millimeter-wave
antennas, millimeter-wave communication systems, planar antennas,
REFERENCES Yagi-Uda antenna.
[1] G. Lachapelle, M. Casey, R. M. Eaton, A. Kleusberg, J. Tranquilla, and
D. Wells, “GPS marine kinematic positioning accuracy and reliability,”
Canadian Surveyor, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 143–172, Oct. 1987.
[2] J. M. Tranquilla, The Experimental Study of Global Positioning Satel- I. INTRODUCTION
lite Antenna Backplane Configurations NASA Jet Propulsion Lab., Ra-
diating Systems Research Lab., Univ. New Brunswick, Fredericton, Planar Yagi-Uda antennas are very attractive for many microwave
NB, Canada, Tech. Rep., 1988, Contract 957959. and millimeter-wave applications due to their high gain, low cost, high
[3] J. M. Tranquilla and B. G. Colpitts, “GPS antenna design character-
istics for high precision applications,” presented at the ASCE Conf. radiation efficiency and ease of fabrication. The Yagi-Uda antenna is
GPS-88 Eng. Applicat. of GPS Satellite Surveying Technol., Nashville, one of the most popular endfire antennas which can be designed to
TN, May 11–14, 1988.
[4] J. M. Tanquilla and B. G. Colpitts, “Development of a class of antennas achieve a medium gain with relatively low cross-polarization levels.
for space-based NAVSTAR GPS applications,” in Proc. 6th Int. Conf. Previously, Kaneda et al. presented a microstrip-fed Quasi-Yagi
on Antennas and Propag. (ICAP 89), Coventry, U.K., Apr. 4–7, 1989,
pp. 65–69.
antenna at X-band with a gain of 3–5 dB and a cross-pol. level of
[5] J. M. Tranquilla and S. R. Best, “A study of the quadrifilar helix an- < 0 15 dB [1]. Grajek et al. showed a Yagi-Uda antenna with a
tenna for global positioning systems (GPS) applications,” IEEE Trans.
directivity of 9.3 dB at 24 GHz [2]. These antennas utilize planar
Antennas Propag., vol. 38, pp. 1545–1550, Oct. 1990.
[6] K. G. Clark, “The Finite-difference time-domain technique applied to microstrip-to-coplanar stripline (CPS) transition which is based on a
the drooped microstrip,” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Elect. Eng., Univ.
New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada, Jul. 1996.
[7] W. Feller, “Three Dimensional Microstrip Patch Antenna,” U.S. Patent
5 200 756, Apr. 1993. Manuscript received July 28, 2008; revised March 12, 2009. First published
[8] N. Fayyaz, N. Hojjat, and S. Safavi-Naeini, “Rectangular microstrip July 07, 2009; current version published November 04, 2009. This work was
antenna with a finite horn-shaped ground plane,” in Proc. IEEE An- supported in part by Intel Corporation and in part by the UC-Discovery Program.
tennas and Propag. Society Int. Symp., Jul. 13–18, 1997, vol. 2, pp. The authors are with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,
916–919. University of California, San Diego, CA 92122 USA (e-mail: ralhalabi@gmail.
[9] H. Nakano, S. Shimada, J. Yamauchi, and M. Miyata, “A circularly com; [email protected]).
polarized patch antenna enclosed by a folded conducting wall,” in IEEE Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are avail-
Topical Conf. on Wireless Commun. Technol., Oct. 15–17, 2003, pp. able online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
134–135. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2009.2026666

0018-926X/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE

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