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A design rule for inset-fed rectangular microstrip patch antenna

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 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on COMMUNICATIONS M. A. Matin, A. I. Sayeed

A Design Rule for Inset-fed Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna

M A MATIN, A. I. SAYEED
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
North South University
Plot 15, Block B, Bashundhara, Dhaka 1229
BANGLADESH
Email:[email protected]

Abstract: - In our paper, an inset-fed microstrip patch antenna has been designed and the dependency of
resonant frequency on the notch gap and the feed line geometry has been studied. Our study suggests that a
narrower notch resulted in better impedance matching. A design rule has also been formulated and presented
the performance of the proposed design.

Key-Words: - Inset-fed, microstrip antenna

1 Introduction 2 Basic Characteristics of Microstrip

Patch
Microstrip patch antennas have been widely used
particularly since they are lightweight, compact and
The microstrip patch is designed such that its pattern
cost effective. The input impedance of these
antennas depends on their geometrical shape, maximum is normal to the patch (broadside
dimensions, the physical properties of the materials radiator). This is accomplished through proper
involved, the feed type and location. Therefore, a choice of the mode (field configuration) of
subset of antenna parameters can be adjusted to excitation beneath the patch. End-fire radiation can
achieve the “best” geometry for matching of a also be accomplished by judicious mode selection.
particular resonance. The inset-fed microstrip
antenna provides a method of impedance control The ones that are most desirable for antenna
with a planar feed configuration [1-2]. The performance are thick substrates whose dielectric
experimental and numerical results showed that the constant is in the lower end of the range. This is
input impedance of an inset-fed rectangular patch because they provide better efficiency, larger
varied as a Cos 4 function of the normalized inset bandwidth, loosely bound fields for radiation into
depth [1]. A more recent study proposed a modified space, but at the expense of larger element size [6].
shifted Sin 2 form that well characterizes probe-fed Thin substrates with higher dielectric constants are
patches with a notch [3]. It is found that a shifted
attractive for microwave circuitry because they
Cos 2 function works well for the inset-fed patch
require tightly bound fields to minimize undesirable
[4][5]. The parameters of the shifted cosine-squared
function depend on the notch width for a given radiation and coupling, which lead to smaller
patch and substrate geometry. element sizes; however, because of their greater
losses, they are less efficient and have relatively
In our paper, we have analyzed the characterization smaller bandwidths [6]. Since microstrip antennas
of resonance frequencies as a function of notch are often integrated with other microwave circuitry,
width for an inset microstrip feed. An approximate a compromise has to be reached between good
formula is introduced to describe the resonance antenna performance and circuit design.
frequency that is then implemented in the design of
notch width for inset-fed antennas to achieve better
impedance matching.

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Fig.1: Geometry of inset-fed microstrip patch antenna

Table 1: Physical dimensions of inset-fed microstrip patch antenna

Operating frequency, f in GHz 10

Dielectric constant, ε reff

2.2

Length of the patch, L p in µm

9064

Width of the patch, W p in µm

11895

Position of inset feed point, d in µm

3126
Width of the microstrip feed line, W in µm
2150

Often microstrip antennas are referred to as patch low cross-polarization radiation. There are many
antennas. The radiating elements and the feed lines configurations that can be used to feed microstrip
are habitually photo etched on the dielectric antennas. The four most popular feeding techniques
substrate. The radiating patch may be square, are the microstrip line, coaxial probe, aperture
rectangular, thin strip, circular, elliptical, triangular coupling and proximity coupling [6] [7-13]. In our
or constituting any other configuration. Square, paper, we have chosen inset feed microstrip line
rectangular, thin strip and circular microstrip patch with rectangular microstrip patch.
configurations are the most common because of
their ease of analysis, fabrication, and their
attractive radiation characteristics, especially the

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3 Patch Geometry [14] and the final values are determined through
extensive numerical simulations which are shown in
Fig.1 shows the patch geometry of an inset-fed Table 1. The value of ‘g’ is changed with the ratio
rectangular patch, where the notch width ‘g’ is of ‘W/10’, ‘W/15’, ‘W/20’, W/25’, ‘W/30’ W/35’
located symmetrically along the width of the patch. and ‘W/40’ where W is the width of microstrip feed
line.
The dimensions of the different parameters have
been approximated using the procedure discussed in

Table 2: Performance analysis as a function of notch width

Performance Properties W / 10 W / 15 W / 20 W / 25 W / 30 W / 35 W / 40

-10dB Bandwidth (GHz) .65 .69 .83 .95 1.0 1.04 1.1

Antenna gain (dB) 7.167 7.028 6.921 6.842 6.781 6.734 6.695

S11 (dB) -23.5 -24 -55 -34 -29 -26 -24.5

Fig.2: Return loss as a function of Notch

width, g

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 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on COMMUNICATIONS M. A. Matin, A. I. Sayeed

Fig.3: Resonant frequency comparison

between proposed formula and simulation

4 Design Analysis Where, f r = Resonant frequency, ε eff =

Effective dielectric constant, v0 = Velocity of
It was observed that with a decrease in notch width, Electromagnetic wave, 3X1011 mm/s, g = Notch
the resonant frequency shifts away from 10 GHz. width, mm, f = Operating frequency in GHz.
There is a resonance shift of 0.06 GHz and the
bandwidth is increased about 46.2% when notch The resonant frequency, f r is calculated using
width is decreased from W/10 to W/40. our proposed equation as a function of g where
g varies from 0.054 mm to 0.215 mm. Fig.3 shows
The -10dB bandwidth is shown in Fig.2 and the the calculated and simulated resonant frequency as
optimized results for this design are tabulated in a function of g that proves the validity of the
Table 2 which is analyzed for 10 GHz operating proposed equation.
frequency to find the resonant frequency with the
change of notch width. An equation has been 5 Design Procedure
formulated for the resonant frequency which
depends on notch width. The equation has been We adopt the design strategy of keeping the return
given in (1) loss minimum at the resonant frequencies as close
as possible and striving to achieve -10dB return
v0 4.6 × 10 −14 f loss over the impedance bandwidth. Our design
fr = + (1)
2 × ε eff g 1.01 procedure is based on the existing literature and
analysis of the notch width discussed earlier and

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the goal of this procedure is to provide a good first- 4 ∆L is the normalized extension of the length
pass design. and given as
 Wp 
(ε reff + 0.3) + 0.264 
In practice, the dielectric constants of the ∆L
= 0.412  h  (4)
material are not free variables, since discrete values h  Wp 
depend on the dielectric material used. Therefore, it (ε reff − 0.258) + 0.8 
is convenient to choose the parameters ε r in  h 
advance and vary other parameters. A further
5. Calculate the value of L p and Z 0 as
constraint must be placed on the thickness as
common laminates are available only with a certain vo
Lp = − 2∆L (5)
thickness. To account for this constraint, we 2 f r ε reff
initially allow a continuous choice of h . On
finding an optimum, this thickness value is rounded
to an available thickness and then optimization 6. Calculate the notch width, g
resumes with the available h . In this case, there are
several parameters required for the optimization v0 4.6 × 10 −14 f
fr = +
problem, which is time consuming. Therefore the 2 × ε eff g 1.01
dielectric constant and thickness above the ground
plane are set to constant values that provide a good To obtain the desired resonance f r at the operating
impedance match for inset-feed patch structure. f i.e f r = f

The design procedure assumes that the specified The above equation will become
information includes the dielectric constant of the v0 4.6 × 10 −14 f
substrate (ε r ) and the height of the substrate ( h) f = +
2 × ε eff g 1.01
and is stated as below:
Rearranging the equation,
1. Specify the center frequency and select a
substrate permittivity ε r and a substrate
f v0 4.6 × 10 −14
thickness h f − =
1.01 2 × ε eff g
λair
h ≥ 0.06
εr
1 v0 4.6 × 10 −14
Or, f (1 − )=
2. Calculate W p as [7] 1.01 2 × ε eff g

vo 2
Wp = (2) .01 f v0 4.6 × 10 −14
2 fr ε r +1 Or, =
1.01 2 × ε eff g
3. Calculate ε r using the following common
equation found in [15] v0 4.65 × 10 −12
g= (6)
2 × ε eff f
−1 / 2
ε r +1 ε r −1  h 
ε reff = + 1 + 12  7. Calculate the value of Z 0 as
2 2  W p 
for Wp / h >1 (3)  π 
Z o = R in cos 2  d  (7)
L
 p 

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 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on COMMUNICATIONS M. A. Matin, A. I. Sayeed

Where, d is the inset distance from the

2
radiating edge, and Rin is the resonant input  k oW p 
resistance when the patch is fed at a radiating edge.  sin( cos θ ) 
1 π 2
The inset distance ( d ) is selected such that Z 0 is
G12 = ∫  
120π 2 0  cos θ 
equivalent to the feed line impedance. The notch  
width ‘ g ’ is located symmetrically along the width
* J o (k o L p sin θ ) sin 3 θdθ
of the patch. The dimensions of the different
(9)
parameters have been approximated using the
above equations.
Where J 0 is the Bessel function of the first kind of
order zero. The mutual conductance obtained using
5.1 The resonance input resistance Rin
equation (8) is small compared to the self
calculation:
conductance. Taking mutual effects into account
between the slots, the resonant input impedance can
A rectangular microstrip patch can be
be calculated as [16]
represented as an array of two radiating slots, each
of width W p , height h and separated by a
1
distance L p . Each slot is equivalent to a parallel Rin =
2(G1 + G12 )
equivalent admittance Y with conductance G and
susceptance B . The equivalent circuit transmission
model of a microstrip patch antenna is shown in The inset feed introduces a physical notch,
Fig. 4. which in turn introduces a junction capacitance.
The physical notch and its corresponding junction
The conductance of a single slot can be obtained capacitance influence the resonance frequency. As
using the following equation the inset feed-point moves from the edge toward
the centre of the patch the resonant input
2
 k oW p  impedance decreases monotonically and reaches
sin( cos θ ) 
1 π
zero at the centre. When the value of the inset feed
G1 = ∫
2  sin 3 θdθ point approaches the centre of the patch, the
2 0
120π  cos θ  π 
  cos 2  d  varies very rapidly; therefore the
(8) L 
 p 
Ideally the two slots should be separated byλ/2 input resistance also changes rapidly with the
position of the feed point which is shown in Fig 5.
where λ is the wavelength in the dielectric To maintain very accurate values, a close tolerance
substrate. But in reality, the separation of slots is must be preserved.
slightly less than λ/2 because the length of the
patch is electrically longer than the actual length
due to fringing [14]. The mutual conductance G12
can be calculated using [16]

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B1 G1 B2 G2

YC

Fig.4 Equivalent circuit of Inset fed microstrip patch antenna

Fig.5 Inset-fed distance and variation of input impedance

6 Design Example function of dielectric thickness and feed point

position.
The design is intended to operate 9 GHz resonance
frequency. The -10dB bandwidth is shown in Fig.6. The radiation pattern at 9 GHz is shown in Fig.7 (a)
(YZ) and Fig.7(b) (XZ). Simulations are performed
This example demonstrates that while the for fixed notch width and depth. Increasing either
design procedure can do a good job of producing the notch width or depth results in a greater
an antenna with designated resonant frequencies, it disturbance of the patch currents. The narrowest
does not necessarily give a design with good notch width is found to have the smallest cross-
bandwidth characteristics, which are still largely a polarization, although the cross polarization is not

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Fig.6: Return loss

Fig.7: Radiation pattern at 9 GHz (a) YZ plane

Fig.7 Radiation pattern at 9 GHz (b) XZ plane

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International Symposium, pp. 1491-1494 July

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