2015 IEEE Seventh National Conference on Computing, Communication and Information Systems (NCCCIS)

ISBN 978-1-4799-8990-4

Design of 2.4GHz Patch Antennae for WLAN

Applications

M. Karthick
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering (PG)
Sona College of Technology
Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
[email protected]

Abstract —In this letter, a simple microstrip patch antenna is Because it is recognized as a cost effective with high speed
designed for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) applications data connectivity and communication network in the world.
in IEEE 802.11b/g/n are presented. WLAN is most commonly [3]-[5] Many types of WLAN standards are available in
used wireless distribution standard for short distance network market such as 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. The 802.11a
communication. This paper describes a high-gain; single band usually found in business network due to its higher cost. The
microstrip antenna is printed on FR-4 substrate and has 802.11 group announces the WLAN covered frequencies are
dimensions of 29.2 x 29.2 x 1.6mm3 with a ground plane. The 2.4 GHz, 3.6 GHz, 4.9 GHz, 5 GHz, and 5.9 GHz. Due to
proposed patch antenna design covers 2.4GHz frequency range
with the return loss of -39.008dB. The simulation has been done
modern developments in WLAN standard, the application can
through ADS 2014. And the designed antenna deliberates extended from home networks to large buildings, hotels, food
excellent performance and a great solution for WLAN courts and also for portable devices like mobile phones, tablets
applications. and others.
This paper presents a novel design of a patch antenna for
Index terms— ISM band, Microstrip line feed, Patch antenna, WLAN applications. The proposed design will operate on the
WLAN. frequency of 2.4 GHz range. The entire dimension of the patch
antenna is 29.2 x 29.2 x 1.6mm3. The proposed patch antenna
I. INTRODUCTION design is for 802.11b/g/n. The paper is organized as follows:
A microstrip patch antenna configuration consists of two Section II describes the principle of antenna design and its
sides: one side of dielectric and other side on ground plane. geometry, Section III presents the results of patch and its
The conductors of patch are usually made of copper and discussion and section IV describes the conclusion of this
sometimes in gold which can be of any shape. However,
paper.
regular shapes are normally used for simplification of analysis
and performance prediction. On the dielectric substrate, the II. ANTENNA DESIGN
radiating elements and the feed lines are photo etched. [1] The geometry of the proposed rectangular feed patch
Square, circular, rectangular elliptical or other irregular shapes antenna is shown in Fig. 1. The antenna design consists of
are some of the radiating patch. But most commonly used three elements such as ground plane, substrate and patch
shapes are square, rectangular and circular due to its
design. The antenna uses FR4 substrate with a dimension of
fabrication and ease of analysis. Microstrip patch antennas
29.2 x 29.2 x 1.6 mm3, dielectric constant is 4.8 and a loss
have numerous advantages such as,
tangent of 0.001. The antenna feed is given as rectangular feed
 Low profile, low volume at the center of the patch. Mathematically the antenna
 Fabrication cost is low dimensions are calculated.
 Mass production The width and length of the patch antenna is calculated
 Simple feed can provide easy linear and as,
circular polarization
 Integration of MIC is easy (2.1)
Patch antennas can be used in variety applications from
military to commercial, because of their ease of design and
fabrication. [1] Due to the rapid developments in wireless The feed depth into the patch is given by,
communication, the WLAN plays a vital role for short
distance communication and also users can access internet in (2.2)
their portable devices by using 3G/4G through the WLAN.

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 2015 IEEE Seventh National Conference on Computing, Communication and Information Systems (NCCCIS)

And the usual method of calculating patch antenna

dimensions are given as follows.
For calculating the width,

(2.5)

The effective dielectric constant is calculated as,

-1/2
(2.6)

The extended incremental length of the patch is given by,

(2.7)

Effective length of the patch is,

Fig. 1. Patch antenna geometry
(2.8)
TABLE I. THE DIMENSIONS OF THE PATCH ANTENNA
Parameters W L A B C D The length of patch is calculated as,
Unit (mm) 29.2 29.2 11.7 11.7 12 5.8
(2.9)

Length of the patch is also calculated as,

(2.10)

The microstrip line or rectangular feed is used as a

feeding method. This feed can be easily fabricated and will
match with the patch because it is also a conducting strip
which is smaller width than the patch antenna. Microstrip line
feed have three positions such as inset feed, center feed and
outset feed. The proposed antenna design uses center feed
which gives excellent match with the patch and also in
performance.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To investigate the proposed antenna, the following
parameters are necessary: Return loss and radiation pattern.
The antenna design is carried out through the ADS software.
And here the momentum microwave optimization is preferred
for proposed design. First the patch design has been done in
the corresponding workspace provided in the software and
followed by the substrate editor. Generally the microstrip
antenna contains three elements: Ground plane, Substrate and
patch. By using the coordinate values, the patch antenna can
Fig. 2. Patch Antenna Design be easily designed in the workspace. The return loss is a
measure of reflected and forward power which will be denoted
(2.3) by S11. The Fig 4. tells the corresponding return loss for the
proposed patch antenna.
(2.4)

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 2015 IEEE Seventh National Conference on Computing, Communication and Information Systems (NCCCIS)

Fig. 3. Antenna Substrate editor

Fig. 5. Smith chart for designed antenna

Fig. 4. Return Loss of Proposed Antenna

TABLE II. SIMULATED RESULTS FOR PROPOSED ANTENNA

Frequency Return loss Gain Directivity Fig. 6. Radiation Pattern
2.4GHz -39.008dB 4.685dBi 6.287dBi

It shows that the antenna exhibit 2.4GHz frequency with

the return loss of -39.008dB and the bandwidth of 2.2% at -
10dB. Obtained bandwidth at -10dB is from 2.389 GHz to
2.411 GHz. The smith chart for the designed antenna is shown
in Fig. 5. The radiation pattern is usually represented in
spherical coordinate systems and which is determined in far
filed region.
The radiation pattern provides how the antenna is
propagated in its boundary to a particular direction. The Fig 5.
Shows the result for the antenna radiation pattern. The result
shows that, designed antenna deliberates excellent
performance in return loss, gain, directivity and bandwidth.
The gain is the ability of the antenna power between input and
output. The proposed antenna provides the gain of 4.685dBi.
Directivity is a measure of directive gain at a particular
direction. And generally the gain is directly proportional to the
directivity which is also lesser than the directivity. The result
of directivity is 6.287dBi.
Fig. 7. Gain, Directivity

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 2015 IEEE Seventh National Conference on Computing, Communication and Information Systems (NCCCIS)

IV. CONCLUSION
WLAN is a promising technology for short distance
communication. In this paper, a novel 2.4GHz patch antenna
for WLAN application in 802.11b/g/n has been demonstrated.
Acceptable performance has been achieved in terms of return
loss, radiation pattern and bandwidth. In addition, the gain and
directivity shows that the antenna is perfectly matched for
WLAN applications. This antenna will be easily fabricated
with low cost due to its size and substrate material. FR4 is a
cheapest material which provides optimum performance for
antenna fabrication. It is seen that the proposed
antennaachieved good performance for WLAN applications in
simulation model. Future work will focuses on fabrication and
testing with performance comparison of simulation and
fabrication results.
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