Chapter 1 - Introduction

Introduction

1.1. Introduction

In this chapter, introduction to metamaterial micro strip patch antenna for

the wireless local area network (WLAN) and its properties are presented.
Some definitions about the WLAN communication system and its
applications are also given.

1.1.1. Wireless local area network (WLAN)

A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is a Local area network where in

the end point devices do not connect via wires (i.e. an Ethernet Connection)
to a network. The user devices such as smart phones connect wirelessly. In
most cases WLAN provides the end point connectivity or provides a
complete network in itself [1].

WLAN uses the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band for WLAN
operation. It shares the ISM band with other ISM band users such as
Bluetooth, Near-field communication and the original intended users of the
ISM band the Industrial, scientific and Medical devices [1].

The WLAN standard is described by the Institute of Electrical and

Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard’s body via the 802.11 set of
standards. Derivative standards from the 802.11 standard for various WLAN
applications (such as Wi-Fi direct, Miracast… etc) and Wireless LAN
certification is performed by the Wi-Fi Alliance. In certain cases, the Wi-Fi
alliance has come out with a set of standards for a particular WLAN use case

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

before the IEEE standard has been designed for the same (e.g. 802.11e). The
two Radio Frequency Bands of WLAN operation are the 2.4 GHz and the 5
GHz band [1].

There are two basic modes of operation defined in WLAN:

1.1.1.1. Infrastructure mode

In this mode WLAN provides end point connectivity where the user devices
(e.g. smart phones) connect wirelessly to a WLAN master device (Access
Point_ AP). The AP would connect to a network controller (via Ethernet)
which in turn would connect the wireless end point Station device (e.g.
Smart Phone) to the internet [1]. The figure below shows a simple
infrastructure network topology.

Figure 1.1 A simple infrastructure network topology.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.1.1.2. Ad-hoc mode

Peer to Peer connections provides a self sufficient wireless network where

the user devices connect to one another to form a local Peer to Peer self
sufficient connection. One of the devices in the network would assume the
role of a master from time to time. Ad-hoc mode operation did not become
very popular. However many other Peer to Peer WLAN modes have been
developed and are gaining prominence. One such protocol is termed Wi-Fi
Direct (p2p, Peer to Peer) which is actively being used in smart phones for
gaming, payments… etc [1]. The figure below shows a Simple Ad-hoc
Mode Topology.

Figure 1.2 A simple Ad-hoc mode topology.

Variations of a Peer to Peer network within the scope of an infrastructure

setup have also been developed, termed Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS)
[1].

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

In addition to the above, Wireless Mesh network standards have also been
developed which employs a number of interconnected nodes in mesh
formation.

The frequency bands for WLAN or Wi-Fi operation are the 2.4 GHz band
the 5 GHz band. This thesis studies the 2.4 GHz band.

The 2.4 GHz band channel centre frequencies are placed 5 MHz apart. The
Channel width of each channel is 22 MHz. Since the channel centre
frequencies are 5 MHz apart and the channel width is 22 MHz, most of the
2.4 GHz channels overlap with one another. The channel centre frequencies
are shown in the figure below [1].

Figure 1.3 The channel centre frequencies.

From the figure above it is seen that the non overlapping channels are 1, 6
and 11. Channel 14 is not used in all countries and is specific to Japan. The
list of channels is shown below [1].

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Table 1.1 A list of channels.

The IEEE standards are defined by the 802.11 set of standards. Some of the
mainline standards are provided below.

 802.11-1997 => first 802.11 standard for 2.4 GHz operation.

 802.11b => Defines extensions to 802.11-1997 standard in 2.4 GHz
mode.
 802.11a => Defines 5 GHz operation in OFDM mode.
 802.11g => Defines extensions for higher rate in 2.4 GHz mode,
Introduces OFDM in 2.4 GHz mode.
 802.11ah => Wi-Fi in unlicensed spectrum below 1 GHz.
 802.11ad => Wi-Fi 60 GHz operation.
 802.11n => Defines High throughput operation for WLAN devices.
 802.11ac => Defines very high throughput operation for WLAN
devices.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

In addition to the above standards, the IEEE standards body also

developed standards for security, spectrum and transmit power
management, fast roam, radio resource measurement, management frame
protection… etc. Some of the standards are provided below.

 802.11i => Medium Access Control Security enhancements.

 802.11e => Quality of Service.
 802.11h => spectrum and transmit power management.
 802.11r => Fast BSS connections.
 80211k => Radio resource measurement.
 802.11s => wireless Mesh Networks.
 802.11w => management frame protection.

1.1.2. Properties of WLAN

A wireless network, which uses high frequency radio waves rather than
wires to communicate between nodes, is another option for home or business
networking. Individuals and organizations can use this option to expand
their existing wired network or to go completely wireless. Wireless allows
for devices to be shared without networking cable which increases mobility
but decreases range [2].

WLAN communication system has some properties that are different from
wired network and so it is used in application with specific demands, these
properties and also the drawbacks will be illustrated bellow [3].

1.1.2.1. Advantages

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.1.2.1.1. Mobility
The primary advantage of wireless technology. Having this freedom of being
able to move around without wires being connected.

1.1.2.1.2. Ease and cost of installation

Need to have to run cables through walls and ceilings is eliminated with a
wireless LAN.

1.1.2.1.3. Easier network modifications

1.1.2.1.4. Increased network reliability

One of the most common network problems is having cable failures.

1.1.2.1.5. Speedier disaster recovery

If primary operations go down, having a WLAN makes life easier. Allowing

ability for network to be up and running so fast without business being
significantly disturbed.

1.1.2.1.6. Radio signal interference

Wireless devices operate in the same radio frequency as other devices.

Signals from other devices can disrupt wireless transmissions, or a WLAN
device can interfere with other devices.

1.1.2.1.7. Security

The wireless signal is broadcast in open air making security a big concern.
Security has improved for WLAN but it remains a major issue and must be
properly addressed.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.1.2.2. Disadvantages
1.1.2.2.1. Health risk

Being a health risk is an ongoing issue, wireless devices emit low levels of
RF. It is a known fact that high levels of RF with heating effects can cause
biological damage.

1.1.2.2.2. Cost

Wireless network cards cost 4 times more than wired network cards. The
access points are more expensive than hubs and wires.

1.1.2.2.3. Signal bleed over

Access points pick up the signals of adjacent access points or overpower

their signal.

1.1.2.2.4. Environmental conditions

Susceptible to weather and solar activity. Constrained by buildings, trees and

terrain.

1.1.3. Applications of WLAN

In the last few years, many applications have been appeared for WLAN
frequencies. Operating in the WLAN frequency range provides many
benefits including the availability of a high bandwidth, small physical size of
antenna and very high data rate communications. Some of these applications
are mentioned below [3].

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.1.3.1. Link extension

Wireless LAN linked into a wired LAN on same premises, for example:
Wired LAN for backbone and wireless LAN (stations in large open areas).

1.1.3.2. Cross building interconnect

Connect LANs in nearby buildings, for example:

Point to point wireless (devices connected are typically bridges or routers).

1.1.3.3. Nomadic access

Wireless link between LAN hub and mobile data terminal equipped with
antenna.

1.1.3.4. Ad hoc networking

Temporary peer to peer network set up to meet immediate need, for

example:
Link computers in a temporary network for duration of meeting.

These applications are used in many fields such as medical professionals,

corporate, education, temporary situations, airlines, security staff,
emergency centers. WLAN is also finding its use in automotive
communication in recent years [1, 3].

1.2. Introduction to the patch antennas

Microstrip patch antenna consists of a radiating patch on one side of a

dielectric substrate which has a ground plane on the other side as shown in
Figure 1.4. The patch is generally made of conducting material such as
copper or gold and can take any possible shape.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Dielectric substrate
Ground plane

Figure 1.4 Microstrip patch antenna.

Microstrip antennas are preferred for various applications because of their

small size, low weight, and low manufacturing cost. But the requirements in
designing this antenna which is the radiator element in the system are
different from that of a closed circuit like transmitter and other components.
So the losses of the antenna must be low enough to get an efficient radiator.
The best method for lower losses of the patch antenna is by designing the
patch element of the antenna on a low dielectric constant substrate, on other
words, the ideal microstrip antenna should have a substrate with low
permittivity ɛr to get good performance. On the other hand using high
permittivity substrates like silicon and gallium arsenide are in demand due to
the rapid growth of IC technology and requirement of small size antennas
for wireless communications. With such substrates it would be possible to
integrate the antenna on a single chip with other circuit elements [4]. Such
design i.e. on high permittivity substrates leads to increased surface wave
losses and reducing bandwidth and so reducing the antenna efficiency.
From the above, the solution to overcome these weaknesses can be achieved
by various techniques such as probe fed, stacked antenna, microstrip patch
antennas on electrically thick substrate, slotted patch antenna, air gap,

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

parasitic patch, stacked shorted patch, and defective ground structure (DGS)
[5].

1.2.1. Feeding techniques

The feeding technique is used to enhance the weaknesses of microstrip

antenna between the microstrip line, cut feed, and coaxial feeding technique;
the cut feed has better parameter performance compared to coaxial and
microstrip line feeding technique; but the bandwidth only up to 60 MHz for
cut feed or microstrip line feed with notch [6]. Moreover, the bandwidth is
the important parameter for WLAN 2.4 GHz which should cover in the
range of 100 MHz, then better feeding technique should be utilized .Among
the four feeding techniques microstrip line, coaxial feeds, aperture coupling
and proximity coupling feeds, the proximity coupling has the largest
bandwidth (as high as 13%), and has low spurious feed radiation [7].

1.2.2. Parasitic patch

Parasitic patch technique is used to improve bandwidth and gain of

Microstrip patch antennas. There are two configurations of parasitic patch
technique, one is a coplanar technique and the other is stacked technique. In
coplanar technique, different patches are combined on single plane above
dielectric substrate. The excitation is given by a main patch that placed
between different patch radiators [5]. In stacked technique, a parasitic patch
is located above a fed patch with superseding dielectric layer in between, as
shown in figure 1.5. This configuration is called stacked patch antenna, and
allows two or more patches to share common aperture area, thus the stacked
technique results less surface area required to elements compared to
coplanar technique [5, 8].

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Figure 1.5 Stacked patch antenna with parasitic element.

In stacked antenna configuration, the dielectric constant of the superseding

dielectric layer is lower than the dielectric constant of the substrate, this
leads to minimize the overall effective permittivity of the multilayer antenna,
increase gain of antenna, and reducing the effects of surface waves [5].
These features depend on the spacing between the fed patch and the parasitic
patch.

1.2.3. Dielectric substrate

Selection of suitable substrate material is an important task in designing of

microstrip patch antenna. The substrates are used to provide mechanical
strength to antenna. In addition, by choosing a suitable dielectric material for
substrate, some critical parameters can be improved such as bandwidth,
efficiency, and radiation pattern; also reduce the propagation of surface
wave [5].

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Microstrip patch antennas have a very high antenna quality factor (Q). It
represents the losses associated with the antenna where a large Q factor
leads to narrow bandwidth and low efficiency. The thick substrate is selected
to reduce the Q factor, also to improve the bandwidth and efficiency of the
microstrip antenna [5, 9]. But by increasing the thickness of the dielectric
substrate, an increasing fraction of the total power delivered by the source
goes into a surface wave propagation and will give rise to spurious radiation
which is not desired, since it is ultimately scattered at the dielectric bends
and causes degradation of the electrical properties of antenna [5, 8, 9].

1.2.4. Double feeding technique

Dual feeding technique is used to improve bandwidth of the microstrip

antenna, especially at higher resonating frequencies. Microstrip patch
antenna with dual feed is shown in figure 1.6. In microstrip antenna a dual
feed structure is used to enforce the vertical current mode, and prevent the
horizontal and asymmetrical current modes from being excited. These
asymmetrical and horizontal current modes degrade the polarization
properties and decrease the impedance and gain performance of the antenna
[5].

Dual feed points

Figure 1.6 Microstrip patch antenna with dual feed.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.2.5. Shorting pin

The resonant frequency of the microstrip antenna can be reduced by adding

a shorting pin on the patch. The location of the shorting pin must be chosen
nearer to the feed point of the antenna to get high level of impedance
matching. Also the shorting pin can be acts as a feed line of a microstrip
antenna. Figure 3 shows a Circular patch antenna with shorting pin. The
shorting pin is used to increase the microstrip antenna bandwidth
performance, and it also helps to decrease cross-polarization level [5].

Figure 1.7 Circular patch with shorting pin.

1.2.6. Defective ground structures

Defected ground structures (DGS) are achieved by cutting a simple defect of

any shape on ground plane of microstrip antenna, as shown in figure 4. The
main advantages of DGS are reduction in patch size and increase in gain and
bandwidth. The defect geometry is easy to introduce in ground, and it can be

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

changed accordingly from simple shape to complex shape in order to

achieve desired performance. DGS leads to change some parameters of
transmission line such as capacitance, and inductance, which influences
impedance and disturb the shield current distribution in ground plane. This
allows to control the excitation and electromagnetic waves propagation cross
the substrate layer [5, 8].

Figure 1.8 Front and back view of defective ground plane.

1.2.7. Array technique

Antenna Array are created by connected and organized many microstrip

antennas in a regular configuration to form a single antenna, as presented in
figure 5.Antenna Array technique is used to design of microstrip antenna
because it provides high gain, very narrow beam, large aperture efficiency
and a variety of radiation patterns [8].

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

(a) (b)
Figure 1.9 (a) Series fed. (b) 4×4 Microstrip patch array antenna.

1.3. Metamaterial structure technique

The use of metamaterial technique is very convenient. Metamaterials are

artificial materials engineered to have properties that may not be found in
nature. A composite medium of conducting and non-magnetic elements can
form a Left-Handed Metamaterial, as the electric field E, magnetic intensity
H and propagation vector k are related by a left-hand rule [10], because
propagation of wave takes place in backward direction in this medium.
Several shapes can be considered to make the metamaterial structure in order
to operate in different frequencies. Framed Square rings, different C
patterns, square and circular patterns…etc, are considered to make
metamaterial antenna structure. Metamaterial structures that are applied in
microstrip antennas such as a split ring resonator SRR [11] and
complementary split ring resonator CSRR [12]. All these shapes are
designed with the intention to ameliorate the bandwidth, return loss and gain
along with size reduction.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Although Metamaterial is not present in nature, interesting properties were

theoretically predicted for these substances, such as the reversal of the Snell
Law, Doppler Effects, and Cherenkov radiation… etc. The basic properties
of conventional materials available in nature are positive dielectric
permittivity ɛ and magnetic permeability μ called as Double Positive
materials (ɛr > 0 and μr > 0) positive and they follow the right hand thumb
rule for the direction of propagation of wave k (except the cases of noble
metals like gold silver… etc, where permittivity is negative for certain range
of frequencies). Metamaterial is material that has negative dielectric
permittivity ɛ and magnetic permeability μ which is not found in nature.
Metamaterial can be classified on the basis of (ε) and (µ) in three types , as
double negative material (ɛr < 0 and μr < 0) called as left-handed
metamaterial LHM also termed as negative index material NIM , mu-
negative material (ɛr > 0 and μr < 0) , and epsilon negative material (ɛ r < 0
and μr > 0) [13].

Metamaterial has several types such as engineered textured surfaces,

artificial impedance surfaces, artificial magnetic conductors, double negative
materials, frequency selective surfaces, Photonic Band-Gap (PBG) surfaces,
Electromagnetic Band-Gap (EBG) surfaces/structures, and even fractals or
chirals. Broad band antenna design is one of the major applications of
metamaterials.

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