Tomas Mikulasek, Jaroslav Lacik Dept. of Radio Electronics Brno University of Technology Brno, Czech Republic mikulasek.t@phd.feec.vutbr.cz
AbstractThis paper presents a circularly polarized microstrip patch antenna fed by a substrate integrated waveguide. The antenna was designed in Ansoft HFSS for the operating frequency 10 GHz. The antenna works with right-handed circular polarization. At the desired frequency, the antenna reaches 4.4% impedance bandwidth (the measured value for s 11
better than 10 dB), 7.1% Axial Ratio (AR) bandwidth (the simulated value for AR < 3) and the simulated gain 9.3 dBi. Keywords-circularly polarization; substrate integrated waveguide I. INTRODUCTION Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) structures have gained considerable attention in recent years [1], [2]. SIW is electrically similar to a conventional metallic waveguide, and can be easily fabricated by a low cost Printed Circuit Board (PCB) process. The SIW structure consists of two rows of metal vias created in a dielectric substrate. The top and bottom side of the substrate is covered by metal sheets which are connected by the vias. Circularly polarized (CP) antennas are widely used in satellite and radar systems. In this type of communication, low- -cost low-profile antennas are required. Recently, CP antennas based on the SIW technology were designed and published. Cavity backed crossed-slot antennas for CP applications with different feeding methods were presented in [3] and [4]. These antennas were fabricated from a single substrate where the backed SIW cavity fed by a single grounded coplanar waveguide or a single coaxial probe was integrated. These antennas suffered from a narrow Axial Ratio (AR) bandwidth (typically about 1 %) and a low gain (typically about 5.5 dBi). In [5], a circular ring slot embedded in a single-layered SIW was applied to reach the circular polarization. This antenna reached 2.3% AR bandwidth. A similar concept of a cavity- -backed CP antenna was presented in [6]; the published antenna had a high gain (about 7.8 dBi) and 3% AR bandwidth. In our contribution, we propose a square patch fed by two probes built from a SIW in order to excite the circular polarization (the dual-feed method). Signals with an equal magnitude and 90 phase difference are obtained due to a proper position of the probes in the SIW. This paper presents a designed geometry, a design procedure and results of a simulation and a measurement of the CP antenna. II. GEOMETRY OF PROPOSED ANTENNA The geometry of a model of the proposed CP antenna is depicted in Figure 1. The antenna of overall dimensions L and W consists of two dielectric layers, a SIW layer and a patch layer. In the SIW layer of the dielectric constant r1 and the thickness h sub1 , the substrate integrated waveguide is created. To reduce computational costs of the design, the SIW is substituted by an equivalent rectangular waveguide (the long dashed line) of the equivalent width w wg and the length l wg [2]. The waveguide is fed by a port on the left side and operates in the fundamental TE 10 mode. The right end of the waveguide is shorted. The patch layer of the dielectric constant r2 and the thickness h sub2 is placed on the SIW layer. The metal sheet The presented research was financially supported by the project CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0007 WICOMT, financed from the operational program Education for competitiveness, and by the grant 102/08/H027 Advanced Methods, Structures and Components of Electronic Wireless Communication provided by the Czech Science Foundation.
1 y y x z A A TE 10 p 2 wg wg 1 x 3 4 port
(a) Top view
(b) Section A-A Figure 1. Geometry of antenna model. 6th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP) 978-1-4577-0919-7/12/$26.00 2011 IEEE 2380 between these layers is a ground plane for the patch. In the ground plane, two circular slots (the short dashed line) of the diameter d 3 are etched. On the top side of this layer, a square patch of the dimension L p is located. The patch is fed from the waveguide through the slots by two probes of the diameter d 2 . The distance between the probes and the center of the patch is a 4 . Dimensions a 2 and a 3 denote a position of the patch and the waveguide. A proper choice of these dimensions ensures an equal magnitude and 90 phase difference of signals for the circular polarization. In this case, the patch generates the Right- -Handed Circular Polarization (RHCP). In order to improve the impedance matching of the antenna, two metal vias of the diameter d 1 and the position v x and v y are placed in the waveguide. III. PROCEDURE OF ANTENNA DESIGN The described antenna was designed in Ansoft HFSS for the frequency 10 GHz. The CuClad 217 ( r1 = 2.17) and the FoamClad ( r2 = 1.25) were chosen as the dielectric substrate for the SIW layer and the patch layer, respectively. The procedure of the antenna design can be divided into several steps. In the first step, the patch layer, including the ground plane, the patch and the feeding probes, is designed separately. The patch is fed by two 50 coaxial probes of the diameters d 2 and d 3 . The signals of the probes are with 90 phase difference. The length of the patch L p and the parameter a 4 are evaluated by optimizing the reflection coefficient of the single patch for 10 GHz. In the next step, the width w wg of the waveguide is determined for the operating frequency 10 GHz. A cutoff frequency of the fundamental mode TE 10 is 7.2 GHz. This waveguide is used for the feeding of the patch from the previous step. The dimensions a 2 and a 3 are optimized for the widest AR bandwidth. An initial position of the probe of the patch (see Figure 1b) is one half of the waveguide wavelength from the short, and is slightly shifted along the waveguide axis. Finally, two metal vias with the diameter d 1 are used for the improvement of impedance matching of the antenna. The positions v x and v y are optimized for the best impedance matching. The resultant parameters of the optimized antenna model are summarized in Table 1. The simulated reflection coefficient and the axial ratio of the optimized antenna model are depicted in Figures 2 and 3, respectively. The antenna reaches 3.5% impedance bandwidth for s 11 better than 10 dB and 7.3% axial ratio bandwidth for AR < 3 dB. Figure 4 shows simulated normalized radiation patterns at 10 GHz for RHCP. The simulated gain of the antenna model is 9.4 dBi. In order to verify the results obtained from Ansoft HFSS, the antenna model was modeled by the transient solver of CST Microwave Studio (CST MWS). CST results are compared with Ansoft ones in Figures 2 to 4; a good correspondence of results is obvious. TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF ANTENNA MODEL IN FIGURE 1 Parameter Value (mm)
Parameter Value (mm) a1 8.73
hsub2 1.88 a2 9.08
L 41.00 a3 2.20
Lp 11.84 a4 3.15
lwg 38.00 d1 0.80
vx 4.32 d2 0.80
vy 27.38 d3 1.60
W 36.00 hsub1 1.52
wwg 14.14
Figure 2. Simulated reflection coefficient of antenna model.
Figure 3. Simulated axial ratio of antenna model in main-lobe direction.
(a) xz plane 2381
(b) yz plane Figure 4. Simulated RHCP radiation patterns of antenna model at 10 GHz. IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS In order to verify the designed antenna experimentally, the feeding port was replaced by a direct non-radiated SMA-to- -SIW transition [7] and the waveguide was converted to the SIW [1]. The antenna was modeled by Ansoft HFSS, verified by CST MWS and fabricated. Figure 5 depicts the final antenna configuration with the SMA-to-SIW transition. Due to a small change of the reflection coefficient after the conversion, the position of the matching vias is slightly corrected. The supplementary parameters of the final antenna are given in Table 2. The antenna was fabricated by a low cost PCB process. Both the layers were fixed using an acrylic resin. The photographs of the fabricated antenna prototype are shown in Figure 6. The results of the simulation and measurement are depicted in Figures 7 to 9. Figure 7 shows a good agreement between the simulated and measured reflection coefficient of the fabricated antenna. The antenna reaches up to 4.4% impedance bandwidth in comparison with the simulated impedance bandwidth 3.9 %. In Figure 8, simulated and measured AR of the fabricated antenna are compared. Obviously, the measured AR behavior is very different from the simulated one. Sensitivity of the fabrication process and fabrication tolerances might be the reason of the mismatch. Therefore, we are working on the validation of an antenna fabricated with a higher accuracy. The simulated AR bandwidth is 7.1 %. The normalized radiations patterns in xz and yz plane are depicted in Figure 9. Only the co-polarized RHCP radiation of the antenna was measured. The agreement of the simulated and measured values is satisfactory. The gain of the antenna was not measured. The simulated one is 9.3 dBi.
(b) Top view
(b) Section A-A Figure 5. Antenna configuration with SMA-to-SIW transition.
(a) Top view
(b) Bottom view Figure 6. Fabricated antenna. 2382 TABLE II. SUPPLEMENTARY PARAMETERS OF ANTENNA IN FIGURE 5 Parameter Value (mm)
Parameter Value (mm) a5 8.22
px 2.17 a6 2.49
py 2.39 d4 1.40
vx 4.39 fx 5.59
vy 27.72 fy 10.32
W 36.00 L 48.00
wSIW 15.17 lSIW 43.03
Figure 7. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient of antenna with SMA-to-SIW transition.
Figure 8. Simulated and measured axial ratio of antenna with SMA-to-SIW transition in main-lobe direction.
(a) xz plane
(b) yz plane Figure 9. Simulated and measured RHCP radiation patterns of antenna with SMA-to-SIW transition at 10 GHz. V. CONCLUSION In the paper, the low-cost low-profile CP patch antenna fed by the SIW was introduced for centimeter wave applications. The designed antenna was validated by the measurement. Unfortunately, the axial ratio of the antenna was very sensitive on fabrication tolerances. The proposed antenna reached the wide axial ratio bandwidth 7.1 % (the simulated value in Ansoft HFSS) and 4.4% impedance bandwidth (the measured value) at the desired frequency 10 GHz. The simulated gain of the antenna was 9.3 dBi. REFERENCES [1] L. Yan, W. Hong, K. Wu, T. J. Cui, Investigations on the propagation characteristics of the substrate integrated waveguide based on the method of lines, IEE Proceedings Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation, 2005, vol. 152, no. 1, pp. 3542. [2] F. Xu, K. Wu, Guided-wave and leakage characteristics of substrate integrated waveguide, IEEE Transaction on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 2005, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 6673. [3] G. Q. Luo, L. L. Sun, Circularly polarized antenna based on dual-mode circular SIW cavity, in Proceedings of the International Conference on Microwave and Millimeter Wave Technology, 2008, pp. 10771079. [4] G. Q. Luo, L. L. Sun, L. X. Dong, Single probe fed cavity backed circularly polarized antenna, Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, 2008, vol. 50, no. 11, pp. 29962998. [5] D. Kim, J. W. Lee, C. S. Cho, T. K. Lee, X-band circular ring-slot antenna embedded in single-layered SIW for circular polarisation, Electronics Letters, 2009, vol. 45, no. 13, pp. 668669. [6] D. Y. Kim, J. W. Lee, T. K. Lee, S. C. Choon, Design of SIW cavity- -backed circular-polarized antennas using two different feeding transitions, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 2011, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 13981403. [7] A. Morini, M. Farina, C. Cellini, T. Rozzi, G. Venanzoni, Design of Low-Cost non-radiative SMA-SIW Launchers, in Proceedings of the 36th European Microwave Conference, 2006, pp. 526529.