Forum for Electromagnetic Research Methods and Application Technologies (FERMAT)

Waroth Kuhirun , Pravit Boonek

Winyou Silabut

November , 2016

Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University and

Rajamangala University of Technology Isan , Thailand
© 2016, Kuhirun et al, KU Restricted to Educational USE ONLY.

Copyright
© The use of this work is restricted solely for academic purposes. The author of this
work owns the copyright and no reproduction in any form is permitted without written
permission by the author.

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© 2016, Kuhirun et al, KU Restricted to Educational USE ONLY.

Abstract
Radiation pattern corresponds to the construction/deconstruction of far fields generated
by the current distributed on the antennas. Consequently, changes in current distribution
result in different radiation patterns and probably different mainbeam directions. That
is, the mainbeam can probably be steered by varying the current distribution on the
patch and ground. This paper investigates possibility of the mainbeam steering
capability of a single antenna element.

Keywords — Antenna Element; Double Positive Material; Mainbeam; Steerable;

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Biography

Waroth Kuhirun is Associate Professor at the Electrical Engineering

Department at Kasetsart University, Thailand. His research work is
focused on computational electromagnetics and antenna engineering.
He is also working on algorithmic trading using digital signal
processing.

Pravit Boonek is a D.Eng. student at Kasetsart University, Thailand.

His research work is mainly on desiging mainbeam steerable antenna
elements.

Winyou Silabut is a D.Eng. student at Kasetsart University, Thailand.

His research work is mainly on designing miniaturised antennas using
particle swarm optimisation.

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Outline
 Introduction
 Analytical Method
 Possibility of the Mainbeam Steering Capability
of A Single Antenna Element
 Simulation Results
 Conclusions
 Acknowledgement
 References

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Introduction
The mainbeam direction of a single conventional antenna element cannot be steered.
Conventionally, this makes possible by using antenna arrays. The electric /magnetic
field intensity generated by the antenna arrays is the vectorial sum of the electric/
magnetic field intensity generated by each individual antenna element. Consequently,
we can steer the mainbeam by manipulating the phase and/or magnitude and/or
direction patterns of current so that the mainbeam direction coincides with the desired
direction. This paper investigates possibility of the mainbeam steering capability of a
single antenna element by randomly manipulating the permittivity pattern of the
dielectric in between the patch and ground of an antenna . In addition, for the sake of
simplicity, permeability is set to be unity. Particularly, the dielectric is manipulated to be
double positive material (material with ε > 0 and µ > 0) extensively discussed in [2] .
One might argue that the return loss of the antenna element might be too high. This can
expectedly be solved by using an optimization technique, for example, particle swarm
optimization in a similar way presented by Silabut and Kuhirun [1] . However, in this
paper, computer simulations are performed for various cases; three cases which meet
the requirements of high directivity and low return loss (< -10 dB) are selected.

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© 2016, Kuhirun et al, KU Restricted to Educational USE ONLY.

Analytical Method
For the sake of simplicity, consider an ideal surface antenna element; the surface current
 
density on which is denoted by J S . The electric field intensity E and
 the magnetic

field intensity H can be expressed in terms of vector potential in A the following two
equations[3-6] .

  j 
E = − jω A − ∇(∇ • A) (1)
ωµoε o
and
 1 
=
H ∇× A (2)
µO
 
where A can be expressed in terms of surface current density J S in the following

 µ J S jkR
A= ∫
S
4π R
e ds (3)

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It should be noted that the mainbeam direction is the direction in which power density

1  ∗
=
S E×H (4)
2
or
2
1E
S= (5)
2ηO

is maximised at the far field. In other words, the

 mainbeam direction is the direction in
which the magnitude of electric field intensity E is maximised at the far field. Therefore,
the mainbeam can be steered by changing the direction in which the magnitude of far-
field electric field intensity is maximised.By considering equations 1, 3 and 5, it is
easily seen that the mainbeam direction is a function of surface current density J S .
Consequently, the mainbeam direction can be steered if we can manipulate the
magnitude, direction and phase of surface current density J S .

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Possibility of the Mainbeam Steering

Capability of A Single Antenna Element

Consider an antenna element as shown in figure 1. The surface current density J S on
the patch and ground corresponds to the permittivity (ε ) and permeability ( µ ) patterns
of the dielectric in between the patch and ground. That is, the phase, magnitude and
direction patterns of surface charge density J S depend upon the permittivity and
permeability patterns of the dielectric in between the Patch and ground. Consequently,
we can steer the mainbeam direction by manipulating the permittivity and permeability
patterns of the dielectric in between the patch and ground plane. The reader might argue
that it cannot be realisable but it is not the case. Implementation is made possible by
using transmission line modeling concept. Although, by further investigation, only the
case where permittivity/permeability of the dielectric strictly located in between the
patch and ground is controlled is conveniently implemented, steering the mainbeam is
still realisable. The implementation is not discussed in this paper. It is still in the process
of manuscript preparation for patent application. The reader may consult [7] for further
details.

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Figure 1: Antennas excited by lumped port with EZ at feeding point in HFSS

(1 W with source impedance of 50 W) with Various Randomised Permittivity
and Permeability Patterns of Dielectric: W =100 mm, D =60 mm, L =80 mm
and h = 10 mm
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Simulation Results
First of all, relative permittivity patterns of dielectric are randomised for various cases.
Three cases (a), (b) and (c) which meet the requirements of high directivity and low
return loss (<-10 dB) are selected. Relative permittivity patterns for cases (a), (b) and (c)
are shown in figure 2 and, for simplicity, set permeability to be unity as shown in figure
3. By computer simulation at the frequency of 2.45 GHz using HFSS, we obtain the
corresponding phase patterns of the x -component surface current density in figures 4a,
4b and 4c, respectively, whereas the corresponding phase patterns of the y-component
surface current density are shown in figures 5a, 5b and 5c, respectively. Also, the
magnitude patterns of surface current density are shown in figures 6a, 6b and 6c,
respectively. The results for corresponding 3-D radiation pattern shown in figures 7a, 7b
and 7c, respectively. At particular cuts, we obtain 2-D radiation pattern shown in figures
8a, 8b and 8c,respectively. Figure 9 shows that selected cases (a), (b) and (c) meet the
requirement of low return loss (< -10dB) at the frequency of 2.45 GHz.

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(a) (b) (c)

Figure 2: Relative Permittivity Patterns of Dielectric in between the Patch and Ground
for Various Selected Randomised Cases (a), (b) and (C)

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 3: Relative Permeability Patterns of Dielectric in between the Patch and Ground
for Selected Randomised Cases (a), (b) and (c) 11
© 2016, Kuhirun et al, KU Restricted to Educational USE ONLY.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 4: Phase Patterns of the x-component surface current density for Various
Selected Randomised Cases (a), (b) and (c)

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 5: Phase Patterns of the y-component surface current density for Various
Selected Randomised Cases (a), (b) and (c) 12
© 2016, Kuhirun et al, KU Restricted to Educational USE ONLY.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 6: Magnitude Patterns of Surface Current Density for Various Selected
Randomised Cases (a), (b) and (c)

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 7: 3-D Radiation Patterns for Various Selected Randomised Cases (a),(b) and (c) 13
© 2016, Kuhirun et al, KU Restricted to Educational USE ONLY.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 8: 2D Radiation Patterns for Various Selected Randomised Cases (a), (b) and (c)

Figure 9: Return Loss for Various Selected Cases (a), (b) and (c) in dB 14
© 2016, Kuhirun et al, KU Restricted to Educational USE ONLY.

Conclusions
By simulation results, it shows that, under the constraint of low return loss (< -10 dB),
different relative permittivity patterns result in different patterns of surface current
density including phase and magnitude patterns. This results in different radiation
patterns with different mainbeam directions. This means that if we can manipulate the
(relative) permittivity pattern of the dielectric in between the dielectric, we can steer the
mainbeam direction of the antenna element.

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Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Vuttichai Kesornpatumanun for manuscript preparation
and Kasetsart University Research and Development Institute and Petroleum and
Petrochemical College, Chulalongkorn University for financial support.

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References
[1] W. Silabut and W. Kuhirun,“Design of a miniaturized dual-band antenna using
particle swarm optimization,” Asia Pacific Microwave Conference, 2009.
[2] N. Engheta, R. W. Ziolkowski, Metamaterials PHYSICS and ENGINEERING
EXPLORATIONS, 1st ed., Wiley-Interscience, 2006.
[3] C. A. Balanis, Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics, 1st ed., John Wiley & Sons,
1989.
[4] W. L. Strutzman and G. A. Thiele, Antenna Theory and Design, 2nd ed., John Wiley
& Sons, 1998.
[5] W. L. Strutzman and G. A. Thiele, Antenna Theory and Design, revised ed.,Wiley-
Interscience, 2003.
[6] C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory Analysis and Design, 3rd ed., JohnWiley & Sons,
2005.
[7] W. Kuhirun, P. Boonek and W. Silabut, “A Mainbeam Steerable Single Antenna
Element,” in the process of manuscript preparation for patent application.

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