PERFORMANCE AND ANALYSIS OF MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA AS A
FEED ELEMENT
V.Sandhiya1, V.Sasikala2, R.Sathya3, Mrs. M.Selvi*
1,2,3
B.E(ECE)students, Saveetha Engineering College
*
Professor, Department of ECE, Saveetha Engineering College
ABSTRACT
Microstrip patch antenna is used as a
radiating element as well as feeding
element. It is a simple, low cost and high
gain microstrip array antennas. It is
operated at a GHz frequency range. The
designed antennas such as 4x4, 2x2 arrays,
4x2 arrays. The designed antennas provide
return losses in the of -20dB frequencies
around 12.668GHz at 4x4 arrays. The side
lobes are maintained lower than main lobe.
These antennas are suitable for x-band
applications such as satellite
communication, radar, medical
applications. In this paper, Microstrip
patch antenna is used based on the
rectangular patch. The rectangular patch is
most widely used configuration. It is very
.
I.INTRODUCTION
An antenna is used to radiate
electromagnetic energy efficiently and in
desired directions. The goal in using
antenna is to optimize the matching. Here
we use microstrip patch antenna because it
is very simple in construction using a
conventional microstrip fabrication
technique. The microstrip patch antenna is
a single layer design which consists
generally of four parts such as patch,
easy to analyse using both the transmission
line and cavity models, which are most
accurate for thin substrate. The various
methods for feeding the microstrip patch
antenna contacting and non-contacting. In
general, contacting methods are microstrip
line feed and co-axial plane feed. On the
other hand, non-contacting techniques are
aperture, couple feed and proximity
coupled feed. Microstrip patch antennas
has different types such as inset feed and
edge feed antennas. By using inset feed, an
inset cut can be incorporated into the patch
in order to obtain good impedance
matching without the need for any
additional matching element. On 4x4
arrays, we get a sum beam pattern with
unit amplitude. It is used to get a narrow
beam and suppressed the side lobes
ground plane, substrates and the feeding
part. The patch is very thin and radiating
metal strip located on one side of a no
conducting substrate, the ground plane is
same metal located on the other side of the
substrate. The metallic patch is normally
made of thin copper foil plated. Many
shapes of patches are designed and most
popular shape is the rectangular and
circular patch.
The fundamental parameters of antennas
are radiation pattern, radiation intensity,
directivity, gain, antenna efficiency,
bandwidth and polarization. The patch and
the ground plane are separated by a
dielectric sheet. There are numerous
substrates that can be used for designing
microstrip antennas. The radiating element
and feed lines are photoetched on the
dielectric substrate. Linear and circular
polarizations can be achieved with either
single elements or arrays of microstrip
antennas.

II. FEEDING METHODS

5. Bandwidth is narrow (2-
There are several feeding methods like 5%)
microstrip line feed, coaxial-line feed,
aperture coupling feed, proximity coupling
feed. Among this we are going in
microstrip line feed. The microstrip-line
feed is a conducting strip of much smaller
width compared to the patch and possesses
following characteristics:
1. Easy to fabricate
2. Impedance matching is
simple by controlling inset
feed position
3. Spurious radiation is low
(nearly -20dB)
4. The surface waves and
spurious feed radiation
increases with substrate
height

40.8272mm. Rat-race provides better null

III.FEEDING NETWORK
In this paper, the feeding network is made
up of three rat-race or hybrid ring coupler.
Rat-race has four ports and they produce
sum, elevation, azimuth outputs. The port
A,B and the port C,D are electrically
same and has same length. Length of A,B
is 5.9714mm and the length of C,D is
depth composed with 2 branch-line
coupler with 90 degree phase delay line.
Better null depth provides good accuracy
and the radiating structure is designed
using multilayer electromagnetically
coupled (EMCP) MSA array to increase
the bandwidth and gain of antenna.
To achieve good tracking accuracy, a
monopulse comparator should have better
matching at all the ports and sharp null Fig.2 feed network
depth at difference ports along with good
isolation between adjacent and distant
ports.

Fig.1 fabrication of feed network

When all the ports A,B,C,D have the

excitation coefficient phase in zero degree
then the radiation pattern of sum beam is
obtained. If the ports A and D has the
excitation coefficient phase of 180 degree
then the elevation difference beam is
obtained. And if the ports C and D has the
excitation coefficient of 180 degrees then
the azimuth difference pattern is obtained.

IV. SINGLE ELEMENT Fig.3 unit element for 4x4 microstrip array
MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA
A patch antenna is a type of radio antenna
with low profile, which can be mounted on
a flat surface. It consists of a flat
rectangular sheet or patch of a metal over a
larger sheet of metal called a ground plane.
The rectangular microstrip patch antenna
is the most simple and widely used
configuration. Hence we go for microstrip
patch antenna. Under this the feeding is
done using the inset feed where the
resonant input resistance can be adjusted
for impedance matching by using an inset
feed.
 The above figure is the unit radiating
element of microstrip patch array. The
inset feeding method is used in this array.
There are several types of configuration
like linear array, planar array, conformal
array. In linear array the centres of array
elements like along a straight line. In
planar array the centres of array elements
like on a plane area (rectangular or
circular). And finally in conformal array
the element locations conform to a non-
planar surface (body of aircraft). Under
this we go for planar rectangular patch
since it has more versatile and also they
provide more symmetrical patterns with
lower side lobes, much higher directivity
and narrow main beam.

V. OUTPUT RADIATION PATTERN

Fig.5 Radiation pattern of unit element of
4x4 in 3D
For the designed antenna the output is
obtained in polar format as well as in the
3D image. The frequency obtained in the
far field region is 12.25GHz and the side
love level is -22.0 dB. Angular width at 3
dB is 22.4 degree.

Fig.4 Radiation pattern of unit element of

4x4 array in polar format
Fig.6 Radiation pattern of sum beam and
element excitation coefficient
They are lose profile, light weight, small
size, simple and inexpensive. Microstrip
antennas are conformable to both planar
and non-planar surfaces. It is compatible
with MMIC designs and mechanically
robust.

VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we designed the single
element of 4x4 microstrip patch array and
Excitation Excitation gained the return loss of -20 dB. The sum
Port Designate Coefficien Coefficien pattern of the 4x4 microstrip element is
d as t t obtained at a frequency range of 12.25
GHz. And for future study of this paper is
Amplitud Phase to design the elevation and azimuth
e difference beam of the signal.
A 0
Port 1 degree VII. REFERENCES
-1

B 0 [1] A Compact Single Layer Monopulse

Microstrip Antenna Array by authors Hao
Port 1 degree
Wang,Da-Gang and X.G.Chen.
-2
C 0 [2] Compact Subtrate Integrated
Port 1 degree Waveguide(SIW) Monopulse Network for
-3 Tracking System Application by Haidon Chen,
D 0 Wenquan Che, Senior member, IEEE,
Port 1 degree Qingqiang He, Wenjie Feng, Member, IEEE,
-4 Xu Wei, and Ke Wu, Fellow, IEEE.

[3] 94GHz Substrate Integrated Monopulse

Antenna array by Yu Jian Cheng, Member,
VI. APPLICATION AND IEEE, Wei Hong, Fellow, IEEE, and Ke Wu,
ADVANTAGES OF MICROSTRIP Fellow, IEEE.
ANTENNA
[4] Antenna theory for microstrip antenna by
Dr. Balanis, Fellow, IEEE
Microstrip antennas operate over a broad
frequency range approximately from
100MHz to 100GHz due to their several
advantages compared to conventional
antennae.