Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications

ISSN: 0920-5071 (Print) 1569-3937 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tewa20

Reactive Impedance Surface (RIS) based

asymmetric slit patch antenna loaded with
complementary split ring resonator (CSRR) for
circular polarization

Soumik Dey, Santanu Mondal & Partha Pratim Sarkar

To cite this article: Soumik Dey, Santanu Mondal & Partha Pratim Sarkar (2019): Reactive
Impedance Surface (RIS) based asymmetric slit patch antenna loaded with complementary split
ring resonator (CSRR) for circular polarization, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications,
DOI: 10.1080/09205071.2019.1583608

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09205071.2019.1583608

Published online: 27 Feb 2019.

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JOURNAL OF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES AND APPLICATIONS
https://doi.org/10.1080/09205071.2019.1583608

Reactive Impedance Surface (RIS) based asymmetric slit patch

antenna loaded with complementary split ring resonator
(CSRR) for circular polarization
Soumik Deya , Santanu Mondala and Partha Pratim Sarkarb
a Institute of Radio Physics & Electronics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India; b Department of Engineering
and Technological Studies, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

In this paper a compact patch antenna backed with artificial meta- Received 24 August 2018
surface known as reactive impedance surface (RIS) is designed for Accepted 11 February 2019
circular polarization in the ISM band. The antenna consists of an KEYWORDS
asymmetric diagonal slits with pair of complementary split ring res- Circular polarization; reactive
onators (CSRRs) on patch over the RIS structure. Asymmetric slits and impedance surface;
pair of CSRRs are inserted on radiating patch to achieve circular polar- complementary split ring
ization. RIS is used for improving the radiation characteristics of the resonator; asymmetric slits
antenna, while RIS-based patch provides good impedance match-
ing over a broad frequency range. Simulated results are in good
agreement with the measured results.

1. Introduction
Compact circularly polarized antennas have received much interest in the field of wire-
less communication with suitable application in hand-held portable wireless devices, GPS
tracker, RFID reader, implantable bio sensing devices, etc. Circular polarization offers more
flexibility in data transmission regardless of orientation between transmitter and receiver.
Circular polarization can be achieved both with single feed [1] and dual feed structures,
but former types have inherently smaller axial ratio (AR) bandwidth. Although dual feed
configurations provide wider axial ratio bandwidth, they are however contrary to com-
pact antenna design because of additional feeding circuit present in the antenna structure
[2,3]. In [4] a three dimensional low profile circularly polarized antenna with wide 3 dB
beamwidth has been reported.
Metamaterial (MTM) structures have been intensely studied in the recent years for
antenna applications. Metamaterial based patch antenna excites at lower resonant fre-
quency due to the existence of negative order resonance, hence enabling size reduction
[5,6]. MTM-based antennas also find attention in dual band and multi-band operations
[7–9]. Split ring resonator (SRR), which was first proposed by Pendry, and its dual com-
plementary split ring resonator (CSRR) are the most commonly known resonant types of
meta-structure [5]. Circular polarization can be obtained in a CSRR loaded patch antenna by

CONTACT Santanu Mondal santanumondal2008@rediffmail.com Institute of Radio Physics & Electronics,

University of Calcutta, 92, APC ROAD, Kolkata 700009, India
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 S. DEY ET AL.

properly adjusting the feed position with respect to the split gap of CSRR. Furthermore, dual
or triple band operation with varying polarization will also be possible in two CSRR-based
patch depending on the relative alignment between them [10]. Artificial magnetic surface,
also known as reactive impedance surface (RIS), has been used to obtain improved radia-
tion performance and size reduction of the antenna [11–14]. Compact circularly polarized
patch antenna loaded with composite right/left handed (CRLH) mushroom like structures
over RIS has been reported recently [15]. Triple band compact circularly polarized stacked
antenna, backed with RIS, is recommended for GPS application [16].
This paper presents a circularly polarized single feed microstrip patch antenna loaded
with asymmetrical slits and CSRRs on a RIS substrate. The design of the antenna and all the
simulated results are shown using CST Microwave studio14 [17]. In section 2 the design
configuration of RIS structure and the proposed CP antenna over the RIS is presented. Sim-
ulated results are discussed in Section 3. The measured results are shown and compared
with simulated results in section 4.

Figure 1. Geometry of the proposed CP antenna (a) Cross-sectional view and (b) top view.
 JOURNAL OF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES AND APPLICATIONS 3

2. Antenna design
In this section the design of the proposed CP antenna loaded with the asymmetrical slits
and CSRRs over the RIS structure are shown. CSRRs are side-by-side oppositely placed with
respect to the direction of split ring in the center of the patch. Figure 1 shows the cross-
sectional view of the CSRR-loaded asymmetric slit square patch antenna (ASSPA) on RIS.
It is a three layer structure where both the upper and lower dielectric substrates are “FR4”
with a relative permittivity of 4.3 and a loss tangent of 0.02. Radiating patch is printed on the

Figure 2. Reflection phase graph of the modified Jerusalem cross shaped unit cell.

Figure 3. Geometry of the patch of the proposed CP antenna: Lp = 23.4 mm, m1 = 5.5 mm,
m2 = 4.5 mm, q1 = 1.8 mm, q2 = 2.6 mm.
4 S. DEY ET AL.

top of dual-layer FR4 substrate with thicknesses of h1 = 1.6 mm and h2 = 3.2 mm, in which
the ground plane lies at the bottom of the structure. RIS comprises 6 × 6 Jerusalem cross-
shaped metallic unit cell patches which are printed periodically along the X- and Y-axes at
the interface between two dielectric layers as shown in Figure 1(b).

2.1. Reactive impedance surface

An array of 6 × 6 modified Jerusalem cross shaped metallic patch structure as RIS units
forms the meta-surface under the radiating patch. In simulation setup a single RIS unit cell
is excited by transverse electromagnetic (TEM) plane wave. For normal incidence of TEM

Figure 4. Reflection coefficient characteristics for different RIS unit cell numbers.

Figure 5. Reflection coefficient characteristics without and with CSRR, Slits and RIS.
 JOURNAL OF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES AND APPLICATIONS 5

wave, perfectly electric conductor (PEC) and perfectly magnetic conductor (PMC) bound-
aries are established around the unit cell structure. The topology of RIS unit cell, shown in
Figure 2, depicts the reflection phase response. RIS provides impedance matching over a
wide frequency range by reducing the mutual coupling between the patch and ground.
Another advantage of using RIS is antenna size miniaturization because of lower resonance
frequency in the presence of meta-surface.

2.2. Asymmetric slit square patch loaded with CSRR

In the proposed design, two side-by-side and reversely placed CSRRs are implanted into
the patch for CP radiation. The electric field will couple directly from one CSRR to another
because of their relative alignment and the resonance produced by CSRRs is polarized along

Figure 6. Axial ratio characteristics without and with CSRR, Slits and RIS.

Figure 7. Axial ratio and Gain characteristics.

6 S. DEY ET AL.

 = 135o diagonal direction [10]. When the feed position is off centered, intrinsic patch res-
onance will be excited in  = 45o direction. By overlapping the resonance frequencies and
maintaining 90o phase difference between these two orthogonal radiations CP can easily
be obtained. Here additional asymmetric V-shaped slits are embedded on each corner of

Figure 8. Simulated far field radiation pattern of antenna with RIS at 2.407 GHz in (a) x-z and (b) y-z
plane.
 JOURNAL OF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES AND APPLICATIONS 7

Figure 9. Geometry of the fabricated (a) 6 X 6 J-cross RIS layer (b) antenna.
8 S. DEY ET AL.

the square patch. The asymmetry in the diagonal directions will help to accomplish the 90o
phase requirement between the orthogonal modes. The patch configuration of the pro-
posed CP antenna is shown in Figure 3. Two of the slit apexes are located at (−5.5, 5.5)
and (5.5, −5.5) from the center of the patch along 135o diagonal direction and also at (4.5,
4.5) and (−4.5, −4.5) for the 450 diagonal line apexes. Overall thickness of the antenna is
(h1 + h2 ) = (1.6 + 3.2) mm = 4.8 mm.

3. Simulated results
The proposed asymmetric slit square patch antenna loaded with CSRRs over the RIS struc-
ture is designed at 2.4 GHz. Initially, simulations are carried out considering array of 3 × 3,
4 × 4 and 6 × 6 Jerusalem cross RIS to analyze the effects of unit cell number on antenna
resonance frequency. Variations of reflection coefficient for different RIS unit cell numbers
are shown in Figure 4. It is seen that the resonance frequency decreases significantly when
RIS unit cell number is increased. Figure 5 shows the reflection coefficient characteristics
for three different situations with same overall patch size of 0.388λ0 X 0.388λ0 at 2.4 GHz.
It is seen that, due to introduction of CSRR on the patch surface, resonance frequency has
pushed down from 2.86 GHz to 2.7 GHz and further reduction of resonance frequency can
be obtained by combining the RIS between the ground and patch layers. The impedance
bandwidth for S11 < −10 dB for the proposed CP antenna over 6 × 6 modified Jerusalem-
cross RIS is 276 MHz (2.334-2.611 GHz) or 11.16%. Positions of the CSRRs on the patch and
the sizes of the asymmetric diagonal slits are adjusted to obtain a good axial ratio response
as shown in Figure 6. Variation of simulated axial ratio (AR) with frequency and gain plots
of the antenna are shown in Figure 7. Minimum AR at 2.407 GHz is 0.74 dB and the 3 dB AR
bandwidth obtained in simulation is 62 MHz (2.376-2.439 GHz) or 2.58%. The gain of the
antenna is 4.4 dBi at 2.406 GHz frequency and the antenna radiates LHCP wave.

Figure 10. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient characteristics.

 JOURNAL OF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES AND APPLICATIONS 9

Figure 11. Simulated and measured gain characteristics.

The simulated radiation patterns of the antenna at 2.407 GHz in the x-z plane (φ = 0o )
and y-z plane (φ = 90o ) are represented in Figure 8. Co- and cross-polarized components
are discriminated by more than 30 dB in both principal planes along the broad side.

4. Measurement results
Photographs of the fabricated J-cross RIS layer and antenna are shown in Figure 9. The
volume of the overall antenna is 50× 50× 4.89 mm3 . To validate the proposed design
reflection coefficient of the antenna is measured and compared with the simulated result.
Simulated and measured reflection coefficient plots of the proposed antenna are shown in
Figure 10. The simulated and measured impedance bandwidth for S11 < −10 dB are (2.33-
2.61) GHz and (2.31-2.55) GHz respectively. In Figure 11 the simulated and measured gain
at 2.4 GHz are 4.36 and 4.48 dBi respectively. So, the simulated and measurement results
are in good agreement.

5. Conclusion
In this paper a CSRR loaded microstrip patch antenna combining asymmetric V-shaped
diagonal slits and Jerusalem cross shaped RIS is presented for circular polarization. Introduc-
tion of CSRR and RIS reduces the resonance frequency of the antenna and miniaturization
of the antenna is realized. The impedance bandwidth for S11 < −10 and 3 dB axial ratio
bandwidth of the proposed antenna are between 2.33 and 2.61 GHz, and 2.38 and 2.44 GHz
respectively. The gain of the proposed antenna is almost constant to 4.4 dB within 3 dB AR
bandwidth. Co- and cross-polarized components are discriminated by more than 30 dB in
both principal planes along the broad side. Thus, the proposed antenna may be used as an
effective circularly polarized antenna in the ISM band.
10 S. DEY ET AL.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors
Soumik Dey received his BSc degree from Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, University of Cal-
cutta, West Bengal, India, in 2012 and BTech and MTech degree from Institute of Radio Physics and
Electronics, University of Calcutta, West Bengal, India, in 2016 and 2018 respectively. He is currently
working toward PhD. His areas of interest include Electromagnetic Band Gap Structure, Metamaterials
antenna and Substrate Integrated Waveguide.
Santanu Mondal received his BTech degree from Kalyani Government Engineering College,
West Bengal, India, in 2009 and ME degree from Jadavpur University, West Bengal, India, in 2011.
He is awarded his PhD degree from University of Kalyani, West Bengal, India, in 2018. He is presently
working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics,
University of Calcutta, West Bengal, India. His areas of interest include Planar Monopole Antenna, Cir-
cularly Polarized Microstrip Antenna, Reconfigurable Antenna, and Frequency Selective Surface. He
has contributed about 15 research articles in various journals and conferences.
Partha Pratim Sarkar obtained his PhD degree in engineering from Jadavpur University in the
year 2002. He has obtained his ME degree from Jadavpur University in the year 1994. He earned
his BE degree in electronics and telecommunication engineering from Bengal Engineering College
(presently known as Indian Institute of Science Engineering and Technology, Shibpur) in the year
1991. He is presently working as a professor at the Department of Engineering and Technological
Studies, University of Kalyani. His areas of research include microstrip antenna, microstrip filter, fre-
quency selective surfaces, and artificial neural network. He has contributed to numerous (more than
220 publications) research articles in various journals and conferences of repute. He is a life fellow of
IETE and IEI.

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