A Novel Miniature Microstrip Antenna for GPS

Applications

Hong-Gang Hao1, Hua-Xiao Lu1, Wei Chen1, and Chao An2

1
School of Optical and Electronic Engineering, Chong Qing University of Posts and
Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, China
2
School of Software Engineering, Chong Qing University of Posts and Telecommunications,
Chongqing 400065, China

Abstract. The design of a microstrip antenna which operates at the GPS L1

band is presented in this paper. The miniaturization and the right-hand circular
polarization (RHCP) is obtained through a square-ring patch and truncated
corners in which, respectively. The simulated results indicate that the
impedance matching is excellent, the antenna has the characteristic of wide-
angle circular polarization, and the radiation patterns of RHCP are excellent; In
a wide elevation angle range, the RHCP level is at least 15dB higher than that
of LHCP, which has a good suppression of interference from cross-polarization
and multipath effect. Compared with the conventional GPS microstrip antenna
with the same material, the characteristics of the proposed antenna are
enhanced, the whole size is reduced, the area of the radiating patch is reduced
by 26%, meanwhile,the cost of the antenna’s substrate material is low, which
satisfies with the requirements of GPS receiver for miniaturization, low-cost
and compactness.

Keywords: GPS, Microstrip Antenna, Square-ring, RHCP, Miniaturization.

1 Introduction
The GPS applications have been melted into all aspects of national economic
production and people’s daily lives deeply, which has huge market potentialities and
economic benefits. A GPS receiver is a terminal equipment which receives GPS
signals transmitted from far away space, a GPS antenna is the entrance for radio
waves to enter into a GPS receiver, so the performance of the GPS antenna has an
important impact on the accuracy of navigation and positioning for a GPS receiver[1].

①
In order to make a GPS receiver work efficiently, a GPS antenna should supply

②
some requirements[1][2]: Good radiation pattern in the upper half-plane, an ideal
GPS receiver antenna should have a radiation pattern similar to a hemisphere;
Right-hand circular polarization(RHCP): in order to eliminate Faraday rotation effect
from ionosphere in the GPS signals, the GPS signals should be RHCP, meanwhile,
GPS signals can shift into left-hand circular polarization(LHCP) when the GPS signal
is reflected by ground or symmetrical objects, such as buildings, so RHCP can also
have a good suppression of interference from cross-polarization and multipath effect;

D. Yang (Ed.): Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics, Volume 2, LNEE 133, pp. 139–147.
springerlink.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
140 H.-G. Hao et al.

③In order to supply the requirements of developments for current portable electronic
devices, a GPS antenna should be miniature and low-cost.
Microstrip antennas rank the first place in GPS receivers for several advantages,
such as, its low-profile, small size, lightweight, easy integration, low cost and
conformability to any structure. Currently, ceramic dielectric material with high
permittivity is generalized used in order to achieve miniaturization, but high
permittivity leads to very low gain and narrow impedance bandwidth, such as in the
literatures[4][5],the circular polarization(CP) bandwidth is very narrow because of
high permittivity, so it is difficult to achieve CP radiation and good impedance
matching at the operating frequency, furthermore, GPS antennas are usually
integrated with other equipments in practice, in all parameters of a microstrip antenna,
impedance bandwidth is the most sensitive one to assembly errors, if impedance
bandwidth is too narrow, the center operating frequency will shift because of
assembly errors, which will make a GPS receiver unable to receive GPS signals,
meanwhile, the price of substrate material with high permittivity is very high, which
leads to the increase of cost for a GPS microstrip antenna. In the literature[6],the slots
in the ground plane are used to achieve miniaturization and CP, but the backside
levels become higher because of the slots in the ground plane. In the literature[7],it is
the cross slots in the patch that are used to achieve miniaturization and CP, but the
lengths of the two slots need only subtle differences in order to achieve CP, therefore,
the requirements for fabrication tolerances are harsh. A GPS microstrip antenna
which is used in the navigation ,communication and positioning fields is presented in
this paper, the antenna is miniature, wider impedance bandwidth and low cost, and
works at the GPS L1 frequency band(1.575G Hz).

2 Antenna Design
The geometry of the proposed antenna is plotted in Fig.1 (It will be referred as the
design A below).

L1
ΔL1 Lin

dp1 ΔL1
x

ε r1 = 4.4 h1

Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed antenna (the design A)

 A Novel Miniature Microstrip Antenna for GPS Applications 141

In design A, a square-ring patch and two truncated diagonal corners are used to
achieve miniaturization and RHCP operation, respectively; the proposed antenna is
excited by a single feed, using coaxial cable. The square-ring microstrip antenna can
be considered as a square microstrip antenna with a square slot. In Fig.1,the square-
ring microstrip patch ,having an outer side length of L1 and an inner side length of Lin,
the slot in the patch makes the equivalent surface current path becomes longer, which
not only lowers its resonance frequency, but also reduces its size. The parameter Lin
which can control the resonance frequency, impedance performance, and the size of
the patch is created, the new parameter Lin makes the design A more flexible,
meanwhile, the antenna weight is also reduced.
In design A, the RHCP is achieved by a single feed and two truncated diagonal
corners in the square-ring patch. A single feed microstrip antenna whose geometry is
simple as well as whose cost is low can generate CP without any external phase shift
and power divider network, which is suited for miniaturization. The side lengths of
the two truncated diagonal corners which are also called near-degenerate mode splited
unit are both ΔL1, when the lengths of ΔL1 as well as dp1 are chosen properly, two
near-degenerate orthogonal modes of equal amplitudes and 90°phase difference for
CP operation are generated. The dielectric material of the design A is FR4 whose
price is low, which is helpful to reduce the cost of the design A .
The empirical equations of the Transmission Line Model for a microstrip antenna
are shown as (1)~(4):

1
−
ε r + 1 ε r −1 ⎛ h⎞ 2
εe = + ⎜1 + 12 ⎟ (1)
2 2 ⎝ W⎠
c 1 (2)
L= − 2ΔL
2 f0 ε e

ΔL = 0.412h
(ε e + 0.3)(W h + 0.264 ) (3)
( ε e − 0.258)(W h + 0.8)
1
−
c ⎛ ε r +1 ⎞ 2
(4)
W= ⎜ ⎟
2 f0 ⎝ 2 ⎠

In the equations[8] above, c is the speed of light in free space, εr is the permittivity
of the substrate material, ε r=εr1 =4.4 in design A; εe is the equivalent permittivity; h is
the thickness of the substrate, W and L is the width and length of the patch
respectively; f0 is the center frequency in free space, that is the GPS L1 frequency
band here, so f0=1.575G Hz.

3 Analysis and Simulation Results for Design A

In order to obtain the high performance of the proposed antenna, the electromagnetic
modeling software, HFSS version 10.0, by Ansoft Corporation, was utilized to
optimize all the parameters in Fig.1 repeatedly. The simulated return loss S11 of the
proposed antenna with the variation of Lin is plotted in Fig.2, it can be seen that the
142 H.-G. Hao et al.

resonant frequency decreases with increasing the inner side length Lin of the square-
ring patch, this is because the equivalent surface current path becomes longer
gradually when Lin increases gradually.
After optimization, the geometric dimensions are as follows: the ground plane is
60mm×60mm; the substrate is 60mm×60mm×3mm; the thickness h1=3mm; the
square-ring: the outer side length L1=40mm, the inner side length Lin=13.6mm; the
two truncated diagonal corners are both ΔL1=5.4mm, and the feed point dp1=8mm.

Fig. 2. Simulated results of S11 for the proposed antenna with the variation of Lin

The simulated results of the proposed antenna are as follows: the simulated return
loss S11 are shown in Fig.3, the simulated return loss is –16.12dB at the GPS L1

～
frequency band (1.575G Hz),the impedance is well-matched, the -10dB bandwidth is
approximately 90M Hz(1.538G Hz 1.628G Hz),which meets the requirements of the
impedance bandwidth for a GPS receiver antenna(the general requirement is 2M
Hz[9]), moreover, which can fully meet the requirements of the impedance bandwidth
from assembly errors in practice. The axial ratio(AR) of RHCP in the broadside
direction against frequency is plotted in Fig.4,the AR at the GPS L1 frequency band is
1.58dB, which meets the requirement of AR for a GPS receiver antenna(the general

～
requirement is AR≤3dB at the center operating frequency),the CP bandwidth of 3dB
axial ratio is 21M Hz (1.562G Hz 1.583G Hz); The airspace distribution
characteristic of the axial ratio at the GPS L1 frequency band is plotted in Fig.5, it can
been seen that the proposed antenna achieves CP radiation in both the upper half-
plane and the lower half-plane, the GPS receiver can only receive satellite navigation
and positioning signals in the upper half-plane(–90°≤θ≤90°) in practice , the airspace
coverage range determined from 3dB AR in the E-plane (ϕ=0°) is 142°(–74° 68°), ～
～
which is 131°(–63° 68°) in the H-plane(ϕ=90°), so the proposed antenna has the
characteristic of wide-angle right-hand circular polarization, which can receive GPS
signals in a wide elevation angle range.
 A Novel Miniature Microstrip Antenna for GPS Applications 143

Fig. 3. Simulated results of S11 for the proposed antenna

Fig. 4. Simulated results of AR for the proposed antenna

Fig. 5. The airspace distribution characteristics of the axial ratio in the working frequency of
the proposed antenna
144 H.-G. Hao et al.

The radiation patterns of RHCP/LHCP in the E-plane and H-plane are plotted in
Fig.6(a),(b), respectively, the gain of the proposed antenna is 2.6dB. The 3dB
～ ～
beamwidth of the E-plane is 101°(–49° 52°), that of the H-plane is 103°(–49° 54°), the
RHCP characteristic is good within the 3dB beamwidth in both the E-plane and H-
plane. In the E-plane, suppression of the LHCP gain by 21dB is achieved in the
broadside direction, at least 15dB of gain suppression of the LHCP is achieved
between the elevation angle range of –74°≤θ≤67°,the H-plane produces a similar
result, so the proposed antenna has a good suppression of interference from cross-
polarization and multipath effect(Greater than or equal to 15dB can be regarded as
having a high suppression[10]). The simulated results indicate the performance of the
antenna is good, which can be used in the GPS receiver.

(a)

(b)
Fig. 6. Simulated radiation patterns for RHCP/ LHCP of the proposed antenna (a)E －
－
plane/ϕ=0° (b)H plane/ϕ=90°
 A Novel Miniature Microstrip Antenna for GPS Applications 145

As a comparison, a GPS microstrip antenna of conventional geometry is also

modeled in HFSS, as shown in Fig.7,it will be referred as the design B below.

ΔL2

dp2
L2 y

ΔL2

εr 2 = 4.4 h2 = 3mm

Fig. 7. Geometry of the conventional GPS antenna (the design B)

After optimization, the geometric dimensions of the design B are as follow: the
㎜ ㎜
ground plane is 64 ×64 , the substrate is 64mm×64mm×3mm; the thickness and
permittivity of the substrate in design B are both the same as those in design A, that is
h1=h2=3mm,εr1=εr2=4.4; the side length of the patch in design B is L2=43.6mm,the
feed point is dp2=10mm, the two truncated diagonal corners are both ΔL2=5.9mm.
The simulated results of both the design A and design B are set in table 1 as a
comparison.

Table 1. The detailed comparison of simulated results for the design A and design B

Type Impedance bandwidth AR bandwidth Gain Beamwidth

(M Hz) (M Hz) (dB) (°)
A 90 21 2.6 103
B 84 19 3.25 98

It can be seen from table1, the impedance bandwidth of the design A is 6M Hz

more than that of the design B, this is due to the square-ring patch which equivalently
leads capacitive effect into the surface of the patch, so part of the inductive effect
from the feed probe is counteracted, therefore, the impedance bandwidth of the design
A increases. The 3dB CP bandwidth of the design A is more than 2 M Hz than that of
the design B; the gain of the design A is slightly 0.65dB less than that of the design B
due to the decrease of the area of both the patch and the ground plane in design A.
The 3dB beamwidth of the design A is 5°more than that of the design B, it can be
seen that the overall performance of the design A is better than those of the design B
except that the gain decreases slightly, furthermore, the side length of the ground
146 H.-G. Hao et al.

plane in design A is 4mm less than that in design B, and the area of the patch in
design A reduces by 26% than that in design B, which is helpful to be miniaturization
and reduce the weight of the antenna.

4 Conclusions
The design of the proposed microstrip antenna (the design A) which works at the GPS
L1 frequency band is completed with the help of electromagnetic simulation software
HFSS in this paper. The miniaturization is obtained by the square-ring patch, the
RHCP operation is obtained by two truncated diagonal corners which bring geometric
perturbation in the square-ring patch as well as a single feed. The simulated results
indicate the proposed antenna fully meets the requirements of a GPS antenna,
furthermore, the proposed antenna has the characteristics of compactness, easily to be
integrated, good electrical and mechanical properties, easily to be manufactured and
so on. Compared with the GPS microstrip antenna of a conventional geometry (the
design B), the characteristics of the proposed antenna are improved except that the
gain decreases slightly, the whole size is decreased, the area of the patch is reduced by
26%.Meanwhile,the price of the substrate material in design A is low, which makes
the cost of the proposed antenna low.
Hong-Gang Hao (male) was born in Yucheng, Shandong Province, in 1977. He is
now a Associate Professor and Master Instructor. His research fields include optical
inspection, electromagnetic theory and its applications. E-mail: haohg@cqupt.edu.cn
Hua-Xiao Lu (male) was born in Qingyang, Gansu Province ,in 1985. He is now a
graduate student. His research fields include antenna & propagation and designs of
microstrip antenna.for GPS. E-mail: princeandwealth@126.com

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