Wireless Pers Commun

DOI 10.1007/s11277-017-4309-x

A Miniaturized CPW-Fed Spiral Ring Resonator Loaded

Slot Antenna for Wireless Application

Chandan Kumar Ghosh1

 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017

Abstract A simple and novel approach of size reduction of a slot antenna loaded with
spiral ring resonator (SRR) on the patch surface is highlighted. The antenna resonates at
4.5 GHz when a half wavelength slot section is fed by the coplanar waveguide line. The
fundamental resonant frequency is lowered by 2.05 GHz when the slot antenna is loaded
with a pair of SRR at the end of the half wavelength slot section. The additional inductive
and capacitive reactance of the resonator enables the patch to resonate at lower frequency
(2.45 GHz). The proposed antenna structure reduces the resonant frequency with respect to
the reference antenna (slot antenna without SRR) by 45.5%, causing the patch to almost
reach an electrically small size. Finally, asymmetrical slot has been used and a wide band
antenna of band width 900 MHz has been achieved. Despite the loaded patch touching the
electrically small limit, the antenna needs no matching networks, offers high efficiency and
exhibits a bandwidth better than the unperturbed patch. The radiation pattern is also seen to
be unaffected by the presence of the SRR.

Keywords SRR
Slot antenna
CPW-fed
Electrically small antenna

and wideband antenna

1 Introduction

In recent years, as the demand of the small electronic systems have increased, small size
antennas at low frequency have drawn much interest from researchers. Most commonly,
high permittivity dielectrics have been used to miniaturize the size of the antenna. Many
kind of miniaturization techniques have been proposed by the authors in different

& Chandan Kumar Ghosh

mcet_ckg@yahoo.com
1
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, B. C Roy Engineering College,
Durgapur 713206, India

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 C. K. Ghosh

literatures. In [1], a passive magneto dielectric substrate has been used and radiation
efficiency and impedance bandwidth have been improved by controlling the magnetic loss
tangent. Some investigations in [2] and [3] used metamaterials in the antenna structures
and adequate miniaturization has been achieved. Both antenna structures are complicated
and offer undesirable back radiation. In [4] a metal loaded miniaturized CPW-fed antenna
is presented. This antenna offers 16.48% reduction in resonance frequency. In an inves-
tigation [5] by the same group, they exhibited loop loading technique and the antenna
configuration reduces the resonant frequency by 26.01%. Here also there is undesirable
back radiation. In [6], a slotted antenna has been loaded by slot and strip, and 37%
miniaturization has been achieved. A very recent approach has been proposed to minia-
turize a slot antenna by integrating split ring resonator [7] in the antenna structure. A 26%
miniaturization is achieved in comparison to the reference antenna (without split ring
resonator loading).Different techniques to reduce the antenna size of microstrip patch
structure have been explored earlier, showing their individual merits in open literatures
[8–11].
Cai et al. [12], an antenna with 2-D transmission-line metamaterial is proposed con-
sisting of two-turns complementary spiral resonators and mushroom structure. In this work,
a dual-band and dual-mode antenna for Bluetooth and WiMAX band is designed. The
antenna exhibits good impedance matches at both bands at the cost of a complicated design
structure. In [13], a CPW-fed slot antenna loaded with spiral ring resonator (SRR) is
presented. A pair of SRR has been introduced at the end of the half wavelength slot to
reduce the resonant frequency. A frequency shift of 4.09–2.94 GHz is exhibited when two
spiral rings at the end of the slot are introduced. In this work, 28% miniaturized has been
achieved by the authors. A miniaturized wide-beam width circularly polarized antenna [14]
(2.40–2.48 GHz) band has been designed and verified recently. The proposed antenna
features a very good miniaturization by employing four C-shaped slots and a comple-
mentary split-ring resonator (CSRR). The main drawback of this work is the design
complicacy.
In our investigation, a simple but highly efficient technique is proposed to miniaturize
the microstrip antenna and it is absolutely free from back radiation. We calculate the
decrease in frequency with the proposed SRR integrated antenna, and challenge the results
against those obtained with other techniques.
In this approach the miniaturization of SRR integrated slot antenna has been discussed
where the reactive loading of SRR reduces the resonant frequency of the antenna. Initially,
the slot antenna is designed for the resonant frequency of 4.5 GHz and then using SRR
underneath the slot, resonant frequency is dropped down to 2.45 GHz. It has found that in
spite of high degree of miniaturization, there is no significant disquiet of impedance
bandwidth and radiation pattern by the presence of the proposed SRR unit.

2 Antenna Configuration and Design

The schematic of the proposed miniaturized slot antenna loaded with SRR is shown in
Fig. 1a. Initially, a CPW-fed slot antenna of slot length k/2 has been designed and fab-
ricated for the resonant frequency of 4.5 GHz. After that, two SRRs have been placed
underneath the arm of half wavelength slot section. FR-4 substrate with a dielectric con-
stant 4.4, thickness 1.58 mm and loss tangent of 0.02 have been used in this design. The
length (L) and width (W) of the substrate are 39 mm and 42 mm respectively. The

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A Miniaturized CPW-Fed Spiral Ring Resonator Loaded Slot…

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of a slot antenna loaded with SRR and b SRR geometry

dimensions of CPW line of W1 = 23.6 mm and S1 = S2 = 0.7 mm have been optimized

by the process of simulation. The length of the half wavelength section L1 = 33.4 mm
(k = 66.7 mm for 4.5 GHz) for the fundamental frequency of 4.5 GHz. The other
parameters L5 = 3 mm, L4 = 2.8 mm, L3 = 17.3 mm, L2 = 6.4 mm, W2 = 11.75 mm
are estimated for this design. The dimensions of SRR geometry as shown in the Fig. 1b are
y = z=13.3 mm and d = x = 0.7 mm. The line width and the gap between the lines of the
SRR unit play a very important role to excite the antenna for resonating at different
frequency modes. Parametric studies have been carried out by changing the position, width
and the gap between the lines of the SRR. When the antenna is excited without SRR unit,
the current on the feed line is out of phase with that of ground current. After placing SRR
units underneath the slot section, these SRRs are driven by the slot section, and currents on
them are found to be in phase with ground currents. The magnetic flux inside the slot is
increased by these extra in-phase currents on the rings of the SRR units and effective

Fig. 2 S11 parameters of the

slot antenna with and without
SRR units

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 C. K. Ghosh

permeability is increased. As a result, resonant frequency of the antenna is shifted to the

lower band.
Figure 2 shows the S-parameter results of the slot antenna with and without SRR units.
From Fig. 2, it is seen that when SRR is not included in the antenna structure, the patch
is resonating at 4.5 GHz and with SRR integrated structure, it is resonating at 2.45 GHz.
As a result the resonant frequency of the patch reduces by 45.5%, causing the patch to
reach the electrically small size. The optimized antenna structures with and without SRR
have been fabricated, measured and the measured results are shown in the next section.

3 Simulation and Measurement Results

The fabricated antennas of dimensions (39 9 42) sq.mm are shown in the Fig. 3a, b.
The simulated current distributions with and without SRR unit are given in the
Fig. 4a, b.
From simulated current distribution, it is observed that the current vectors with SRR
integrated slot antenna travel a longer path than that of without SRR. For travelling longer
path, the wavelength ‘k’ increases and as a result resonant frequency decreased. The
simulated and measured S-parameter result of the slot antenna without SRR unit is shown
in the Fig. 5.
It is seen form Fig. 5, that the simulated resonant frequency of the slot antenna is
4.5 GHz and there is a good agreement with the measured result. Figure 6 shows the
simulated and measured S11 of the SRR integrated antenna structure at 2.45 GHz. From
both figures, it is seen that there is little misalliance between simulated and measured
results. This may be due to the error occurred during fabrication of the antenna.
The SRR integrated antenna structure reduces the resonant frequency by 2.05 GHz. For
better understanding, S11 of the slot antenna with and without SRR is shown in a single
diagram (Fig. 7).
A parametric study has been carried out on SRR integrated antenna by changing the
width and the gap between the lines of the SRR unit for achieving least resonant frequency.

Fig. 3 Photograph of the fabricated antennas a without and b with SRR unit

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A Miniaturized CPW-Fed Spiral Ring Resonator Loaded Slot…

Fig. 4 Simulated current distribution with vector notation, a without and b with SRR unit

Fig. 5 Simulated and measured 0

S11 of the slot antenna without
SRR unit at 4.5 GHz -5
-10
|S11|dB

-15 S11_Simulated
S11_Measured
-20
-25
-30
3.5 3.75 4 4.25 4.5 4.75 5 5.25 5.5
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 6 Simulated and measured 0

S11 of the SRR integrated slot
antenna at 2.45 GHz -5
-10
|S11|dB

-15
-20 S11_Simulated
-25 S11_Measured
1.5 1.75 2 2.25 2.5 2.75 3 3.25 3.5
Frequency (GHz)

Figures 8 and 9 show the parametric studies by increasing and decreasing (d ? x)

parameter of the SRR unit and the optimized SRR geometry has been achieved.
From Fig. 8, it is seen that as we go on increasing the dimension (d ? x) from opti-
mized value 1.4 mm, the S11 curves move to the higher frequency side. Similarly when
(d ? x) is decreased from 1.4 mm, the antenna structure does not resonant properly and

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 C. K. Ghosh

Fig. 7 Simulated and measured 0

S11 of the slot antenna with and
without SRRs -5
-10

|S11|dB
-15
-20
-25 S11_Simulated
S11_Measured
-30
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 8 Simulated S11 of the slot 0

antenna by increasing (d ? x) of
the SRR geometry -5

-10
|S11|dB

-15

-20

-25 d+x=1.4 d+x=1.6 d+x=1.8

d+x=2.0 d+x=2.2 d+x=2.4
d+x=2.6
-30
1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
Frequency(GHz)

Fig. 9 Simulated S11 of the slot 0

antenna by decreasing (d ? x) of
the SRR geometry -5
|S11|dB

-10
d+x=1.4
-15
d+x=1.2
-20 d+x=1.0
d+x=0.8
-25
1.5 1.75 2 2.25 2.5 2.75 3 3.25 3.5
Frequency (GHz

S11 curves move to the lower frequency side with higher VSWR as shown in the Fig. 9.
Another parametric study has been carried out by decreasing ‘d1’ parameter of the slot to
observe the performance of asymmetrical slot antenna. Figure 10 shows the S-parameter
study for different values of ‘d1’. The simulation and measured results are given in the
separate Tables 1 and 2.

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A Miniaturized CPW-Fed Spiral Ring Resonator Loaded Slot…

-5

|S11| dB
-10

-15
d1=d1/2
-20 d2=d1/4
d3=d1/8
-25
1.6 2 2.4 2.8 3.2 3.6 4 4.4 4.8 5.2
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 10 S11 characteristics for different ‘d’ values of the slot

Table 1 Simulation and measured results for (S11) parameter

Simulated Measured

Without SRR With SRR Without SRR With SRR

S11 -26 dB/4.5 GHz -21 dB/2.45 GHz -19 dB/4.55 GHz -17.5 dB/2.5 GHz
parameter

Table 2 Simulation results for parametric study of (d ? x) variation

(d ? x) increasing Resonant frequency (d ? x) decreasing Resonance frequency
(mm) (GHz) (mm) (GHz)

1.4 (optimized value) 2.45 1.4 (optimized) 2.45

1.6 2.65 1.2 2.35
1.8 2.90 1.0 2.15
2.0 3.30 0.8 2.10
2.2 3.80
2.4 4.50
2.6 4.80

In this attempt, it is seen that the asymmetrical slot of the antenna structure resonates at
two different frequency modes (2.8 and 4.3 GHz). As we go on decreasing d1 by d1/
2 = 7.25 mm, d1/4 = 3.625 mm and d1/8 = 1.8 mm, the two different bands come closer
and ultimately merge to a single band of band width 900 MHz (3–3.9 GHz) at d1 = d1/8.
Figure 11 shows the fabricated antenna structure with asymmetrical slot section. Fig-
ure 12 shows simulated and measured return loss characteristics of the asymmetrical slot
antenna and Fig. 13 shows the simulated E and H-plane patterns of SRR loaded slot
antenna at 2.45 GHz.
Figure 14 shows the frequency vs antenna efficiency characteristics and the antenna
efficiency of 88% at 2.45 GHz is reported. It is seen from the antenna characteristics that
the gain, antenna efficiency and radiation patterns is not affected by the introduction of
SRR in the antenna structure.

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 C. K. Ghosh

Fig. 11 Asymmetrical slot

loaded with SRR

-5

-10
|S11| dB

-15

-20
0.9 GHz
-25
2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 12 Simulated (green) and measured (red) of S11characteristics of the fabricated antenna of Fig. 11.
(Color figure online)

The measured E-plane radiation pattern of the SRR integrated antenna at 2.45 GHz is
shown in the Fig. 15.
The little variation of the measured pattern is observed in this case. This may be due to
the finite conductivity of ground plane, substrate dielectric loss and surface-wave loss.

4 Conclusion

A novel design for miniaturization of SRR integrated slot antenna applicable to WLAN
band has been proposed and fabricated. By adding two SRR units at the end of the slot
sections, 45.5% miniaturization has been achieved. It has been seen from the simulation
and measured results that the resonant frequency of the slot antenna has been lowered from
4.5 to 2.45 GHz by properly loading the SRR unit on the patch surface. Furthermore, the

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A Miniaturized CPW-Fed Spiral Ring Resonator Loaded Slot…

Fig. 13 Simulated E and

H-plane pattern of the SRR
loaded slot antenna at 2.45 GHz

Fig. 14 Simulated frequency vs. 90

antenna efficiency characteristics
Antenna Efficiency %

60

30

0
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8
Frequency(GHz)

Fig. 15 E-plane radiation 5.6

pattern (elevation pattern) of the
SRR integrated slot antenna at 4.8
2.45 GHz
4
Gain dBi

3.2
2.4 Simulated

1.6 Measured

0.8
0
-90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90
Frequency(GHz)

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 C. K. Ghosh

SRR structure causing reduction of resonant frequency does not affect other characteristics
like the co-polarized radiation over the principal planes, gain, and input impedance
compared to those with conventional microstrip structure. Thus, the proposed concept can
be employed for achieving improved miniaturization technique.

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Dr. Chandan Kumar Ghosh received his B. Sc. (Hons) degree in Physics
and B.Tech. degree in Radio physics and electronics from University of Cal-
cutta in the year 1987 and 1990 respectively. He did M. Tech. degree in
Microwave Engineering in the year 2003 from Burdwan University, India. He
did his doctoral degree from the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and
Technology (IIEST), Shibpur, India in the year 2013. From 1991 to 1995 he
worked as the Development Engineer in the Sonodyne Electronics Co. Pvt. Ltd,
and from 1995 to 1999 he worked as the Assistant Manager (R&D) in the Sur
Iron and Steel Co. Pvt. Ltd. From 2000 to 2009 he was associated with the
department of Electronics and Communication Engineering in the Murshid-
abad College of Engineering and Technology and from 21st August 2009 he is
in the Dr. B. C. Roy Engineering College, Durgapur, India and presently holds
the post of Professor. He published more than 45 contributory papers in referred
journals and international conference proceedings. His current research inter-
ests include the Microstrip antenna, Array optimization, MIMO antenna,
Microstrip resonator DGS and EBG integrated microstrip antennas and arrays.

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