A Miniaturized Multi-functional Antenna with

UHF and CP Performance for Communication

and Navigation System
Hao Wang Yuancheng Shi Rui Ding
Nanjing University of Science and Nanjing University of Science and Nanjing University of Science and
Technology Technology Technology
Nanjing, China Nanjing, China Nanjing, China
Email: haowang@mail.njust.edu.cn

Yan Wang Shuanglong Quan Dalong Xu

Nanjing University of Science and Nanjing University of Science and Nanjing University of Science and
Technology Technology Technology
Nanjing, China Nanjing, China Nanjing, China

Abstract—In this paper, a multi-functional antenna system
for both communications and navigation is presented. The
proposed antenna combined a sleeve monopole antenna for
vertical polarization (VP) and a patch antenna for right-hand
circular polarization (RHCP). The VP sleeve monopole element
is designed for UHF band, and a spiral slot is etched around the
side wall to reduce the height of the antenna. The RHCP element
is an annular-ring patch antenna designed for Beidou B3
frequency band. The CP performance is realized by a small
surface-mounted 0°-90° hybrid chip integrated in the feed
network. The UHF antenna is co-located concentrically on the
top of the patch antenna with a relative height of 0.03λ. An
insulating gasket is put between the UHF and the B3 antenna for
the compact structure. The UHF antenna achieves a bandwidth
of 2% from 390 to 398 MHz and gain up to 2.7 dBi in the
frequency band. The patch antenna works in a broad bandwidth
covering the whole B3 band for RHCP. An port isolation of 25
dB is achieved in B3 band. Details of the antenna design as well
as the simulated results are presented and discussed.
Keywords—multi-function; miniaturized; UHF band;
monopole antenna; right-hand circularly polarized antenna;
Beidou B3 Band;
I. INTRODUCTION
Owing to low free-space loss and stronger diffration
performance, radios operated in the UHF band are becoming
increasingly important for long-distance communication
systems. Meanwhile, locating the users through Global
Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is also required for the
communication systems, especially military systems.
Sleeve monopole is one of the most widely used antennas
for the UHF band. The monopole with simple structure and
high performance such as pure vertical polarization and
horizontal omnidirectional beam coverage, makes it an
attractive option for modern communication and the remote
sensing system[1]. However, the monopole has a typical length
of quarter-wavelength, which is relatively large compared to
the handset devices. A number of small-sized sleeve
monopoles have been researched and reported. A miniaturized
top loaded open sleeve antenna was reported in [2].
Furthermore, a ferrite loaded sleeve monopole was promoted.
The reduction of the height for the antenna was achieved by
coating a section of the monopole antenna on the top with a
magneto-dielectric material[3].
In recent years, combining both communication and
location function in a multi-functional antenna system has
gained a lot of attentions. A folded Quadrifilar Helix Antenna
(QHA) co-located concentrically around a UHF monopole is
proposed in [4]. This structure improved the gain of the UHF
monopole slightly. A ferrite loaded UHF monopole sleeve
antenna co-located with a stacked annular-ring microstrip patch
antenna is designed for GPS applications in [3]. Compared to
the square or circular microstrip antennas, annular-ring
microstrip antennas have smaller patch size at a fixed operating
frequency. In addition, the annular-ring microstrip antennas are
suitable for systems with limited space. However, the large
input impedance limited the application of the annular-ring
microstrip antenna. Several researches have been presented to
overcome this obstacle[5-7].
In this paper, a pair of compact and co-located antennas
that meets both communications and navigation requirements
is presented. This antenna provides a frequency coverage over
the UHF band and the Beidou B3 band. The UHF antenna is a
sleeve monopole antenna with a spiral slot etched around the
side wall. The B3 antenna is a double-fed annular-ring
microstrip antenna. The right-hand circular polarized
performance is achieved by connecting two feeding probes to a
small surface-mount 0°-90° hybrid chip. Owing to the limited
free space within the structure, the hybrid-based orthogonal
feed and two-staged low noise amplifier(LNA) circuits are
implemented on the backside of the antenna ground. In
addition, the feeding probe of the UHF antenna is connected to
the power amplifier(PA) circuits through the center of the B3
antenna. Hence, a compact structure is formed. The isolation
between the excitation ports of the UHF antenna and B3
antenna is better than 25 dB in the B3 band.
The antenna design procedure and geometry are presented
in Section Ⅱ, and the simulated results of the antenna are
discussed in Section Ⅲ. A brief conclusion of the antenna is
given in Section Ⅳ.

978-1-5386-7302-7/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

 II. ANTENNA DESIGN AND DISCUSSION
The geometry of the proposed multi-functional antennas is
illustrated in Fig.1. The two antennas are co-located on top of a
metallic cone and an insulating gasket is implanted between
them. A radom with a dielectric constant of 2.55, loss tangent
of 0.0014 is employed to protect the antennas.
（a）
（b）
L2
W2
（c）
Fig.1. Configuration of the proposed antenna. (a) Perspective view. (b) UHF
antenna. (c) B3 antenna
The UHF antenna is a sleeve monopole with a constant
pitch spiral slot on the sidewall, as shown in Fig.1(b). It is
composed of a ceramic rod and a slotted conducting sleeve.
Zirconia ceramic with a dielectric constant of 32, loss tangent
of 0.001 is chosen as the substrate of the rod. The slotted
conducting sleeve is fabricated on a Polyimide board
（dielectric constant of ɛr=3.4）using standard printed circuit
board （ PCB ） fabrication processes. Then the sleeve is
wrapped around the ceramic rod. The impedance matching can
be achieved by turning the position and pitch of the spiral slot.
The operation frequency is mainly determined by the turns of
the spiral.
Fig.1(c) shows the geometry and the dimension of the
proposed Beidou B3 antenna. It is composed of an annular-ring
radiating patch and a pair of arc-shaped feeding strips, which
are all printed on a single-layer ER20 ceramic substrate
(dielectric constant of ɛr=20 and loss tangent of tan =0.00014).
The proposed annular-ring patch has smaller dimensions
compared to a circular patch. Besides, four symmetric slits are
etched at the boundary of the ring to reduce the patch size. It is
well known that the impedance of annular-ring microstrip
antenna with TM11 mode is very large, and the ratio of inner
and outer radius (R3/R2) of the annular-ring affects the
impedance obviously. However, it is difficult to match with
50Ω impedance by merely adjusting the R3/R2, so a pair of arc-
shaped electromagnetic coupling feeding strips are applied in
this paper. The impedance matching is determined by the
separation between the strips and the ring g2 and the central
angle of the strips a. The coupling will increase with reduced
size of g2 and increased size of a. In addition, a small 0°-90°
hybrid chip(Mini-circuit QCN-19) is used in this design to
reduce the size of the feed network and achieve good RHCP
performance over a wider frequency range.
III. SIMULATED RESULTS OF PROPOSED ANTENNAS
The antenna patterns and realized gain are affected by the
carrier upon which the antenna is mounted. For the purpose of
demonstration, the proposed antennas are simulated on a
conductive cylinder with the height of 250mm and diameter of
48mm. No more ground plane is used.
The parameters of the final antennas are listed in TableⅠ.
The simulated S-parameters, including the port isolation, are
shown in Fig.2. It is found that the UHF antenna operates in
frequency band of 390~398-MHz with the spiral slot turns of
N=3.7. This antenna can be used for long-distance
communication systems. The B3 antenna with the hybrid
coupler chip achieves a wide bandwidth covering the Beidou
B3 band for S11<-10. Moreover, an port isolation over 25dB
between the UHF antenna and B3 antenna is achieved in the
B3 band.
The simulated radiation patterns of the UHF antenna at the
center frequency is shown in Fig.3. The result indicates that the
realized gain of the proposed UHF antenna is 2.7dBi. The
radiation pattern for this UHF antenna is omnidirectional in the
H-plane.
As shown in Fig.4, the simulated gains of the B3 antenna
range from -1.35 to 3.55 dBi in the B3 band. The simulated
radiation pattern is presented in Fig.5, and the broadside
performance is implanted for the proposed antenna.
 TABLE I. DIMENSION VALUES OF THE PROPOSED 4
ANTENNAS(UNITS:mm)
Para. H1 H2 L1 L2 W1 W2 3

Value 23 5 9.8 15.5 1 2

Para. W3 R1 R2 R3 D1 g1 2
Value 1 16 14.5 4 10 2

Gain(dBi)
Para. g2 F1 P t
1
Value 0.2 2.3 3.1 3.6

0
-1

-5 |S11|
|S22| without QCN-19 -2
1.255 1.260 1.265 1.270 1.275 1.280
S-parameters(dB)

-10
|S22| with QCN-19
Freq(GHz)
|S21|
-15
Fig.4. Simulated RHCP gain of the B3 antenna
-20
xz-plane
-25 0 yz-plane
30 330
0
-30

-10
-35 60 300

RealizedGainRHCP(dBi)
0.3 0.4 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 -20
Freq(GHz)
-30

Fig.2. Simulated results for the S-paramenters of the propsed antennas -40 90 270

-30
0
-20
0 30 330
H-plane 120 240
-10 E-plan -10

-20 60 300 0
150 210
Radiation patterns (dBi)

-30 180

-40

-50 90 270

-40
-30
-20 120
-10
0 Scientific Symposium (URS GASS), Aug 2014
150
180
Fig.3. Simulated radiation patterns of the UHF antenna
IV. CONCLUSION
A pair of compact and co-located antennas that provides
both UHF communications and Beidou B3 navigation
capabilities have been demonstrated in this paper. The UHF
antenna, with a relative height of 0.03λ, is a slotted sleeve
monopole antenna. Good omnidirectional radiation patterns in
H-plane is obtained. A right-hand circularly polarized patch
antenna is designed for B3 band. This antenna is consisted of
an annular-ring radiating patch and a pair of arc-shaped feeding
strips. The port isolation between the UHF antenna and the B3
antenna is larger than 25 dB .
Fig.5. Simulated radiation patterns of the B3 antenna
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