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AWPL-10-12-1201.R1 1

Resonant Type Antennas Loaded With CRLH

Unit Cell
Ahmed R. Raslan, Student Member, IEEE, Amr A. Ibrahim, Student Member, IEEE, Amr M. E.
Safwat, Member, IEEE


Abstract—The concept of loading monopole antennas with Wg

composite right/left handed (CRLH) unit cell is extended to cover

θ
other types of resonant antennas, namely: loop antennas, and
printed inverted-F antennas (printed IFAs). By adding one unit
cell, these antennas achieve three operating bands while having
their sizes unmodified. The new frequencies are lower than the
unloaded antenna’s nominal frequency. The printed IFA is
fabricated and measurements are consistent with theoretical Lg
W5 Ls W4
predictions. W3
Wc
Sc
Index Terms—Composite right/left handed structures, loop W2 2×radius
Via
Ws
antennas, printed inverted-F antennas. Ss
L 1 S1 W1 Z
Lc
X Y
I. INTRODUCTION

W
(a)
HILE the quest for developing 2D and 3D metamaterial L6 L5 L4
based components for different microwave and optical Sc Wc
applications has started a decade ago [1], [2], the W3 W4
L1
implementation of these artificial materials in antenna design L2 W5 Lc
L7
did not mature till recently [3]. These metamaterial-based W7
Ws
antennas have attracted a lot of attention because of their Z L3 W2 L8
Via Via
Ss
W6
compatibility with modern communication systems. Lg W1
Ls
X Y
Specifically, they demonstrated high potential in designing
electrically small antennas [4], [5], and multi-band operating Wg

antennas [6], [7]. (b)

Recently [8], the authors have demonstrated the concept of
loading conventional microstrip-fed monopole antenna with a
CRLH unit cell which has led to triple-band operation, while
maintaining a monopole-like radiation pattern at all operating
bands. The three operating bands were verified to correspond
to the unit cell’s stop, left, and right-handed bands
respectively. The concept was generalized in [9] by loading
the monopole with more than one CRLH unit cell leading to
more operating bands.
In this paper, we show that using CRLH unit cells to
enhance the antenna performance is not pertinent to monopole
antennas only, but can be applied to other resonant type
antennas as well. First, the concept is applied to the loop
antenna, Fig. 1(a), and then applied to the printed IFA, Fig.
Manuscript received October 8, 2012. This work was supported by the
National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA), Cairo, Egypt.
A. Raslan is with the Electronics Department, The American University in
Cairo, Egypt (e-mail: ahmedrajaie@aucegypt.edu).
A. Ibrahim and A. Safwat are with the Electronics and Communication
Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University,
Cairo, Egypt (e-mail: amribrahim@ieee.org, asafwat@ieee.org).
Fig. 1. Proposed antennas loaded with CRLH unit cell: (a) loop antenna,
and (b) printed IFA.
1(b).
In both cases, the CRLH unit cell is designed such that the
loaded antennas occupy exactly the same size as the unloaded
ones so that multi-band operation can be obtained with
virtually no cost except for a minor deviation in the radiation
patterns.
II. LOOP ANTENNA LOADED WITH CRLH UNIT CELL
The proposed loop antenna is shown in Fig. 1(a). It is
basically a printed loop antenna fed by coplanar strip (CPS)
transmission line and loaded with one half of the CRLH unit
cell presented in [8]. One of the main reasons that the unit cell
in [8] was made symmetric is that the radiation of the right
half cancels that of the left half and the radiation pattern is
controlled mainly by the monopole. This came at the expense
of large size in the lateral direction. In this case, only one half
of the unit cell is used in order to best utilize the area inside
the loop at the expense of altering the radiation pattern.

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AWPL-10-12-1201.R1 2

TABLE I
DIMENSIONS OF THE ANTENNAS PRESENTED IN THIS PAPER (in mm) 0

Symbol Loop Antenna Printed IFA 1.88 GHz 2.90 GHz

-5

|S11| (dB)
Lg 95 51
1.54 GHz
Wg 65 56 0.90 GHz 0.95 GHz 1.59 GHz
L1 31 21
-10
L2 - 13
L3 - 9.3
L4 - 12.5
L5 - 13.7 -15
0.5 1.51.0 2.0 2.5 3.0
L6 - 7.5 Frequency (GHz)
L7 - 10.5
Fig. 2. Simulated |S11| for loaded loop antenna (solid black line) and for
L8 - 3.8 unloaded loop antenna (dotted gray line).
S1 0.7 -
radius 19 -
Θ 75° -
W1 2 4.5
W2 9 6
W3 0.5 5
W4 1 7.3
W5 1.5 3
W6 - 1
W7 - 3.2
Lc 17.5 6.5
Wc 0.55 0.9
Sc 0.3 0.9
Ls 3.15 8.8
Ws 0.47 0.4 x-y plane, f = 0.925 GHz y-z plane, f = 0.925 GHz
Ss 0.3 0.3
area (mm2) 𝜋 ∗ 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑠 + 𝑊2 2 𝐿1 ∗ 𝐿4 + 𝐿5 + 𝐿6
(band I) = 𝜋 0.084𝜆1 2 = 0.063𝜆1 ∗ 0.101𝜆1
2
area (mm ) 2
𝜋 0.147𝜆2 0.110𝜆2 ∗ 0.176𝜆2
(band II)
area (mm2)
𝜋 0.187𝜆3 2 0.140𝜆3 ∗ 0.225𝜆3
(band III)
*𝜆1 , 𝜆2 &𝜆3 are the free space wave lengths calculated at 0.9, 1.57 and 2
GHz, respectively.

As explained in [9], the design starts by loading the antenna

with a lumped-component CRLH unit cell that has the form of
a pi-network. The components values are determined to
achieve three resonance frequencies in the stop, left, and right
-handed bands respectively. The dimensions of the interdigital
capacitor and meandered inductors are then adjusted to
achieve the same dispersion relation as that of the lumped-
component counterpart.
The loop antenna is designed on Rogers 5870 with substrate
thickness (h) of 1.57 mm and a dielectric constant (εr) of 2.33.
All dimensions are given in Table I. The antenna exhibits two
narrow bands at 0.925 GHz and 1.57 GHz, in addition to a
wideband ranging from 1.9 to 2.9 GHz. Thus, the antenna can
cover GSM900, UMTS, Bluetooth, WiFi (2.4 GHz), WiMAX
(2.5 GHz) and GPS (1.57 GHz) bands (the unloaded loop is
designed to resonate at 2.4 GHz). Antenna simulations are
carried out on HFSS V.13. Fig. 2 shows the simulated |S11| for
both unloaded and loaded loop antennas. Simulated radiation
patterns for the loaded loop antenna are shown in Fig. 3 at the
three operating bands. As explained in [10], [11], one-
wavelength loop antenna has an E component as shown in
Fig. 3 (2.4 GHz). The strong presence of E indicates that the
unit cell alters the current distribution along the circumference
and also there is radiation due to the current flowing in it. This
was not observed in the monopole loaded with CRLH unit cell
x-y plane, f = 1.57 GHz y-z plane, f = 1.57 GHz
x-y plane, f = 2.4 GHz y-z plane, f = 2.4 GHz
Fig. 3. Simulated normalized radiation patterns for the loop antenna at the
three bands with black lines for Eθ and gray lines for Eφ. Axis is shown in
Fig. 1.
presented in [9] since the monopole preserve its donut-shaped
radiation patterns for all frequencies that satisfy lmonopole< λ/4,
and the unit cell was symmetrical such that it did not
contribute to radiation. Also, it can be noticed that the
radiation patterns are nearly symmetric although the position
of the unit cell is not on the loop axis of symmetry. This
indicates that the position of the added unit cell has a minor
effect on the radiation pattern. Finally, it is possible to load the
loop antenna with more than one CRLH unit cell similar to
[9]. This is especially attractive for the loop antenna due to the

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AWPL-10-12-1201.R1 3

XY Plot 1 ANSOFT

0
1.71 GHz
-5
0.88 GHz 1.54 GHz
-10 2.36 GHz

|S11| (dB)
0.94 GHz
-15 1.60 GHz

-20

-25

-30
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Frequency (GHz)
Fig. 5. Simulated and measured |S11| for the loaded printed IFA (solid
black and gray lines, respectively) and simulated |S11| for the unloaded
(a) (b) printed IFA (dotted gray line).
Fig. 4. Picture of the fabricated printed IFA: (a) top side and, (b) bottom
side.

large available space inside the loop, hence, more radiating

bands can be obtained with no size penalty. This antenna was
not fabricated to avoid the implementation of a very wideband
balun working from 0.9 to 2.9 GHz.

III. PRINTED IFA LOADED WITH CRLH UNIT CELL

Conventional printed IFA can be considered as a bent
monopole to make the size more compact. As this bending x-y plane, f = 0.925 GHz (Sim.) y-z plane, f = 0.925 GHz (Sim.)
0.904 GHz (Measure.) 0.904 GHz (Measure.)
introduces an extra capacitance between the radiator and the
ground, a stub is used to cancel out this effect and maintain the
resonance frequency [12]. The proposed printed IFA loaded
with the CRLH unit cell is shown in Fig. 1(b). Again, only
half of the CRLH unit cell is used for size reduction.
Additionally, the unit cell is modified by implementing the
shunt meandered inductance in the lower ground plane. Using
this modified CRLH unit cell, the loaded printed IFA has
exactly the same size as a conventional printed IFA operating
at 1.7 GHz. The size of the conventional printed IFA ground x-y plane, f = 1.57 GHz (Sim.) y-z plane, f = 1.57 GHz (Sim.)
1.57 GHz (Measure.) 1.57 GHz (Measure.)
plane is optimized based on the guide lines presented in [13]
for printed monopole antennas.
The printed IFA antenna is designed on Rogers5870
substrate to have a performance similar to the previous loop
antenna. All dimensions are given in Table I. The fabricated
structure is shown in Fig.4. S-parameter measurements are
carried out on Rhode&Schwartz vector network analyzer
(ZVB-14). The simulated and measured |S11| together with the
simulated and measured far field radiation patterns are shown
in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, respectively. For the three bands, the x-y plane, f = 2.1 GHz (Sim.) y-z plane, f = 2.1 GHz (Sim.)
2.1 GHz (Measure.) 2.1 GHz (Measure.)
reflection coefficient is better than -10 dB. The third
resonance is shifted from 1.7 GHz to 1.95 GHz because at Fig.6. Simulated and measured normalized radiation patterns for the
1.95 GHz the CRLH unit cell provides zero phase shift and printed IFA at the three bands with black lines as Eθ and gray lines for Eφ
hence, the printed IFA’s actual length is shorter than that of (simulation is plotted with solid lines and measurement is plotted with
the unloaded printed IFA. Measured and simulated radiation dashed lines). Axis is shown in Fig. 1.
patterns are in good agreement at the second and third bands
and they agree well with the current distributions of printed-
IFA (current is aligned in the z and x axes). Some discrepancy efficiencies within each band. Fluctuations between different
appears at the first band that may be attributed to the Wheeler-cap methods are about 2%.
inadequate size of the absorbers in addition to poor isolation. Compared to trap antennas presented in [18], [19], the
Efficiency is measured using different Wheeler-cap methods proposed printed-IFA has an extra band (the second one) at
[14]-[17]. Table II shows the peak simulated and measured which the phase of the unit cell compensates the phase of the
host antenna [9].

Copyright (c) 2011 IEEE. Personal use is permitted. For any other purposes, permission must be obtained from the IEEE by emailing pubs-permissions@ieee.org.
 This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication.
AWPL-10-12-1201.R1 4

IV. CONCLUSION
The concept of loading resonant type antennas with CRLH
unit cell was demonstrated. Specifically, two examples were
considered, namely the loop antennas and Printed IFAs. For
both cases, the antenna was tailored to have two narrow bands
at 0.925 GHz and 1.57 GHz, and one wideband around 2.4
GHz. The CRLH unit cells were modified so that the loaded
antenna occupies the same area as the unloaded one and,
hence, more operating bands can be obtained with no size
penalty. A prototype printed IFA was fabricated to verify the
concept. Simulations and measurements are in a good
agreement.
[17] M. Geissler, 0. Litschke, D. Heberling, P. Waldow, and I. Wolff, "An
improved method for measuring the radiation efficiency of mobile
devices," in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Antennas and Propag., Columbus,
Ohio, USA, vol. 4, June 2003, pp. 743-746.
[18] “The ARRL Antenna Handbook,” 22nd Edition, Published by The
American Relay League, Newington, Connecticut, 2012, pp. 10-13 to
10-15.
[19] J.-F. Zürcher, I. Giangrandi, O. Staub, and A. K. Skrivervik, "A dual-
frequency printed conformable antenna for mobile communications,"
Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 27, no. 6, Dec. 2000,
pp. 386–390.

TABLE II
PRINTED IFA PARAMETERS AT THE THREE OPERATING BANDS
Frequency Simulated Measured
BW Efficiency (%)
(GHz) Efficiency (%)
0.91 0.88-0.94 GHz 81 80
1.56 1.54-1.60 GHz 83 80
2.04 1.71-2.36 GHz 99 94

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