Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Design and Analysis of 2x2 Blade MIMO Antenna For UAV Communication
Design and Analysis of 2x2 Blade MIMO Antenna For UAV Communication
Abstract— Communication has a vital role in an unmanned isolation levels, even though the radiating elements are closely
aerial vehicle (UAV) mission. High data rate and reliability are spaced. In [2], a 4x4 MIMO antenna working in dual-band
important in UAV-based communication. Multiple input and achieved low mutual coupling by using a novel round patch
multiple output (MIMO) communication increases data rate for a Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) cell. These EBG cells are
reliability or increases reliability for a given data rate. A novel placed in between the radiating patch elements of MIMO
two-antenna blade array with reduced mutual coupling between antenna with different distances. In [3], a defective ground
two input ports for UAV application is proposed for IEEE 802.11 structure (DGS) incorporated with two serial rectangle slots
b/g/n and 802.16 Wi-MAX standards. This antenna can be used and microstrip line feeding is designed to reduce the mutual
in MIMO configuration. The proposed antenna consists of one
coupling of a 2x2 microstrip MIMO antenna. A low profile
vertical monopole and a horizontal dipole with port-to-port
three identical periodic crossing Electromagnetic Band Gap
separation of nearly 0.60. The antenna elements are printed on a
FR-4 substrate. The operating band of the design is from 2.2 to
structure was proposed by Tianqi Jiao et al. [4]. This
2.5GHz. Without the use of any isolation enhancement decoupling structure is placed in between the two antennas and
techniques, using pattern and polarization diversities, the MIMO four slots are etched on each EGB structure and connected to
antenna achieves high gain and good isolation. The proposed ground. A meander line slot is inserted in between two planar
MIMO antenna is investigated by simulation and measurements. monopole patch antennas as a decoupling element, which
enhances the overall array isolation level [5]. A dual band
Keywords— Multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO), Vector antenna for smartphone application was reported in [6]. In this
Network Analyzer (VNA), Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), proposed antenna, there are two symmetric antenna elements
FiniteDifference Time-Domain (FDTD), Envelope correlation and a folded dual inverted L-shaped ground branch. This
coefficient (ECC), S-parameters (DG) ground branch gives isolation. In [7], a separated cross shaped
isolation element for WLAN MIMO applications was
I. INTRODUCTION proposed. In [8], a novel printed MIMO Antenna with pattern
and polarization diversities was proposed.
An Unmanned Airborne System (UAS) mainly has two
basic types of communication links, namely control and non In this letter, a simple and compact dipole and monopole
payload communication link (CNPC-link) and data-link. CNPC antenna combination designed on a blade structure as a MIMO
links are related to safe operation of UAVs. Highly reliable, antenna is reported. This combination is suitable for UAV
low-latency and secure two-way communications, usually with application because of light weight, low volume and less drag.
low data requirement, are needed in CNPC link. Data-link is This antenna was designed, simulated and manufactured and
to support mission-related communications. UAV-based simulated results were verified with experimental ones. The
ubiquitous coverage, UAV-based relaying and UAV-based antenna gives acceptable return loss in 2.2-2.5GHz band and
information dissemination and data collection fall under data both elements are resonating at 2.4GHz. The two-element array
link. The data link usually operates in HF, VHF, UHF, L, S, C may be implemented as a MIMO antenna using a duplexer.
and K band of frequencies, and the choice is based on This MIMO antenna has polarization and pattern diversities.
application. High Data rate and high reliability are required in By utilizing simultaneous orthogonal patterns and polarization
data link and high reliability is required in CNPC link. diversity among the two radiating elements, without the use of
any additional circuits and techniques, independent
Multiple Input and Multiple Output (MIMO) uncorrelated signals are constructed on each antenna. A
communication increases data rate for a particular reliability or prototype of 2x2 MIMO blade antenna is designed, fabricated
increases reliability for a given data rate. A MIMO system and tested for experimental verification.
consists of multiple antennas at transmitter and receiver. In
many systems, compactness is an important consideration in
designing MIMO antennas. When size is reduced, mutual II. 2X2 MIMO ANTENNA DESIGN
coupling will arise. The performance of MIMO antenna is The 2x2 MIMO antenna is constructed on a blade structure,
based on various parameters such as mutual coupling, and which is a trapezoidal well–proven structure for airborne
envelope correlation coefficient (ECC). To obtain high applications which is specially chosen to fit on the UAV. The
isolation and low ECC between antenna elements various aerodynamic profile of the antenna reduces air-drag and offers
techniques have been reported. In [1], a novel neutral line light weight and low volume. MIMO antenna is designed to
structure is inserted among four antenna elements to enhance typically operate in the frequency band of 2.2-2.5GHz, having
Authorized licensed use limited to: Consortium - Algeria (CERIST). Downloaded on August 24,2020 at 22:42:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
2.4GHz center frequency. This antenna has ability to withstand over the frequency band indicating satisfactory performance of
an input power up to 50watts. The vertical plane performance the structure. To achieve low mutual coupling between the two
is similar to that of a quarter-wave monopole and horizontal antenna elements, pattern and polarization technique is used.
plane performance is similar to that of a half-wave dipole. The
overall footprint of the MIMO system is 120mm x 72mm. Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC) gives an overview
of the amount of correlation among two antenna’s field
2x2 Blade MIMO antenna has a vertical monopole and a distributions. ECC can be well defined from the 3-D radiation
horizontal dipole. Both the antennas are constructed on a blade pattern, because it is mainly influenced by the radiation
shaped inexpensive FR-4 epoxy substrate whose dielectric pattern shape, polarization and relative phase of the fields
constant is 4.4 and thickness of 1.6mm. The dimensions of between the two antennas. ECC can also be calculated from S-
monopole and dipole antenna are shown in the Table 1. parameters by using the below given formula as in (1).
III. SIMULATION RESULTS AND Discussion = (1)
The MIMO antenna was designed and simulated using
CAD FEKO V.14. Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD)
method of analysis was used for obtaining the results. Fig.5 shows the ECC graph of MIMO generated in using
MATLAB. Assuming that the MIMO array will operate in a
The antenna array is constructed using two planar antennas, uniform multipath rich environment, from the value of
one is a monopole and other is a dipole as shown in fig.1. For S-parameter, the correlation coefficient () comes out to be
achieving low mutual coupling, the antennas are printed on the 35dB at 2.4GHz and the result can be clearly seen in fig.5 The
opposite sides of a FR-4 substrate (r = 4.4 and thickness of
1.6mm). Diversity Gain (DG) can be calculated using the formula as
in (2).
It can be seen in fig.1 there is a monopole element on the
left side and a dipole element on the right-side. The distance
between voltage source of monopole antenna and voltage DG = (2)
source of dipole antenna is 0.60 where 0= C/f. Here the
monopole antenna is vertically mounted and dipole antenna is
TABLE.1: DIMENSION VALUES OF A SINGLE ANTENNA.
horizontally mounted to implement polarization diversity as
can be seen in fig. 1. Dimensions (mm)
Parameter
Monopole Dipole
A. Scattering parameters
Active S-parameter results obtained from simulation are Length 0.188 0.15
shown in fig.2 and fig.3, where the word active is there to tell S
parameters were obtained with both antennas excited at the Width 0.064 0.08
same time. Fig.2 shows curves of S11 and S22 parameters,
where port1 and port2 are respectively of monopole antenna
and dipole antenna. Isolation between the two radiating
elements are quantified by S12 and S21.
S12 and S21 were equal to -21.7dB at 2.4GHz. fig. 3
shows the bandwidth of the 2x2 MIMO antenna with respect to
S parameters. Proposed antenna has a wide bandwidth of
18.6% with respect to S11 and S22, where benchmark for
bandwidth is -10dB. The bandwidth covers the entire ISM band
at 2.4 GHz. The VSWRs of individual antennas are shown in
fig. 4. From fig. 4 it is obvious that the VSWR of the antenna
at 2.2 - 2.5GHz is less than 2 for both the antennas.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Consortium - Algeria (CERIST). Downloaded on August 24,2020 at 22:42:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
antenna is co - Sinusoidal as can be seen in Fig. 7a and that of a
dipole antenna is hemispherical pattern as can be seen in Fig.
7b. Based on these figures, it can be concluded that, because of
two different radiation patterns, correlation between the
antenna patterns will be minimized so that the proposed
antenna can provide good pattern diversity in a scattering - rich
environment. The E - plane and H - plane 2D radiation
patterns are shown in Fig. 8a and 8b respectively.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Consortium - Algeria (CERIST). Downloaded on August 24,2020 at 22:42:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
V. FABRICATION, PRACTICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The MIMO antenna was fabricated on a low-cost double-
sided 1.6mm thick FR-4 substrate with dielectric constant 4.4.
The printed circuit board (PCB) height is taken as 120mm,
which is slightly less than the quarter wavelength. The
monopole and dipole elements were etched on the PCB using
photolithography technique. The PCB has a copper thickness
of 32μm and each of them was powered using a TNC Female
connector the testing of the fabricated antenna was done on
Agilent VNA (E 5071C). The photograph of the fabricated
antenna is shown in Fig.9. The measured S-parameter results
are shown in Fig.10. It can be seen that simulated and
measured results are almost same. Fig. 7b. 2D radiation pattern of planar dipole antenna
Authorized licensed use limited to: Consortium - Algeria (CERIST). Downloaded on August 24,2020 at 22:42:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
[7] Emami-Forooshani , S. Noghanian “Semi-deterministic channel model
for MIMO systems Part-II: results “ IET microwaves, antennas &
propagation vol4 pp 26-34 2010.
[8] Per-Simon Kildal, Kent Rosengren, "Correlation and Capacity of MIMO
Systems and Mutual Coupling, Radiation Efficiency, and Diversity Gain
of Their Antennas: Simulations and Measurements in a Reverberation
Chamber", IEEE Communications Magazine, pp. 104-112, 2004.
[9] Naoki Kanada , Sumiya Yasuto , Naruto Yonemoto et al., “Connectivity
Evaluation for Unmanned Aircraft System using 5GHz WLAN”
Proceedings of ISAP 2012, POS2-47 Nagoya, Japan.
[10] A.J.Paulraj et al.,“An overview of MIMO communications—A key to
gigabit wireless,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 92, no. 2, pp. 198–218, Feb. 2004.
[11] A. Diallo and C. Luxey, “Estimation of the diversity performance of
several two-antenna systems in different propagation environments,” in
Proc. IEEE AP-S Int. Symp., Jun. 2007, pp. 2642–2645.
[12] H.S.Rad and S.Gazor,“The impact of non isotropic scattering and
directional antennas on MIMO multicarrier mobile communication
channels,” IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 642–652, Apr.
2008.S. C. K. Ko and R. D. Murch, “Compact integrated diversity
antenna for wireless communications,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag.,
vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 954–960, Jun. 2001.
VI. CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
Authorized licensed use limited to: Consortium - Algeria (CERIST). Downloaded on August 24,2020 at 22:42:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.