Compact dual polarised V slit, stub and slot x-directed pair has an equal length (lx1), but lx1

pair has an equal length (lx1), but lx1 < ly1. Similarly for the
embedded circular patch antenna for UMTS/ stubs, the lengths of the y-directed pair are equal (ly2) and that of the
x-directed pair are equal (lx2), with lx2 < ly2. The sense of polarisation
WiMAX/WLAN applications is right handed (RHCP) when ly1 > lx1 and reverses to left hand when
ly1 < lx1.
S. Mathew, M. Ameen, M.P. Jayakrishnan, P. Mohanan and
K. Vasudevan✉
h

A single probe-fed novel V slit, stub and slot embedded circular micro-
strip antenna with resonances in the three bands of UMTS, worldwide probe
X feed
interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) and WLAN is pre- A

sented. The polarisation is circular in the UMTS band and linear in L Y

the other two bands. Asymmetrical V slits in the patch boundary patch

ground plane
R
along with an embedded circular slot in the patch centre are employed
to introduce the perturbation necessary for circular polarisation.
Impedance bandwidths (BWs) of 4.2, 2 and 6.2%, respectively, in top view
w side
the three bands centred at 2, 3.5 and 5.6 GHz are obtained. The axial view
ratio BW is 2.3% in the UMTS band. Moderate gains of 4.4, 3.5 and
2.8 dBi are obtained in the three bands. There is a patch size reduction Fig. 1 Proposed antenna geometry and photograph of prototype
of about 48% when compared with the conventional circular patch
antenna at a fixed operating frequency. The radiation pattern is direc-
tional in the WiMAX band and nearly omnidirectional in the WLAN
band.

Introduction: Multiple functionality devices such as smart phones and

handheld tablets operate at different commercial frequency bands such antenna 1 antenna 2 antenna 3 antenna 4
as UMTS, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX)
and WLAN simultaneously. Microstrip patch antennas are in great Fig. 2 Intermediate steps in design
demand for such applications since a single antenna can provide com-
pactness and diverse polarisations along with multi-band operation. w1
w2
x
Besides, circular polarisation (CP) is more preferred in UMTS
Ix2
systems as CP antennas can minimise the multipath effect and are insen- w1 Iy 1
Ix1
w2 Iy 2
y
sitive to the transmitter–receiver orientation. Hence, it is much desirable slits stubs
to have circular and linear polarisations in a single multi-band antenna.
Triband antennas have been proposed, with identical polarisation in all
bands [1, 2] and with dual polarisation in the bands [3, 4]. However, Fig. 3 Geometry of sectoral slits and stubs in y and x directions (w2 = 0.5w1,
these designs are mostly for CP in bands other than UMTS and lx2 = 0.875lx1, ly2 = 0.85ly1)
involve fabrication complexity which limits their practicality.
Compact CP radiation of the circular patch with axial ratio bandwidth The simulated S11 and AR characteristics for all the four structures
(ARBW) ∼ 1% has been described using the techniques of slot embed- are shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 4b shows that Antenna 1 is linearly polarised.
ding, slit loading of the patch and tuning stubs [5–7]. In the proposed Antenna 2 exhibits CP, but the bands have return loss value below
triple-band design, all these three techniques in [5–7] have been 10 dB. The matching in all three bands, particularly at the second
applied to a standard circular patch in order to realise compactness, ade- band, improves significantly in Antenna 3. Antenna 4 shows the
quate matching and better ARBW at the circularly polarised fundamen- optimum CP characteristics. The optimised dimensions of the sectoral
tal resonance frequency. slits and stubs are listed in Table 1.

Antenna geometry and simulation results: The geometry and dimen- 0

39
36
33
sions of the proposed triple-band antenna are shown in Fig. 1. The
axial ratio simulated, dB

–5 30
simulated S11, dB

27
patch is designed on the top side of an FR4 substrate of thickness h = –10 24

1.6 mm, dielectric constant εr = 4.4 and tan δ = 0.02. The ground –15 21
18
–20 r2 = w1 = w2= 0 15
plane lies on the opposite side and occupies an area of 50 × 50 mm. –25
antenna 1
antenna 2
12
9
antenna 1
antenna 2
The evolution steps in the design to achieve triple-band operation –30 antenna 3
antenna 4
6
3
antenna 3
antenna 4
with good matching are shown in Fig. 2. –35
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0
0
2.00 2.05 2.10 2.15 2.20 2.25 2.30
The design starts with a basic circular patch of radius R = 16.5 mm frequency, GHz frequency, GHz

whose fundamental resonance frequency is 2.5 GHz. At the centre of a b

the patch, a circular slot of radius r = 5.5(0.33 × R)mm is etched. This
annular structure designated as Antenna 1 shows triple-band resonance
at 2.3, 4 and 5.6 GHz. To excite two orthogonal modes of 90° phase
shift for good CP radiation, two pairs of asymmetric V slits are etched
into the outer circular patch boundary (Antenna 2). The fundamental fre-
quency reduces to 2.1 GHz (85% times that of the unmodified circular
patch, i.e. 2.5 GHz). The second band is lowered to 3.5 GHz which is
also equivalent to a 15% reduction from 4 GHz. The resonance at the
third band is less affected and is at 5.6 GHz. The radiation is circularly
polarised at 2.1 GHz and linearly polarised at the second and third
bands. The resonance at 3.5 GHz has poor matching. To improve the
matching at this frequency, the inner circular slot is modified by
adding two pairs of asymmetric V-shaped stubs collinearly with the
outer sectoral slits (Antenna 3). Finally, the inner stubs are rotated
through an angle of 45° to make the CP optimum in terms of the
ARBW and minimum AR value. This embedded slit-stub and slot circu-
lar patch is the proposed compact Antenna 4 where the inner slot is a
downsized version of the outer patch. The feed point is selected along
the 45° axis and is located at A (5, 5) for optimum matching.
The geometric parameters of the slits and stubs used in the design are
shown in Fig. 3. The two y-directed slits have equal lengths (ly1) and the
Fig. 4 Simulated characteristics of intermediate structures in Fig. 2
a S11
b AR
Table 1: Optimised dimensions in proposed Antenna 4
Parameter R r w1 w2 lx1 lx2 ly1 ly2
Dimension (mm) 16.5 5.5 2 1 7 3 8 3.5
To enable a clear understanding of the excitation of the three bands,
the simulated current distributions in Antenna 4 are illustrated in Fig. 5.
It indicates that the resonance at 2.1 GHz is generated due to the com-
bined effect of the sectoral slits on the outer patch boundary and the
inner slot boundary. The band at 3.5 GHz depends principally on the
sectoral slits on the outer patch boundary. The current distribution
along the inner slot boundary excites the third resonance at 5.5 GHz.
Table 2 states the comparison of Antenna 4 with the conventional cir-
cular patch design in [5] for its CP characteristics and with the triband
design in [4] for its performance in the two linearly polarised bands .
The lowering of the fundamental frequency by 15% in Antenna 4

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 18th August 2016 Vol. 52 No. 17 pp. 1425–1426

corresponds to a size reduction of about 48% with respect to the circular Experimental results: A prototype of the proposed Antenna 4 was fab-
patch CP design at a fixed frequency applied in [5]. It is also seen that ricated on an FR4 substrate with εr = 4.4 and was experimentally tested
the gain obtained is better in the second band on comparison with [4]. for the simulated characteristics of S11 and AR using PNA E8362B
The third band has 1% improved impedance BW against [4]. vector network analyser inside the anechoic chamber. A 4.2% impe-
dance BW was measured in the first band. An ARBW of 2.3% and
minimum AR value of 1.2 dB at a CP centre frequency ( fc) of
2.12 GHz was also measured in this band. The second band in the
WiMAX range shows a BW of 2% at centre frequency of 3.5 GHz.
The third band is in the WLAN range and exhibits 6.2% impedance
BW at a centre frequency of 5.5 GHz. Fig. 6 shows the comparison of
the measured S11 and AR values with the simulated ones and they
2.1 GHz 3.5 GHz 5.5 GHz are observed to be in good agreement with each other.
The measured radiation patterns at the three centre frequencies in two
Fig. 5 Simulated current distributions on patch at three bands orthogonal planes are shown in Fig. 7. Good RHCP is produced at
2 GHz. At 3.3 GHz, the pattern is figure of eight in the y–z-plane and
Table 2: Comparison of Antenna 4 with [4, 5] is directional with a flower shaped pattern in the x–y-plane. The radiation
ARBW, fc, gain (%, BW, gain at 3.5 GHz BW, gain at 5.6 GHz pattern at 5.5 GHz is observed to be nearly omnidirectional. The peak
Antenna
GHz, dBi) (%, dBi) (%, dBi) gains measured at the three bands using the gain comparison method
Antenna 4 2.3, 2, 4.4 2, 3.5 6.2, 2.8 are obtained as 4.4, 3.5 and 2.8 dBi, respectively, and are represented
Antenna in
1.08, 1.94, — – –
in Table 2.
[5]
Antenna in Conclusion: A novel slit, stub and slot modified circular patch antenna
– 23, 2.8 5.2, 2.7
[4]
in which the embedded slot is a scaled down version of the outer patch is
proposed for triple-band operation. CP is obtained in the first band and
5 6
linear polarisation in the second and third bands. In the first band, an
0 5
improvement in ARBW of 1.3% and a size reduction of 48% against
axial ratio, dB

–5 4
the basic circular patch at a fixed frequency is obtained. The second
S11,dB

–10 3
band shows small improvement in gain and the third band has 1%
–15 2
increase in impedance BW. The simulation and experimental results
–20 1 measured
measured
simulated simulated show good agreement. The antenna is good candidate for multi-band
–25 0
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 2.08 2.10 2.12 2.14 2.16 2.18 applications with different polarisation in the various bands.
frequency, GHz frequency, GHz
a b Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the University Grants
Commission (UGC), the Department of Science and Technology
Fig. 6 Measured characteristics of proposed Antenna 4
(DST), Government of India and the Institute of Human Resources
a S11 Development (IHRD), Kerala, India.
b AR

yz-plane
0
0 xy-plane 0
0
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016
–10 2.1 GHz –10
Submitted: 1 June 2016 E-first: 20 July 2016
–20 –20 doi: 10.1049/el.2016.1996
–30 –30 One or more of the Figures in this Letter are available in colour online.
–40 –40

90 –50 270 90 –50 270

S. Mathew, M. Ameen, M.P. Jayakrishnan, P. Mohanan and
–50 –40 –30 –20 –10 0 –50 –40 –30 –20 –10 0
K. Vasudevan (CREMA, Department of Electronics, Cochin University
of Science and Technology, Kochi, India)
LHCP
✉ E-mail: vasudevankdr@gmail.com
RHCP

180
0
180
0
References
0 0

–10
3.5 GHz
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Fig. 7 Measured radiation patterns in two orthogonal planes at three bands

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 18th August 2016 Vol. 52 No. 17 pp. 1425–1426