A Compact Microstrip Antenna with Improved Bandwidth Using

Complementary Split-Ring Resonator (CSRR) Loading

Yoonjae Lee, Simon Tse, Yang Hao, and Clive G. Parini

Antenna and Electromagnetics Group, Department of Electronic Engineering,

Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK

Introduction

Miniaturization of microstrip antennas has been attempted for a long time using various
methods. One of popular approaches is to use a high permittivity dielectric substrate in
order to decrease the guided wavelength, and hence the overall antenna size [1].
However, it has drawbacks resulting in the tendency for more of the energy delivered to
the antenna to be trapped in substrates with high permittivities, which eventually
decreases the impedance bandwidth. In order to overcome the narrow bandwidth of the
patch antenna on a high permittivity substrate, several remedies have been proposed
using artificial structures in conjunction with the patch element [2-5]. In this paper, we
propose a new design approach to the realization of compact antennas with improved
impedance bandwidth using a ground plane loaded with complementary split-ring
resonators (CSRRs). The characteristics of the split-ring resonator (SRR) have already
been studied by several groups [6, 7]. In its complementary structure, the CSRRs behave
as an electric dipole excited by an axial electric field, and exhibit strong dispersion near
the resonance frequency reducing the guided wavelength significantly [9, 10].
In this work, we investigate a microstrip patch antenna on a dielectric substrate with
CSRRs employed in the ground plane, and examine the resonant frequency, impedance
bandwidth, and radiation characteristics. The comparison of the impedance bandwidth
between the microstrip patch antenna on a conventional high permittivity substrate and
with the CSRR substrate is presented. The experimental results demonstrated that
significant size reduction is possible for a microstrip antenna without sacrificing the
bandwidth by using the CSRR loaded ground plane. The fabricated antenna achieves a
69% reduction in the resonant frequency as well as 67% improvement in the bandwidth
compared to the conventional antenna.

Antenna Configuration

Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the CSRR loaded microstrip patch antenna. In the proposed
antenna, the solid metal ground plane is replaced with a ground plane with periodically
etched CSRRs. The physical parameters of the simulated CSRR loaded antenna are: r1 =
4mm, r2 = 1.5mm, c = 1mm and d = 0.5mm. The substrate employed was a commercially
available PTFE material with ε r = 3.0 and thickness = 1.6mm. The dimensions of the
fabricated antenna were 30mm × 50mm. The physical parameters of the reference patch
antenna are: W = 16mm, L = 20mm, g = 1mm, d = 8mm, w = 4.08mm, and those of the
patch antenna with the metamaterial substrate are: W = 16mm, W = 20mm, g = 1mm, d =
4mm, w = 1.1mm. Note that the depth of the inset (d) and the width of the feed line (w)
for both antennas have been adjusted to match the antenna impedance.

Results and Discussion

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In order to find out the resonant frequency of the CSRR with the parameters in the
previous section, the unit cell of CSRR loaded transmission line has been simulated using
HFSS. A sharp stop band was observed around 3GHz due to the resonance of the CSRR
and the corresponding slow-wave factor of the CSRR loaded microstrip line is shown in
Fig. 2. It has been found that there is a slight change in the stopband frequencies for 90-
degree rotated orientation of the CSSR. Fig. 2 shows the simulated return losses for three
different antennas. We have performed simulations for the CSRR loaded antenna with εr
= 3 and noted that it achieves the same reduction in the resonant frequency as the
conventional antenna with substrate material having a twice higher permittivity.
Moreover, the bandwidth at the operating frequency is wider than the original operating
frequency. The only penalty observed is a little reduction in the broadside gain due to the
increased back side radiation, which can be improved by using an additional ground
plane in the back side of the antenna.
In order to confirm the simulation results, four microstrip antennas have been fabricated
using two different dielectric substrates (εr = 3 and εr = 4.7). One pair is the conventional
microstrip patch antenna with solid ground plane and the other is one that has CSRRs
etched on the ground plane. The fabricated antennas shown in Fig. 3-b have been
measured using an Agilent 8720ES vector network analyzer (VNA) and the results are
plotted in Fig. 3-a.
The measured results confirm that the resonant frequencies of the CSRR loaded antennas
are significantly lower than those of the conventional antennas and the impedance
bandwidth can be improved. Detailed results are summarized in Table 1. We notice that
the loading effect of the CSRR ground plane degrades when higher permittivity substrate
is employed.
The antenna pattern has been measured in an anechoic chamber and compared in Fig. 4.
The CSRR loaded antenna shows higher backside radiation resulting in a reduced
broadside gain. It is also observed that more ripples are introduced in the antenna pattern
and the cross polarization level is increased. However, this performance can be further
improved using optimized designs for the antenna element as well as CSRR geometries.

Conclusions

A compact microstrip antenna with an improved bandwidth using a modified substrate

design based on complimentary split-ring resonators has been presented. The new design
help achieve both the reduction in the antenna size and the improvement in the
impedance bandwidth of a microstrip patch antenna. The results presented in this paper
are promising for the design of compact antennas without having to sacrifice the antenna
bandwidth, which makes the antenna useful for various applications.

References

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554-556, 2005.

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[5] P. M. T, Ikonen, S. I. Maslovski, C. R. Simovski, and S. A. Tretyakov, “On Artificial
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Fig. 1 Configuration of the CSRR loaded microstrip patch antenna

(a) (b)
Fig. 2 Simulated transmission characteristics of the CSRR loaded microstrip line: (a) S11
and S21, (b) slow-wave factor

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Fig. 3 Measured return loss of CSRR loaded microstrip patch antenna

Substrate Configuration Resonant Broadside Fractional Bandwidth (%)

permittivity Frequency Gain (dBi) S11< -6dB S11<-10dB
(εr) (GHz)
3.0 Patch only 4.31 6.05 3.81 2.01
Patch with CSRR 2.96 2.06 6.38 3.34
4.7 Patch only 3.66 1.27 4.89 2.74
Patch with CSRR 2.49 -0.5 5.76 3.21
Table 1 Comparison of measured antenna parameters between the conventional and
CSRR loaded microstrip patch antenna

a. b.
Fig. 4 Measured radiation pattern: a. conventional patch antenna (f = 4.3GHz), b. CSRR
loaded patch antenna (f = 2.96GHz).

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