Design and Analysis of a 5.

88GHz Microstrip Phased Array Antenna for

Intelligent Transport Systems

Tapas Mondal* (1), Rowdra Ghatak(2) and S R Bhadra Chaudhuri(3)

ECE Dept, Dr. B. C. Roy Engineering College, Durgapur-713 206, West Bengal, INDIA,
Radionics Laboratory, Dept of Physics, the University of Burdwan, Burdwan - 713 104,
West Bengal, INDIA
Dept of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Bengal Engineering and
Science University, West Bengal, INDIA
1
tapas2k@gmail.com, 2rowdraghatak@yahoo.com, 3prof.srbc@gmail.com

Abstract—Detection of blind spot area of an intelligent mobile vehicle is presented in this

paper. In order to scan the concerning area, a phased array radar is designed. The
approach is of two fold. Firstly, microstrip phased array antenna with progressive phased
shifter is designed and subsequently, it is optimised for improvement of performance
through parametric studies and array distribution using Tchebyscheff polynomial.
Index Terms- Microstrip antenna, phased array antenna, intelligent transportation system,
Tchebyscheff polynomial.

Introduction

Safety is a preventive issue in

Intelligent Transport Systems
(ITS) [1]. One approach to
improve the traffic safety is to
actively support the driving
tasks and prevent possible
dangerous situations by
automatic scanning the
environment of the mobile
vehicle [2]. As an evaluation of
Fig. 1 Surrounding regions of a vehicle. the proposed system, the
radiation characteristics of a
radio scanner using 5.88 GHz
are examined. That radio
scanner is microstrip phased
array radar as shown in Fig 1,
which is used to detect the blind
spot zone of a mobile vehicle
[3]. The phased array radar
consists of a four elements
microstrip antenna, progressive
phase shifter and its feeding
elements [3, 4]. In Section II,
the design of the microstrip
Fig. 2 (a) Top view of the microstrip array antenna phased array antenna with
and (b) Side view of the antenna array. progressive phase shifter is

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 presented. Results and discussion are reported in Section III along with conclusion in
Section IV.
Microstrip Phased Array Antenna Design

The antenna geometry is illustrated in Fig 2. The radar is designed to work at 5.88 GHz.
The microstrip radiating elements are realized on a 0.795 mm thick PTFE substrate with
dielectric constant (εr) 2.2. The dimensions of the rectangular microstrip antenna (RMSA)
are computed using methods outlined in [5] and extended in [6, 7]. The width of RMSA
is 20.168 mm and length of the patch is computed as 16.784 mm. The RMSA is analysed
using IE3D™ and after optimization the final length of RMSA keeping the width of the
patch unchanged is obtained as 16.88 mm. Using the above designed antenna element the
four element linear array with distribution using Tchebyscheff polynomial is realized [8].
Simulations reveal that no grating lobe appears when the spacing d between the elements
or the patches is less than 0.80 λg. Here λg denotes the guided wavelength. From Fig 1 it is
seen that the beam of the antenna array needs to be tilted by an angle of 30º away from
the broad side radiation direction. To get the desired direction, the required progressive
phase shift is -126° and the feed line length which provide required phase shift τ is equal
to 13.02 mm. Therefore the actual line lengths are (λg + mτ), where m = 0, 1, 2, 3.

With the computed patch dimensions and inset-fed length as 3.8 mm [9], the return
loss has come -8.09 dB with (30.1+j26.7) ohm impedance at the feed position. But after
optimization, the final inset-fed length of RMSA is obtained as 4.88 mm and the return
loss has come -47.2 dB with 50 ohm impedance at the feed position.

Fig. 3 Comparison of return loss before Fig. 4 Input impedance at the feed
and after optimization. position.

The comparison of return loss before and after optimization of the patch and the input
impedance at the fed position of the optimized patch are shown in Fig 3 and Fig 4. Now
for the specified value of beamwidth, to maximize the main lobe to side lobe ratio, the
array is distributed by using Dolph’s method [10]. In this method, the current distribution
of the array elements follows the coefficients of the Tchebyscheff polynomial. As the
required beam width is 47° in the desired direction and the number of array elements are
four, the main lobe to side lobe ratio becomes 20.6 dB and the Chebyshev polynomial is
calculated to be of third order. By solving the polynomial, the relative current ratios in
the elements is computed as 1: 1.7795: 1.7795:1.

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 To optimize the antenna parameters like reduction in side lobe level (SLL), mutual
coupling and gain of the antenna array, the spacing between the elements is
parametrically studied. The results of the parametric study are tabulated in Table I for the
variation of mutual coupling and gain for spacing varied from 0.6 λg to 0.9 λg.
Table I
Effect on Mutual Coupling and Gain due to variation in Spacing between the Elements
Spacing between Mutual Gain
the Elements (d) Coupling (dBi)
(dB)
0.6 λg >10 7.6
0.7 λg >13 9.94128
0.8 λg > 20 10.6474
0.9 λg >22 10.9192

By maintaining the main lobe to side lobe ratio below 20 dB and considering the
mutual coupling, size of the antenna and overall gain, it has been found the optimum
spacing between the elements is 0.8 λg.

Results and Discussion

The proposed antenna is designed for microstrip phased array radar which is used to
detect the blind spot zone in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). The antenna is
simulated using a method of moment based software IE3D™. The return loss shows that
the antenna element is resonant at 5.88GHz. The input impedance shows that it is
perfectly matched with the feed elements. The mutual coupling between the patch
elements for a spacing of 0.8λg is shown in Fig 6. It is seen that the mutual coupling
between the array elements is below 20 dB in the concerned band cantered at 5.88GHz.
The Fig 7 shows the radiation pattern of the microstrip phased array antenna. As it is a
phased array antenna, from it is observed that the main beam is tilted by 30° from the
broad side direction. As discussed before, to achieve this much inclination of the main
beam, a progressive phase sifter has been designed and simulated.

Fig. 5 Return loss of the phased array Fig. 6 Mutual coupling between the
antenna. elements for a spacing of 0.8λg.

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 Fig. 7 3D Radiation pattern of microstrip phased array antenna showing the 30º tilted
main lobe.

Conclusions
The present work is based on the design of microstrip phase array radar where the array
distribution is based on Tchebyscheff polynomial. This design helps to increase the gain
by maximizing the main lobe to side lobe level ratio with a specified beam width of the
antenna. The system is used to detect the blind spot area of an intelligent mobile vehicle.
This design work can be extended for a large array with more number of elements as well
as simulating the effect of the vehicle body on the radiation characteristics of the array.

References
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