2019 International Conference on Innovative Trends in Computer Engineering (ITCE’2019), Aswan, Egypt, 2-4 February 2019
WiFi Antenna Design and Modeling using Artificial
Neural Networks
Passant k. Abbassi
Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Engineering
German University in Cairo
Cairo, Egypt
passant.abbassy@guc.edu.eg
A. M. M.A. Allam
Department of Electrical and Communication Engineering
German University in Cairo
Cairo, Egypt
abdelmegid.allam@guc.edu.eg
Abstract— Artificial neural networks (ANN) have gained
popularity in microwave modeling, design and simulations. This
article is devoted to designing efficient antenna to achieve high
gain and optimal impedance matching in addition to employing
ANN to model the microstrip antenna. The proposed elliptical
patch antenna operates at 2.4 GHz used for wireless applications.
The ANN is fed with data set derived by CST EM simulator to
train and test the NN model. The feed-forward back-propagation
ANN is used along with Levenberg-Marquart (LM) learning
algorithm to model the antenna. Extensive analyses has been
carried out to provide an efficient ANN model by the aid of
statistical measures as mean square error (MSE), mean error and
standard deviation error. Moreover, the proposed antenna is
fabricated and measured. A high agreement between simulated
and measured antenna return loss is illustrated.
Keywords— Artificial neural networks; Microstrip antenna;
WiFi antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
WiFi antenna has various applications in wireless
communication systems such as mobile phones, laptops, digital
cameras, radios, radars, and satellite communications which
have been growing rapidly. The emerging communication
devices demand low profile, compact size, low weight, low
cost, easily fabricated antenna and compatibility with
integrated microwave circuits. Those desired necessities are
attained by the microstrip patch antenna due to their attractive
features [1, 2]. The major challenge is that the antenna design
and analysis require rigorous electromagnetic simulators and
intensive numerical computations such as finite element
methods (FEM), method of moments (MOM) and finite
difference time domain (FDTD) [1–3].
Artificial neural networks has emerged as a fast tool in
microwave modeling and simulations. This can be attributed to
their ease of modeling non-linear relationships between
antenna’s parameters and its characteristic. ANNs are
recognized by their fast learning ability, less computation time
compared to computer aided designs. The computations
performed by ANN are at lower runtime as well as reduced
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N. M. Badra
Department of Engineering Physics and Mathematics
Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University
Cairo, Egypt
niveen_badra@eng.asu.edu.eg
Ahmed El-Rafei
Department of Engineering Physics and Mathematics
Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University
Cairo, Egypt
ahmed.elrafei@eng.asu.edu.eg
mathematical computational complexities [4–6]. ANN is
trained by the data generated using CST EM simulator.
Consequently, after a well-trained efficient ANN, this ANN
model is used for any further desired computations instead of
the EM simulator for rapid analysis with high performance.
A literature review has been explored for WiFi antenna
design and the use of ANN in optimization and modeling of
microstrip antenna in wireless communication systems. In [7],
the ANN was used in tulip-shaped antenna dimensions
optimized for X-band (8 to 12GHz) and Ku-band (12 to
18GHz). The article [8], provides a survey on the utilization of
ANN for distinct antenna design parameters optimization. In
[9], a circular patch antenna is designed to operate at UHF and
C-band. ANN is used for optimizing the resonance frequencies.
In reference [6], two different antenna designs were studied
using ANN where radial basis feed forward NN is used. The
authors of [10], proposed a rectangular microstrip patch
antenna resonating at 2.4GHz using distinct substrate material;
alumina and paper. The paper substrate has return loss of -
27.74 dB, gain 3.8dB, and bandwidth 0.0117 while alumina
substrate has return loss of -14.56dB, gain 4.79dB and
bandwidth 0.0182. In reference [11], an antenna is designed for
ambient WiFi energy harvesting system at 2.4GHz. The
antenna return loss is about -18dB and gain 4.5dB. A wideband
printed monopole antenna for WiFi/WiMAX applications over
a frequency 2.4- 4.2GHz is presented in [12]. The antenna has
a return loss of -20dB, gain 2.3dB and 54.5% impedance
bandwidth.
The purpose of this paper is to design an elliptical WiFi
antenna operating at 2.4GHz and model it using ANN. The
elliptical design is chosen for its compactness, ease of design
and fabrication. In addition, the ellipses round edges provide a
wide impedance matching bandwidth. The paper contains four
main sections in addition to the conclusion. Section II presents
the antenna design. The ANN architecture and training is
presented in Section III. In Section IV, the statistical numerical
results, antenna fabrication, and measurements are
demonstrated. Section V concludes the paper.
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 II. ANTENNA DESIGN output layer [7–9], [13–16]. The learning algorithm is used
The proposed microstrip antenna structure consists of three for training the NN by adjusting the weights to minimize the
connected ellipses with major axes R1, R2 and R3 depicted in error between the ANN output and the CST simulated results
Fig.1. The elliptical patch antenna etched on the top of FR4 of the training samples. The utilized ANN parameters are
substrate with dielectric constant 4.3 and 1.6 mm thickness, given by Table II.
respectively. The antenna design parameters are listed in Table In order to obtain an efficient ANN model, the antenna
I. The ellipses dimensions are constructed to resonate at parameters and their dimensions are set by the aid of CST.
2.4GHz by the aid of CST simulator. The antenna is fed using a The ANN models the non-linear relationship between the
50Ω microstrip feed line. inputs and outputs. The network input parameters are the three
major axes (R1, R2 and R3) of the three connected ellipses.
The ANN input parameters are bounded as shown in Table III
according to the resonance frequency. The other antenna
parameters are fixed. The output parameters are the return loss
and the gain. A feed-forward back-propagation artificial
neural network (FFBP-ANN) along with Levenberg-
Marquardt optimization algorithm is used to model the
antenna design. This algorithm is recommended for its quick
learning ability and its good convergence characteristics.
The CST EM simulator is used to drive 160 observations
for distinct values of the input parameters and their
corresponding return loss and gain. The ANN is fed with the
predefined 100 data set respective to the resonance frequency.
The data is divided into 100 observations for training and 60
observations for testing the neural network. ANN is trained
(a) (b) using MATLAB neural network toolbox. It is aimed at
minimizing the ANN mean square error (MSE) which reveals
Fig. 1. The designed antenna geometric structure
the ANN performance given by Equation (1) [4].
(a) Top view (b) Bottom view
1 n [y − F ( x )]2
TABLE I. ANTENNA DESIGN PARAMETERS
MSE =  i ANN i (1)
n i =1
Antenna Parameters Dimension (mm)
Truncated Ground Length 10 where n is number of observations and y is the target output
i
Substrate (L × W) 100 × 60 by CST. The estimated output by ANN is given by F (x ) .
ANN i
Relative Permittivity of Substrate 4.3
Substrate Height 1.6
Ellipse 1 Major Axis (R1) 30.06
Ellipse 2 Major Axis (R2) 30.5
Ellipse 3 Major Axis (R3) 31.5
Ellipse 1 Minor Axis 10
Ellipse 2 Minor Axis 20
Ellipse 3 Minor Axis 26
Microstrip Feed Line Width 3.13 Fig. 2. Artificial neural network structure

III. ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK (ANN) ARCHITECTURE TABLE II. NEURAL NETWORK PARAMETERS
AND TRAINING Antenna Parameters Value
An artificial neural network is an intelligent algorithm for Number of Input Layer Neurons 3
modeling microwave problems. Neural network acts as a black
box that models antenna design using its learning capability. Number of Output Layer Neurons 2
The ANN multilayer perceptron (MLP) architecture is
Number of Hidden Layer Neurons 10
depicted in Fig.2. It is used to model the elliptical antenna
design proposed. It is composed of three layers; input layer, Learning Rate 0.09
hidden layer and output layer. Each layer is composed of
neurons called nodes where nodes from input layer are Number of Epochs 1000
interconnected to the nodes in the hidden layer. Similarly, the
Training Algorithm Levengberg-Marquardt (LM)
nodes in the hidden layer are connected to the nodes in the

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 TABLE III. BOUNDARIES OF INPUT DESIGN PARAMETERS TABLE VI. MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION ERROR FOR RETURN LOSS
AND GAIN

Design parameters Lower bound (mm) Upper bound (mm)

Error Standard
R1 26.55 32.45 Mean Error
Design Deviation
R2 27.45 33.55 parameters Return Return
Gain(dB) Gain(dB)
loss(dB) loss(dB)
R3 28.35 34.65
Varying R1 0.2014 0.0435 0.2020 0.0383
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Varying R2 0.4086 0.0202 0.5200 0.0169
The neural network is evaluated using a test data set. The Varying R3 0.2495 0.0359 0.1831 0.0457
ANN estimates the output results which are compared later
with the target simulated CST results. Table IV presents 60 test
observations for different inputs R1, R2 and R3. The first The MSE reveals that the target and estimated outputs are
twenty observations are concerning varying R1 where R2 and very close for both return loss and gain. The target and
R3 kept constant. Similarly the second and third twenty estimated return loss show that above 90% of the available
observations are concerning varying R2 and R3 respectively. A power is being delivered to the antenna. The simulated and
statistical comparison has been made clarifying the MSE in estimated return loss and gain are plotted against the varying
Table V. In addition; the mean error and standard error are axes for each observation illustrated in Fig.3, Fig.4 for varying
reported in Table VI. The MSE is evaluated for all 60 R1, Fig.5, Fig.6 for varying R2 and Fig.7, Fig.8 for varying
observations each 20 observations separately using Equation R3.The results indicate a high agreement between simulated
(1). The mean and standard deviation error are calculated using and estimated data. Consequently ANN accurately models the
the error evaluated by Equation (2). elliptic microstrip antenna design.

Error = y − F (x ) (2)
i ANN i
where y is the target output by CST. The estimated output by
i
ANN is given by FANN ( xi ) .

TABLE IV. COMPARISON BETWEEN SIMULATED AND ESTIMATED

TESTING DATA

Targets Outputs
Inputs
Simulated by CST Estimated by ANN
Return Gain Return Gain
R1 R2 R3
loss(dB) (dB) loss(dB) (dB)
1 25.55 30.5 31.5 -17.1831 4.201 -17.188 4.3441

2 25.845 30.5 31.5 -17.4797 4.236 -17.430 4.3467

…

Fig. 3. Simulated and estimated antenna return loss for varying R1

20 31.155 30.5 31.5 -22.3354 4.474 -22.556 4.5055

21 29.5 27.45 31.5 -31.6676 4.521 -31.727 4.4782

22 29.5 27.755 31.5 -32.9704 4.517 -32.763 4.4835

…

40 29.5 33.245 31.5 -20.2847 4.424 -20.229 4.4548

41 29.5 30.5 28.35 -21.0438 4.497 -21.054 4.5021

42 29.5 30.5 28.665 -21.5295 4.488 -21.471 4.5023

…

60 29.5 30.5 34.335 -27.9300 4.361 -27.618 4.3627

TABLE V. MSE FOR RETURN LOSS AND GAIN

Design Mean Square Error (MSE)

parameters Return loss(dB) Gain(dB)
Varying R1 0.0793 0.0033
Fig. 4. Simulated and estimated antenna gain for varying R1
Varying R2 0.4238 6.7852e-04
Varying R3 0.0941 0.0033

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 Fig. 5. Simulated and estimated antenna return loss for varying R2 Fig. 8. Simulated and estimated antenna gain for varying R3

The designed antenna is fabricated and measured using

network analyzer ROHDE&SCHWARZ ZVB20. Fig.9
demonstrates the simulated and measured return loss which
resonates at 2.4GHz. The antenna conducts the frequency
band of WiFi application. A high agreement between
simulated and measured return loss can be observed.
The radiation pattern is depicted in Fig.10 where the gain
is 4.509dB at 2.4GHz. The surface current is shown in Fig.11
where it is accurately aligned at the antenna edges.

Fig. 6. Simulated and estimated antenna gain for varying R2

Fig. 9. Simulated and measured antenna return loss

Fig. 7. Simulated and estimated antenna return loss for varying R3

Fig. 10. Radiation pattern at 2.4GHz

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Fig. 11. Designed antenna surface current
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents an elliptical patch microstrip antenna
using a 50Ω microstrip feed line designed and simulated at
2.4GHz. The proposed antenna gives a bandwidth of 32.17%
covering the range of 2.0087-2.7809 GHz in microwave band
which fits WiFi applications. The proposed antenna design
achieved a return loss -28.24dB and gain 4.509dB which is
enhanced than other former research’s conducted in the design
of WiFi antennas as formerly stated [10–12]. The antenna is
fabricated and the return loss is measured to validate the design
against the simulation. The simulated and measured return loss
reveals an efficient design. Moreover, the ANN is employed to
construct an efficient NN model for the elliptical designed
antenna geometry thus faster computations and reduced
simulation complexities are achieved. A comparative
performance analysis is constructed using simulation results
obtained from the CST EM simulator against ANN estimated
results. Statistical performance analysis which includes MSE,
mean error and standard deviation error showed high
agreement between simulated and estimated results.
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