International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation (ICCCA2015)

Circularly Polarized Microstrip Antenna on Hilbert

Curve Artificial Magnetic Conductor Surface

Gaganjot Kaur1 , Chahat Jain2

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
1
Student Master of Technology
2
Assistant Professor
Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College
Ludhiana, India
1
dhillongagan1991@gmail.com
2
chahatjain26@gmail.com

Abstract—Circularly polarized microstrip antenna on
artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is introduced in this paper.
The antenna employs single feed and rectangular patch as
radiating elements. In order to achieve low profile and axial ratio
near about 0dB an AMC is utilized as a reflector of antenna.
AMC composed of periodic arrangement of Hilbert Curve. A
circular microstrip patch antenna is designed to operate at 2.45
GHz with circular polarization. Details of the simulated results
are presented and discussed.
Keywords— Hilbert Curve, Artificial Magnetic
Conductor(AMC), Rectangular microstrip patch, circular
polarization
I. INTRODUCTION
Low profile circularly polarized microstrip antennas (MSA)
on AMC surface have been proposed [1]. Many MSA shapes
are available to generate circular polarization using single feed
and multiple feed [2]. Planar periodic metallic arrays behave as
artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) surfaces [3]. When this
metallic array placed on a grounded dielectric substrate they
introduce a zero degrees reflection phase shift to incident
waves [4]. They help in improve the performance of antenna.
Using single feed circular polarization can be obtained by
introducing slots on opposite corners of microstrip patch
antenna. Circular polarization (CP) of an electromagnetic wave
is a polarization in which the electric field of the passing wave
does not change strength but only changes direction in a rotary
manner. A circular polarized wave radiates energy in both the
horizontal and vertical planes and all planes in between. When
Circular polarized antenna and a linear polarized antenna tries
to talk to each other, there is only a 3dB loss with the
orientation of the two antennas. Circular polarization gives
good weather penetration as compared to linear polarization.
AMC surfaces have a forbidden frequency band over which
surface waves and currents cannot propagate.
A CP microstrip antenna on an AMC surface has been
designed to operate on 2.45 GHz frequency. The performance
of resulting antenna has been analyzed using Zealand’s IE3D
software.
The paper is organized in this way, problem formulation
discussed in section II, and then in section III geometry of
proposed structure, in section IV simulated results are
discussed.
II. PROBLEM FORMULATION
There were two problems in communicating signal. First is
when linear polarized antenna turned by 90° it changes its
polarization. Whenever a vertically polarized antenna tries to
communicate with a horizontally polarized antenna (this is
called cross-polarization), and vice versa, signal strength loss
is 30dB. Second, when using antenna near PEC reflector, its
separation must be a quarter-wavelength for optimum
radiation due to the reverse image currents which reduce the
radiation efficiency. For PMC, the dipole can be placed
immediately above the reflector, which reduces its profile to
about λ/20 without affecting its performance. PECs have the
property of phase reversal of the incident currents that result in
destructive interference of the original antenna currents. If this
occurs with a PMC surface, such phase will be 0◦. AMC
instead of PMC are used as pure PMC surfaces cannot be
found in nature and have led to a wide range of microwave
circuit applications.
III. GEOMETRY OF THE PROPOSED STRUCTURE
A. AMC design
Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the Hilbert Curve AMC
structure. The structure is designed on 26.5 x 26.5mm2 plane.
Substrate used is RT/Duroid 6010 with a relative permittivity
of 10.2, a loss tangent of 0.0023, and a thickness of 2.54 mm
(at 2.45 GHz). AMC surface composed of periodic
arrangement of Hilbert curve inclusions on conducting plane.
Hilbert curve with no via is designed on square patch of the
AMC unit cell. The one side dimension of Hilbert curve, d is
given by,
(1)
L is total length of curve, n is iteration order [5].

ISBN:978-1-4799-8890-7/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 1284

 International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation (ICCCA2015)

L=7d=24.5mm
d=3.5mm (8)
From above equations putting value of c = 3x 108m/s and other
parameters length L and width W of antenna calculated. L=
19mm and W=26mm. For circular polarization slots have been
introduced on opposite corners of the patch.

W=L+hw
=26.5mm L=19mm

10mm
a=1.5mm
55º

w=26mm
hw=2mm
Fig. 1: Hilbert Curve AMC

B. Antenna Design
Rectangular Microstrip patch antenna is designed on AMC
surface. MPA is metalized pattern on thin substrate having 55º
thickness 1.6mm. Substrate material used for antenna design is
same as that used for AMC surface [6]. Length and width for Fig. 2: Microstrip Patch Antenna on AMC surface
antenna design are calculated using formulas given below
through equation (4) to (8). C. Feeding Technique
The main parameters for the design: There are various feeding techniques available to feed an
• Resonant frequency, fo = 2.45 GHz antenna. Coaxial probe feed is most common feeding
• Relative permittivity of Dielectric Substrate εr = 10.2 technique. It can be single or multiple fed. Single feed has
• Height of substrate, h= 1.6 mm been used in this paper for patch. Feed is given at points 0.4
and 1.4 along XY axis.
a) Effective dielectric constant

(4)
b) Length Extention is

(5)
c) Effective length

(6)
d) Actual length Fig. 3: Microstrip Patch Antenna on AMC surface after simulation

(7)
e) Patch width

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 International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation (ICCCA2015)
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSION
A. Return loss
It is important to find input and output of signal source. If
power is not delivered to load then there will be loss in signal.
This loss should be minimum. This is given by reflection
coefficient. It should be less than -10dB i.e. S11<-10dB.In this
paper S11 is -17.03.

Fig. 6: Directivity Vs Frequency

D. Efficiency
Efficiency determines power delivered to the antenna and the
power radiated or dissipated within the antenna. Efficiency of
simulated antenna design is 47.60%.

Fig. 4 : Return Loss

B. Axial Ratio
It is measure of circular polarization. Axial ratio is ration
of two orthogonal components of electric field. To obtain
good circular polarization axial ratio should be near about
0dB. Axial ratio is 0.629dB.

Fig. 7: Efficiency Vs Frequency

Fig. 5: Axial Ratio Vs Frequency
C. Directivity
The directivity of an antenna can be defined as the ratio of
radiation intensity in a given direction from the antenna to the
radiation intensity averaged in all the directions. Directivity is
3.5001 dB
V. CONCLUSION
A microstrip Patch Antenna on Hilbert Curve AMC has
been introduced at frequency 2.45 GHz. With the presence of
AMC, the antenna yield low profile, good CP, good
directivity. This paper presented a new design based on
providing slots on 2 opposite edges of a rectangular patch
antenna. Rectangular Microstrip Patch antenna on Hilbert
Curve AMC was designed for circular polarization using IE3D
software. Single feeding technique was used for feeding
antenna. The simulation gave results good enough to satisfy
our requirements to fabricate it on hardware which can be
used wherever needed.

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 International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation (ICCCA2015)
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