Wideband Printed Dipole Antenna for Wireless LAN

Ying-Zeng Yin*, Jin-Ping Ma, Yong-Jiu Zhao, Hui-Li Zheng, and Yu-Mei Guo
National Laboratory of Antennas and Microwave Technology
Xidian University, Xi'an 710071, China
A wideband printed dipole antenna array is proposed for WLAN and Bluetooth
applications. The proposed antenna array consists of two printed-strip dipoles, the
arms of which are printed on opposite side of an electrically thin dielectric
substrate and connected through a parallel strip-line is presented. The printed strip
dipole antenna element is simulated by Ansoft HFSS 8.0. Several prototype
antennas are designed and fabricated. Broadband antennas with bandwidth greater
than 12% for VSWR <1.5 operating near 3.5GHz are obtained. This antenna is a
good candidate for which operating in 2.4GHz, 3.5GHz, or 5.8GHz. The
important advantages of these antennas are simplicity in structure, low cost, and
easy to manufacture and produce largely as printed circuits.
Introduction
Recently, there is tremendous demand for the development of wireless
communication systems for local access networks (WLAN) including Personal
Digital Assistants (PDA), portable PCs, and Bluetooth. These commercial
wireless communication systems generally require low-cost microwave
components and antennas. This demand has stirred significant interest in antenna
design particularly at the ISM bands. Many novel antenna structures for single,
dual, or multiple bands have been proposed [1-3]. Among them, printed circuit
antennas are desirable for their low cost, low profile, and conformity. Furthermore,
dipoles printed on an electrically thin dielectric substrate are commonly used as
radiating elements in base-station antennas as they are low weight, easy to
fabricate and can also offer relatively wide bandwidth and high-polarization
purity [4].
Various types of printed dipoles, including center-fed coplanar strips dipoles,
double sided printed dipoles, bowtie antennas and folded printed dipoles have
been studied [2-4]. Printed dipole radiators have been popular candidates for
phased array antennas that contain many elements because of their suitability for
integration with microwave integrated circuit modules. Arrays of double-sided
printed strip dipoles fed with corporate networks of parallel strip lines and backed
by conductor planes were developed for radar and various military applications.
Printed strip dipoles have also been considered for application in microwave and
millimeter-wave imaging systems. Printed dipoles on thin dielectric substrate with
a metallic ground plate have a number of advantages over the conventional
microstrip patch antennas such as wider bandwidth, smaller surface wave
excitation and less parasitic radiation of feeding lines.

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In this paper, a printed dipole antenna and arrays are presented, featuring in
wideband operation, constructional simplicity, and low manufacturing cost.
Backed by conductor planes, the antennas are developed for various applications
in GSM, CDMA, WLAN, PDA, portable PCs, and Bluetooth. The procedure used
to develop this antenna is described. Simulated and measured results show
wideband characteristic for the proposed antenna.
Design Procedure and Simulated Results
The printed dipole antenna consists of standard parallel-stripline-fed dipole of two
printed strip dipoles realized in double-sided configuration, as show in Figure 1.

-------

F(GHz)
Fig. 1 Printed dipole antenna structure Fig. 2 Calculated VSWR versus frequency

Two printed strip dipoles, with the arms printed on opposite sides of an
electrically thin dielectric substrate, are connected through a parallel stripline. The
double-sided configuration has been selected because it offers several practical
advantages such as the line polarity between the strip dipoles can be easily
reversed, also parallel striplines can offer low and large values of line impedances
with practically reasonable conductor widths. The height of dielectric substrate
with dielectric constant cr is h (h/k<< 1.0). The parallel stripline consists of two
broadside-coupled strips of width Wf, which is characterized by characteristic
impedance Zo and effective relative permittivity Ee. Dipoles printed on electrically
thin low-permittivity substrates behave similar performance to conventional
dipoles and have often been designed based on trial and error.
As a design example, an antenna printed on a dielectric substrate of height
h=0.5mm and relative permittivity = 2.2 is adopted to have an operation
,

frequency at around 3.4GHz by choosingL=37.5mm, W=14mm, W]=8mm,

d=8mm, and Wf =0.35mm. The distance between backed ground and the substrate
is 12.5mm. The dimensions and structure of the antenna are designed and
simulated with full wave EM simulator HFSS. The fed line is realized in the form
of a parallel stripline of width 0.35mm. The simulated input impedance
characteristic of this broad-band antenna is shown in Fig. 2. The characteristic
impedance of the fed line also affects overall performance of the antenna,
including input impedance that equals to the characteristic impedance of the

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simulated port, that is Z0 1200. The simulated results show that bandwidth
greater than 14.5% for VSWR < 2 around 3.4GHz is obtained.
Based upon the simulated results, a 4 x 4 elements array configuration is designed
for WLAN applications in point to point and/or point to multipoint
communications, which has the optimal weighted amplitudes of the planar array
in order to obtain a lower side-lobe level. The distances between the printed
dipoles are selected as 0.75X. The whole feed network is then arranged in a 4x4
elements array configuration, connected by a microstrip feeding network, and
then implemented on a double layer substrate. The amplitude and phase are
controlled to form a desired sidelobe level. The antenna array is fed from a
conventional 50Q coaxial line through a microstrip to parallel strip-line tapered
transition that gradually changes its profile from a microstrip line to a parallel
strip line. The tapered microstrip line is intended to be utilized as a wideband
tapered balun for the antenna array, which operates not only a
balanced-to-unbalanced transformation circuit, but also an impedance match due
to the different characteristic impedances of the antennas and the coaxial cable.
Figure 3 sketched the profile of the 4 x 4 elements array configuration.

Fig. 3 4 x 4 Elements Fig. 4 Measured VSWR for 4 x 4 elemsents

An antenna with the above stated dimensions was fabricated on a RTlDuroid
substrate with a thickness of 0.5mm and a relative dielectric constant c, of 2.2 and
its performance is measured. The measured VSVWR versus frequency for the
antenna is shown in Figure 4. The printed dipole antenna array provides 12
percent bandwidth (3.3GHz - 3.72GHz) for VSWR < 1.5 and 23 percent
bandwidth (3.17GHz - 4.OGHz) for VSWrR < 2. Therefore, this antenna covers
the frequency range of 3.3 GHz - 3.7GHz continuously and is useful for
GSM1800, PCS, IMT-2000, and ISM hand. The measured E-plane and H-plane
radiation patten s with cross-polarization patters at frequency of 3.5GHz are
plotted in Fig. 5. The beamwidth of the antenna array is 190 and the sidelobe level
is -16dB below the main beam. The backlobe level is -28.6dB. The
cross-polarization level is -25dB below the main beam. The directivity is 18.5dB.

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As we know from Fig.4 and Fig.5, the proposed antenna has wide bandwidth, and
is a good candidate for wideband antennas.
(a) H-plane (b) E-plane

0. \

-.0 :,

Fig. 5 Measured Co-polarization and cross-polarization patterns 3.5 GHz.

Conclusions
A printed strip dipole antenna possessing attractive impedance and radiation
characteristics has been proposed for integration with the wireless communication
networks operating at ISM band or other frequency band. The antenna model is
simulated, designed, fabricated and measured. Reasonable impedance bandwidth
and good range of coverage are obtained. The proposed antenna that comprised of
printed-strip-line and dipole can be utilized suitably in wideband wireless
communication systems.

References
[1] A. J. Parfitt, D.W. Griffin, and P. H. Cole, "Analysis of infinite arrays of
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[2] Faton Tefiku, and Craig A. Grimes, "Design of broad-band and dual-band
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Antennas and Propagations, Vol. 48, No. 6, pp895-900, June 2000
[3] B. Edward and D. Rees, "A broad-band printed dipole with integrated balun,"
Microwave J., pp. 339-344, May 1987.
[4] E. Levine, S. Shtrikman, and D. Treves, "Double-sided printed arrays with
large bandwidth," Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng. Microwave Opt. Antennas, pt. H, vol.
135, pp.54-59, Feb 1988.

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