Three Dual Polarized 2.
4GHz Microstrip Patch
Antennas for Active Antenna and In-band Full
Duplex Applications
Haq Nawaz ,Student Member, IEEE
Department of Electronics Engineering
Sabanci University
Istanbul, Turkey
hnawaz@sabanciuniv.edu
Abstract— This paper presents the design, implementation
and interport isolation performance evaluation of three dual
port, dual polarized 2.4GHz microstrip patch antennas. Input
matching and interport isolation (both DC and RF) performance
of implemented antennas has been compared by measuring the
input return losses (S11,S22) and interport isolation (S12)
respectively at 2.4GHz. Two implemented single layer antennas
provide around 40dB RF interport isolation while the multilayer
antenna has 60dB isolation between transmit and receive ports at
centre frequency with DC isolated ports. The multilayer antenna
provides more than 55dB interport isolation for antenna`s 10 dB
input impedance bandwidth of 50MHz.
Keywords—dual polarized; high interport isolation; active
antenna; in band full duplex antenna
I. INTRODUCTION
Compact dual port, dual polarized microstrip patch
antennas with DC and RF isolated ports are preferred for
active integrated antenna technology [1-2].Such compact
antennas are also used to implement retrodirective arrays [3]
and amplifying reflect arrays [4] where polarization diversity
is utilized to differentiate between incident and transmitted
signals. Dual polarized microstrip antennas with high RF
interport isolation are also used for realization of radio
transceiver with shared antenna architecture which uses single
antenna both for transmit and receive radio signals at same
carrier frequency.
Dual port microstrip antenna with two RF isolated ports at
operating frequency are required for in band full duplex
operation but both ports should be DC isolated in addition to
RF isolation for active antenna applications. Probe fed and
quarter wave transmission line fed dual polarized microstrip
antennas use external capacitors on each port for DC isolation
when used for active antenna applications but these additional
capacitors degrade the polarization purity of antenna and
obstructs the realization of compact design [1].Some antennas
use multilayer complex structures for DC isolation [5].High
port to port RF isolation is achieved by using dual polarized
This work was supported in part by The Scientific and Technological
Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under Grant 215E326.
978-1-5090-2586-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
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Ibrahim Tekin, Senior Member, IEEE
Department of Electronics Engineering
Sabanci University
Istanbul, Turkey
tekin@sabanciuniv.edu
microstrip patch antenna along with external circuitry [6] to
suppress mutual coupling between ports. Radio transceivers
deploy microstrip patch antenna with high RF interport
isolation in conjunction with self interference suppression at
analog and digital stages to accomplish in band full duplex
wireless operation [7].
In this work, two single layer and one multilayer dual port,
dual polarized microstrip patch antennas have been presented.
The first single layer antenna deploys microstrip-T for patch
excitation from both ports while the second single layer
antenna uses quarter wave microstrip feed for feeding patch
antenna from one port while other port is again EM coupled
through microstrip-T. The implemented multilayer antenna
structure utilizes slot coupled port and microstrip-T coupled
port for DC isolation and high RF interport isolation.
II. DUAL POLARIZED SINGLE LAYER MICOSTRIP PATCH
ANTENNA WITH T-SHAPED FEEDING STRUCTURE
The proposed dual polarized 2.4GHz single layer
antenna structure uses two T-shaped microstrip transmission
lines to feed the square patch through electromagnetic
coupling from two orthogonal edges [1],[8] as shown in Fig.1.
Fig. 1. Geometry of dual port microstrip patch antenna with both ports
coupled through microstrip-T
The dimensions of antenna are kept symmetrical in our
design to get same resonant frequencies for both ports.
Microstrip-T feed also acts as impedance transformer to match
the 50 ohms port with radiating patch. The gap between patch
and microstrip-T along with length and width of transmission
line defines the impedance of feeding structure [1].The
antenna provides dual polarization due to feeding from two
orthogonal edges. The microstrip-T should have two identical
arms adjacent to patch respective edge and its centre should
coincide with edge centre in order to achieve maximum RF
interport isolation at required operating frequency, otherwise
peak interport isolation notch frequency will be shifted [6],[9].
The proposed antenna was simulated using Keysight
Advanced Design System (ADS) Momentum software [10] in
order to verify input matching and radiation characteristics for
each port excitation while terminating the other port with 50
ohms. The simulated radiation characteristics endorse the dual
polarized nature of proposed antenna for 2.4GHz frequency.
The antenna is linear vertical polarized for one port and linear
horizontal polarized when the other port is excited with 4.5dBi
gain for each port excitation.
Measured interport isolation is better than 37dB for
antenna’s 10dB input impedance bandwidth of 50MHz as
shown in Fig.3.As both ports excite the radiating patch
through EM coupling so implemented antenna provides DC
isolation along with 42dB RF isolation at centre frequency
through orthogonal polarization. The implemented antenna
can be effectively used for active antenna application without
requirement of any capacitor at each port. External self
interference cancellation circuitry can be deployed [6] with
implemented antenna to achieve additional interport isolation
for in band full duplex applications.
III. DUAL POLARIZED SINGLE LAYER PATCH ANTENNA
WITH HYBRID FEEDING STRUCTURE
The proposed 2.4GHz dual polarized single layer patch
antenna utilizes different feeding technique for each port
excitation. The square microstrip patch is fed with quarter
wave microstrip line from one port while the other port is
microstrip-T coupled as shown in Fig.4. Both ports exist on
centre of respective orthogonal edges. The antenna still
provides DC interport isolation due to non-existence of direct
path between port 1 and port 2.RF isolation is again achieved
by dual polarization. Keysight Advanced Design System
(ADS) Momentum software was again used to verify port
matching and radiation properties of proposed antenna.

Fig. 2. Implemented Dual polarized 2.4GHz patch antenna with both T-

shaped coupled ports

Antenna was implemented on 1.6mm thick FR-4 substrate

(ε = 4.4, tangent loss =.02) as shown in Fig.2. Measured S11
and S22 for port 1 and port 2 respectively and interport
isolation (S12) results are shown in Fig. 3. The measured return
losses (S11, S22) and interport isolation (S12) are around 15 dB
and 42dB respectively at centre frequency. Fig. 4. Geometry of dual port microstrip patch antenna with one microstrip
0 fed port and one EM coupled Port
-5
Low cost, 1.6mm thick FR-4 substrate (ε = 4.4, tangent
-10 loss =.02) was used for antenna’s implementation. The
simulated S11,S22
measured S11
implemented single layer antenna is shown in Fig.5.
-15
measured S22
Magnitude (dB)

simulated S12
-20
measured S12
-25

-30

-35

-40

-45
2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5 2.55
Frequency (GHz)
Fig. 3. Simulated and measured S11, S22 and S12 parameters for dual Fig. 5. Implemented Dual polarized 2.4GHz patch antenna with one
polarized microstrip antenna with both microstrip-T coupled ports microstrip-T coupled port and one direct microstrip fed port

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 Measured input matching for each port and RF interport
isolation results are shown in Fig. 6.The antenna has good
matching for both ports and measured interport isolation (S12)
is 40dB at resonant frequency. The measured interport
isolation is better than 35dB for antenna’s 10dB input
impedance bandwidth of 50MHz.The implemented antenna
with two DC and RF isolated ports can be deployed for active
antenna applications and also for realization of dual port
antennas with high interport isolation for in band full duplex
applications as discussed earlier.
0
radiating patch. The slot/aperture coupled microstrip patch
antenna provides improved input impedance bandwidth as
compared to single layer microstrip fed patch antennas
[13].This improvement results from tuning stub which is used
to tune the reactance of aperture coupled antenna (which is
mainly resulted from thick substrates) to achieve optimum
input matching [12].

-5

-10
simulated S11
-15 measured S11
simulated S22
Magnitude (dB)

-20 measured S22

simulated S12
-25 measured S12

-30

-35
Fig. 7. Geometry of dual port microstrip patch antenna with one microstrip
-40 fed port and one slot coupled Port

-45
2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4 2.45 2.5 2.55
The dual polarized slot coupled antenna was simulated
Frequency (GHz) using Keysight Advanced Design System (ADS) Momentum
Fig. 6. Simulated and measured S11, S22 and S12 parameters for dual polarized software. The simulations were performed with infinite slot
microstrip patch antenna with one microstrip-T coupled port and one ground plane. Both substrate layers are comprised of 1.6mm
microstrip direct fed port
thick FR-4 substrate (ε = 4.4, tangent loss =.02) as shown in
Fig.7.The optimized dimensions for both radiating element
IV. MULTILAYER DUAL POLARIZED PATCH ANTENNA and feeding structures are also shown in Fig.7.
The proposed multilayer antenna configuration uses one The implemented dual port, dual polarized antenna is
microstrip-T coupled port but the other port is slot coupled. shown in Fig.8.The microstrip feed line under the ground
The slot coupled port excites the radiating element through a plane as shown in Fig.8 (b) is used to excite the antenna
small aperture in the ground plane which is sandwiched through slot coupled port1 .The ground plane with rectangular
between two dielectric layers. The shape of coupling slot in aperture is sandwiched between two 1.6mm thick FR-4
ground plane greatly affects the amount of coupling from feed substrate layers.
line to radiating element and the rectangular slot has better
coupling efficiency as compared to circular coupling slot for a
given area of aperture [11].
The proposed structure consists of two substrate layers as
shown in Fig.7. The radiating element is placed on top of
upper dielectric layer and ground plane with rectangular
coupling slot is sandwiched between two dielectric layers.
Microstrip feed line for patch excitation through EM coupling
is placed on bottom surface of second dielectric layer. The
length of slot determines the amount of coupling and level of
back radiation. The coupling level also depends upon the
width of slot but it is less sensitive as compared to its (a) Top Side (b) Back side
dependency on slot length and the maximum amount of Fig. 8. Constructed dual port,dual polarized multilayer patch antenna
coupling is achieved when the feed line is placed
perpendicular to centre of coupling slot [12]. The simulated and measured S11, S22 and S12 results are
The width of slot coupled feed line defines its impedance shown in Fig.9 for implemented dual polarized antenna with
and also affects the coupling level between feed line and one slot coupled and one microstrip-T coupled port. The slot

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coupled port (port1) has better impedance bandwidth as
compared to microstrip fed port as expected and clearly
visible from Fig.9. The implemented antenna provides 60dB
interport isolation at centre frequency and port to port
isolation is around 55dB for 50MHz antenna’s 10dB
impedance bandwidth. Thus, slot coupled microstrip patch
antenna provides better inter-port isolation performance as
compared to other two antennas presented here.
0 [1]
-10
-20
Magnitude (dB)
-30
-40
-50
-60
2.2 2.25 2.3 2.35 2.4
Frequency (GHz)
Fig. 9. Simulated and measured S11, S22 and S12 results for dual polarized
patch antenna with one T-shed EM coupled port and one slot coupled
port
V. CONCLUSION
Hardware realization and interport isolation performance
of two single layer and one multilayer dual port, dual
polarized 2.4GHz microstrip antennas have been presented.
All proposed and implemented antennas use orthogonal
feeding ports to realize dual polarization but differ in feeding
configurations. These three implemented antennas provide DC
isolation in addition to high RF isolation between transmit and
receive ports. The implemented multilayer microstrip patch
antenna with one slot coupled port and other microstrip-T
coupled port has almost 20dB better interport isolation
performance both at centre operating frequency and also for
antenna’s 10dB input bandwidth of 50MHz as compared to
dual port single layer antennas. Implemented antennas can be
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used for active antenna configurations without additional RF
capacitors at antenna’s ports for DC isolation. High RF
interport isolation provided by these antennas enable them to
transmit and receive radio signals at same frequency (in band
full-duplex operation).
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