A Planar Zeroth-Order Resonator Antenna

Using a Left-Handed Transmission Line

Atsushi Sanada’, Masao Kimura’, Ikuo Awai’, Christophe Caloz’, Tatsuo Itoh3
‘Yamaguchi University, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
2-16-1 Ube, Yamaguchi 755-861 1, Japan, +81-836-85-9417, sanada@ieee.org

2Ecole Polytechnique MontrCal, Department of Electrical Engineering

3333, ch. Queen Mary, MontrCal H3V 1A2, Canada

’University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Electrical Engineering

405 Hilgard Avenue, CA90095-1594. USA

Abshaa - A novel planar antenna based on the zeroth-
order resonator (ZOR) which resonates with an infinite
wavelength is studied. Since the resonant frequency of the
ZOR antenna is determined not by the physical resonator
length hut by LCvalues loaded in the resonator, the antenna
size can he arbitrary regardless of the operation frequency
and, therefore, one can have I freedom in radiation pattern
design. A small-sued four-unitsell ZQR antenna with 75%
foot print area reduction compared with a conventional
patch antenna with a broad radiation pattero is
demonstrated at 4.88 GHz with a broad radiation.
I. INTRODUCTION
A wave in which phase velocity and group velocity
have opposite signs is known as a backward wave [I]. It
can be directly shown that the dual of the simple
transmission line shown in Fig. 1 (a) propagates the
backward wave by calculating the phase velocity vp =
w / p = -d(LC)”* and the group velocity vg = w’p =
o?(LC)I’~ leading to vp, < 0, where o is the angular
frequency and p is the phase constant. The transmission
line (TL) which supports the backward waves is referred
to as the left-handed (LH) TL [2-51.
Although the original LH TL model of Fig. 1 (a) gives
an intuitive explanation of the backward wave support, it
has an unphysical deficiency that the group velocity vg
exceeds the speed of light when w becomes large. This is
due to an ignorance of an inevitable parasitics in nature,
and a modified LH TL taking the parasitics into account,
which is referred to as the composite righaeft-handed
(CRLH) TL, has been proposed [6] as shown in Fig. 1
(h). The group velocity of the CRLH TL never exceed
the speed of light anymore, and the CRLH TL well
reflects the characteristics of a really implemented
periodic LH TL [7]. Microwave applications with
unusual properties have been proposed and demonstrated
based on the CRLH TL theory [6,7-1I].
The zeroth-order resonator (ZOR) [ I l l is one of the
applications exploiting a CRLH phenomenon in which
the CRLH TL supports an infinite wavelength (Ag= m) at
a finite microwave frequency, i.e., the voltage or currents
in the resonator are macroscopically uniform in the entire
TL line stmchue. When a CRLH TL forms an open-
ended resonator as depicted in Fig. 2 (a), it resonates
when p = nidi, where I is the physical length of the
resonator and n is the mode number as in an ordinary
resonator (see Fig. 2 (h)). The CRLH TL can resonate at
the zeroth-order mode (n = 0) with an infinite wavelength
as well as n = ?k modes ( k = 1,2, ... (N - I)), where N is
the number of the unit cell in the resonator. The zeroth-
order resonant frequency is determined only by the LC
values loaded in the unit cell and, therefore, it is
independent of the physical length 1. When the zero@-
order resonator is utilized to antennas, it inherits the
independence of the physical size, leading to one degree
of freedom in antenna design in terms of radiation pattern
choice, which will he an advantage of the ZOR antenna.
In this paper, a novel planar ZOR antenna using a CRLH
TL is proposed and its antenna characteristics are studied.
A four-unit-cell ZOR antenna prototype in the microstrip
configuration is designed at 4.88 GHz and tested
numerically and experimentally.
RESONATOR
11. ZEROTH-ORDER ANTENNA
Figure 3 (a) shows the proposed ZOR antenna
implemented in the microstrip line configuration. The
ZOR antenna consists of successively connected unit
cells each of which has a series interdigital capacitor and
a shunt meander line connected to a patch. When the
patch capacitance to the ground is large, the reactance of
the total shunt element in the unit cell becomes inductive
[11,12] and the circuit operates as a CRLH as in the
circuit of Fig. l(b). The equivalent circuit of the unit cell
can be rewritten as shown in Fig. 3 (h).
CYdz C,‘ldz
* q , ‘ / d z -
*
dz dz
(a) (b)
Fig. 1 Equivalent circuits for transmission lines which
propagate backward waves. (a) The dual of the conventional TL.
(b) The CRLH TL with a parasitic series inductance and a shunt
capacitance.

3 4 European
~ Microwave Conference - Amsterdam, 2004 1341

Fig. 2 Resonant modes in an open-ended CRLH TL. (a) Open-
ended CRLH TL with a physical length /. @) Resonant modes
of the open-ended CRLH TL resonator. The zeroth-order
resonance corresponds to = 0. The CRLH TL resonator also
resonateswithn=fkmodes(k= 1,2, ,.. (N-I).
By applying Bloch-Floquet periodic boundary
condition to the equivalent circuit of the unit cell shown
in Fig. 3 (b) and considering small losses (R << dR,
I/&, and G << OCR, l / d L ) ,one can obtain the
dispersion characteristics of the TL as [I31
where
and 4 = II(LLcL)I", ry, = 1/(LRCdIn, y. = I/(L~c~)"',
~ ' "09 = l/(LLC$". h addition, p is
a h = ~ / ( ~ L C and
the phase constant and a is the period of the unit cell. The
dispersion characteristics of (1) is depicted in Fig. 4.
The resonance occurs for the CRCH TL when
p, =E(n = 0, +I, d ,_..,f(N- I)). (3)
I
Here, I is the physical length of the resonator, n is the
mode number and N (= l/d) is the number of the unit
cells in the resonator. The resonant frequencies %'s are
distributed on the dispersion curves with a constant
spacing of ,&/N (BB = nid) along the p axis as shown by
the dots in Fig. 4.
By applying the condition B , = 0 to (I), we have the
resonant frequency of the open-ended ZOR antenna as
0, =- (4)
1342 34m European Microwave Conference - Amsterdam, 2004
unit eel1 Vlnual g"Ynd
capamor
(a)
cL LR
-B:g
R
(b)
Fig. 3 Microstrip ZOR antenna implementation. (a) Circuit
pattern. @) Equivalent circuit ofthe unit cell.
For the short-ended resonator, the resonant frequency
becomes
0,= 0 ,: (5)
For either of the open- or the short-ended resonator, the
resonant frequency depends only on the circuit elements
LL and CR or LR and CI.of the unit cell, and not the
physical length I of the resonator as in (4) and ( 5 ) . In the
particular case w = a h = yc, the zeroth-order resonance
still occurs for both the open- and short-ended resonators.
111. ANTENNA
DESIGNAND EXPERIMENTS
A 4-cell ZOR antenna of Fig. 3 (a) is designed on a
substrate with a thickness of 0.787mm and relative
permittivity G = 2.68. The period of the unit cell a is 2.5
mm. The width of the interdigital electrode is IOOpn and
the number of the electrode pairs is 4. The meander line
width is also IOOpn and the number of turns is 3. The
virtual ground patch size is 2.0 x 4.8mm'. The antenna is
matched with 50n by a 13.0 x 0.5mm2 inductive
coupling line.
The ZOR antenna is fabricated as shown in Fig. S(a).
About 75% footprint area is reduced compared with a ,U2
patch antenna on the same substrate (Fig. 5@)). Figure 6
shows a measured /SIIIat the input port of the antenna.
The zeroth-order resonant frequency is at 4.88 GHz and
resonant frequencies with negative mode number n are
below the ZOR frequency in the left-handed frequency
band. The right-handed resonances (n > 0) are above the
bandgap (> 1 l.8GHz) for this structure.
Figure 7 shows measured and full-wave simulated
radiation patterns of the ZOR antenna at its resonant
frequency of 4.88GHz. Solid lines are for measured

Fig. 4 Typical dispersion relation of the CRLH TL. The
resonant frequencies of a open- or short-ended CRLH TL
resonator are plotted with dots on the vg > 0 branch. (wn,
012)= (%, Q ), if 4,> %, or (On , 012)= ( 4 h I 4.1 if
4*> ah.
pB = idd.
(b)
Fig. 5 Prototypes. (a) Four-cell ZOR antenna fo = 4.88GHz).
(h) A patch antenna with the same substrate WO= 4.90 GHz).
results and dashed lines are for corresponding method of
moment simulation results. The measured and simulated
results agreed well with each other and broad directivity
is obtained. Measured return loss is -1ldB. The total
length of the antenna is lO.Omm, whereas the length of a
2 2 patch antenna on the same substrate with the same
operating frequency is 20.6mm (see Fig. 4 (b)).
IV. CONCLUSIONS
A novel planar ZOR antenna has been proposed. The
antenna size is determined not by the physical size but by
reactances loaded in the unit cell. A small-sized four-
unit-cell ZOR antenna with 75% foot print area reduction
compared with a conventional patch antenna with a broad
34” European Microwave Conference - Amsterdam, 2004
4 6 8 10 12
frequency (GHz)
Fig. 6 Measured lSlllof the prototype ZOR antenna.
-
- Experimems (CO-polar) ........
Experiments (crass polar)
Simulation (CO-polar)
Simulation (cross polar)
Fig. 7 Measured radiation patterns
radiation pattern is demonstrated at 4.88 GHz with a
broad radiation.
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