IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 19, NO.
5, MAY 2020
A Differentially Fed Broadband Multimode
Microstrip Antenna
Bo Cheng , Zhengwei Du , and Daiwei Huang
Abstract—A differentially fed microstrip antenna is proposed.
The antenna is mainly composed of four strips, two rows of shorting
pins, and four pieces of parasitic patches. The TM10 , antiphase
TM20 , and TM12 modes are excited and matched simultaneously
over a broadband. The experimental results show that, though the
proposed antenna has a low profile of 0.052λ0 (λ0 is the free-space
wavelength at the center frequency), it has the −10 dB impedance
operating band of 4.25–6.27 GHz and the relative bandwidth of
38.4%. The variation of the measured gain which is 7.21±0.36 dBi
is less than 1 dB over the whole operating band. The proposed
antenna achieves good performances of broadside radiation with
the measured front-to-back ratio of larger than 17 dB, stable
radiation patterns without null, and stable gain in the operating
band.
Index Terms—Broadband, differential feed, microstrip antenna,
multimode, stable gain.
I. INTRODUCTION
ICROSTRIP antennas have become a research hotspot in
M recent years because of the attractive advantages of light
weight, low cost, low profile, and conformability to mounting
devices [1]. However, a traditional microstrip antenna suffers
from narrow bandwidth, especially with a low-profile owing to
the high quality-factor (Q-factor) [2]. It results in limited em-
ployment in modern wideband communication systems. Many
methods have been proposed to increase the bandwidth of mi-
crostrip antennas, such as using etched slots [3], [4], an L-shaped
feeding probe [5], an E-shaped patch [6], [7], and multilayer
stacked patches [8].
Recently, a new method of exciting multiple modes of a
microstrip antenna in the operating band is reported [9]–[18]. It
can significantly enhance the bandwidth of a microstrip antenna
without increasing the profile. A slot-loaded square microstrip
antenna is proposed in [9]. The TM10 and TM01 modes are
excited simultaneously by using asymmetric slots loading. With
a profile of ∼0.01λ0 (λ0 is the free-space wavelength at the
center frequency), it achieves a relative bandwidth of 3.8%. In
[10], a metamaterial-based microstrip antenna is proposed. The
mushroom cell array is fed by a microstrip-line-slot structure,
and it can excite the TM10 and antiphase TM20 modes to enhance
the bandwidth of the antenna. The −10 dB impedance relative
Manuscript received December 24, 2019; accepted January 19, 2020. Date of
publication March 9, 2020; date of current version May 5, 2020. This work was
supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant
61771277. (Corresponding author: Zhengwei Du.)
The authors are with the Beijing National Research Center for Information
Science and Technology, Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua
University, Beijing 100084, China (e-mail: chengbodxm@163.com; zwdu@
tsinghua.edu.cn; 18291433412@163.com).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2020.2979492
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771
bandwidth of this antenna is 25% with a profile of 0.06λ0 . Based
on this work, the grid-slotted [11], [12] and strip-slotted [13],
[14] patch antennas are proposed. The relative bandwidths of the
grid-slotted antennas are 28% [11] and 28.4% [12]. The relative
bandwidths of the strip-slotted antennas are broadened to 41%
with a profile of 0.06λ0 by using a Y-shaped feeding line [13] and
36.5% with a profile of 0.052λ0 by using a coplanar waveguide
feeding [14]. An aperture-coupled microstrip antenna is reported
in [15], and a differentially fed microstrip antenna with etched
slots is presented in [16]. The TM10 and TM30 modes are excited
in these two works by using shorting pins and they get the relative
bandwidths of 15.2% and 13%, with the profiles of 0.032λ0
and 0.029λ0 , respectively. A differentially fed slot microstrip
antenna with the thickness of 0.06λ0 is proposed in [17], its
−10 dB impedance relative bandwidth is 55% by incorporating
the TM10 and TM12 modes, and a resonant slot mode. However,
the above antennas have some limits. The antennas in [10]–[12]
and [15]–[16] can excite only two modes and have narrow band-
widths. The antennas in [13], [14], and [17] have three resonant
frequencies in the operating band and have broad bandwidth
characteristics. But, the third resonant frequency brought by the
feeding structure [13], [14] or the slot mode [17] cannot provide
stable radiation patterns. Besides, these antennas suffer from
low front-to-back ratios (FBRs), large gain fluctuations, and
radiation pattern nulls. In [18], the TM10 , TM12 , and antiphase
TM22 modes are excited by a balun-fed grid-slotted microstrip
antenna. It does not need to be etched slots on the ground and
thus the backward radiation is reduced. Though, the FBR of this
antenna is increased to 16 dB, it has a complex structure and a
narrow bandwidth.
In this letter, to design a broadband microstrip antenna
with good radiation performances, a differentially fed multi-
mode microstrip antenna is proposed. It can excite three cavity
modes (the TM10 , antiphase TM20 , and TM12 modes) simul-
taneously. Its measured −10 dB impedance operating band is
4.25–6.27 GHz and the relative bandwidth is 38.4% with a pro-
file of 0.052λ0 . It has stable radiation patterns without null and
measured extremely stable gain of 6.85–7.57 dBi over the broad
operating band. Table I shows the comparisons of the proposed
antenna with some previous works on microstrip antennas. It
can be observed that the proposed antenna has advantages in
dimensions, bandwidth, gain stability in the operating band,
and FBR compared with the other listed multimode microstrip
antennas.
II. ANTENNA STRUCTURE
Fig. 1 presents the geometry of the proposed multimode
microstrip antenna and Table II lists the optimized dimensions.
772 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 19, NO. 5, MAY 2020

TABLE I TABLE II
COMPARISON OF SOME MICROSTRIP ANTENNAS OPTIMIZED DIMENSIONS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA (IN mm)

Fig. 2. Design concept of the proposed antenna. (a) Excitation of the antiphase
TM20 mode. (b) Excitation of the TM12 mode. (c) Excitation of TM10 mode.

The dimensions are obtained by optimization using the software

of High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS).
The radiation patch is printed on a grounded dielectric sub-
strate (substrate 1). Strip 2 and Strip 3 are shorted by two rows of
conductive vias (shorting pins), and there are eight vias in each
row. To provide the differential feed, a microstrip power divider
is printed on the dielectric substrate (substrate 2) underneath the
ground, and it uses the same ground with the microstrip antenna.
Both substrates have the relative permittivity of 3.38 and the loss
tangent of 0.002. The feeding point is located at the central point
of the edge as shown in Fig. 1(a) and (d). Two conductive vias
are used as feeding probes, the differential feeding microstrip
power divider, and the radiation strips are connected by them.
There are two holes on the ground of the antenna as shown in
Fig. 1(c), the feeding probes pass through the two holes and are
isolated from the ground. The two substrates are combined with
each other by four Teflon screws at four corners. There is a gap
on substrate 1 as shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b), it is used to provide
a space to weld the feeding port.

III. ANALYSES OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA

Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed antenna. (a) Prospective view. (b) Top view.
(c) Ground of the antenna. (d) Bottom view. (e) Side view.
It is easy to excite the TM10 and TM02 modes by a patch
antenna. As shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b), when two patches with
mirror symmetry structure are differentially fed, the electric
field distributions on the two patches are antiparallel and the
antiphase TM20 and TM12 modes can be excited. If the patches
are shorted at the null-voltage points of the antiphase TM20
mode, the electric field distributions will be reversed across the
shorting locations, and thus the TM10 mode can be excited,
which is shown in Fig. 2(c).
This design is to excite and combine the operating bands of
these three modes (the TM10 , antiphase TM20 , and TM12 modes)
to obtain a broadband microstrip antenna with good radiation

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CHENG et al.: DIFFERENTIALLY FED BROADBAND MULTIMODE MICROSTRIP ANTENNA
Fig. 3. Geometries of Ant 1, Ant 2, Ant 3, and Ant 4, and the electric field
distributions at some resonant frequencies. (a) Ant 1. (b) Ant 2. (c) Ant 3.
(d) Ant 4. (e) Proposed antenna.
Fig. 4. Simulated reflection coefficients of Ant 1, Ant 2, Ant 3, Ant 4, and the
proposed antenna.
performances. The design process of the proposed antenna
includes five steps, the corresponding five cases are shown in
Fig. 3. Fig. 4 presents the simulated reflection coefficients of the
five cases, which have been optimized to have good impedance
matching for comparisons.
Ant 1 is designed to excite the antiphase TM20 and TM12
modes. It consists of Strip 2 and Strip 3 and is differentially fed
by two probes. The antiphase TM20 and TM12 modes are excited
at 5.15 and 7.3 GHz, respectively. The electric field distributions
at the two frequencies are shown in Fig. 3(a). Because this
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773
Fig. 5. Impedance curves of Ant 3 and Ant 4 in the Smith Chart.
structure does not use any etched slot on the ground, it can get
a high FBR.
Two rows of shorting pins are added at the null-voltage points
of the antiphase TM20 mode, Ant 2 is formed. The electric field
distributions at around 4.6 GHz are reversed across the shorting
pins, and thus there is one variation of the electric field on the
radiation patch. The TM10 mode is excited at this frequency
and the antiphase TM20 mode (now at 5.2 GHz) is influenced
little. As shown in Fig. 4, the bandwidth of Ant 2 is broadened
by combining the operating bands of the TM10 and antiphase
TM20 modes, and the resonant frequency of the TM12 mode is
increased to 7.8 GHz.
Ant 3 is obtained by adding Strip 1 and Strip 4 to Ant 2 to
decrease the resonant frequency of the TM12 mode. The electric
field distributions of Ant 3 at 6 GHz are shown in Fig. 3(c). The
resonant frequency of the TM12 mode is reduced from 7.8 to
6 GHz. The mode appears at 7.5 GHz is the antiphase TM40
mode. As shown in Fig. 4, the TM12 mode is not matched well.
From the Smith Chart in Fig. 5, a shunt capacitor is needed to
reduce the feeding inductance to match the antenna.
Four pieces of parasitic patches working as the distributed
shunt capacitors are added to Ant 3, and then Ant 4 is con-
structed. From Fig. 5, the impedance curves move as expected
and the matching of the TM12 mode is enhanced. As shown in
Fig. 4, the operating bands of the three modes are combined
with each other and the broad bandwidth is obtained. It should
also be noticed that a new mode of the antiphase TM22 mode
is excited at 7.3 GHz by Ant 4. Both the antiphase TM22 and
antiphase TM40 (now at 7.7 GHz) modes can provide broadside
radiation patterns, but they have pattern nulls, and thus we do not
use these two modes to broaden the bandwidth of the designed
antenna.
Finally, a power divider is added to Ant 4 to offer an approx-
imately differential feeding, the proposed antenna is formed.
The resonant frequency of the antiphase TM20 mode is moved
to 5.5 GHz by the influence of the power divider. The electric
field distributions of the proposed antenna at the three resonant
frequencies are given in Fig. 3(e). Taking no account of the
influence of slots, the electric field distributions of the proposed
antenna at 4.2, 5.5, and 6 GHz resemble the TM10 , antiphase
TM20 , and TM12 modes, respectively. They behave as the design
process predicted and verify the design concept.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated as shown
in Fig. 6 and measured in an ETS-Lindgren AMS8500 anechoic
chamber.
774
Fig. 6. Photographs of the fabricated antenna. (a) Top view. (b) Back view.
(c) Ground at the interior of the antenna.
Fig. 7. Simulated and measured reflection coefficients of the proposed
antenna.
Fig. 8. Simulated and measured normalized radiation patterns of the proposed
antenna. (a) and (b) 4.4 GHz. (c) and (d) 5.6 GHz. (e) and (f) 6 GHz.
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IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 19, NO. 5, MAY 2020
Fig. 9. Simulated and measured efficiencies, gain and directivity of the pro-
posed antenna.
A. S-Parameters
Fig. 7 presents the simulated and measured reflection co-
efficients. The simulated −10 dB impedance operating band
is 4.12–6.25 GHz, and the relative bandwidth is 41.1%. The
measured −10 dB impedance operating band is 4.25–6.27 GHz,
and the relative bandwidth is 38.4%. The measured result is good
agreement with the simulated one. The little discrepancy mainly
comes from assembly and fabrication errors.
B. Radiation Performances
The simulated and measured normalized radiation patterns
at 4.4, 5.6, and 6 GHz are shown in Fig. 8. The E-plane and
H-plane correspond to XOZ and Y OZ planes, respectively. It
can be seen that the simulated copolarization radiation patterns
coincide well with the experimental results. The radiation pat-
terns are stable in the operating band and have no pattern null.
The measured FBR is larger than 17 dB. As shown in Fig. 9, the
simulated and measured efficiencies are higher than 87% and
75% over the whole operating band, and the simulated and mea-
sured gains are 6.97–7.76 dBi and 6.85–7.57 dBi, respectively.
Both the simulated and measured gains have small fluctuations
less than 1 dB. Since the directivity of the antenna increases at
the frequency higher than 6 GHz, the gain has a flatness though
the efficiency has a shape decline. The results show that the
proposed antenna has good broadside radiation performances.
V. CONCLUSION
In this letter, a broadband multimode differentially fed mi-
crostrip antenna is proposed. It is mainly composed of four
strips, two rows of shorting pins, and four pieces of parasitic
patches. The TM10 , antiphase TM20 , and TM12 modes are
excited and matched simultaneously. The measured −10 dB
impedance operating band is 4.25–6.27 GHz, and the relative
bandwidth is 38.4%. The measured gain in the operating band is
7.21 ± 0.36 dBi. The proposed antenna with a profile of 0.052λ0
achieves good performances of broadside radiation with stable
radiation patterns and high FBR of larger than 17 dB. It shows
that the proposed antenna has a broad bandwidth and stable gain
unlike the other broadband multimode microstrip antennas, and
has great potential applications in broadband communication
systems.
CHENG et al.: DIFFERENTIALLY FED BROADBAND MULTIMODE MICROSTRIP ANTENNA
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