Active Antenna
Igor Shirokov, Elena Shirokova
Electronics Engineering Department
Sevastopol State University
Sevastopol, Russia
shirokov@ieee.org, elenashirokova99@gmail.com
Abstract— The operation of active antenna in receiving and
transmitting modes is discussed. The antenna design is based on
the use of one-port resonant transistor amplifier with the opened
resonant system. Resonant system is realized on microstrip patch
antenna. The antenna operation assumes the implementation of
receiving and transmitting modes simultaneously. The switching
between receiving and transmitting modes does not need to be
implemented.
Index Terms— one-port microwave amplifier, active antennas;
microstrip antennas; FET
I. INTRODUCTION
The active antennas improve overall characteristics of any
radio engineering system [1]. However, the use of active
antenna as a front-end element puts some restrictions. Mostly
active antenna operates in single mode, receiving or
transmitting. The switching between these modes involves into
complicated commutations of the chains and the advantages of
active mode of antenna are losing.
The paper devoted to design of active antenna which
assumes no switching between receiving and transmitting
modes.
II. ACTIVE ANTENNA DESIGN
The microstrip antennas are worldwide used in
communication technique due to their small dimension and
weight, low cost [2]. The design of microstrip antennas
assumes the presence of ground plane, dielectric substrate, and
proper microstrip patch, mostly of rectangular shape. All of
these parts form the high-Q resonator. The excitation of the
resonator results in effective radiation (or receiving) of the
electromagnetic waves by its edge slots.
The bandwidth of microstrip antenna is quite narrow
because of its resonant nature. However, this shortcoming does
no play essential role in wide spectrum of application, where
the system operation implies the using of single frequency.
From the other hand, the presence of high-Q resonator, which
is formed by microstrip patch, ensures the use it as the tank in a
whole series of radio engineering chains. Particularly this patch
can be used as resonant tank of an active microstrip patch
antenna [3, 4], the sketch of which is shown in Fig. 1. The
design and the simulation of the active microstrip patch
antenna are described and well discussed in [4], however, its
design has to be improved and new simulations has to be
implemented.
Work has been carried out at the State support in a framework of implementation
of Project # 5.6208.2017/8.9 of base part of the State task of the RF.
978-1-5386-7102-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Fig. 1. Active antenna design.
The active antenna consists of proper microstrip patch 1,
dielectric substrate 2, ground plane 3, FET, bypass capacitor,
and input/output connector uI O ( t ) . All of mentioned items
with the proper connection of the parts form the amplifying
system with positive feedback. For the ensuring of proper
operation of the amplifier with positive feedback the source
and the gate of the FET has to be connected with the microstrip
patch via holes on a certain distances from its centre [3]. This
approach is absolutely equivalent to connection of transistor
leads with the inductor with the taps of conventional inductive
resonant chain (tank). In other words the connection of the FET
and the tank by such manner is equivalent to design of one-port
transistor amplifier [5].
The active antenna can operate in both modes: receiving
and transmitting. Furthermore, such arrangement opens a good
possibility for operation of described active antenna in both
modes simultaneously! This feature is irreplaceable for
operation of the system of RFID and positioning.
III. THE SIMULATION OF ACTIVE ANTENNA
The preliminary simulations of operation of the active
antenna were carried out [4]. Certain shortcomings of antenna
operation were exposed. These shortcomings are caused by the
connection of FET to proper microstrip patch antenna. This
connection changes the resonant frequency of the antenna and
a little bit non adequate results were obtained. As in a previous
case [4] the similar electromagnetic structure for simulation
was used and two antennas (antenna under the test and
auxiliary one) were used. As before, both antennas are located
in the same plane, which allows creating a single
electromagnetic structure in the AWR Microwave Office
design environment.
Initially both patches have equal width in 44.75 mm. The
height of both patches was the same and equal to 44.75 mm.
501 AP-S 2018
Patches were separated on 22 mm. For excitation of the patches
the 50-Ohm ports were used. Both ports are used for
microwave signals inputting and outputting.
The connection of the FET to the patch shifts the resonant
frequency of the schematic to the low direction. Such detuning
result in appearance of two maximums in transfer coefficients
from the first port to the second and vice versa, which are
shown in Fig. 2. The first at the frequency in 1.6 GHz, the
second at the frequency in 1.56 GHz. The sum amplification
slightly exceeds 10 dB.
Fig. 2. Results of simulation of initial EM structure and schematic.
It was decided to decrease the width and the high of the
patch of active antenna till 43.25 mm. The resonant frequency
of proper patch of active antenna will be 1.66 GHz, however
the resonant frequency of schematic will be 1.6 GHz. The plots
of transfer coefficients from the first port to the second and
vice versa, for last case are shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Results of simulation of modified EM structure and schematic.
In this figure both couples of transfer coefficients are
shown: separate for the electromagnetic structure (blue squares
and red triangles) and for the schematic (green rhombuses and
brown double triangles).
It is seen these plots are the same, because the second port
replicates the characteristics of first one: the signal can be
502
transmitted from the first port to the second and vice versa, i.e.
both ports can work in the receiving mode and in the
transmitting mode. Small gain degradation (in 1 dB) takes
place on contrary directions. It is caused by the signal
compression, when the antenna under the test works in
transmitting mode. Obviously in the receiving mode the input
signal is smaller, and no compression takes place.
The signal amplification in 20 dB for both modes takes
place for simulated active antenna.
For the comparison the plots of the system gain for “power-
off” mode (zero voltage of power supply) is shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. System gain at zero voltage of power supply.
IV. CONCLUSION
Thus, the design and the operation of active antenna were
described. The new approach assumes the use in active antenna
of amplifying element with positive feedback. The use of such
arrangements ensures the amplification in active antenna of
microwave signals in 20 dB. The amplification takes place in
both modes: transmitting and receiving. No complex
commutation of the chains is need for modes changing.
Antenna operates in both modes without any switching. The
simplicity of the design, the absence of signal switching, and
the small energy consumption in conjunction with the signal
amplification does the described active antenna useful for
modern systems of RFID and positioning.
REFERENCES
[1] Y. Taachouche, M. Abdallah, F. Colombel, G. Le Ray and M. Himdi,
“Active Compact Antenna for Broadband Applications,” in book
Progress in Compact Antennas, Ed. by L. Huitema, InTech, 2014, 212 p.
[2] K. R. Carver, J. W. Mink, “Microstrip antenna technology,” IEEE
Trans. Antennas and Propagation, 1981, vol. 29, #1, p.2-24.
[3] I. B. Shirokov, “Shirokov’s active RX-TX antenna,” Patent Russia
# 2594343, IPC H01Q 13/10, H01Q 23/00, pub. in Bul. # 22 from 10
August 2016.
[4] I. B. Shirokov, “The Active RX-TX Microstrip Patch Antenna,” IEEE
Proceedings of Int. Conference on Antenna Measurements &
Applications, Focus on Antenna Systems, Syracuse, NY, USA, 23-27
October 2016, 4 p.
[5] I. B. Shirokov, “Shirokov’s one-port resonant transistor amplifier,”
Patent Russia # 2594335, IPC H03F 3/189, H03F 3/19, H03F 3/04, pub.
in Bul. # 22 from 10 August 2016.