IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 53, NO.

7, JULY 2005 2321

A Dual-Feed Dual-Band L-Probe Patch Antenna

P. Li, K. M. Luk, and K. L. Lau

Abstract—By embedding shorting vias, a dual-feed and dual-band

L-probe patch antenna, with flexible frequency ratio and relatively small
lateral size, is proposed. Dual resonant frequency bands are produced by
two radiating patches located in different layers, with the lower patch
supported by shorting vias. The measured impedance bandwidths, de-
termined by 10 dB return loss, of the two operating bands reach 26.6%
and 42.2%, respectively. Also the radiation patterns are stable over both
operating bands. Simulation results are compared well with experiments.
This antenna is highly suitable to be used as a base station antenna for
multiband operation.
Index Terms—Dual-band antennas, L-probe fed antennas, patch an-
tennas.

I. INTRODUCTION
Microstrip antennas are popular for their low profile characteristic.
However, reducing antenna height gives rise to a decrease in band-
width [1] and this effect is independent of the technology used. In
fact, the narrow bandwidth characteristic of microstrip antennas cannot
meet the continuously increasing bandwidth demand of most modern
multiband systems. Therefore, it is highly desirable to develop broad-
band microstrip antennas. On the other hand, dual-frequency wide-
band patch antennas may provide an alternative solution for the appli-
cations in which large bandwidth is actually separated into two wide
bands. In the past two decades, many techniques for increasing the
bandwidth or producing multifrequency operation of the microstrip an-
tennas were proposed [2]–[10]. As for bandwidth enhancement, we can
use an impedance matching network, thick substrate, capacitive com-
pensation, multiple patches or aperture coupling technique. Meanwhile
many solutions for achieving multifrequency operation were put for-
ward [2], such as the use of orthog-modes [3], where two resonances are Fig. 1. Geometry of the two-layer dual-band path antenna. (a) 3-D view and
orthogonally polarized, the introduction of reactive loading with slots (b) top view and side view.
[4], stubs [5] or notches [6] and the employment of multiple patches
in stacked or coplanar arrangement [7]. However, all these multiband independent L-shaped probe for wide-band performance. A new fea-
designs are mainly applicable for the thin-substrate condition, so the ture in this design is that the lower patch is supported by four shorting
impedance bandwidths of the two frequency bands are usually on the vias. In doing so, the feeding probe for exciting the upper L-probe can
order of 2% or less, which are not enough for wireless communica- go through one of the shorting vias without affecting the performance
tion applications. Besides, these multiresonance antennas only pro- of the larger patch which is responsible for radiating the lower-band
vide a limited range of the frequency ratio FR between different bands frequencies. It is demonstrated that the shorting vias have limited in-
(about 1.3–2). Some designs with properly located shorting pins [8] fluence on the characteristics of the antenna, and thus wide-band per-
are reported to increase the FR to 3.0–3.2, but bandwidth of not more formance can be achieved at both lower and upper frequency bands.
than 1.8% can be obtained for each band. A stacked patch antenna for This new dual-band patch antenna geometry can be generalized for
dual-frequency and broad-band performance is described [9], which dual-polarization and circular-polarization operations. Moreover, the
can achieve 30% bandwidth within 0:1 substrate height. However, it separation between the two bands can be flexibly adjusted.
has the disadvantage of different type of radiation patterns for different
bands and very high cross-polarization. Recently, another broad-band II. ANTENNA GEOMETRY AND DESIGN
(10% in lower band and 20% in upper band) dual-frequency antenna
using thick substrate with single feed was put forward with good radi- The geometry of the proposed two-layer patch antenna fed by
ation patterns [10], but the bandwidths for the two bands are still not L-probes for broad-band and dual-frequency operation is depicted in
wide enough and the FR is small (<1.61). Fig. 1. This antenna consists of two square patches of different sizes,
In this paper, a dual-feed and dual-band L-probe patch antenna is which are fed by two separate L-probes to operate at a lower band with
proposed and investigated. The antenna has a stacked geometry with center frequency of 0.89 GHz (f1 ) and at an upper band with center
a smaller patch located above a large one. Each patch is excited by an frequency of 2.45 GHz (f2 ). The lower patch for exciting lower band
frequencies with a length of w1 = 125:6 mm (0:371 ) is mounted
about 33 mm (0.098 1 ) over a square grounded plane by four shorting
Manuscript received April 5, 2004; revised October 31, 2004. vias. The horizontal arm of its L-probe feed is bent to avoid touching
The authors are with the Department of Electronic Engineering,
City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 850761 (e-mail: the metal via. Above the lower patch is a smaller patch for exciting the
pli@ee.cityu.edu.hk). upper band frequencies with a length of w2 = 44 mm (0:362 ), which
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2005.850761 is fixed above the lower patch with plastic posts. An L-probe with

0018-926X/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE

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2322 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 53, NO. 7, JULY 2005

radius of 1 mm drills through the center of a via to excite the higher

patch. It is worth noting that the inner radius of the hollow via should
be properly chosen according to the radius of the probe, so that the
via with the probe can form a coaxial cable with 50 characteristic
impedance. For the proposed antenna, totally four shorting vias are
used. Therefore, they can not only firmly support the lower patches
instead of using plastic posts, but can also keep a symmetric structure
for good radiation pattern. The size of the square grounded plane is
243.6 mm (0.72 1 ), and four side walls are used to reduce the back
radiation. All filling dielectric is air and the effect of metal-thickness
has been taken into account for accurate simulation results. Detailed
dimensions of the proposed antenna which are obtained after a detailed
parametric study are listed as follows: W = 243:6 mm (0:721 ),
H = 47 mm (0:1391 ), W1 = 125:6 mm (0:371 ),
H1 = 33 mm (0:0981 ), l1 = 20:5 mm (0:0611 ),
h1 = 24:8 mm (0:0741), b = 33:5 mm (0:11 ),
W2 = 44 mm (0:362 ), H2 = 13 mm (0:1062 ),
l2 = 19 mm (0:1552 ), h2 = 9:5 (0:0772), t1 = 2 mm,
t2 = 1 mm, D = 4:6 mm, d = 2 mm, S1 = 62:8 mm, S2 = 22 mm.
A special feature in this dual band antenna design is the usage of
shorting vias. The current trend in designing dual-band patch antennas
with broad bandwidth, large frequency ratio and similar radiation be-
havior in both RF bands (i.e., similar BW, radiation pattern, polariza-
tion and gain) is to employ stacked geometries, in such a way as to pack
two independent antennas together to form a compact structure. In this
case, there are two choices. The first is to place the smaller patch for
upper band above the larger patch. This arrangement has the advan-
tage of isolating the coupling between the two patches. If we choose
to place the larger patch over the smaller one, the structure will have
the drawback of blocking the upper-band radiation by the larger patch,
and possible excitation of strong cross-polarization. In the new design
proposed in this paper, by embedding the shorting vias, both lower and
upper band patches can be placed to appropriate heights (the large patch
acts as the grounded plane of the smaller one) to achieve wide-band
performance. The reason is that the hollow via can shield a large part
of the vertical portion of the L-probe for the upper-band patch, so as
to greatly reduce the extra inductance, cross-polarization radiation and
mutual coupling contributed by the vertical part of the probe. As a re-
sult, good impedance matching can be achieved for the upper band. Fig. 2. Comparison of return loss between simulation and measurement and
Also, the shorting vias do not affect the wide-band performance of the antenna gain. (a) Lower band and (b) upper band.
lower-band patch.
It should be noted that it is easy to build this type antenna with re-
and measurement. Moreover, the patterns in both planes are quite
peatability in electrical performance. The key point of this dualband
stable over both operating bands. The simulated cross-polarization
design is the employment of shorting vias, which act as shorting pins
in the E-plane of both operating bands can not be observed, because
for the lower band patch. However, unlike conventional patch antenna
they are vanishingly small in idea case, i.e., simulated modeling. The
with shorting pins for size reduction, the shorting vias here are used
measured cross-polarization level is 12 dB in the lower-band and 15
dB in the upper-band. The back lobes are less than 018 dB in all
to implement a new dualband structure and they are far away from the
feeding point. So both the impedance matching and radiation pattern
planes. Fig. 2 also shows the measured gain versus frequency curves
are not sensitive to the position of the vias. As a result, the tolerance in
in both operating bands. The peak gains are 8.4 dBi and 8 dBi in the
manufacture can be reduced.
lower and upper operating bands, respectively.

III. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS IV. CONCLUSION

The commercial software IE3D is employed for simulation. Fig. 2
compares the simulated and measured return loss curves in both
frequency bands. It can be observed that an impedance bandwidth of
26.6% (S11 < 10 dB from 0.78 to 1.02 GHz) was measured in lower
band, whereas, in the upper band the measured 10 dB bandwidth
was 42.2% (from 2.04 to 3.13 GHz). The measured data agree well
with the simulated results. The simulated and measured radiation
patterns in the E-plane and the H-plane at 0.89 and 2.45 GHz are
illustrated in Fig. 3, which are almost symmetrical with respect to the
broadside direction and show good agreement between simulation
In this paper, the design of a two-layer L-probe coupled patch an-
tenna with shorting vias for broad-band and dual-frequency operation
has been presented. By introducing the shorting vias, the two patches
can be placed on two separate layers in order to reduce the blockage
and coupling between the two bands of operation. For the prototype
constructed, wide impedance bandwidth of 26.6% for the lower band
and 42.2% for the upper band are obtained. The proposed antenna pos-
sesses sound electrical performance, compact lateral size, and similar
radiation characteristics, including radiation pattern and polarization,
in both operating bands. The frequency ratio can be selected flexibly.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 53, NO. 7, JULY 2005 2323

Fig. 3. Comparison of simulated and measured radiation patterns in 0.89 and 2.45 GHz. (a) E-plane in lower band, (b) H-plane in lower band, (c) E-plane in
upper band, and (d) H-plane in upper band.

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