Printed Rectangular Monopole Antennas

K. P. Ray* and Y. Ranga

SAMEER, IIT Campus, Powai, Mumbai – 400076, India
e-mail:kpray@rediffmail.com

Introduction

Planar Monopole antenna is a good candidate for wireless communication services

because of its wide impedance bandwidth, omni directional radiation pattern, compact
simple structure and ease of fabrication. A printed configuration of broadband circular
monopole antenna has been reported, wherein parametric study at one frequency has been
presented [1]. This parametric study for printed circular monopole antenna does not fully
hold good for rectangular configurations. Therefore, various parameters are studied for
the printed rectangular and square monopole antennas. The effect of feed gap, which is a
critical parameter for the performance of antenna, is studied for different frequencies.
New results on different feed configurations of printed rectangular monopole antennas
(PRMA) are presented, which are in good agreement with experimental results.

Parametric Study of Printed Rectangular Monopole Antennas

Parametric study for printed circular monopole antenna in terms of size of substrate,
ground plane and feed length has been published [1]. These parameters when used to
design a PRMA and printed square monopole antenna (PSMA) did not give the optimum
performance. This is probably because of sharp edges present in rectangular
configuration as compare to circular antenna where there is no discontinuity. PRMA,
which is shown in Figure 1, and PSMA have been studied using FEM based HFSS
software [2]. It was observed after analysis that the size of the substrate remains same for
circular and rectangular antenna for optimum performance. However, the simulated
results conclude that width of the ground plane if reduced to 10 mm from reported 20 mm
[1] does not affect the impedance bandwidth of the antenna. Therefore, the width of the
ground plane is fixed at 10 mm (for grounding the SMA connector), leading to compact
size of the overall antenna configuration. Further, parametric study for the 50 Ω feed line
length for different lower frequency to obtain maximum bandwidth is carried out. The
dimensions of antenna were estimated using formulation given for planar disc monopole
antenna [3-5]. The lower frequency for VSWR = 2 is given as [5]:

f = c / λ = 7.2 /(l + r + p) GHz (1)

Where, l is the length of the monopole, r is the effective radius of an equivalent

cylindrical monopole antenna and p is the length of the feed line in cm. However, unlike
the planar disc monopole antennas, this configuration has dielectric layer on one side of a
printed monopole. This dielectric material increases the effective dimensions of the
monopole leading to reduction in the lower frequency. This is also confirmed by
simulation studies. Hence, more appropriate equation for the lower frequency is given as:

f = c / λ = 7.2 /(l + r + p) × k GHz (2)

1-4244-0123-2/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE 1693

Here, k can be thought of as ε eff arising because of dielectric layer with ε r = 4.4. The
value of k =1.1 gives the lower resonance frequency for VSWR = 2 within 10% accuracy.

Bottom Ground Plane

L g
hh SMA Connector

Figure 1 Printed Rectangular Monopole Antenna

Using Eq. (2), PRMA/ PSMA were designed on FR4 substrate. Feed gap g is a frequency
dependent parameter. To generate design data for g versus lower frequency, PSMAs were
designed for lower frequency starting from 0.35 GHz to 2.5 GHz. The value of g for each
case was optimized to obtain maximum bandwidth using HPHFSS software. These
values of g for different lower frequencies to yield maximum bandwidth for VSWR ≤ 2
are given in Table 1. Variation of g with lower frequency is also plotted in Figure 2. It is
noted from this data that as frequency increases, feed gap g reduces. This data is valid for
all the variations of printed rectangular configurations and can be used to design
PRMA/PSMA for any lower frequency in between 0.35 GHz to 2.5 GHz. Figure 2 can
also be extrapolated to design PSMA/PRMA at other lower frequencies.
Table 1: Variation of g with lower frequency for maximum bandwidth of PSMA
S.No Dimensions g (mm) Simulated frequencies Bandwidth
(cm) fL (GHz) fH (GHz) ratio
1 10 X 10 12 0.35 1.001 1:2.86
2 4.5 X 4.5 7 0.85 2.25 1:2.64
3 3.0 X 3.0 4 1.29 3.38 1:2.62
4 2.0 X 2.0 2 1.74 4.63 1:2.66
5 1.5 X 1.5 1 2.48 3.99 1:1.61
14

12
Feed Length (mm)

10
8
Series1

6
4

2
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Lower frequency (GHz)
Figure 2: Variation of feed gap g with lower frequencies

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 Different Configurations of Printed Rectangular Monopole

Using Eq. (2) and Figure 2, different PRMA and PSMA are designed with g =0.7cm to
cover GSM/PCN frequency band. Various configurations are shown in Figure 3.
Simulated results of these configurations are given in Table 2. PSMA2 has the lowest
cutoff frequency because of larger effective length among all configurations.
Configurations PRMAs and PSMA1 cover complete GSM/PCN frequency range.

PRMA1 PRMA2 PSMA1 PSMA2

Figure 3 Different feeding arrangements of PRMA and PSMA

Table 2: Different printed rectangular monopoles with feed gap g = 0.7 cm

S.No Configuration Dimensions Simulated frequencies Bandwidth
(cms) ratio
1 PRMA1 4.6 X 4.2 0.86 2.28 1:2.65
2 PRMA2 4.2 X 4.6 0.87 2.07 1:2.39
3 PSMA1 4.5 X 4.5 0.85 2.25 1:2.64
4 PSMA2 4.5 X 4.5 0.62 1.08 1:1.74

The radiation pattern of PRMA1 is simulated for complete bandwidth. Theoretical

elevation and azimuthal radiation patterns at 1.5 GHz are shown in Figure 4. The
azimuthal radiation pattern is omni directional, whereas the elevation radiation pattern is
close to figure of 8 because of small ground plane.

90
120 60
E Plane
H Plane
150 30

180 0

210 330

240 300
270
Figure 4 Radiation patterns of PRMA1 at 1.5 GHz

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 Experimental Verifications

PRMA1 and PSMA1, which give maximum bandwidth, were fabricated using FR4
substrate with εr =4.4, h =0.159 cm and tanδ = 0.01. Figure 5(a) and Figure 5(b) show the
simulated and measured return loss plot for PRMA1 and PSMA1, respectively. Measured
plot tally with simulated results. The measured and simulated bandwidth ratios for
PRMA1 are 1:2.01 and 1:2.65 respectively & PSMA1 are 1:1.99 and 1:2.64 respectively.

Return Loss (dB)

Return Loss (dB)

Simulated Simulated
Measured
Measured

Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)

(a) (b)
Figure 5 Measured and simulated return loss for (a) PRMA1 and (b) PSMA1

Conclusions
d
New configurations of printed rectangular/square monopole antennas have been
investigated for GSM/PCN frequency band. Formula to calculate lower frequency of
these antennas has been presented. Feed gap is a frequency dependent parameter, which
shows a large variation in bandwidth of these antennas. Frequency dependency of the
feed gap has been studied for maximum bandwidth and the design curve has been
presented. Theoretical results have been verified with experiments with good agreement.

References

[1] J. Liang, C. C. Chiau, X. Chen and C. G. Parini, “Printed circular disc monopole for
ultra wideband applications” Electron. Lett., vol. 40, no. 20, pp. 1246-1248, Sep.
2004
[2] HP High Frequency Structure Simulator HPHFSS, version 5.4
[3] N. P. Agarwall, G. Kumar and K. P. Ray, “Wide-Band Planar Monopole
Antennas,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 294-295, Feb. 1998
[4] K. P. Ray, P. V. Anob, R. Kapur and G. Kumar, “ Broadband Planar Rectangular
Monopole Antennas”, Microwave and Optical Technology Letter, vol. 28, pp. 55-
58, Jan. 2001.
[5] K. P Ray and G. Kumar, “Broad Band Microstrip Antennas,” Artech House, Boston
and London, 2003.

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