Study the effect of substrate dielectric constant

on the performance of thin film array antennas

using a software (CST)
Sumner Submitted by Student:
MUstafa Khaled Duaijl

Supervised by
Mr. Dr. Yassin Hamid Mahmoud
The proposed antenna design
• This section provides information on the design of the MPA antenna. Figure 1
shows the basic structure of the thin chip antenna. The MPA antenna is installed
from the patch, dielectric substrate, ground plane and feed line.
• The MPA antenna is designed on the FR-4 substrate with a relative tolerance of =εr =
4.3mm with a thickness of h = 1.6mm. The designed antenna operates at 2.4GHz with
an impedance of 50 ohm.
A- Calculation of the dimensions of the chip:
The dimensions of the micro strip patch antenna are calculated from the design
equations of the standard antennas at the reference resonant frequency.
• Width of the patch:
• ………………………………………(1)
• Calculate the effective length of the thin chip
………………………………………….(2)
• Where: is the effective relative permittivity and equal 
………………..(3)
• The actual length of the patch is equal to:
…………………………………………..(4)
• ………..…..(5)
B- Calculate the dimensions of the ground level:
The dimensions of the ground level are about twice the dimensions of the patch
around the outer surface. The dimensions of the ground level are calculated from
the following relationship:
• Ground plane width:
…………………………….(6)
• Ground plane length:
……………………………..(7)
C - Calculate the thickness of the substrate (dielectric substrate)
It is necessary that the height of the substrate and the relative permittivity meet
the equation shown below as a minimum height
• …………………….…..(8)
D-Calculation of feeding line dimensions:
• The relationship between the width of the feed line ()and the thickness of the
insulating material (h) is given by:
……………………….(9)
The length of the feed line is calculated from the following relationship:
……………...……………….……..(10) 
• Inset Feed Depth:
…………………………………(11)
• The gap (GPF) between the patch and the length of the feed line inside the patch
(Notch Gap): 
• ……………..(12) 
Based on the above equations, the dimensions of the MPA thin strip antenna with
micro type line feeding are shown as shown in Fig. 2. Table 1 shows the dimensions
of the proposed antenna measured in millimeters

Fig. 2
Tab 1: Dimensions of the proposed antenna
Dimensions Parameters
2.4GHZ Center frequency, (Fo)
FR-4 Substrate
1.6mm Substrate height (h)
4.3 dielectric constant
29mm Length of the patch (L)
38mm Width of the patch (W)
58mm Length of the substrate (Lg)
76mm Width of the substrate
(Wg)
13.5mm Length of micro-strip feed
(Lf)
3.137mm Width of micro-strip
feed(Wf)
8.85mm Distance of inset feed(H)
1mm Gap between micro-strip
feed patch(GPF)

0.035 Thickness of the patch

Array Design (1 × 4): -
• In order to obtain a high performance antenna (gain, directivity) to meet long
distance communication requirements the easy way to do this is to increase the
patch.
• The distance between the elements is within the limits (λ, λ / 2, λ / 4, λ/8) and is
determined empirically
Table (2) the dimensions of the matrix (1 × 4)
Values (mm) Variables

116mm L(

152mm W(

3.137mm Wf

2mm W2
• Simulation and Discussion Results:
• In this part, we study the effect of the substrate dielectric constant on the thin
film antenna array, that is, different dielectric materials such as FR-4 and RT were
taken.(1 × 4) using the CST2019 simulation software based on the selected
integration method. The use of the matrix antenna has been greatly increased in
communications by transmitting its signal over long distances directly without the
need for relay stations [14]. Here the rectangular MPA (1 × 4) antenna array is
designed to resonate at S-band frequencies. So the antenna matrix has been used
in many applications such as Wi-MAX and WLAN.
• The simulation was accomplished to reach the desired results in terms of (Zin,
VSWR, S11, Gain, Directivity, Bandwidth).
A- Return loss (S11-parameter)
• Figure 4 shows a comparison between the return loss of the two designs (simple
single-element antenna and (1x4) matrix antenna.
• The return loss value is to the simple MPA antenna equals -22.22 dB and equals -
17.84 dB for the array antenna (4 × 1).
B- Voltage standing wave (VSWR):-
• The quality of the antenna performance is also defined by either its input
resistance or its VSWR, which must be less than 2 at the resonant frequency, in
order for the antenna to be well adapted. The interrupted wave voltage varies for
the two designs as the simple MPA antenna VSWR is 1.6 and the matrix antenna
(1 × 4) is 1.29 as shown in Fig. 5.
C- Input impedance:
• In addition to VSWR, input impedance is also an important factor for studying
antenna performance. Figure (6) illustrates the real and imaginary part of the
input impedance of the two designs.
D- Gain and Directivity:
• Directivity and gain are key factors for determining the radiation intensity of the
antenna. Figure 7 shows the directivity and gain value of the simple antenna and
matrix antenna (1 × 4).

gain of the array antenna gain value of the simple antenna

Directivty value of the array antenna directivity value of the simple antenna
E- Band width:
• The bandwidth is calculated from the return loss scheme as a function of
frequency. The bandwidth can be determined by taking the return loss value -10
dB as a reference. Figure shows (8) bandwidth for design.

Band width of the array antenna Band width of the simple antenna
Conclusion:-
• The aim of this research is to study the effect of the substrate dielectric constant
on the thin film array antennas, as the thin film array antennas are designed with
a relatively high bandwidth of about 1.2 GHZ to obtain high-speed data
transmission, two types of substrate dielectric materials are used to design the
array antenna It is a dielectric substrate of FR-4 glass and an insulating substrate
5880 Duroid / RT. The design results of the array antenna constructed on the
dielectric substrate materials of two different materials are simulated using the
Computer Simulation Technology (CST) program. Dielectric substrate of two
different materials and fixed substrate height (thickness) which is suitable for
WLAN applications.