A High Gain Circular Polarization Antenna using Metamaterial Slabs

Cheolbok Kim*, Hyochun Ahn, David Senior Elles, Melroy Machado,

and Yong-Kyu Yoon
University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14226
E-mail: cheolbok@buffalo.edu
Introduction
Modern satellite communication systems often demand low-profile, wide
bandwidth, high gain, and circular polarization antennas. Traditionally, a reflector
antenna, a horn antenna, and a microstrip array antenna are widely used to
achieve high gain circular polarization. Recently, a metamaterial approach has
been emerged as a promising method for a high gain antenna. N. Guerin et al. [1]
designed an antenna having a directivity of approximately 600 using the
electromagnetic resonances of a Fabry-Perot cavity and S. Enoch et al. [2]
introduced a metamaterial consisting of copper grids with square lattices for
directive emission. C. Y. Wu et al. [3] improved antenna gain using radome
having an inverted S-shaped metallic ring array. While increasing gain is
relatively straight forward, it is not to achieve circular polarization. In fact, many
conventional approaches for circular polarization are available [4], implementing
a high gain circular polarization antenna using metamaterial remains as a big
challenge.
In this paper, we propose an advanced high gain circular polarization antenna
consisting of metamaterial slabs. The high gain property is achieved by using
metamaterial slabs with periodic circular lattices while circular polarization is
obtained by inserting fan-shaped patches in the circular lattices. In addition, the
right/left handed polarization is easily controlled by rotating metamaterial slabs.
Details of the design, fabrication, test, and performance of the proposed antenna
are presented.
Antenna Design
A structure of a high gain circular polarization antenna with metamaterial slab is
shown in Fig. 1. It consists of a conventional patch antenna and two metamaterial
slabs having copper grids with a lattice, and fan-shaped patch array on the copper
grids. When metamaterial slabs are stacked on the patch antenna with air gap,
they play a beam focusing role because the reflective index of the area between
patch antenna and metamaterial slab becomes almost zero. And positioning the
fan-shaped patches excites two orthogonal resonant modes with 90 degree phase
shift [5]. A patch antenna and copper grids are patterned on a 0.762 mm thick
Alron Di880 substrate with a relative permittivity r of 2.2 and a loss tangent tan
of 0.002. The geometrical parameters of the antenna have been optimized by

978-1-4244-4968-2/10/$25.00 2010 IEEE

using a commercial EM simulator, CST Microwave Studio as followings: W = G

= 68.4 mm, Wp = Lp = 7.3 mm, d = 7.6 mm, h = 7 mm, Rout = 3.8, Rin = 3.7 mm
and the feeding point is 1.1 mm far from the center.

Fig. 1 A schematic of a high gain circular polarization antenna with metamaterial

slab.
Results and Discussion
Fig. 2 shows a photograph of the fabricated high gain circular polarization
antenna. The antenna has been microfabricated using ultraviolet (UV) lithography
and wet etching for high resolution patterning with 0.1 mm gap between Rout and
Rin. Measurement has been performed using a vector network analyzer (HP8510C)
after a standard short-open-load-thru (SOLT) calibration between 1 GHz and 14
GHz.

Fig. 2 Photograph of the microfabricated antenna.

Fig. 3 shows the simulated and measured return losses of the antenna whose
center frequencies are 11.7 GHz and 11.4 GHz, respectively. The difference of the
center frequencies is attributed to geometrical errors associated with fabrication
tolerance, and possible lateral and vertical misalignment among three layers. The

simulated radiation patterns of the patch antenna with/without metamaterial slab

are compared in Fig. 4. The patch antenna with metamaterial slabs shows 4.7dB
higher gain (7.4 to 12.1 dB) and 58.3 narrower 3dB-beamwidth (87.3 to 29)
while its sidelobe level is increased from -8dB to -19.1dB.

Fig. 3 Comparison of the simulated and measured return losses of the antenna.

Fig. 4 Radiation patterns of the patch antenna with/without metamaterial slabs.

(a)
(b)
Fig. 5 Measured (a) transmission gain and (b) difference between insertion losses
from E-plane and H-plane.

Fig. 5(a) shows the measured transmission gain as a function of distance between
two antennas using the Friis equation below:
Ga =

S 21

(1 S ) (1 S )
2

11

22

= Gr Gt

4R

Compared with the conventional patch antenna, the transmission gain of the
proposed patch antenna shows an increase of approximately 20dB. To verify
circular polarization, insertion losses by using a horn antenna in E-plane and Hplane have been measured. The difference between insertion losses from E-plane
and H-plane is shown in Fig. 5(b). Its value between 11.1 GHz and 11.4 GHz is
approximately under 3dB, showing circular polarization in this band. In summary,
the designed high gain circular polarization antenna has a 10dB-bandwidth of 500
MHz (11-11.5 GHz), circular polarization between 11.11 GHz and 11.47 GHz,
and a gain of 12.1 dB. In addition, the left/right handed polarization can be easily
obtained by turning over the metamaterial slabs.
Conclusion
In this paper, a high gain circular polarization antenna with metamaterial slabs has
been proposed. Metamaterial slabs having periodic circular lattices have been
used to focus beam while fan-shaped patches are added on the slabs to generate
circular polarization. The proposed antenna has shown a good axial ratio at the
resonant frequency band. It also has shown a simulated gain improvement and
transmission gain improvement by 12.1 dB and 20dB, respectively. In addition,
the left/right handed polarization is simply controlled by turning over
metamaterial slabs.
References
[1] N. Guerin, S. Enoch, G. Tayeb, P. Sabouroux, P. Vincent and H. Legay, A
Metallic Fabry-Perot Directive Antenna, IEEE Transactions on Antennas
and Propagation, vol.54, no. 1, pp.220-224, Jan. 2006.
[2] S. Enoch, G. Tayeb, P. Sabouroux, N. Guerin and P. Vincent, A
Metamaterial for Directive Emission, Physical Review Letters, vol. 89, no.21,
Nov. 2002.
[3] C.-Y. Wu, S.-H. Yeb and T.-H Lu, Planar High Gain Antenna for 5.8-GHz
WiMAX Operation, IEEE Region 10 Annual International Conference,
Proceedings, TENCON, 2007.
[4] Constantine A. Balanis, Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, 2edi., John
Wiley & Sons, New York, 1997
[5] Y.-F. Lin, H.-M. Chen and S.-C. Lin, A new coupling mechanism for
circular polarized annular-ring patch antenna, IEEE Transactions on
antennas and Propagation, vol. 56, no. 1, pp.11-16, Jan. 2008.