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PREPARED BY:
JULY 2012
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Table of Contents
LETTER OF REPORT SUBMISSION
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
iii
iv
CHAPTER REPORT
1.
INTRODUCTION
2.
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.
2.1.1.
2.2.
3.
METHODOLOGY
4.
ANTENNA STRUCTURE
5.
4.1.
4.2.
4.3.
4.4.
5.1
5.2
10
5.3
12
5.4
13
5.5
15
6.
17
7.
RESEARCH OUTCOMES
18
8.
REFERENCES
19
9.
APPENDIX
21
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11 Junel2012
Ybgh. Prof.,
LAPORAN AKHIR PENYELIDIKAN "AN APERTURE-COUPLED MICROSTRIP
ANTENNA WITH RECONFIGURABLE RADIATION PATTERN"
Merujuk kepada perkara di atas, bersama-sama ini disertakan dua naskah Laporan Akhir
Penyelidikan
bertajuk
"An
Aperture-Coupled
Microstrip
Antenna
With
Reconfigurable Radiation Pattern".
Yang benar,
SUHAILASOlAHRI
Ahli Projek
<*5'
SUZILAWATI MUHAMUD@KAYAT
Ahli Projek
i
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UNIVERSITI
TEKNOLOGI
MARA
PEMENANG
Anugerah Kuaiiti mm
Peraana Menteri W
^
fk
kJ
2QQ8Vv
i
|
j
]
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P e n o l o n g P e n t a d b i r a n .603-5544 2090
Fax
; 603 5544 2096/2767
U n i t K e w a n g a n Z o n 17 :603-5544 3404
:603-5521 1386
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In preparing this report, I have been in contact with many people, researchers,
academicians, and practitioners who have contributed towards my understanding and
thoughts. First of all, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my project member, En
Mohd Nor Md Tan, Pn Suhaila Subahri and Pn
continuous effort, patience and guidance in providing invaluable ideas, encouragement and
exceptional role they have played in making this project a reality. Besides, I would like to
acknowledge research fund as our research was supported in part by them under 600RMI/ST/DANA 5/3Dst (366/2011). I am most grateful to Research Management Institute
(RMI) for giving me the help needed throughout my reserach period in Faculty of Electrical
Engineering. I would also like to thank all the staffs of Center For Electronic Communication
Engineering Studies for giving me the opportunity that made my research possible.
Last but not least, my warmest appreciation to all my friends for their invaluable
friendship and encouragement all these years.
iii
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iv
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1. INTRODUCTION
The development of reconfigurable microstrip antennas (RMAs) has received
significant attention in wireless communication systems in recent years. RMAs provide
numerous applications and offer more versatility as compared to conventional antennas.
Reconfigurable antennas have attractive features such as the ability to reconfigure
themselves independently to adapt to the changes or with the system to perform entirely
different functions. The reconfigurable antenna is also capable of providing a single antenna
for use with multiple systems.
In modern wireless communication systems, different wireless standards are
available for mobile communication. Therefore, it is not possible to equip a device with many
antennas of different frequency band. Multi frequency band antennas which can provide the
feature of multi-band reception would be highly demanded by the end-users. Thus, an
antenna with the ability to reconfigure its operating frequency is required.
The rapid advances in technology have also significantly resulted in high demand for
thin and compact devices including the antennas. To cope with this demand, small and
compact antennas can be considered to be the one of the key advances in future wireless
communications technology. However, the development of these antennas poses significant
challenges to antenna designers particularly. Therefore, the design of an antenna must not
only be focused on its functionality such as the capability to reconfigure but also the overall
size of the antenna structure without compromising its good characteristics performance.
In modern wireless communication systems, a reconfigurable microstrip antenna has
the flexibility for use in multiple applications by integrating appropriate switches into the
design. There are a few types of RF switches that can be integrated with the antenna to
achieve its reconfigurability. The most popular types that have been used in previous
researches are the PIN diodes [1]-[3] and micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) [4],[5]
switches.
In this research, the proposed antenna design would be have the capability to
reconfigure its operating frequency with a broad bandwidth in a compact size without
compromising its overall performance including the reduction of back lobe.
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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Reconfigurable Antennas
Ideally, a reconfigurable microstrip antenna (RMA) is able to change its operating
frequency, radiation pattern and polarization independently to accommodate changing
operating requirements [6]. Reconfigurable antennas can provide diversity functions in
operating frequency, radiation pattern and polarization to mobile communication. A
reconfigurable antenna that concentrated on changing its radiation patterns while
maintaining its other characteristics is referred to as a radiation pattern reconfigurable
antenna [7]. Radiation pattern reconfigurable antennas can be classified into two
categories in which the overall performance of wireless communication systems can be
improved. The first category involves in varying the beam shape [8]; while the other
involves in controlling beam direction pattern [9].
2.1,1 Frequency Reconfigurable Antenna
Most reconfigurable systems concentrate on changing operating frequency while
maintaining radiation characteristics [19-21]. However, Manipulation of an antenna's
radiation pattern can be used to avoid noise sources or intentional jamming, improve
security by directing signals only toward intended users, serve as a switched diversity
system, and expand the beamsteering capabilities of large phased arrays. Researches on
both pattern and frequency reconfigurable antennas have been done to further enhance
the reconfigurable systems.
A novel ring antenna with pattern and frequency reconfigurability was proposed by
[10]. Three switches are used in the antenna to achieve different radiation patterns at two
different frequencies at 2.0 GHz and 2.4 GHz. However, other antenna characteristics
performance such as gain and return loss were not mentioned in the paper. Another
related study was done by [24], with a design of a single turn square spiral microstrip
antenna. However, the results seem to illustrate that the antenna is capable in both
pattern and frequency reconfigurabilities but not in simultaneous manner.
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a) Coaxial Probe
c) Aperture Coupler
d) Proximity Coupler
Figure 1. Types of feeding technique (a) Coaxial Probe; (b) Microstrip Line; (c)
Aperture Coupler and (d) Proximity Coupler
Aperture coupler technique was first introduced by D.M Pozar [11],[12]. It can
be considered the best feeding technique, isolating the spurious feed radiation from
antenna element by a common ground plane with ease of input impedance matching.
Figure 1 shows an overview of a microstrip patch antenna design with aperture
coupler technique. The antenna is formed on a dielectric substrate above the ground
plane. The feed which consists of an open-ended microstrip line is located on a
separate dielectric substrate below the ground plane. These two structures are
electromagnetically coupled through an electrical small aperture in the ground plane
between them [13].
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3. METHODOLOGY
The main emphasis of this research is to design, and develop a reconfigurable
microstrip patch antenna. In order to achieve that, the research is divided into two; software
and hardware parts. The software part includes the antenna design process and its
simulations and also the switching circuit network design. Meanwhile, the hardware part
includes the fabrication of the proposed antenna. In this research, the designs are based on
aperture coupler feeding technique and the concept of PIN diodes has been used in the
switching circuit.
To start, a comprehensive review is required to obtain knowledge on antenna design.
The proposed antenna will be designed and simulated using CST Microwave Studio 2009. On
the other hand, switching circuit network will be designed using AWR. The design parameters
of both designs will be optimized to achieve optimal results. Finally, a prototype antenna will
be fabricated and a comparison will be made between simulation and measurement results.
Measurement results will be in terms of return loss and radiation pattern at different modes of
switch configurations.
The flow chart of the research methodology is shown in Figure 3.
START
~>
antennas
switches
NO
leet t h e s p e c T t
YES
Design, simulation, fabrication and measurement
array antenna
Design and integration with RF
switches
NO
"ISleet the
YES
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of
of
4. ANTENNA STRUCTURE
4.1 Elliptical Microstrip Patch Antenna
The slotted elliptical patch antenna for wideband communications proposed in this
paper is shown in Figure 4.1(a). The elliptical patch is designed with a major axis a=27mm,
and a minor axis b= 18mm (ellipticity ratio a/b=1.5), from which a rectangular region is carved
out. The prototype of the design is shown in Figure 4.1(b).
Wtub
45.0
Ellipse patch
Front View
Side View
Switch
it
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\ HHB
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(a i From View
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(t4.0B)
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\Va
4.
1J
wf
-n\
jt
Width (mm)
Length (mm)
Patch (W, L)
37.4
22.3
60
60
15.3
3.9
3.86
31.5
Label
Dimension (mm)
Width
WsH
Length
LsH
x-axis
11.7
y-axis
Width
WsV1
Length
LsV1
14.5
x-axis
y-axis
Width
WsV2
Length
LsV2
16
x-axis
y-axis
Parameter
immJL
!1
jjS
w
n1
4
H-slot
V-slot,
Vs1
I1I
>:
V-slot,
Vs2
Fig. 4.3 (b) The orientations of a rectangular patch slot with different slot dimensions.
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faiofi
4 \
JY-axis
I
4
V^ixis
ui
i!
SW2
X~axis
X-axis
(a)
(b)
Figure 4.4 Positions of two vertical slots and one horizontal slot
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I
%
1*
[VI1
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E~B^
Type
Approximation
Monitor
Component
Output
Frequency
Rad . effic.
Tot- eFFic.
Gain
Farfield
enabled (kit >> 1)
farfield CF-5.8) [1
Abs
Gain
5.B
-1.53J* dB
-1-572 dB
3.846 dB
180
Frequency
= 5.8
=
=
3.8 dB
0.8 deg.
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Hence, a modification for the slot has to be carried out in order to improve the
performance of the antenna. A switch is integrated into the slot and the position of the switch
is tuned (Fig.5.5) until the best results are determined. The simulation results from tuning the
switch position are illustrated in Fig.5.5(b). From the results it is observed that the best
position is when the switch is at 5mm from the right side of the slot. For comparison, the
slotted elliptical antenna without a switch is also shown. It is observed from the figure that
when a switch is introduced to the slot, the performance of return loss characteristic is better
and the bandwidth is wider. The simulation result of slotted elliptical antenna without a switch
shows that it has an impedance bandwidth for return loss less than -10 dB from 2.5 to 6.45
GHz. The value of return loss is -28.75 dB as illustrated in Fig.5.5(b). Meanwhile, the slotted
elliptical antenna with a switch shows that the impedance bandwidth is 2.4 to 6.85 GHz. The
return loss for this patch is value is -31.11 dB at resonance frequency of 3.97 GHz, which is
lower than of the slotted antenna without a switch.
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Fig.5.6 depicts the return loss characteristics of both simulated and measured results
for slotted elliptical antenna with a switch. The return loss for measured result is slightly lower
as compared to the simulated result. On the other hand, the bandwidth of the measured
results is greater than simulated results. However, there is a slight discrepancy between the
measured and simulated return loss results in terms of frequency. The return loss for
measured result is slightly lower compared to simulation result in which value at 3.4 GHz is 39.09 dB and -38.03 dB at 5.44 GHz. There is also a disagreement between the measured
and simulated return loss results in terms of frequency. The inconsistency between simulation
and measured results are due to some factors that would affect the results such as
inappropriate handling during measurement process, soldering process and improper
fabrication process.
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11
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11
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2.4
2.5
4
Frequency
(a)
6 6 45
6 .65
(GH^)
(b)
Fig. 5.6: Comparison Su characteristic of simulation and measured results, (a) without a
switch (b) with a switch
B. Radiation Patterns
The simulated results of the radiation patterns of the slotted elliptical antenna without
a switch are presented in Fig. 5.7. The results include polarization in the E(yz)-plane and the
H(xz)-plane. The lobes cover 360 directions at the first resonance frequency of 3.97 GHz. A
donut shape with an approximately omnidirectional in the H-plane pattern is also shown in
Fig.5.7. The deformations appear due to the induced currents, causing in inclining the beam
away from the broadside direction in the E-plane. The radiation pattern is inclined at 45
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elevation angle. In addition, the radiation pattern of the antenna is affected by the ground
plane whereby the omnidirectional pattern is degraded significantly at frequencies and the
radiation pattern of the antenna becomes more directional as the frequency increases beyond
5.0 GHz. This is due to the fact that as the frequency increases, more and more of higher
order current modes are excited. The value of radiation efficiency is 93.2% at 3.97 GHz and
91.2% at 5.5 GHz.
*** ^ , o t
(a)
Fig. 5.7: Simulated farfield radiation pattern in 3D at (a) 3.97 GHz (b) 5.5 GHz
12
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j*
\V
\
^S5^%^^<</^/
/Cr
optimized
1~
y!
s\
'
10
11
14 14.5
12
Frequency/GHz
Figure 5.9 shows the VSWR comparison of default specification antenna and the optimized
antenna. The line impedance measured in this paper is 49.5139 0. For default specification,
the lowest VSWR value is 1.185 while the foam substrate acquires the lowest VSWR of
1.0117 at the optimum frequency (8.73 GHz). This VSWR value is close to match perfectly for
the antenna. The other VSWR value is less than 2 in the frequency band range.
C. Radiation Patterns
Figure 5.10 and Figure 5.11 show the radiation pattern for the antenna at 8.73 GHz
and 11.43 GHz. The parameter values for each figure are listed in Table 3.
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Return loss or Sn represents how much incident signal at port 1 being reflected at port 1. If
Sn =0dB, it indicates that all signals are reflected and nothing is radiated. As depicted in fig.
5.12, the value of Sn is measured to be -17.378 dB for Hs at its resonant frequency of
2.4GHz. Meanwhile, the magnitude of Sn for Vs1 and Vs2 are -30.353dB and -43.638dB at
their respective resonant frequencies.
0 *< s
;-- L..
<ZPg
'f^x?
-5
40
I-15
|
HS
-30
Vs2
Vsl
I -35
-40
-45
4.66Hz
-50
3.5
4.5
Frequency, f{GHzJ
Fig.5.14(a) illustrates the radiation pattern for H-slot at operating frequency of 2.4GHz in
polar plot. There are one main lobe and one back lobe that can be found on the radiation
pattern. The radiation patterns for V-slots at operating frequencies of 4.6 GHz and 5.7GHz in
polar plots are shown in Fig. 5.14(b) and Fig. 5.4(c) respectively. The different shapes of both
radiation patterns may due to the different axis spacing and the slot size although both slots
are positioned at the same vertical orientation.
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(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 5.14. Radiation patterns for (a) H-slot at 2.4GHz in polar plot, (b) V-slot at 4.6GHz in
polar plot; (c) V-slot at 5.7GHz in polar plot
The values of radiation parameters for each frequency are tabulated in Table I. From the
table, it shows that the vertical slot, Vs2 which operates at 5.7GHz has the highest gain and
the widest bandwidth, as compared to the results of the other two slots. The gain obtained
from Vs1 is the lowest while the bandwidth of Hs is the narrowest among the three slots.
TABLE I.
RADIATION PARAMETERS
Type of Slot
Hs
Vs1
Vs2
Frequency (GHz)
2.4
4.6
5.7
Gain (dB)
3.916
1.473
5.023
Beamwidth at -3dB ()
87.7
66.9
62.7
Bandwidth (MHz)
68.39
116.4
276.85
SW1
SW2
SW3
1
ON
OFF
OFF
2
OFF
ON
OFF
3
OFF
OFF
ON
4
ON
OFF
ON
5
OFF
ON
ON
6
ON
ON
OFF
7
ON
ON
ON
8
OFF
OFF
OFF
Fig 5.15 clearly indicates that there are two resonant frequencies for all cases except for
case 1 whereby only one switch, SW1 is ON. For the first frequency, f1 it yields at
approximately 2.356 GHz, and at 5.6 GHz for the second frequency, f2. For case 1, there is
only one resonant frequency available which is approximately 2.356 GHz when only SW1 is
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ON. This shows one of the properties of a reconfigurable antenna, which is the capability to
change operating frequency independently [8].
.-,,,
4
I*
--11
(i
tt
Fig 5.15. The effect of the switch configurations on the operating frequency
Three cases with significant result of return losses were illustrated in Fig 5.16. Case 1
when only SW1 is ON yields return loss of -212487dB at only single frequency of 2.352 GHz.
In case 6 when SW1 and SW2 are ON, the return loss yields at dual frequency of 2.356 GHz
and 5.524. However, it is skewed to 2.356 GHz due to its lower return loss. On the other hand,
in case 7 when all switches are ON, the return loss is skewed to 5.676 GHz due to its lower
value of -20.523 as compared to -15.679 at 2.356 GHz. Higher gain is also achieved at the
second frequency.
Resonant Frequency
(GHz)
Casel
OnlySWlON
Case 7
ALLSWON
fl=!
f2=]
fl=j
f2=|
Return Loss
(dB)
Gain(dB)
2.352
-21.249
-
3.314
2.356
5.676
-15.679
-20.523
3.399
5.200
16
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17
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7. RESEARCH OUTCOMES
Publications
Number of articles/
manuscripts/ books
(Please attach the paper)
Conference Proceeding
(Please attach the paper)
Indexed Journal
Non-Indexed Journal
International
National
3
List of published
journal/article/proceeding
(APA/IEEfromat)
Others
(please specify)
Number
On-going
Malaysian
PhD Students
Master Students
Undergraduate
Students
Total
Graduated
Non
Malaysian
Malaysian
18
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Non
Malaysian