The Ohio State University

Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept

Antennas, ECE-5011

TITLE:

High Bandwidth E-Shaped Patch Antenna

NAMES:

Stephen Watt, Nicole Tchorowski

DATE DUE:

April 27, 2015

DATE RECEIVED:

E-Shaped Patch Antenna Theory

The traditional patch antenna is popular due to its low profile, ease of manufacture, and
conformal properties. However, the drawback is that normal patch antennas are narrow band
(< 10% BW). The E-shaped patch antenna addresses this shortcoming by adding two slots
adjacent to the feed.

Figure 1: Comparison of traditional rectangular patch and E-shaped patch

The effect of the two slots is an increased path length for the current to travel. The
increased current path introduces an added inductance to the structure, as shown in Fig. 2. This
added inductance creates a new resonant frequency that is lower than that of the normal patch
antenna resonance. See [1] and [2] for further reading about this patch antenna structure.

Figure 2: Illustrating the dual resonance mechanism of the E-shaped patch. (a) The ordinary
patch antenna. (b) E-shaped patch antenna [1]

E-Shaped Microstrip Patch Project Summary

One method to rectify the narrow bandwidth of a patch antenna is modifying the
geometry of the antenna. Some modifications to the patch antenna geometry are described in
[2], but only one is studied for this project. The approach examined here modifies the geometry
through adding two slots into the antenna, to give the antenna an E shape shown in Fig. 3.
With the proper dimensions, introducing slots into the patch structure will add a low frequency
resonance, improving the antennas bandwidth.

Figure 3: E-shaped patch antenna geometry

The parameters that were optimized focus on modifying the geometry of the additional
slots, as well as the position of the input feed. The slot geometry parameters are the slot length
(Ls), slot width (Ws), and slot offset measured from the center of the patch (Ps). The input feed
parameters only include the y-component of the feed position (Yp). The parameters are varied
to achieve the specifications detailed in Table 1.
Table 1: E-shaped patch antenna design specifications

Design Parameter Sweep

Each of the four parameters for the antenna are parametrically swept in HFSS in order
to find the optimal design. The parametric sweeps also display how each of the design
parameters affect the response of the antenna. Included below are samples of each sweep for
each parameter.
1. Slot Length (LS)
The slot length was first swept in 2mm increments from 27mm to 35mm to locate an
appropriate value for the design. For ease of visualization, slot length was swept in 5mm
increments from 30mm to 40mm to illustrate the effect on antenna performance in the plots
below. As the slot length increases, the current path will increase which should increase the
input impedance of the patch. Because the impedance is increased, we would expect a lower
resonant frequency (recalling the equivalent circuit model shown above).

Figure 4: Return loss, VSWR, and input impedance with varying slot length (LS)
As expected, as slot length increases the resonant frequency drops, while the input
impedance becomes more inductive. In addition, the input impedance becomes more resistive.
The VSWR for the frequency range of interest (2.2 GHz - 2.6 GHz) remains below the
requirement of 2 throughout the slot length sweep.
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2. Sloth Width (WS)

The slot width was swept form 2-10mm in 4mm increments, and again from 4mm to
6mm in 0.5mm increments. The results shown in Fig. 5 indicate that a larger slot width makes
more capacitive input impedance. For the frequency range of interest, the VSWR remains
below the specification.

Figure 5: Return loss, VSWR, and input impedance with varying slot width (WS)

3. Slot Position (PS)

The parametric sweep for the slot position varies from 5mm to 25mm in 10mm
increments. The slot position is measured from the center of the patch to the center of the
slots. As the slot position increases, the input impedance becomes more inductive, as well as
more resistive. However, unlike the slot length and slot width, varying the slot position does
bring the VSWR above the requirement.

Figure 6: Return loss, VSWR, and input impedance with varying slot position (PS)

4. Feed Offset (YP)

The feed offset is the final parameter that was varied, and ranged from 5mm to 25mm
in 10mm increments. Changing the feed offset in the E-shaped patch can be considered
similarly to changing the feed offset in the rectangular patch design. As the feed moves closer
to the center of the patch, the input impedance will become less resistive, and more inductive.
This can be seen in Fig. 7, which shows the result of the parametric sweep. Increasing feed
offset also greatly affects the VSWR, and can bring it above the requirement.

Figure 7: Return loss, VSWR, and input impedance with varying feed position (YP)

Final Design

After performing the parametric study described above, the group gained a better
understanding of which parameters to change to affect the antenna VSWR, return loss, and
input impedance. The design was then refined using HFSS, with the final antenna dimensions
listed in Table 2.

Figure 8: Final HFSS model

Table 2: Final Antenna Parameters
Parameter
Dimension (in mm)
Feed Offset (YP)
7
Slot Length (LS)
35
Slot Width (WS)
4
Slot Position (PS)
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The final HFSS simulation results are plotted below in Fig. 9 with a summary displayed in
Table 3. The VSWR is under the 2:1 requirement in the frequency band of interest (2.2 GHz
2.8 GHz) and the -10 dB bandwidth of the antenna is 33%. In the H-plane ( = 90), the
radiation pattern is symmetric, but in the E-plane ( = 0) there is a null at = 69. This is a
result of the E shape structure symmetry in the H-plane and asymmetry in the E-plane.
Table 3: Final Antenna simulation results
Parameter
Requirement
Final Design
Operating Frequencies
2.2 GHz 2.6 GHz
2.15 GHz 2.95 GHz
Bandwidth
17%
33%
Realized Gain
8 dBi
8.6 dBi
Polarization
Linear
Linear
VSWR
2:1
2:1
Pattern
Max at Broadside
Max at Broadside

Figure 9: Simulated antenna performance for final design

Figure 10: Co-polarization and cross-polarization for final design (-40.6 dB cross-pol)
To illustrate the dual resonant patch concept, the current vectors are plotted on the
structure for the high end and low end of the operating band. It is apparent that most of the
current flows around the slow edges at the antenna lower resonance frequency. While at the
higher resonance, most of the current is concentrated at the center of the antenna just like a
traditional patch antenna.

Figure 11: Surface current vectors on E-shaped patch for low and high frequencies

E-Shaped Patch with Stacked Patch

Another technique to increase patch bandwidth is to stack another patch on top of the
excited patch as shown in Fig. 12. The stacked patch capacitively couples to the main patch and
introduces another resonance to the antenna.

Figure 12: E-shaped patch antenna and corresponding return loss

The added high frequency resonance is apparent from the return loss plot shown in Fig.
12. For future work on this antenna design, the structure can be modified such that the
antenna resonances are closer to one another, enabling wideband performance. After proper
tuning, this type of antenna structure has demonstrated close to 40% bandwidth [3].

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E-Shaped Patch on Platform

When placing an antenna on a platform, the platform will affect the radiation pattern.
Fig. 13 shows the radiation pattern of the antenna when placed on a platform with edges
located /4 away from the patch. Overall, the antenna's pattern is smooth. In contrast is the
antenna's pattern when it is placed on a platform modeled after the belly of an aircraft. The
resulting pattern is shown in Fig. 13, and is notably less smooth with many perturbations. The
differences in the pattern are a result of diffraction off the platform edges, and the diffracted
fields constructively or destructively adding with antenna radiation pattern.

Figure 13: E-shaped patch on ground plane (left) and on platform (right)

Conclusion

The requirements for this project were to design an Eshaped patch antenna to operate from
2.2 GHz to 2.8 GHz with a VSWR of 2:1 for a 50 feed, with max radiation at broadside with a
gain of at least 8 dBi. This target frequency band is suitable for the 2.4 GHz ISM band. Ansoft
HFSS was used to gain a better understanding of the E-shaped design and how the design
variables affect the antenna performance. The group completed a parametric analysis on the
slot parameters to see how they affected the VSWR, return loss, and input impedance. The final
antenna design met all requirements.

References

[1] Fan Yang; Xue-Xia Zhang; Xiaoning Ye; Rahmat-Samii, Y., "Wide-band E-shaped patch
antennas for wireless communications," Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on,
vol.49, no.7, pp.1094, 1100, Jul 2001
[2] Bhardwaj, S.; Rahmat-Samii, Y., "C-shaped, E-shaped and U-slotted patch antennas: Size,
bandwidth and cross-polarization characterizations," Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP), 2012
6th European Conference on, vol., no., pp.1674,1677, 26-30 March 2012
[3] Ban-Leong Ooi; Shen Qin; Mook-Seng Leong, "Novel design of broad-band stacked patch
antenna," Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on, vol.50, no.10, pp.1391,1395, Oct
2002

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