Design and Simulation of Wideband Microstrip

Patch Antenna for RFID Applications

Dana Najeeb, Diyari Hassan, Rozh Najeeb, Huseyin Ademgil
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, European University ofLefke
Gemikonagi, TRNC
144009@std.eul.edu.tr, 144073@std.eul.edu.tr, 14401O@std.eul.edu.tr, hademgil@eul.edu.tr

Abstract-This study contains theoretical analysis of

wideband Microtrip slotted patch antenna with coaxial probe
feed by using high frequency structural simulator (HFSS)
simulation software. In our simulations, FR4 epoxy was used as
dielectric material with relative permittivity of 4.4. The antenna
has been designed for 2-6 GHz frequency range. Hence, the
antenna is highly suitable for RFID applications at operating
frequencies of 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz respectively. The various
critical design parameters such as bandwidth, return loss, gain,
directivity and VSWR have been investigated.

Keyword - patch antenna; wideband; RFID.

Fig. 1. Basic structure of the rectangular microstrip patch antenna.
I. [NTRODUCTION

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a wireless
communication technology that become more popular in recent
years due to many applications include logistic, manufacturing,
airport baggage management, health care and security
applications. [1-2].
Generally RFID system consists of two basic components
tag and reader. The tag provides the required data. The reader
receives the information from the tag and forward them to host
computer. Antenna is a main part of the RFID system. It allows
tag and reader to communicate for exchanging the data. RFID
system operates on different frequency bands, which vary
between 30 Hz and 5.8 GHz corresponding to its applications
[2-3]. The design of RFID antenna preferred to be compact
size, low cost with acceptable gain. Also, it needs to be capable
to cover multi-frequency bands in order to reduce several
antennas embedded in one device into single antenna that
combines multiple applications. Furthermore, increase its
There are several techniques for feeding the radiating patch.
The four most extensively used for feeding are microstrip line,
coaxial probe feed, aperture coupling and proximity coupling.
Coaxial probe feeding technique is widely used due to many
merits easy of fabrication, low spurious radiation and easy to
impedance matching by fmding optimum feed point location
attached to the patch [[1-[2].
[n this study, appropriate wideband microstrip slotted patch
antenna with a particular design with coaxial probe feed have
been proposed. The designed antenna is able to operate in a
wide range of frequencies (2 GHz - 6 GHz) which covers the
RFID applications at bands 2.45 GHz, 5.8 GHz, respectively.
The proposed antenna was designed and simulated by using
HFSS V.13 (High Frequency Structure Simulator) software
tool.
[I. ANTENNA DESIGN

ability to operate in the most of countries according to their
standards [4-5]. Therefore, to meet these requirements,
wideband microstrip patch antennas are the most convenient
antennas to obtain these criteria due to their essential merits
such as low profile, light weight, low cost, easy to fabricate and
compatibility with microwave integrated circuits [6]. On the
other hand, several limitations of using microstrip patch
antennas exists such as narrow bandwidth, low gain and low
efficiency, led to reduce the antenna performance [7-8].
Generally, the basic configuration of conventional
microstrip antennas consists of a thin conducting patch most
properly made of copper or gold printed on the one side of
substrate whose dielectric constant typically in the range of
2.2'S E:r 'S[2, which mounted on a ground plane on the other
side as shown in Fig. 1 [9-10].
The geometry of the proposed microstrip slotted patch
antenna is shown in Fig. 2. The slotted patch is printed on a
cheap FR4_epoxy substrate of thickness h = 2.5mm with
relative permittivity E:r= 4.4, and loss tangent b = 0.02. The
designed antenna operates at frequency range of (2 GHz - 6
GHz).
With respect to the transmission line model, the dimensions
of the proposed microstrip patch antenna have been obtained as
follows [[3]:
([)

978-1-5090-3784-1/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE

84
 1 TABLE!. DIMENSIONS OF PROPOSED MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA

r + 1 r 1 [ h ]- 1z
reff = _ 2 + _ 2 1 + 1 2-W
__
-
__
(2)
"C
.,
.,
.,
-<
.,
=-
"
"C
.,
.,
.,
-<
.,
=-
"
"C
.,
.,
.,
-<
.,
=-
"
s s 3

"
9"
"
9"
"
9"
., 2- ., 2- ., 2-
Wg 57.7 W8, L3 I Ll 28.63
Co
70.9 2.69 20.63
reff
Lg W9 L2
Leff = ----
2fo') (3) Wp 28.46 WlO,L5 10.5 L4 5.5
Lp 37.26 W 12,W 16 3.5 L6 27.63
WI,W3 4 W 13,L7 2 L8 8.86
W2 9 W 14 4.23 L9 4

ilL= 0.402h (reff + 3) ( W+

0. 0.264 ) W4
W5,WII
2.9 1
2.5
W 15
W 17,WI9
3.23
6
LlO
LII
14. 8 1
5.23
(4)
(reff 0.258) (11 + 0.8)
-
W6
W7
3.9
0.5
WI8
W20
7
14. 7 1
LI2
Ll3
l.63
4.4

L= Leff 2ilL- (5)

The coaxial probe feeding technique that have a
characteristic impedance of son was used to excite the
proposed antenna. The impedance match depends on the
coaxial feed point location. Impedance match improvement
results in improve performance by enhancing bandwidth and
The ground plane dimensions, Width (Wg) and Length (Lg) less return loss. Hence in order to obtain the appropriate feed
is given by: point location to match son impedance the following
equations can be used [14]:
Wg= W+6h (6) Along the width and length of the patch:

Lg = L + 6h (7)
W
Xf=-
2 (8)

The technical slots with different dimensions loaded into

patch with dimensions of antenna are listed in Table I.
(9)

Where

o
L
y = -cos-1
IT
).
-
o

Zo
(10)

(II)

r2 - (-L)2
ZIN = 90 *
r -1
__

W
(12)

These mathematical expressions give approximate results

that can be considered a starting point. To achieve an
appropriate location, iterative process is required. As a result,
by computing above formulas, an optimum feed point location
along the width and length of the patch have been obtained are
(l4.7Imm, 4.4mm) where an optimum input impedance value
for the proposed antenna have been obtained is (50.00112).
Fig. 2. Geometry of the proposed antenna.

85
 III. SIMULATION RESULTS

Initially, Return loss calculation with respect to frequency

is presented in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Return loss verses Frequency. Fig. 5. Radiation pattern with total antenna gain.

As can be observed from the figure, the minimum return Another major design parameter related to gain, that
loss of the proposed antenna is -43.8454dB at 3.763 GHz, with involved in performance of antenna is the directivity. Fig. 6
frequency range (l.9121 GHz - 5.8567 GHz) according to - presents the radiation pattern of directivity for the designed
10dB bandwidth criteria with bandwidth 3944.6 MHz and also antenna.
to determine the fractional impedance bandwidth for wideband
antenna, equation (13) can be used which is typically
presented in the form of BW: l. As a result, by computing the
below formula, the fractional impedance bandwidth 3: I was
obtained.

(13)

Another critical parameter beside the return loss, which is

related to the bandwidth and effects on performance of the
antenna, is VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio). Typically,
VSWR <:: 2. Therefore, the antenna only can be able to operate
at frequencies where the value of VSWR is below 2 [15]. The
VSWR curve of the designed antenna is shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 6. Radiation pattern with total antenna directivity.

As can be observed from the figure, the most of incident

power is radiated with less back lobe side. Thus the maximum
directivity obtained is 6.35dB.
The summary of the simulation results for the proposed
antenna are presented in Table 2.

TABLE II. SUMMARY RESULTS OF SIMULATED PARAMETERS

Antenna's
Value
Parameters
Frequency Range (GHz) 1.9 12 1 - 5.8567
Fig. 4. VSWR verses frequency. Resonance Frequency (GHz) 3.763
Bandwidth (MHz) 3944.6
As can be observed from the figure, the minimum VSWR Return Loss (dB) -43.8454
of the proposed antenna is 1.01 at 3.763 GHz, the value of Minimum VSWR 1.0 1
VSWR for lower and upper frequencies is l.92 at l.9121 GHz Directivity (dB) 6.35
Gain (dB) 2.4
and 5.8567 GHz.
As depicted from the radiation pattern of the designed IV. CONCLUSIONS
antenna in Fig. 5, a good amount of gain 2AdB is obtained. In this study, a wideband microstrip slots loaded patch
antenna with coaxial probe feed has been presented. We can
conclude from the obtained results of essential simulated
parameters of the proposed antenna that by adding slots with a

86
specific design to the conventional patch results in improve
perfonnance of the antenna where the critical parameters of
designed antenna offers wide bandwidth, less return loss,
minimum VSWR and high directivity with a good amount of
gain. The proposed microstrip patch antenna operates in a
wide range of frequencies (2GHz - 6GHz) which covers the
RFID applications at both bands 2.45GHz and 5.8GHz.
Therefore, its capable to operate in the most of countries
according to their standards, where RFID system requires a
compact size, a good agreement performance with a wide or
multiple bands and low cost. Thus, achieving a wideband
using single element patch antenna combines multiple
applications instead of using several antennas embedded in
one device.
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