Int. J. Emerg. Sci.

, 1(3), 400-417, September 2011

ISSN: 2222-4254
© IJES

Conception of Patch Antenna at Wide Band

Mustapha Iftissane, Seddik Bri, Lahbib Zenkouar, Ahmed Mamouni

Mustapha Iftissane, Electronic and Telecommunications Laboratory, EMI, Rabat - Morocco

Seddik Bri, Material and Instrumentation Group, ESTM, Meknes - Morocco
Lahbib Zenkouar, Electronic and Telecommunications Laboratory, EMI, Rabat- Morocco
Ahmed Mamouni, MITEC group, Institute of Electronics, the Microelectronics and Nanotechnology, UMR
CNRS 8520 IEMN, City Scientifique, Avenue Poincaré - B.P 60069 59652, Lille- France.

briseddik@gmail.com, Mustapha.iftissane@gmail.com

Abstract. In this paper, we present the simulations and experimental results

of a series of patch antennas in wide band. The conception of these patch
antennas are realized by software HFSS "Ansoft-High Frequency Structure
Simulator" and ADS "Advanced Design System", themselves based
essentially on the variation of the shape of the antenna, conductive material,
the nature and the thickness of the substratum to have a structure which
resounds in the frequencies used for precise applications. The simulations
and experimental results are compared to those published in the bibliography.

Keywords: Patch antenna, Design, HFSS, ADS, Wide Band.

1. INTRODUCTION

Microstrip antennas have attracted a lot of attention due to rapid growth in wireless
communication. Patch antenna designs with single-feed, dual-frequency operation have
systems such as, digital cellular system at 900 MHz, automatic toll collection at 905
Mhz and wireless local area networks around 2.4 GHz.
Multiband operations of wireless communication systems have been developed
rapidly, increasing the need for low-cost multiband antennas for mobile terminals.
Modern mobile equipment‟s are often required to operate at multiple frequency bands
to facilitate the application for various communication. Thus, many antennas with
broadband and multiband functionality, monopole antennas, planar antennas and slot
antennas have been described in recent years. Printed antennas with moderate radiating

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characteristics can be operated at multiple frequency bands. They support dual-band

operation in the wireless local area network (WLAN) communication systems.
However, in other antenna designs, a slot patch and a broad ground plane are required
for broadband and multiband systems.
Researchers have made efforts to overcome the problem of narrow bandwidth in
coplanar patch antennas (CPAs) and various configurations have been presented to
extend the bandwidth. Adding a short on the upper slot of the CPA and varying its
length achieved 30 to 40% BW [1] at higher frequencies for radar applications. In this
paper a simple design of a CPA is introduced that achieves high efficiency and
reasonable BW, and can easily be tuned to work at different frequency bands.
A compact meander-type slot antenna with 56% size reduction has been reported in [2]
in which non-uniform slot line widths give rise to lower operating frequency of the
antenna. In this paper we show that a dual-frequency operation is achieved by using a
tapered meander slot antenna with a short-ended microstrip line feed. The tapered
meander slot antenna was derived from [3] in which a meander line was tapered to achieve
operation at lower frequencies. The bands of interest for this research project are those of
wireless local area networks (WLANs) [19], US industrial, medical, and scientific bands (ISM),
and personal communication systems (PCS).
In this paper, we present the study of basic parameters patch antenna (gain,
bandwidth, and radiation pattern), types of feed (for micro strip line, coaxial). To
validate the proposed equivalent models, the obtained simulations results by HFSS,
ADS are compared to the experimental results and the publication results [4-8].

2. THEORETICAL DESIGN OF PATCH ANTENNA

We have simulated the printed antennas using the software Ansoft-HFSS and ADS.
The simulation technique used to calculate the three dimensional electromagnetic field
inside a structure is based on the finite element method (FEM). The principle of the
method is to divide the study area into many small regions (tetrahedrons), then

calculate the local electromagnetic field in each element. The local fields Ε and H
are calculated in each tetrahedron from the following equations [9-11]:
1
Λ Λ E( r )  k 02 ε r E( r ) = 0
μr
1
H( r ) =   Λ E( r ) (1)
jωωr

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εr and µr are respectively the permittivity and relative permeability of materials.

k0 = 2f μ0ε0
is the wave vector in vacuum, ω = 2πf is the pulsation angular
frequency.
HFSS uses an interpolation method combined with an iterative process in
which a mesh is created automatically and redefined in the critical regions. The
simulator generates a solution based on the predefined initial mesh. Then, it refines the
mesh in regions where there is a high density of errors, and generates a new solution.
The Sij microwave parameters are calculated with the given following steps:
 Division the structure into a finite number of elements;
 Excitation of each port of the structure with a wave propagating along a
waveguide structure or a uniform transmission line which has the same section
as the port;
 Calculation of the total configuration of the electromagnetic field inside the
structure;
 Calculation of matrices Sij generalized from the reflected and transmitted
powers.

2.1 Influence of spatial parameters and structural behaviour of printed antennas

The following paragraph illustrates the results of simulations of several cases of printed
antennas in the environment HFSS. We show the effect of the length (L), width (w),
permittivity (εr) and the substrate height (h) for a simple form (example: ( 'P')) for a
printed antenna (figure 1).

Figure. 1. HFSS design of Patch antenna in 'P' form fed by microstrip line

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Variation of the resonant frequency on the length of the line. The length L of patch
antenna determines the resonant frequencies. The length ∆L corresponds to extensions
of fields [12-15]:
dielectric c
L 2L   2L (2)
2 2 f 01  r

Length extension can be calculated from:

W
( reff  0.3)(  0.264)
L  0.412 * h * h (3)
W
( reff  0.258)(  0.8)
h

The wave propagation in a microstrip line is made both in the dielectric medium
and in air. From modeling point of view, the two circles are replaced by a single
effective medium characterized by a dielectric constant expressed as:
1

r 1  r 1 h  2
 reff   1  12  (4)
2 2  W 
We can determine the resonant frequency (which is the operating frequency) in
terms of patch dimensions:

c
fr  (5)
2  eff ( L  2L)

We then establish the following results in table 1.

Table 1: Parametric study results for variations of the resonant frequencies and |S11| for patch
antenna

Length L (mm) Resonant frequency (GHz) Return loss |S11| (dB)

6 1.06 21
8 0.98 17
10 0.9 16

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Variation of the resonant frequency depending on the width.The resonant frequency

and the Return loss S11 are inversely proportional to the length L of the microline. For
a microstrip line, the width W is given by the following formula:
c 1 (6)
W =
2f r ε r +1
2

To validate this relationship, we analyzed a line of 50 Ω with a length of 6 mm. εr =

3.4 and h=1.53 mm for the W variable. The resonant frequency and S11 depend on the
width of the antenna.

Table 2. Variation of the resonant frequency and |S11| as a function of the width of the patch
antenna

Width W (mm) Resonant frequency (GHz) Return loss |S11|(dB)

2 1.16 -6.92
4 1.31 -13.65
6 1.41 -17.91

The resonant frequency and S11 increase in function of the width of the microstrip line.

Variation of the resonant frequency as a function of the ssubstrate thickness. Varying

the thickness of the substrate (εr = 4.3) with fixed all others parameters. We establish
the simulations results in the table 3.

Table 3. Variation of the resonant frequency and |S11| as a function of the thickness h of the
patch antenna

Thickness h (mm) Resonant frequency (GHz) Return loss |S11|(dB)

0.5 1.06 -20.56
1 1.09 -13.56
1.53 1.16 -6.85

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 Mustapha Iftissane, Seddik Bri, Lahbib Zenkouar, Ahmed Mamouni

Variation of the resonant frequency as a function of the relative permittivity of the

substrate. When thickness and resonant frequency increase, leads to an decreased
variation of the the magnitude S11. We chose three types of substrates of different
permittivity on (Air, circuit board and Plexiglas).

Table 4. Variation of the resonance frequency and |S11| in function of the permittivity of the
patch antenna

Permittivity Resonance frequency (GHz) Return loss |S11|(dB)

1 2.07 -12
3.4 1.82 -18
4.32 1.7 -30

Resonant frequency increases when εr decreases. Miniaturization of antennas can

be achieved by choosing materials with high permittivity.
In conclusion, we note that the resonant frequency of a micro strip line depend on
its length, width, the permittivity and thickness of the substrate.

2.2 Antenna with 4 squares

The parameter S11 for the proposed antennas is compared with ADS and HFSS
simulation results in the frequency range from [8.5 -11.5 ]GHz [16].

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Figure. 2: Representation of the layout by ADS

The rectangular patch is designed to have 3 resonant frequencies at 9.5 GHz, 10.15
GHz and 10.75 GHz. We represent the results of simulations in X-band [8 -12] GHz:

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(b)

Figure. 3. Variation of Return loss as a function of frequency: a: FDTD and Measure,

b: HFSS and ADS

Notice that the simulation results were very good and comparable to those published in
[16].

2.3 Antenna with Slot

The initial design of a tapered meander slot antenna is shown in figure 4 and its slot
width is 1.5 mm and L1 varies from 0 to 0.75 mm. The antenna is constructed by
making a meander slot in a perfectly conducting plane supported by a dielectric
substrate of 1.905 mm thickness and relative dielectric constant of 9.2. The antenna is
excited by a microstrip feed line. The edge of the feed line is shorted to the perfectly
conducting plane using a shorting wall. The width and length of the feed line can be
adjusted to achieve a good input match. The horizontal slots of the meander are varied
in width from 0.5 to 1.5 mm in order to enhance the operating bandwidth.
The Advance Design System (ADS) software package is used to analyze this type
of antenna. The return loss for the design of figure 4 is shown in figure 5. It can be seen
that with an increase in L1 the operating frequency of the antenna is shifted down. The
design presented in figure 4 yields a maximum bandwidth of about 700 MHz when L1
is 0.75 mm and a minimum bandwidth of about 670 MHz with L1 equal to zero. It is
found that the increase of L1 leads to an increased variation of the input resistance for
this design.

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Figure. 4. Top and side views of tapered meander slot

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 Mustapha Iftissane, Seddik Bri, Lahbib Zenkouar, Ahmed Mamouni

(b)

Figure.5. Return loss in the case L = 0 mm, a: Measure, (b): Theoretical and HFSS

Figure 5 show that the antenna has a wide bandwidth (The latter ranges from 2 GHz
to 2.5 GHz with S11 ≤ - 10 dB). As W1 is varied from 1.5 to 0.5 mm the second
resonance at 2420 MHz remains constant where as the first resonance is shifted down
from about 2040 MHz to about 1803 MHz Numerical results indicated that the
variations of the input resistance of this design increases with the decrease of W1.

2.4 Antenna line buried

The antenna line buried structure is performed in two substrates with a micro strip line
plated on the bottom substrate that ends in an open circuit in the printed patch on the
upper substrate. This close coupling allows improving bandwidth and reducing stray
radiation.
The dimensions W = L = 5 mm from the patch fix the resonance of the antenna and
f=10 GHz. W = 0.635 mm from the micro strip feed, can have an impedance of 50 Ω at
the input antenna. A good adaptation is achieved for a micro strip of length li = 2.5
mm. The two alumina substrates are modelled by two identical dielectric layers of
thickness 0.635 mm, the real part of permittivity is 9.6 (figure 6).

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Figure.6. Schematic of the antenna line buried

(b)

Figure.7. Return loss as a function of frequency: a: Measure, b: Theoretical and HFSS

Figure 7 shows the variation of return loss S11 as function of the frequency. At
|S11| ≤ -10 dB , we have a wide band frequency from 9.2 to 9.704 GHz.

2.5 Antenna form of ‘2’

In this case, we take εr = 4.32 (epoxy) h = 1.53 mm with 2 layers of 35 μm copper

ground plane with copper (80mm / 60mm) (figure 8) [18].

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 Mustapha Iftissane, Seddik Bri, Lahbib Zenkouar, Ahmed Mamouni

Figure.8. Design of the Antenna

Figure.9. Variation of S11 as a function of frequency: Theoretical and HFSS

Figure 9 present the variation of S11 in two bands: B1 = [1.918 - 2.022] GHz and B2 =
[2.273 - 2.48] GHz | S11 | <-10dB.

3. EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENTS

Taking into account the design steps mentioned in the previous section, we have made
various prototypes of antennas as shown in figure 10, using as substrate the " epoxy"
with a relative permittivity εr =4.38 and d = 1.6 mm with 2 layers of copper 35 microns.

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Figure.10. Prototype of the realized antennas

3.1 Measurements results

A vector Network Analyzer operating in the wide band is used to measure the
reflection coefficient for the designed patch antenna.The bandwidth of the antenna is
defined by:
 F  Fmin 
BW (%)  100 *  max  (7)
 Fr 
Fmax and Fmin are determined at -10 dB. The resonant frequency Fr patch antenna is
calculated by using resonant cavity model.

Table.5. Results of the parametric study for the three realized antennas

Antennas Central frequency BW (%) Return loss

(GHz) |S11|(dB)
HFSS Measurement HFSS Measurement HFSS Measurement
Antenna in („U‟) 1.6 1.6 0.625 9.37 10 30
2 2 -- 4 7.5 12
Antenna in („2‟) 1.675 1.675 4.37 6.25 12 18
2 2 1.8 4.4 10 16
Antenna in („P‟) 1.06 1.1 7.5 9.43 21 23

Notice that the bandwidth depends of the patch antenna and the polarization
directivity (excitation).

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Figure 11. Radiation Pattern of antenna „2‟ : (a) : E-Plane, (b) : 3D

Figure 12. Radiation Pattern of antenna „U‟ : (a) : E-Plane, (b) : 3D

Figure 13. Radiation Pattern of antenna „P‟ : (a) : E-Plane, (b) : 3D

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The radiation pattern for the final design is shown in figures 11, 12 and 13. The
bandwidth at the first resonance centered at 1800 MHz is 130 MHz with a directivity of
about 3.62 dB and radiation efficiency of about 60 %. The operating bandwidth of the
second resonance at 2400 MHz is about 350 MHz with directivity of 4.22 dB and
radiation efficiency of 49%. The radiation pattern remains constant over both operating
bandwidths.

3.2 Discussion results

Antenna design using HFSS and ADS software is mainly based on the change in the
shape of the antenna, the conductive material and the thickness of the substrate to have
a structure that echoes in the desired resonant frequency. The subtle variation of each of
these parameters affects the resonance frequency, the reflex ion coefficient, the
impedance of the excitation port and the band width.
It is noted that the antenna in „U‟ resounds in two different wavebands. For |S11| <
-10 dB: the first band is spread out from 1.381 to 1.889 GHz thus making it possible to
cover standard DCS (1710-1880 MHz), and the second band going from 2.223 to 2.719
GHz. If one calculates the width of waveband for a lower level of the coefficient of
reflexion |S11| (- 15 dB or -20 dB), it is noticed that it is much reduced. This shows
well the principal disadvantage of the printed antennas.
Although the antenna having the form `2 ' presents a simple geometry, this antenna
requires a thorough study of which the various methods profit from the significant
developments from design and simulation from antennas. While following these
various stages, one designed some antennas bi- bands (in the band 0.7-3GHz) while
varying several parameters with knowing the length of the antenna which is related to
the frequency of resonance, its width, its form, the thickness of the substrate, and the
relative permittivity εr. For that a study of the variation of these parameters and its
influence on the frequency of resonance was necessary.
One notices according to the study of the patch antenna in form “P” which the
bandwidth varies if one considers various levels of S11. Indeed, several articles define
the band of use of the antenna for |S11|< -10dB, and others for |S11| < -15 dB or |S11| <
-20 dB. In this example, for |S11| < -10 dB: the band of use is spread out of 1.509 with
2.185GHz, making it possible to cover standards DCS (1710-1880MHz), GCV (1850-
1990 MHz) and UMTS (1920-2170 MHz). For |S11| < -15dB, the band of use is spread
out from 1.695 to 2.077 GHz, it thus covers standards DCS (1710-1880 MHz) and PCS

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 Mustapha Iftissane, Seddik Bri, Lahbib Zenkouar, Ahmed Mamouni

(1850-1990 MHz). For |S11| < -20dB, the band of use is reduced to [1.785, 1.996] GHz
making it possible to cover only standard PCS (1850-1990MHz).
The measured values resonance frequencies are very close to those simulated. The
difference between them is due to uncertainties measurement. Notice that the value of
return loss for the resonant frequencies is very different from that which was obtained
by simulation; this may be due to losses introduced by the dielectric, the mismatch
between the source and antenna. These differences are due to several constraints,
namely:
- Poor continuity between the plug connector and the microstrip line, due to the
alteration made by welding.
- The inevitable bad contact between the antenna and network analyzer.
- A substrate used is not high quality.

4. CONCLUSION

A simple design of dual band antenna functioning in the second and third generation
mobile telecommunication systems, based on the slot matching concept is presented and
analysed by ADS and HFSS. The results simulations are very important compared to
measure and FDTD code. The main quality of the proposed antenna is that it allows an
effective design maintaining all the advantages of micro-strip antennas in terms of size,
weight and easy manufacturing. Moreover, this antenna has a good effectiveness on the
totality of the three covered bands respectively, GSM, UMTS and WLAN frequency
bands.
The antenna design using the software HFSS and ADS is based mainly on the
change in the shape of the antenna and its conducting material, the nature and thickness
of the substrate that resonates in the frequency desired for specified applications. The
optimal variation of each of these parameters affects the resonance frequency, the return
loss and the bandwidth of the antenna patch. In conclusion, the integration of these
planar structures may lead to the design of a communication system in a frequency
range well defined. The proposed wide band antenna generates resonant modes
covering the multi-operation bands for DCS/PCS/UMTS/WLAN operations.

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