2017 2nd IEEE International Conference On Recent Trends in Electronics Information & Communication Technology (RTEICT), May 19-20,

2017, India

A Circularly Polarized Dual-Band Patch Antenna

With Branch-line Coupler for IRNSS Application
Vruti S Joshi,
ME student, EC Dept.
Atmiya Institute of tech. &Sci, Rajkot
vrutijoshi45@gmail.com
Balvant J Makwana Ashish M Kothari
Asst Prof , EC Department, H.O.D, EC Department,
Government Engineering College, Rajkot Atmiya Institute of tech. &Sci, Rajkot
balvantmakwana@gmail.com amkothari@aits.edu.in

Abstract—This paper presents dual band circularly polarized lower frequency band we are utilizing a petal-shaped patch
antenna for IRNSS applications. The antenna is loaded by four antenna and for higher frequency band loaded monopoles are
mono-poles around petal shaped patch. Crossed slot are added on used.
patch to miniaturize the total size of patch. The antenna is fed
using branch line coupler. Optimized dimension of antenna is II. DESIGN OF PETAL- SHAPED ANTENNA WITH BRANCH-
0.44 λ0 X 0.44 λ0 X 0.08λ0 .Using this antenna we obtained 3-dB LINE COUPLER
Axial Ratio (AR) bandwidth of 31.6%, Also 34.33% impedance
bandwidth with SWR≤ 2 is achieved.
A petal shaped patch antenna is a planner structure similar
Keywords—Petal-shaped antenna, circular polarization, to rectangular patch antenna. Figure 1 shows geometry of
branch-line couper. proposed petal-shaped antenna. This antenna is composed of
four cylinders that radiate like a monopole and petal-shaped
I. INTRODUCTION patch. The loaded monopoles are excited by coupling with the
In recent technology, navigation and satellite petal-shaped patch as given in [7]. Antenna is fed by branch-
communication have become more demanding. In order to line coupler, and branch-line coupler is fed by SMA
reduce multi-path propagation effect all GNSS (Global connector.
Navigation Satellite System) applications uses circular
polarization(CP) in receiver antenna. Circular polarization
provides more flexible orientation to transmitting and
receiving antenna[1]. Due to this advantage it finds many
practical applications in wireless communications, like GPS,
radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, satellite
communication systems. In order to use an antenna on
multiple systems like GPS and IRNSS we required wide axial
ratio bandwidth. However conventional patch antennas have
comparatively narrow beam width around 60˚-90˚. We can
achieve broad beam width by loading four cylinders which are
near the edge of circular patch as given in[2]. However, due to
four long cylinders loaded near the circular patch low profile
characteristic is destroyed. There are many techniques to (a) Petal-shaped antenna with branch-line coupler
generate circular polarization, in conventional way circular
polarization can be obtained by generating two degenerating
modes on the microstripe patch element feeding at single point
using any of microstripe feeding technique, like Proximity
coupled feeding, Coaxial probe feeding ,aperture coupled,
etc.[3]-[4]. The problem with techniques is the achievable
axial- ratio bandwidth is very narrow.
An improved method to achieve circular polarization is to
generate two modes, which are orthogonal to each other using
more than one feeding point mechanism such as done in [5]
using feeding a microstripe antenna by aperture coupled
feeding using four such aperture. A simple way to produce
circular polarized radiation is by generating two modes
orthogonal to each other, having equal amplitude, which are in (b) Top view
phase quadrature. Here we have used branch- line coupler to
generate circular polarization.
In this paper inverted ground concept is used. The proposed
antenna is design for dual band operation. For operation at

978-1-5090-3704-9/17/$31.00 © 2017 IEEE

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 2017 2nd IEEE International Conference On Recent Trends in Electronics Information & Communication Technology (RTEICT), May 19-20, 2017, India

TABLE I.OPTIMIZED PARAMETERS

Length(L) 85mm H 9mm

patch 30mm r 1mm
width 1mm d 16mm
r1 16mm xx 21.5mm
(c) H1 28mm Height(h) 1.524mm
Fig. 1. Geometry of proposed petal-shaped antenna (a) Bottom View, (b)
Top View ,(c) Side view

Here, circular polarization is generated by quadrature

hybrid (branch-line coupler), which gives equal amplitude and
90˚ phase shifted output signal [8]-[9]. This is integrated to the
petal shaped patch antenna using copper pin as shown in
figure 2 . Coupling strength can be optimized by adjusting the
distance between the edge of the petal shaped patch and
cylinder. A crossed slot is given to the center of the petal-
shaped patch to optimize the lateral dimension of the antenna.
The petal-shaped patch is printed on substrate FR4 having
permittivity 4.4, thickness 3mm and loss tangent 0.02. branch-
line coupler is printed on substrate Rogers RT/ duroid 6002
having thickness 1.524mm, permittivity 2.94 and loss tangent Fig. 3. Simulated return loss performance of proposed antenna
0.0012.
Fig 4 shows variation of gain of the proposed antenna
which is 1.82dBi at frequency 1.18Ghz and 3.8dBi at 1.57Ghz.
In Fig.5 the 3-dB axial ratio is plotted which shows good AR
bandwidth of about 31.6 % at center frequency. This fulfills
the requirement of AR at both desired frequency of operation.

Fig. 2.Geometry of proposed Branch-line coupler.

The structure of antenna is very complex so each section is

optimized separately in HFSS and then it is assembled as one
model combining branch-line coupler and petal-shaped patch
antenna. Each models are modified after integration to get the
required operation at the interested frequency band, viz. L1 Fig. 4.Simulated Gain total for proposed antenna
and L5 frequency band.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The optimized parameters of antenna areas given in Table
1. This antenna is design to cover the dual frequency band
L1=1.18 GHz and L5=1.57 GHz. These frequencies are used
in IRNSS applications with 50Ω input impedance. The
antenna is designed and simulated in Ansys HFSS software.
Fig. 3shows the simulated return loss (S11) performance of the
petal shaped antenna. This shows the wide band operation
having percentage impedance bandwidth of 34.33% at the
center frequency. As side lengths of petal shaped patch
antenna increases resonate frequency of lower band is
decreases. But resonate frequency of higher band is Fig. 5.Simulated Axial Ratio (dB) of proposed antenna.
unaffected.
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 2017 2nd IEEE International Conference On Recent Trends in Electronics Information & Communication Technology (RTEICT), May 19-20, 2017, India
Figure 6 and Figure 7 shows the radiation pattern of given
antenna at 1.57 GHz and 1.18 GHz frequencies. It shows the
symmetrical pattern in LHCP and RHCP as well as the wider
half power beam width which is around 180 deg at 1.57 GHz
and approximately 140 deg beam width at 1.18 GHz. this
wider beam width is essential requirement of navigational
satellite antennas.
Fig. 6. Simulated radiation pattern at L5 frequency (1.57 GHz)
Fig. 7. Simulated radiation pattern at L1 frequency (1.18 GHz)
IV. CONCLUSION
A circularly polarized novel loaded monopole petal-shaped
antenna is proposed in this paper. It is excited by branch-line
coupler structure which generates circular polarization for
broad bandwidth. The simulated result verifies its broadband
nature. It is having impedance bandwidth of around 34.33%
.The 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth of about 31.6 % is achieved. It
has a compact dimension of 0.44λ0 X 0.44 λ0 X 0.08 λ0 Also
the radiation patterns are symmetrical in orthogonal planes.
The proposed antenna can be used in various applications of
IRNSS.
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