A Novel Star-shaped Dipole Antenna with inset feed for Base

Station Application

Gunjan Parihar Prof. Milind Fernandes

Goa College of Engineering Goa College of Engineering
Ponda, Goa, India Ponda, Goa, India
gunjanparihar141994@gmail.com mf@gec.ac.in

Abstract — A novel star-shaped dipole antenna with inset feed for narrow bandwidth of 21% and its size which restricts its
base station application is presented in this paper. The antenna is usage.
comprised of two radiation dipoles with inset feeds, and a pair of
coaxial cable. Here the radiation dipoles with inset feeds are In this paper, a novel structure for base station application is
placed upon and under the FR4 substrate, having a dielectric
proposed. The antenna is designed such that it attains a
constant of 4.4 and thickness of 0.8mm. It is shown to resonate at
0.7GHz, and 2.245 GHz. Also, a bandwidth of 538MHz is bandwidth of 538MHz between 1.976GHz and 2.514GHz.
achieved between 1.976GHz and 2.514GHz. The star-shaped The microstrip antenna has high edge impedance. In order to
dipole antenna with inset feed was designed and simulated using match the impedance of the line to the input impedance of the
the IE3D software. Finally, a prototype of the proposed design antenna, the feeding line is inset into the given patch by a
was fabricated and tested using a vector network analyzer. specified distance. As we can see the structure of the antenna
is comparatively simpler to design and hence easy to fabricate.
Keywords— star-shape antenna, inset feed, dipole antenna, base The star-shaped dipole antenna with inset feed is designed and
station antennas
simulated using the IE3D software. Finally, a prototype of the
I. INTRODUCTION proposed design was fabricated and tested a using vector
network analyzer.
The transfer of data and signals with the terminals from end to
II. STAR-SHAPED DIPOLE ANTENNA WITH INSET FEED
end and the mobile switching center is carried out with a radio
transceiver station. This radio transceiver station is actually a A. Antenna configuration
base station. The DCS, PCS, UMTS, LTE2300, and LTE2500 Fig.1 shows the basic configuration of the proposed star-shaped
having the frequency range of 1.71-1.88GHz, 1.85-1.99GHz, dipole antenna with inset feed. The antenna is comprised of two
1.92-2.16GHz, 2.3-2.4GHz and 2.5-2.69GHz respectively are radiation dipoles with inset feeds, and a pair of coaxial cable.
the most common frequency assortment of the dipole antennas Here the radiation dipoles with inset feeds are placed upon and
for base stations. A wideband base station antenna is therefore under the FR4 substrate, having a dielectric constant value of
required for even performance. 4.4. The thickness of the FR4 substrate is t = 0.8mm. Each pair
of dipoles consists of one element on top of FR4 substrate and
The antennas used in [2], [4]-[10], [14], [15] are all dual- the other element on the bottom of the substrate. The distance
polarized antennas. Their structures differ only in the basic between dipoles is D. Height of the substrate from the ground is
design and in the manner in which they are fed. The structure H. At port 1, the feed extends from height h1 to height h2 and
in [4] is in the shape of bow-tie which is orthogonally placed. at port 2, the feed extends from height h2 to h1.
It is excited by a microstrip stub. Thus, it has a planar
configuration and is lightweight. Also, obtains an impedance
bandwidth of 45%. The different parts in antenna structure of
[5] are orthogonal dipoles which is part of the main radiator,
dipoles that are excited with the help of baluns, reflector, and a
bed frame. The bandwidth achieved is 48%. Y-shaped
structures in [6] are used to feed the dipoles. Both of them are
printed on the FR4 substrate. A wide 45% bandwidth is
obtained. Antenna configuration in [7] comprises of the folded
dipoles along with striplines as the part of main radiator,
feeding is through Y-shaped structures and the coaxial cables.
Stable radiation pattern with a high cross polarisation
discrimination (XPD) over its frequency band is achieved. The
major difficulty with the butterfly-shaped antenna in [8] is its
Fig.1. Configuration of the dipole antenna with inset feed

978-1-5386-5314-2/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 1863

Table.1 specifies the values of various parameters that are
important and used in the design. The star-shaped dipole
antenna with inset feed was designed and simulated using the
IE3D software.

Parameter L1 L2 L3 W1

Values (mm) 55 25 36 4

Parameter W2 H D

Values (mm) 1.5 30 1

Table.1. Dimensions of the proposed dipole antenna with inset feed

The overall dimension of the antenna is 70*70mm.
III. SIMULATION RESULT
Fig.2 shows the simulated S-parameter (S11, S22) result for
the star-shaped dipole antenna with inset feed. This is shown
to resonate at 0.7GHz, 2.245GHz having a return loss of -
11.23dB and -13dB respectively. Also, a bandwidth of
538MHz is achieved between 1.976GHz and 2.514GHz.
Fig.3. Effect of variation of the decrease in the size of dipole antenna
on the S11 parameter
B. Effect of increase of point C of the dipoles
Point C is marked for each antenna element in Fig.4.
Increasing or decreasing this point affects the characteristics
of the antenna. The effect of the increase of point C by 2mm
and 4mm on S11 parameter is shown in fig.5. As these points
are increased from their original position to +4mm, the size of
the antenna increases. Hence, the resonant frequency shifts to
0.828GHz, 2.5GHz, and 2.93GHz from 0.87GHz, 2.68GHz,
and 3.15GHz respectively.

Fig.2. Simulated S-parameter (S11, S22) for the proposed dipole

antenna. Fig.4. Design of the antenna showing edges with point C

Now, the effect of the variation of different parameters on

return loss versus frequency plot is studied i.e, S- parameter
graph.

A. Effect of reduced size of the antenna

Fig.3. shows the S parameter result as the size of the whole

structure is decreased by 1mm, 2mm, 7.5mm respectively. As
the size of the whole structure of the dipole antenna is
decreased by 7.5mm the resonant frequency shifts to higher
frequencies. The three resonant frequencies are 0.87GHz,
2.68GHz and 3.15GHz with return loss values of -19.87dB, -
30.07dB and -21.64dB respectively. Bandwidths achieved are Fig.5. Effect of increase of point C of dipole antenna on the S11
302MHz and 250MHz respectively at second and third parameter
resonant frequencies.

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C. Effect of variation of width W2 of the inset feed
The width of the inset feed is given by W2. The original width
is 1.55mm. Now increasing this width by 2mm i.e,
W2=3.55mm, it can be observed from fig.6, that first resonant
frequency almost vanishes and the bandwidth is reduced
considerably at the higher frequency. W2=1.55mm is the
optimum value of the width of inset feed. The fig.6 shows the
simulated result after decreasing the size by 7.5mm.
Fig.6. Effect of variation of width W2 of the inset feed on the S11
parameter
D. Effect of variation of the distance between dipoles D
Fig.7. shows the effect of variation of the distance between
dipoles D from D=1mm to D=2mm on S11 parameter. Here
the antenna is simulated for reduced size by -7.5mm. From the
plot, it is evident that as the distance between dipoles
increases, the value of return loss decreases. Since a high
return loss is desirable, D=1mm is the most optimum choice.
Fig.7. Effect of variation of the distance between dipoles D on
the S11 parameter
E. Effect of increase in points A and B of individual dipole
Points A and B are basically the midpoints of the edge in
individual dipole antenna element as marked in fig.8 (b). The
original design of the antenna is shown in fig.8 (a) and the
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design after increasing points A and B by 3mm is shown in
fig.8 (b).
(a) (b)
Fig.8. Design of the antenna showing (a) original design (b) after
increasing center points A and B
If points A and B are increased the relative effect on the S
parameter is as shown in fig.9. Here the increase in these
points is by 3mm. From the graph, it is noticed that first
resonant frequency is decreased from 0.85GHz to 0.828GHz
and the bandwidth at second and third resonant frequency i.e,
2.57GHz and 3.012GHz is slightly increased but these
resonant frequencies do not shift to the left or right side of the
graph.
Fig.9. Effect of increase in points A and B on the S11 parameter
F. Effect of variation of the length of inset feed for both pair of
dipole
Length of the inset feed plays a vital role in the design of the
proposed system. Fig.10 shows the effect of variation of the
length of inset feed for both pair of dipoles on the S11
parameter. L3=36mm is chosen as the optimum value because
it gives dual-band operation. This is shown to resonate at
0.7GHz, 2.1GHz, and 2.4 GHz having return loss of -11.23dB,
-16.06dB, -16.28dB respectively. Also, a comparable
bandwidth of 538MHz is achieved between 1.976GHz and
2.514GHz. for L3=41mm the first resonant frequency shifts to
0.65GHz and the higher frequencies vanish as the return loss
at these frequencies decreases below 10. For L3= 26mm and
31mm fist resonant frequency disappears and the bandwidth at
higher order frequency decreases and moves outside the
desired band.
 (a)

Fig.10. Effect of variation of the length of inset feed for both pair of
dipoles on the S11 parameter

G. Effect of variation of the length of inset feed for a single

pair of dipole

Variation of one inset feed does not give any assistance for the
performance of the antenna. As shown in fig.11 if the inset
feed length L3 is varied for 1 dipole from original 36mm
length, the return loss is reduced greatly. First resonant
frequency disappears and the return loss as well as the
bandwidth of higher resonant frequency decreases.
(b)

Fig.12. Radiation pattern of the dipole antenna with inset feed

simulated at (a) 0.7GHz (b) 2.245GHz

Fig.11. Effect of variation of the length of inset feed for a single pair
of dipoles on the S11 parameter
Fig.13. Efficiency versus frequency curve for the proposed design
The 3D Radiation pattern of the star-shaped dipole antenna
with inset feed is shown in fig.12 at 0.7GHz and 2.245GHz
respectively. Fig.13 shows efficiency versus frequency curve
for the proposed design which is seen to have a high radiation
efficiency of 97%. Fig.14 depicts the Total field versus gain
curve for the proposed design which shows that maximum
gain is achieved around 7.5dBi.

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Fig.14. Total field versus gain curve for the proposed design

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT

In order to verify the proposed design, fabrication of the

prototype of the dipole antenna with inset feed was done and
further tested using a vector network analyzer (VNA). Fig.15
shows the photograph of the prototype of the fabricated star-
shaped dipole antenna with inset feed. Fig.16. shows the
experimental setup for measurement of S-parameters. The two
cables shown in fig.16 is used to connect the base ground to
top substrate.

Fig.17 (a) and (b) shows the measured S11 and S22 Fig.16 Experimental setup for measurement of S-parameter
parameters with respect to the ground plane. S11 parameter
shows the presence of resonant frequencies at 1.57GHz,
1.68GHz, and 2.4GHz. Also, a comparable bandwidth of
400MHz is observed between 2.2GHz and 2.6GHz. Therefore
the simulated and measured S parameters and bandwidth are
comparable as shown in fig.18. Simulated values show the
presence of two resonating frequencies whereas the measured
result shows three resonating frequency and a bandwidth of
400MHz. A slight variation in the measured S11 and S22
parameters is observed. Also, it is not possible to measure
radiation patterns of the prototype due to unavailability of an
anechoic chamber.

Fig.17 (a) Measured graph of S-parameter S11 for the proposed

dipole antenna.

Fig.15. The prototype of the proposed dipole antenna; Perspective

View

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Fig.17 (b) Measured graph of S-parameter S22 for the proposed
dipole antenna.
Fig.18 Comparison of simulated and measured S11 parameter
V. CONCLUSION
A star-shaped dipole antenna with inset feed is developed for
base station application. It is shown to resonate at 0.7GHz, and
2.245 GHz having a return loss of -11.23dB, -13dB
respectively. Also, a bandwidth of 538MHz is achieved
between 1.976GHz and 2.514GHz. Finally, a prototype of the
proposed design was fabricated and tested using a vector
network analyzer. The S11 parameter shows the presence of
resonant frequencies at 1.57GHz, 1.68GHz, and 2.4GHz.
Also, a bandwidth of 400MHz is observed between 2.2GHz
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and 2.6GHz. Hence, the proposed configuration is suitable for
base station application.
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