Wideband sequential feeding network for Ku‐band dual circularly polarized 4 × 4 antenna array

In this article the analysis and design of a dual circularly polarized 4 × 4 antenna array operating in Ku band are discussed with emphasis on its sequential feeding network. The proposed antenna element is composed of stacked circular patches fed by a branch line coupler to introduce dual circular polarization. These antenna elements are arranged into 2 × 2 sequential fed antenna arrays with two separate sequential feeding networks for LH and RH circular polarizations. These 2 × 2 sequential fed antenna arrays are arranged to compose the proposed 4 × 4 antenna array. The proposed feeding network is implements on a single layer. Due to the coupling between the lines of the complete feeding network, matching and axial ratio of the complete antenna are degraded. Matching stubs at appropriate points on the complete feeding network are used to adjust the total performance of the designed 4 × 4 antenna array. Simulation results by using both HFSS and CST are presented for comparison. In addition, experimental verifications are presented.     

Compact‐size linearly tapered slot antenna for portable ultra‐wideband imaging systems

A compact‐size asymmetrical linearly tapered slot antenna required for portable ultra‐wideband (UWB) imaging systems is presented. The total antenna size is reduced compared with the conventional linearly tapered slot antenna by using a triangular slot on the left‐hand side of the tapered‐shaped radiator, whereas introducing a corrugated pattern of cuts on the right side. The antenna operates over a wide bandwidth extending from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz with a maximum gain of 8.5 dBi. Stable radiation patterns are observed across the operational bandwidth, with cross‐polarization levels below ?20 dB. The realized antenna structure occupies a volume of 35 × 36 × 0.8 mm³, and possesses the essential time domain fidelity needed for UWB imaging applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2013.     

A miniaturized ultra‐wideband planar monopole antenna with L‐shaped ground plane stubs

This article presents a miniaturized ultra‐wideband planar monopole antenna with an oval radiator. The proposed antenna is fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW), and two L‐shaped stubs are extended from the ground plane of the CPW. This presented antenna is able to produce resonances in the lower frequency band and realize better impedance matching performance in the middle and higher frequency bands with the aid of the L‐shaped stubs. The antenna was built and tested. The total size of the proposed antenna is only 26 × 20 × 1.6 mm³. Its measured –10 dB impedance bandwidth is 10.1 GHz (3.1‐13.2 GHz). The measured far‐field radiation patterns are stable in the whole operating frequency band.     

Compact ultra‐wideband slot antenna with three notched‐band characteristics

A very compact ultra‐wideband (UWB) slot antenna with three L‐shaped slots for notched‐band characteristics is presented in this article. The antenna is designed and fabricated using a new stepped slot with different size, integrated in the ground plane, and excited by a 50 Ω microstrip transmission line. The stepped slot is used to minimize the dimensions of the antenna and to achieve an impedance bandwidth between 2.65 and 11.05 GHz with voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) less than 2. The length of the stepped slot is equal to a quarter wavelength to create a resonance in the desired frequency. Three L‐shaped slots with various sizes are etched in the ground plane to reject three frequency bands in C‐band (3.7‐4.2 GHz), WLAN (5.15‐5.825 GHz), and X‐band (7.25‐7.75 GHz), respectively. The notched‐band frequency can be controlled by changing the length of the L‐shaped slot. The proposed antenna has a very small size (20.25 × 8 × 1.27 mm³) compared with previous works. The measured and simulated results show a good agreement in terms of radiation pattern and impedance matching.     

Coplanar waveguide‐fed electrically small dual‐polarized short‐ended zeroth‐order resonating antenna using Ω‐shaped capacitor and single‐split ring resonator for GPS/WiMAX/WLAN/C‐band applications

This work explains the design and analysis of a triple‐band electrically small (ka = 0.56 < 1) zeroth‐order resonating (ZOR) antenna with wideband circular polarization (CP) characteristics. The antenna compactness is obtained due to ZOR frequency of composite right/left‐handed (CRLH) transmission line (TL) and wideband CP radiation are achieved due to the introduction of single‐split ring resonator and asymmetric coplanar waveguide fed ground plane. The proposed antenna obtains an overall electrical size including the ground plane of 0.124 λ₀ × 0.131 λ₀ × 0.005 λ₀ at 1.58 GHz and physical dimension of 23.7 × 25 × 1 mm³ are achieved. The antenna provides a size reduction of 44.95% compared to a conventional monopole antenna. The novelty behind the ohm‐shaped capacitor is the generation of extra miniaturization with better antenna compactness. The antenna provides dual‐polarized radiation pattern with linear polarization radiation at 1.58 and 3.54 GHz, wideband CP radiation at 5.8 GHz. The antenna measured results shows good impedance bandwidth of 5%, 6.21%, and 57.5% for the three bands centered at 1.58, 3.54, and 5.8 GHz with a wider axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) of 25.47% is obtained in the third band. The antenna provides a higher level of compactness, wider ARBW, good radiation efficiency, and wider S₁₁ bandwidth. Hence, the proposed antenna is suitable for use in GPS L1 band (1.565‐1.585 GHz), WiMAX 3.5 GHz (3.4‐3.8 GHz) GHz, WLAN 5.2/5.8 GHz (5.15‐5.825 GHz), and C‐band (4‐8 GHz) wireless application systems.     

Dual‐band dual‐polarized compact planar monopole antenna for wide axial ratio bandwidth application

In this article, a geometrically simple, microstrip line‐fed planar monopole structure with slanting edge ground plane is designed to realize the dual‐band dual‐polarized operation. The proposed antenna consists of a rotated U‐shaped patch and an electromagnetically coupled L‐shaped parasitic radiating element. Owing to the combination of microstrip line‐fed radiating patch and a slanting‐edge rectangular ground plane on the opposite side of the substrate, the proposed dual‐band antenna can generate broad axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) in the upper frequency band. The overall dimension of the prototype is only 32 × 32 × 1.6 mm³. The measured results validate that the proposed antenna has two operational frequency bands, 29.84% (1.54‐2.08 GHz) for linearly polarized radiation and 71.85% (3.96‐8.4 GHz) for circularly polarized radiation. Measured result shows that 3‐dB ARBW of the proposed antenna is 73.54% (3.80‐8.22 GHz) in the higher frequency band. It shows that the higher frequency band exhibits a left‐hand circularly polarized radiation in the boresight direction.     

Frequency agile quadrilateral patch and slot based optimal antenna design for cognitive radio system

This article presents a compact quadrilateral patch antenna design for cognitive radio system having dimensions of 50 × 50 × 1.6 mm³. The proposed antenna is designed with a triangular shape slot structure and quadrilateral patch with two step feedline on the either side of the FR4 substrate which is capable of switching for twelve different bands of frequency. The frequency range varies from 2.46 to 3.90 GHz, with a relative impedance bandwidth of around 45%. To achieve frequency agility six PIN diodes are used to vary the length of higher inclined arms of the slot. In the proposed approach, incorporation of biasing circuit into the ground plane reduces the parasitic effect, which improves the performance of the antenna. Moreover, the robustness of the proposed design is demonstrated in terms of reduction of antenna size, a number of frequency state, frequency ratio and number of PIN diodes used for frequency agility. The simulated and measured results for reflection coefficient, radiation pattern, relative bandwidth, gain, and efficiency are found to be in good agreement with each other.     

Metamaterial inspired CPW‐fed compact antenna for ultrawide band applications

A small size, planar and co‐planar waveguide fed metamaterial inspired antenna is proposed for ultra‐wideband (UWB) application. The main radiating element consists of three split‐ring resonators (SRR) and placed along one axis. Moreover, coplanar waveguide (CPW)‐fed line along with modified ground plane is used to improve the impedance matching. The physical size of proposed antenna is 25(W) × 22 (L) × 1.6 (H) mm³. The CPW‐fed metamaterial inspired antenna provides bandwidth of 10.4 GHz from 3.1 to 13.5 GHz based on the 3:1 (voltage standing wave ratio [VSWR] <2). Over the range of UWB frequency, peak realized gain varies from 2.5 to 4 dBi. The proposed antenna provides omnidrectional radiation patterns. Further, fidelity factor of the proposed antenna is also calculated and measured. The calculated fidelity factor is suitable for UWB applications. Finally, prototype of the antenna is developed and tested using network analyzer. The simulated and measured results are in good agreement.     

Design of ultrawide band planar inverted‐F antenna with slotted broad feed

This article presents a low ‐ profile planar inverted‐F antenna (PIFA) for broadband applications. The proposed antenna geometry is simple and does not use any parasitic elements, which makes its fabrication easier. The antenna's radiator is composed of a top loading plate, broad feed plate, and a shorting plate; occupies a total volume of (L × W × H ) 20 × 12 × 6 mm³. The proposed antenna design achieved the wideband characteristics by using the method of bringing resonances to proximity; furthermore, the low ‐ profile feature is achieved by removing some portion of the ground plane according to the volume ratio of PIFA. To validate the simulated results, an antenna prototype has been fabricated. The simulated and measured radiation patterns, gain, group delay, and simulated peak ‐ specific absorption rate (SAR) are presented. The measurement result demonstrates that the proposed antenna design achieved the maximum bandwidth of 142% (3.1–18.5 GHz) for |S ₁₁| ≤ ?10 dB.     

A two‐layer beam‐steering array antenna with 4 × 4 modified Butler matrix fed network for switched beam application

This paper presents a novel two layers beam‐steering array antenna fed by a 4 × 4 modified Butler matrix. Each of the radiation elements have been replaced by a collection of 2 × 2 circularly polarized (CP) square patches, which joined together by a modified sequentially rotated feed network. The antenna array consists of 2 × 5 CP square patches, which connected to four ring sequential rotation and fed by butler matrix. The proposed Butler matrix which plays a role as beam‐steering feed network consists of four novel 90° circular patch couplers and two 45° half circular patch phase shifter. Altogether, using of a 2 × 5 phased array antenna and a modified Butler matrix cause to empower array antenna for covering frequency range between 4.67 to 6.09GHz, the maximum gain of 14.98 dB and 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 1.2GHz (4.9~6.1GHz) is attained.     

Circularly polarized 4 × 8 stacked patch antenna phased array with enhanced bandwidth for commercial drones

This paper demonstrates the design procedure of a 4 × 8 phased array antenna. Initially, a unit element in multilayer topology with orthogonal slots in the ground plane to couple electromagnetic energy is designed. Then, a stacked patch with truncated edges is placed on the top thick substrate layer to enhance the bandwidth to 600 MHz. This multilayered stacked patch unit element is then used to design a 1 × 4 and 4 × 8 slot coupled stacked patch array. On the bottom side, a novel feedline structure is designed to provide a 90 ^o phase difference at the antenna feed for the circular polarization. The phase difference is achieved in the feedline structure using a quarter wavelength ( λ_g/4 ) difference in the lengths. After the numerical validation, both 1 × 4 and 4 × 8 stacked patch antenna arrays are fabricated to validate the simulations. The final 4 × 8 array achieved the target specification of an active reflection of less than ?10 dB over 2.4 to 3.0 GHz, axial ratio of less than 3 dB, and stable radiation pattern over the complete band. In addition, beam scanning characteristics of the proposed stacked patch antenna arrays are also verified. The prototype resulted a peak gain of 19.5 dB at 2.7 GHz, 3‐dB beamwidth around 12 ^o in the xz‐plane, and scanning range of 90 ^o . Overall, good agreement between measured and simulated results showed that the proposed designed array capable of providing 600 MHz is an excellent candidate for the radar communication, small commercial drones, and synthetic aperture radar applications.     

Enhancing characteristics of dual‐polarized BTS element antenna using metal director

This article proposes a dual‐polarized antenna with enhanced characteristics using metal director for base transceiver station applications. The proposed antenna consists of a main radiation element, ±45^? dual‐polarized feed structure, a reflector and a metal director. The metal director improves the impedance matching and increases the gain and front to back ratio. A prototype of the antenna is fabricated and the measured results show the wide frequency bandwidths of 63% for port 1 with frequency range 1.6 to 3.1 GHz and 60% for port 2 with frequency range 1.6 to 3 GHz. The obtained experimental isolation between ports is greater than 28 dB. The measured results also represent a gain of >8.4 dBi and the stable radiation patterns with half‐power beam width wider than of 65°. According to mentioned experimental results, the presented antenna can be used in the microcell base stations for Global System for Mobile, Code Division Multiple Access, and Long‐Term Evolution services.     

Symmetrical double‐comb multi‐slotted large bandwidth antenna for intelligent transportation systems

This article presents a novel compact circularly polarized multi‐slotted large bandwidth antenna for intelligent transportation system (ITS). The proposed antenna has a rectangular shaped multi‐slotted patch on upper side and a partial ground plane with multiple slots on lower side. The designed prototype antenna works from 22 to 29 GHz and is therefore applicable for ITS and weather forecasting applications. The design structure is distinct in terms of a low profile as well as simple structure, which is advantageous in mass production. Moreover, the multiple slots design antenna provides enhanced bandwidth. The axial ratio shows that the proposed antenna's behavior is circularly polarized with a compact size of 30 × 20 mm². The measured reflection coefficient, gain, and the radiation pattern are consistent with simulated results. The proposed antenna has a reflection coefficient below ?20 dB and maximum gain of ~5 dBi at 24 GHz (ITS band).     

Design and analysis of a quad‐band substrate‐integrated‐waveguide cavity backed slot antenna for 5G applications

A planar and compact substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity backed antenna and a 2 × 2 multi‐input multi‐output (MIMO) antenna are presented in this study. The proposed antenna is fed by a grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) to SIW type transition and planned to be used for millimeter‐wave (mm‐wave) fifth generation (5G) wireless communications that operates at 28, 38, 45, and 60 GHz frequency bands. Moreover, the measured impedance bandwidth (|S₁₁| ≤ ? 10 dB ) of the antenna covers 27.55 to 29.36, 37.41 to 38.5, 44.14 to 46.19, and 57.57 to 62.32 GHz bands and confirms the quad‐band characteristic. Omni‐directional radiation characteristics are observed in the far‐field radiation pattern measurements of the antenna over the entire operating frequency. The reported antenna is compact in size (9.7 × 13.3 × 0.6 mm³) and the gain values at each resonance frequency are measured as 3.26, 3.28, 3.34, and 4.51 dBi, respectively. Furthermore, the MIMO antenna performance is evaluated in terms of isolation, envelope correlation coefficient and diversity gain.     

Design of a miniaturized planar half elliptical ultra‐wideband dipole using a concaved arm

This article presents the miniaturization of a planar half elliptical ultra‐wideband dipole. By simply placing a concaved arm in close proximity to the original structure, a 45% area reduction in terms of electrical wavelength can be achieved. The proposed antenna exhibits a wide measured return loss bandwidth of 2 to 9.9 GHz and omnidirectional radiation patterns across the band. The design features a footprint size of 41.5 × 41.5 mm² and an electrical size of 0.28λ × 0.28λ at 2 GHz. Compared with some previously reported planar designs, the proposed antenna presents a more compact electrical dimension and better or comparable bandwidth. Critical geometric parameters of the structure, particularly the concaved arm, are investigated to understand the miniaturization and operating mechanism of the design. Satisfactory correlation between the simulation and measurement data is obtained.     

UWB coplanar waveguide‐fed coplanar strips rectangular spiral antenna

This article proposes an ultra‐wideband coplanar strips (CPS) rectangular spiral antenna that is fed by coplanar waveguide (CPW). The CPS is formed by gradually reducing the width of the CPW ground planes without the need of a balun. The antenna operates in the frequency band (3.5‐10.6 GHz) and has miniaturized size of 50 × 40 × 0.508 mm on a Rogers RO4003C substrate. The CPS spiral is terminated with a 100 Ω chip resistor for matching. A parametric study was performed to choose the CPS spiral dimensions. A good agreement is found between simulations and measurements in the radiation pattern and the return loss which was found to be better than 10 dB over the band. The measured peak gain ranges between 1 and 4.7 dBi.     

A π/4 bi‐orthogonal monopole antenna for operation on and beyond of the UWB band

An ultra‐wideband (UWB) π/4 bi‐orthogonal monopole antenna with a highly omnidirectional radiation pattern in the azimuthal plane with a quasi‐independent on the frequency behavior is presented in this article. Here, it is shown that by combining two orthogonal UWB planar monopole elements rotated 45° with respect to each other in a single structure, it is possible to enhance the performance of the radiation pattern at high frequencies of the operational bandwidth without affecting the radiation pattern at lower frequencies. The measured antenna bandwidth goes from 2.82 to 16.7 GHz for a reflection coefficient lower than ?10 dB. The radiation pattern remains almost omnidirectional, and it is enhanced with respect to a conventional single planar monopole antenna of similar characteristics. The basic element used for both the single and the proposed π/4 bi‐orthogonal UWB planar monopole antenna has a rectangular shape, whose impedance bandwidth ratio is achieved based on the bevelling and height‐width ratio techniques. Although the antenna prototype presented in this article has an operational bandwidth of 13.88 GHz, it is possible to design a UWB monopole antenna with the shape and structure proposed here, but for different bandwidths following a design methodology suggested also in this article. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2011.     

A vertex‐fed hexa‐band frequency reconfigurable antenna for wireless applications

Present article embodies the design and analysis of an octagonal shaped split ring resonator based multiband antenna fed at vertex for wireless applications with frequency‐band reconfigurable characteristics. The proposed antenna is printed on FR4 substrate with electrical dimension of 0.4884 λ × 0.4329 λ × 0.0178 λ (44 × 39 × 1.6 mm³), at lower frequency of 3.33 GHz. The antenna consists of SRR based vertex fed octagonal ring as the radiation element and switchable reclined L‐shaped slotted ground plane. Antenna achieves six bands for wireless standards viz: upper WLAN (5.0/5.8 GHz), lower WiMAX (3.3 GHz), super extended C‐band (6.6 GHz), middle X band (9.9 GHz—for space communication), and lower K_U band (15.9 GHz—for satellite communication systems operating band). Stable radiation patterns are observed for the operating bands with low cross polarization. The proposed design achieves hexa band characteristics during switching ON state of PIN diode located at reclined L‐shaped slot in the ground plane. Experimental characteristic of antenna shows close agreement with those obtained by simulation of the proposed antenna.     

Compact dual‐band antenna based on CRLH‐TL for WWAN/LTE terminal applications

In this article, a compact dual‐band antenna based on composite right/left‐handed transmission line (CRLH‐TL) is proposed for WWAN/LTE wireless terminal applications. By using 2 symmetrical CRLH structures, the proposed antenna can easily produce 2 wide separate operating frequency bands with a compact size of 25 × 25 × 6 mm³. Additionally, a pair of matching strips is introduced on both sides of the feeding line to further improve the impedance characteristics of the terminal antenna. The experimental results demonstrate the proposed antenna is capable of working over the frequency ranges of 0.66‐1.06 GHz and 1.68‐2.88 GHz with |S₁₁| < ?6 dB, which can cover the bands of LTE700, GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS, LTE2300, and LTE2500 for wireless terminals. Moreover, the multiple input multiple output (MIMO) operating performance of the proposed antenna element is also studied, and an enhanced isolation between the antenna elements is obtained by utilizing the defected ground structures and grounded branches.     

Characteristic analysis of reverse‐L‐shaped microstrip‐fed large‐bandwidth printed slot antenna

The characteristics of a reverse‐L‐shaped microstrip‐fed structure is analyzed using the finite difference time domain method, and the characteristics of the proposed antenna are compared with a conventional antenna. The return loss, radiation resistance, and voltage–standing wave ratio in the frequency domain are calculated by Fourier transforming the time domain results. When the proposed feed structure is used, the bandwidth is extended in proportion to the slot width and the radiation resistance has the low value. When the slot width is 16 mm, the experimental bandwidth is approximately 50% (?10 dB ≥ S₁₁) at the center frequency of 2.3 GHz. In addition, the experimental data for the impedance and radiation pattern of the antenna are described. They are in good agreement with the calculated results. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 12, 496–502, 2002. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mmce.10055