Designing of Microstrip Patch Antenna For 3G-WCDMA Applications

Neha Chavda#1, Dr. Vedvyas Dwivedi#2, Dr. Kiran Parmar#3

1

M.E. Student, EC Department, L.D.college of Engineering, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India 2 Director, Noble Group of Institutions, Junagadh, Gujarat, India 3 Professor, EC Department, L.D.college of Engineering, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
2

neha.chavda65@gmail.com vedvyasdwivediphd@gmail.com 3krparmar2006@yahoo.co.in

Abstract Mobile communication in various flavours has seen a tremendous growth during the last decade. 3G mobile system is working on standard UMTS (1920-2170 MHz). The most common form of UMTS uses WCDMA as the underlying air interface. The bands between 19201980 MHz and 2110-2170 MHz have been allocated as the uplink and downlink frequency bands of FDD frequency bands respectively for 3G mobile radio systems.The microstrip patch antennas are increasing in popularity for use in wireless applications due to their low-profile structure. Microstrip patch antennas have several well-known advantages, such as low cost, light weight and ease of fabrication. The objective of the paper is to develop a compact and broadband microstrip patch antenna for 3G mobile communication system. Simulation of proposed design gives results which are very nearer to predefined attributes and parameters. Keywords Patch Antenna, Feeding Technique

mechanical properties. It can withstand tremendous shock and vibration. Because the antenna is on a solid substrate, the patch cannot flex, and small changes in the substrate thickness have only a minor effect on the resonant frequency. EQUATIONS FOR GEOMETRY OF PATCH ANTENNA Conventional Microstrip antennas consist of a pair of parallel conducting layers separating a dielectric medium, referred as substrate. In this configuration, the upper conducting layer or patch is the source of radiation where electromagnetic energy fringes off the edges of the patch and into the substrate. The lower conducting layer acts as a perfectly reflecting ground plane, bouncing energy back through the substrate and into free space. Microstrip antenna should be designed so that its maximum wave pattern is normal to the patch. This is accomplished by proper choice of mode of excitation beneath the patch. Generally, patch of Microstrip antenna thickness is very thin in the range of t << 0 (where 0 is free space wave length) and the height h of dielectric material is between 0.0030< h < 0.050. For a rectangular path, the length L of the element is usually 0/3 < L< 0/2. There are numerous substrate that can be used for the design of Microstrip antenna, and their dielectric constants are usually in the range of 2.2< r< 12, where r is relative dielectric constant. The amount of fringing of the antenna is a function of the dimensions of the patch and the height of the substrate. Due to fringing electric field lines travels in non-homogeneous material, typically substrate and air, an effective dielectric constant reff is introduced. For electric line with air above the substrate, the effective dielectric constant has values in the range of 1< reff < r. For efficient radiation, the width W is given by Bahl and Bhartia [1] as

INTRODUCTION Wireless communication has been developed rapidly and it has a dramatic impact on human life. The current trend in commercial and government communication systems has been to develop low cost, minimal weight, low profile antennas that are capable of maintaining high performance over a large spectrum of frequencies. The wireless communication has enjoyed explosive growth over the past decade. As demands for increased capacity and quality grow, improved methods for harnessing the multipath wireless channel must be developed. The air interface of 3G systems is WCDMA, which offers increased capacity and supports variable data rates. This technological trend has focused much effort into the design of Microstrip (patch) antennas. As electronic devices continue to shrink in size, the antenna designer is pushed to reduce the antenna size as well. With a simple geometry, patch antennas offer many advantages not commonly exhibited in other antenna configurations. For example, they are extremely low profile, lightweight, simple and inexpensive to fabricate using modern day printed circuit board technology, compatible with microwave and millimeter-wave integrated circuits, and have the ability to conform to planar and non planar surfaces. A microstrip patch antenna also has very desirable

The relationship of width (W) height (h) effective dielectric constant reff, and relative dielectric constant of the substrate r are related as follow [2][3].

below. Here Operating frequency and height of substrate are fixed respectively at 2GHz and 0.4 cm. This result suggests that an antenna size reduction as large as about 90% can be obtained if the design with higher value of r is used instead of lower value of dielectric constant r. r 2.1 3.2 4.4 5.7 6.15 7 8.3 9.2 10 11.9 12.9 16.5 Material Teflon Taconic_TLC FR4_epoxy Mica Rogers R03006 Silicon_nitrate Marble Alumina_92pct Sapphire Silicon Gallium_arsenide Diamond L (in cm) 4.93 4.02 3.44 3.02 2.90 2.72 2.49 2.36 2.26 2.06 1.98 1.73 W (in cm) 6.02 5.17 4.56 4.09 3.96 3.75 3.47 3.32 3.19 2.95 2.84 2.53

A very popular and practical approximation relation for normalized extension of the length is obtained from below equation. [4][3].

Since the effective length of the patch has been extended by L on each side, the effective length of the patch is expressed as

After analyzing and determining the physical nature of the Microstrip antenna it is possible to design rectangular microstrip antenna dimension, width W and Length L, of patch as follow. [5]

Table 1 comparison of patch dimensions for different materials

This result suggests that an antenna size reduction as large as about 90% can be obtained if the design with higher value of r is used instead of lower value of dielectric constant r. In this proposed design of rectangular microstrip antenna, FR4_epoxy dielectric material with r=4.4 and dielectric loss tangent of 0.02 is selected as the substrate with 4 mm height. Then, a patch antenna that operates at the specified operating frequency f 0= 2 GHz can be designed by above equations. The antenna is existed by the coaxial feed away from the center of the patch. The Coaxial feed or probe feed is a very common technique used for feeding Microstrip patch antennas. As seen from Fig. 1 the inner conductor of the coaxial connector extends through the dielectric and is soldered to the radiating patch, while the outer conductor is connected to the ground plane. The main advantage of this type of feeding scheme is that the feed can be placed at any desired location inside the patch in order to match with its input impedance. This feed method is easy to fabricate and has low spurious radiation. Also, for thicker substrates, the increased probe length makes the input impedance more inductive, leading to matching problems [6]. Frequency of operation Dielectric constant Height of substrate Feeding Method Width of patch Length of patch 2 GHz 4.4 0.4 cm Coaxial feeding 4.56 cm 3.44 cm

The transmission line model is applicable to infinite ground planes only. However, for practical considerations, it is essential to have a finite ground plane. It has been found that similar results for finite and infinite ground plane can be obtained if the size of the ground plane is greater than the patch dimensions by approximately six times the substrate thickness all around the periphery. Hence, for this design, the ground plane dimensions would be given as

From all above equations the proposed microstrip patch antenna is designed. ANTENNA DESIGN In the typical design procedure of the Microstrip antenna, the desired resonant frequency, thickness and dielectric constant of the substrate are known or selected initially. It is found that the radiating patch of the microstrip antenna has a resonant length approximately proportional to , and the use of a microwave substrate with a larger permittivity thus can result in a small physical antenna length at a fixed operating frequency. Comparative table is given

Width of Ground Plane Length of Ground Plane

6.96 cm 5.84 cm

Fig. 1 Design of Rectangular Patch Antenna

Table 2 calculated Dimensions for microstrip patch antenna

SIMULATION AND RESULT The practical measurements of the prototypes to collect the data for calculation of performance have been done for both far-field pattern and S parameters. The software used to model and simulate the microstrip patch antenna is Ansoft HFSS software. HFSS is a high performance full wave electromagnetic field simulator for arbitrary 3D volumetric passive device modeling. It can be used to calculate and plot the S parameters, VSWR as well as the radiation patterns. The whole model is scaled down by 0.94 to get the better results. An evaluation version of the software was used to obtain the results for this paper. The bandwidth can be calculated from the return loss plot. The bandwidth of the antenna can be said to be those range of frequencies over which the return loss is greater than -10 dB. -10 dB corresponds to a VSWR of 2 which is an acceptable figure. The bandwidth of the antenna is calculated (as shown below in Fig. 2) to be 8 MHz and a center frequency of 2.01 GHz is obtained which is very close to the desired design frequency of 2 GHz.

The feed point is located at that point on the patch, where the input impedance is 50 ohms for the resonant frequency. Hence, a trial and error method is used to locate the feed point. For different locations of the feed point, the return loss is compared and that feed point is selected where the return loss is most negative.
Ansoft Corporation
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XY Plot 1

HFSSDesign1

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-10.00

dB(St(pin_T1,pin_T1))

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Curve Info dB(St(pin_T1,pin_T1)) Setup1 : Sw eep1

max -0.0922

min -28.8448

-30.00 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 Freq [GHz] 3.00 3.50 4.00

Fig. 2 Return Loss of Patch Antenna

Ansoft Corporation 200.00

XY Plot 5
Curve Info VSWRt(pin_T1) Setup1 : Sweep1 max 188.3585

HFSSDesign1

min 1.0749

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0.00 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 Freq [GHz] 3.00 3.50 4.00

Fig. 3 VSWR plot

Fig. 4 Radiation patterns Radiation Pattern1. rETotal Radiation Pattern 2. Gain Radiation Pattern 3.Directivity Radiation Pattern 4.Axial Ratio

REFERENCES
[1]
R. Garg,I.J. Bahl, P.Bhartia and A. Ittipiboon, Microstrip antenna Design Hand Book, Artech House, Dedham, MA, 2000. C.A. Balanis, Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics, John Wiley & sons, New york, 1989. Robinson and Y. Rahmat-Samii, "Particle Swarm Optimization in Electromagnetic". IEEE Transaction on antennas and propagation, vol. 52, no. 2, pages 397-407, February 2004. E.O. Hammerstad, Equations for microstip Circuit Design, Pro. Fifth European Microwave Conference, page 268-272, 1975. R. Garg,I.J. Bahl, P.Bhartia antenna Design Hand Book, 2000. S. Maci, G. Biffi Gentili, G. Frequency Patch Antenna, August 1993. and A. Ittipiboon, Microstrip Artech House, Dedham, MA, Avitabile, Single-Layer DualElectronics Letters, 29, 16,

[2] [3]

[4]
Fig. 5 Smith chart

SUMMERY The optimization of the Microstrip Patch is partially realized which concludes that proposed patch antenna functioning correctly. Important antenna parameters can be observed from the results which are tabulated below. Gain Directivity VSWR Axial Ratio Front to Back Ratio 3.52 dB 5.40 dB 1.07 62.22 56.16
Table 3 Results

[5] [6]

Neha K. Chavda has obtained her bachelor degree in EC field from VVP, Rajkot, Gujarat. Currently she is pursuing her master degree in Communication System Engineering, from L.D. college of Engineering, Gujarat, INDIA. Dr. Vedvyas Dwivedi is director of noble group of institutions, Junagadh. He has wide experience of 15 years in academic field. His area of interest is Electromagnetic, microwave, radar and antenna. Dr. Kiran Parmar has been working as Professor at L.D.college of Engineering, Ahmedabad, since 1995. His area of interest is satellite and mobile communication.

The future scope of work revolves slotting of antenna to miniaturize the size of antenna. The investigation has been limited mostly to theoretical study due to lack of distributive computing platform. Detailed experimental studies can be taken up at a later stage to find out a design procedure for slotting into the patch. .