Figure of Merit for the Design of Microstrip Patch Antennas

D.M. Kokotoff *, R B.Waterhouse* and J. T .Aberle',

* D e p m e n t of Communication and Electronic Engineering RMIT Universify Melbourne, VIC. 3000. Australia
* TelecommunicationsResearch Center Arizona State University Tempe, A 2 85287-7206. USA Introduction Microstrip patch antennas are being used in a variety of applications ranging from simple telemehy antennas to sophisticated radar systems [I]. It is due the salient features of printed antennas such as their low profile and production cost that has seen this technology mature to its current state. Throughoutthe history of microstrip patch antennas, there have been several investigations on how to design these antennas and general hrles of thumb'have been developed for the antenna dimensions (for example [2]). However, a general approach to the choice of material has yet to be developed. Fundamental questions have remained unanswered regarding the appropriate dielectlic material selection for a particular bandwidth and efficiency performance. This situation is a great hindrance to designers because it is the dielectricsubstrate that fundamentally controls the performanceof a printed antenna. Recently, Aberle [3] has proposed a figure of merit that can be used to compare the relative merit of different substxates. In this conhiiution we describe the proposed figure of merit and use it to evaluate the relative merit of some specific single layer and stacked patch antemas. The proposed quantity gives the designer an understandingand l i t of both the radiation efficiency and achievable impedance bandwidth of the printed a n t a . Importantly, the quantity can be determined without the need for a numerically intensive full-wave analysis and can be applied not only to single layer patches, but stacked geomehies as well. The figure of merit is valid for probe-fed, edge-fed and proximity coupled patches. It also holds for apecoupled patches as long as the slot is not too large (unlike in 141). In this presentation, the theory behind this figure of merit is derived for a circular patch geometry, although it can easily be applied to other conductor shapes, such as rectangular or triangular. Results for circular microstrip patches using various materials are provided, including broadband stacked patches [5] and stacked patches utilising high dielectlic constant and low dieleceic constant material combinations [6]. From the results given it is evident that the derived figure of merit provides a good basis for the design of microstrip patch antennas.

Theory
Specific details such as patch shape and feeding method influence patch antenna behavior, but the major factor influencing the performance of a mi~ostrip antenna is the substrate upon which it resides. Two important characteristics of a patch antenna are its quality factor (Q) and surface wave efficiency (qd. The quantiv, qJQ, can be interpreted as a figure of merit for any particular dielechic material. Consider a circular patch mounted on a substrate of thickness d and a dielectric constant of c, as shown in Figure 1. To evaluate this figure of merit for any substrate, we use an assumed current distribution correspondingto the TM I I mode of a circular magnetic wall cavity. This current distribution is given by:

0-7803-5639-X/99/$10.00 01999 E E E .

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The total complex power emanatedby this mode is given by:

where GI and G 2 are the T , and T , Greens functions for the substraterespectively and F I and F2 are the Fourier hansforms of the currents given in Equation 1 (please refer to [7] for m m details of the formulation). The power trapped in the surface wave modes is given by:

, , is the number of surface waves. where N

From Equations (2) and (3) the surface wave efficiency can be evaluated. The impedance of the assumed current distributioncan be defined as:

where I = JTd;.
I

It can be shown using simple circuit theory that the Q of the mode is given by: ko a-wo) (5) W k o ) ako can be computed numerically and ko is the free space wave

g-

where the derivative, number.

Thus the figure of merit for the cir& microstrip can be computed relatively easily as a function of the substrate parameters. It is important to note that for this calculation the current coefficient of the mode is not required and therefore a numerically intensive fullwave analysis is not needed.
To extend this calculation to a stacked patch geometry, an impoltant assumption must be made. This assumption is similar to that given in the derived theory for a single layered
geometry, namely that there is only one dominaut mode per patch. For a conventional stacked patch configuration (such as a probe or edge-fed) this assumption is valid even for relatively broadband cases [ 5 ] . Thus for the stacked configuration, the impedance is written i n terms of a simple two port network from which the Q can be readily determined. The necessary Greens h c t i o n s for this formulation can be found in [SI. The surface wave efficiency can be detnmined from Equations (2) and (3) for the multi-layered case and thus the figure of merit can be calculated. A very importaut part of the i i p of merit calculation is the determination of ax/aka, in particular for the stacked cases. When a stacked patch is designed for broad impedance bandwidth, a fesonant lwp'is formed in the impedance response due to the interaction between the two patches. If care is not taken where the derivative of the reactance of the patch is calculated, negativevalues can result giving incomprehensible results for the figure of merit. We have found that using a cubic spline to interpolate the impedance points and the derivative of the reactance at three frequency points, one near the design frequency (4) and the other two at fo f 0.34 consistentresults were achieved for the Q of the antenna.

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ReSUltS Table 1 summarizes the many cases examined. Firstly single layered circular patches were considered. Although these trends relating the material properties of the substrate to the rf performance of the antenna are well h o r n [I], it is important to confirm the validity of the proposed figure of merit and also to provide a reference for other patch configurations. AS can be seen from Equations (2) and (3) the size of the patch does play a role in the evaluation of the surface wave efficiency and the Q. For the single layered cases, the radius of the patch R was assumed to be A44 (where & is the guided wavelength taking into consideration the dielectric properties of the substrate [2]). Consider the effect of the , on the performance of the antenna. As can be seen from Table 1 as dielectric constant E the dielectricconstant of the substrate is increased the figure of merit decreases (cases 1 and 2). This is due to both the decrease in surface wave efficiency as well as the increase in the Q. Now consider the effect of increasing the thickness of the substrate (case 1 and case 3 in Table I). As is evident from Table 1, the figure of merit increases, as the decrease in Q is greater than the reduction in the surface wave efficiency. Case 4 shows the results when using a high dielectric constant substrate(E, = 10.4) and a relatively thick material (d = 0.03 L , ) . For this case even though the Q has decreased, the qw is also relatively low (66 %) thereby resultingin a relatively low figure of merit. Case 5 in Table 1 presents the probe-fed circular stacked patch configuration designed in [SI. Here a combination of Duroid@ 5880 (E, 2.2) and Foam (E, = 1.07) was used to produce an antenna with approximately 23 %bandwidth. As can be seen from the figure of merit for this antenna, it is significantly better than for the single layered cases. As for the single layered examples in Table 1, the dimensions of the stacked patches were determined taking into consideration the propertiesof the dielectricmaterials [2]. Case 6 presents the results for a stacked circular patch configuration utilising a high dielectric constant for the lower layer and a low dielectric constant material for the upper layer [6]. This combination of material is appropriate for integrating patches with Mh4ICs and OEICs. As was mentioned in [6], the dimensions of the patches were chosen ignoring the other dielectric layer, that is, R I = kd4 (where E, = 10.4) and R, = A44 (where E, = 1.07). As can be seen from Table 1 the results for the hi-lo stacked patch are in fact bener than for the previously considered stacked patch antenna. This has been confirmed experimentally[6], where the measured 10 dB return loss bandwidth of the hi40 stacked patch was approximately 30 % and the calculated surface wave efficiency was comparable to that for case 5. Other single layered and stacked examples will be given in the presentation. References
[ I] [2] [3]

[4] [SI [6] [7] [8]

D.M. Pozar, Microstrip antennas; Proc. IEEE, vol. 80, pp. 79-91, Jan. 1992 J. R James and P. S.Hall, Handbook OfMicroShipAntennas, London, UK:Peter Pererginus, 1989. S. D. Targonski, R B. Waterhouse and D. M. Pozar, Design of wide-band aperture.-stacked patch microstrip antemas, IEEE Trans. Ant. & Prop.,vol. AP46, pp. 1245-1251, Sept. 1998. I. T. Aberle, Personal Notes. R. B. Waterhouse, M. Lye and S. D.Targonski, Design of plinted antennas for mobile base station applications, Third Asia-Pacijic Conference on Communications,APCC 97 , Sydney, pp. 242-246, D e c .1997. R. B.Waterhouse and D.M. Kokotoff, Highly efficient, large bandwidth printed antennas suitable for OEIC and MMIC technology; submitted to IEEE Trans. Ant. &Prop., July 1998. I. T. Aberle and D. M. Pozar, Accurate and versatile solutions for probe-fed microstrip patch antennas and arrays, Electrornagn.,vol. 11, pp. 1-19, Jan. 1991. J. T. Aberle, D. M. Pozar and I. Manges, Phased arrays of probe-fed stacked microstrip patches; IEEE Trans. Ant. & Prop., vol. AP-42, pp. 920-927, July 1994.

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Er

Figure 1

Schematicof a CircularMicrostripPatch Antenna

Figure 2

Schematic of Stacked C i r c u l a rMicrostrip Patch Antenna

Table 1

Summary ofResults

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