Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 1821, 2009 1073

Low Prole Circular Yagi-Uda Array and Planar Collinear Monopole Antenna Comparison
Lajos Nagy, Andrea Farkasv olgyi, and R obert Dady Department of Broadband Infocommunications and Electromagnetic Theory Budapest University of Technology and Economics H-1111 Budapest, Goldmann Gy orgy t er 3, Hungary

Abstract The paper presents an overview on the development of Circular Yagi-Uda and
collinear type of antenna. The genetic algorithm is used to optimize the two antenna architecture. The main goal of the article is a comparison of directivity and bandwith of the two omnidirectional type of antennas. In our analysis, the method of moments (MoM) is used to compute the current distribution and directivity of the yagi antenna. Microstrip technology is used for planar collinear monopole antenna and simulation with ground plane has been performed using Ansoft HFSS 3D simulator. Prototypes have been realized and measured. 1. INTRODUCTION

Growing interest in 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11a and other applications has precipitated the need for omnidirectional antennas at 2.42.5 GHz, 5.155.35 GHz and for special applications in the C band. A number of approaches for gained omnidirectional antennas researchers have taken in the past. One of these most promising designs are the collinear dipole arrays built up from half wavelength radiators. The radiators are connected to each others either using transmission lines or directly by insertion of 180 degree phase shift. One of such solution uses half-wavelength sections of coaxial transmission line which have their inner and outer conductor connections reversed at each junction. This reversal causes the current on the outer conductor of each segment to be in phase and radiate an omnidirectional pattern. This type of antenna is often called coaxial collinear antenna (COCO). A geometry for a planar microstrip omnidirectional antenna introduced by Bancroft and Bateman is presented [1]. The basic idea is to create alternating sets of 50 microstrip transmission lines. Each section is approximately one-half wavelength long at the frequency of operation. Each groundplane section was initially set to be about 5 times the conductor width of the microstrip transmission line and later optimized for driving point impedance. The circular Yagi-Uda antenna geometry is started from the linear element antenna and by rotating of the elements we have a low prole omnidirectional antenna. The antenna is optimized by varying the lengths and spacings of the circular elements. As comparison the radiation pattern, gain, input reection and bandwidth are compared for the two antennas.
2. DESIGN OF THE PLANAR COLLINEAR MONOPOLE ANTENNA

A geometry for a planar microstrip omnidirectional antenna introduced by Bancroft and Bateman [2] is used for the design. We also followed the design of [2] and rst the simple planar structure was analyzed without ground plane using Ansoft Designer. The planar collinear structure is made of one dielectric layer in form of thin/thick section microstrip line. The gure represents the geometry of the antenna. The geometry of the structure analyzed is shown on Fig. 1. Dielectric material Rogers RO 4003 has been used with thickness of 1.5 mm. On the Fig. 2, the simulated current distribution on each side of the planar structure is presented and the eect of shorts also illustrated. The antenna W1 , W2 and L dimensions are optimized to the working frequency of 4.5 GHz operation. The simulated results are showing a 14% impedance bandwith and a 4.5 dBi realized gain at the operational frequency. Using the previous results, the collinear antenna with the supplementing ground plane was constructed. At the bottom part of the Fig. 1, planar structure the short plane is placed as can be seen in Fig. 5. With this arrangement, the current distribution change not signicant and therefore the modication of microstrip element size change to tune the antenna into the operational frequency will be not to much. Next the monopole structure suggested will be analyzed using the Ansoft HFSS the 3D modeling software.

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Figure 1: Omnidirectional planar microstrip antenna and main dimensions. 2.1. The Monopole Collinear Antenna

Figure 2: Simulated current distribution on the microstrip elements.

The main parameters and dimensions of the nal structure are the following: The thickness of the dielectric layer is h = 1.5 mm, the dielectric material Rogers RO 4003, which has the dielectric characteristic: Relative permittivity: 3.38; dielectric loss tangent 0.0027. The measurements are: L = 17 mm W = 16.7 mm W1 = 11 mm W2 = 2.2 mm Ground plane size 100 100 mm with 0.5 mm thickness. The pictures taken from the fabricated antenna are represented on the Fig. 5. The simulation and optimization of the nal structure has been performed using Ansoft HFSS. The vacuum box size for simulation is x = 140 mm; y = 140 mm; z = 200 mm and the radiation boundary condition was used on its surface. The simulation has been performed on an Intel Centrino Duo bi-processor 1.83 GHz with 1 GB RAM memory, and the simulation takes 30 min for 11 frequency points and 30000 tetrahedras are used.
3. DESIGN OF THE LOW PROFILE CIRCULAR YAGI-UDA ANTENNA

The circular Yagi-Uda antenna geometry is started from the conventional linear element Yagi-Uda antenna geometry and by rotating of the elements we form a low prole omnidirectional antenna. In the center of the rotational symmetric, geometry is placed the driven dipole. Antenna is optimized by varying the lengths and spacings of the circular elements.
5 4 3
Gain [dB]

0 -5

-10 -15

S11 [dB]

-20 -25

0 -1

-30 -35 4.1 4.3 4.5 Freq. [GHz] 4.7 4.9

-2 4 4.25 4.5 Freq. [GHz] 4.75 5

Figure 3: Gain of omnidirectional planar microstrip antenna.

Figure 4: Gain of omnidirectional planar microstrip antenna.

Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 1821, 2009 1075

Figure 5: Denition and photo of the planar collinear monopole structure.

Figure 6: Low prole circular Yagi-Uda antenna (Ansoft HFSS).

Symmetrical geometry has been analyzed and optimized using in house developed Moment Method solver and Genetic Algorithm based optimizer. Finally, an analysis of the circular YagiUda geometry was made using Ansoft HFSS solver. The Figs. 7 and 8 are showing gain and input impedance bandwidths of the two designed antennas. Each antenna were optimized to the same 4.5 GHz center frequency. The maximum gain is equal for the two antennas and the circular Yagi-Uda shows a slightly bigger gain bandwidth. Then again the impedance bandwidth of the circular Yagi-Uda antenna is signicantly below the collinear one. The relative bandwidths are 6.5% and 13.5% respectively.
4. MEASUREMENT RESULTS

The measurement of the input reection coecients has been performed using an anechoic chamber of our department with the size of 4 3 3 m. The Fig. 9 presents the measured and simulated input reection coecients. The measurement result are showing a small bandwidth increase compared to the simulated one and a slight operational frequency shift which are not signicant.

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Figure 7: Gain comparison of circular Yagi-Uda vs. collinear antenna.

Figure 8: S11 comparison of circular Yagi-Uda vs. collinear antenna.

Figure 9: Input reection of monopole planar collinear antenna. 5. CONCLUSION

Conventional omnidirectional designs are not well suited to operation at microwave frequencies which include the C band. This is due to their geometry or lack of performance. A microstrip omnidirectional antenna has been developed which is a cost eective solution for many applications. We presented simulated and also measured results to verify the behavior of the proposed antenna. The comparisons on Figs. 7 and 8 are showing that the circular Yagi-Uda antenna consisting of 3 elements has similar antenna gain characteristic as the collinear monopole. Then again the impedance bandwidth of the circular Yagi-Uda antenna is signicantly below the collinear one.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was carried out in the framework of Mobile Innovation Center, Hungary (Mobil Innov aci os K ozpont) supported by the National Oce for Research and Technology (NKTH) Asb oth Oszk ar Programme.
REFERENCES

1. Judasz, T. J. and B. B. Balsley, Improved theoretical and experimental models for the coaxial colinear antenna, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 37, No. 3, 289296, Mar. 1989. 2. Bancroft, R. and B. Bateman, An omnidirectional planar microstrip antenna, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 52, No. 11, 31513154, Nov. 2004. 3. Pozar, D., Directivity of omnidirectional antennas, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine (Antenna Designers Notebook), Vol. 35, No. 5, 5051, Hal Shrank Ed., Oct. 1993.