Asymmetrical wideband zeroth-order

resonant antenna
N. Amani, A. Jafargholi, M. Kamyab and A. Vaziri
A new asymmetrical zeroth-order resonant antenna with improved
efciency and widened impedance bandwidth is proposed. It comprises
a rectangular patch, two shorted stubs and a coplanar waveguide feed
to have composite right/left-handed features and an easy fabrication
process. The asymmetry helps to combine three resonance frequencies
and extends the bandwidth up to 61.6%. The efciency of the proposed
antenna is >85% over the entire bandwidth of 4.418.34 GHz. The
proposed antenna has a compact size, which can provide an omni-
directional radiation pattern suitable for wireless applications. These
features are veried by CST Microwave Studio and compared with
the experimental results.
Introduction: Since the non-resonant type of metamaterials based on
composite right/left-handed transmission lines (CRLH TLs) were
realised via an LC ladder network, different applications such as
zeroth-order resonant antennas (ZORAs) have been widely discussed
[1]. Owing to a zero-phase constant at a nonzero frequency, the size
of the resonator is independent of the resonance frequency which pro-
vides the potential for miniaturisation. Although ZORAs offer the
merit of size reduction, they suffer from a narrow bandwidth [2].
Moreover, in the conventional ZORAs, the gap introduced between
the unit cells plays the role of a left-hand capacitance. This gap
causes energy coupling from one cell to the adjacent cell.
Consequently, ZORAs generally have a low radiation efciency
which is another important drawback of these structures [3].
In the open-ended CRLH TL, the fractional bandwidth of the reson-
ator in the zeroth-order mode is given by
BW= G

L
L
C
R

(1)
The idea of increasing L
L
and decreasing C
R
caused an increase in the
antenna bandwidth of up to 6.8% [4]. Truncated grounds have been
also utilised in a conventional one-dimensional mushroom structure
which leads to a bandwidth improvement of up to 7% [5]. A com-
bination of the zeroth and the rst-positive-order resonances, as an
alternative method for antenna bandwidth enhancement, has been
recently reported [6, 7].
W
L
L2
L3
L3
L4
L4
L5
g g
L
a
b
4
L
3 L
3
X
Y
L
1
W
3
W
1
W
2
g
L
4
L
5
Fig. 1 Geometry of asymmetrical CRLH antenna
a Schematic view
W= 20 mm, L = 20 mm, L
1
= 4 mm, L
2
= 2 mm, L
3
= 6.4 mm, L
4
= 1 mm, L
5
=
12.3 mm, W
1
= 5.15 mm, W
2
= 10 mm, W
3
= 7.225 mm, g = 0.2 mm
b Antenna prototype
In [6], the bandwidth of the ZORA has been raised up to 58.1% while
a dipole-like pattern has been obtained. In [7], although a wideband
ZORA has been proposed, the antenna lost planar characteristics. In
this Letter, to improve the bandwidth and the efciency simultaneously,
a single-layer coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed ZORA with integrated
radiating element is proposed. The bandwidth enhancement is based
on the zeroth and the rst-negative/positive-order resonances
combination.
Antenna design and measurement: Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the
proposed antenna. The parameters of the antenna are also labelled in
the Figure caption. In this structure, two shorted stubs that are connected
to the main patch and the CPW ground plane provide shunt admittance.
Owing to the large electrical distance between the main patch and the
CPW ground plane (four to ve times more than the substrate thick-
ness), the value of C
R
is decreased. In addition, the location of these
two shorted stubs is different and this makes two asymmetrical CRLH
unit cells with different values of capacitance and inductance. This
asymmetry conguration provides the capability of tuning the resonance
frequencies by changing the location of these stubs. With good impe-
dance matching in all the three modes and by bringing the three reson-
ance frequencies closer, wide impedance bandwidth is achievable.
A comparison between simulated and measured reection coef-
cients, Fig. 2, demonstrates that zeroth-order mode is obtained at
6.15 GHz. The measured n = 1 and n = 1 modes occurred at 4.9
and 7.62 GHz, respectively. With a proper choice of stub locations,
three predicted resonant frequencies are merged and a wide impedance
bandwidth of up to 61.6% is achieved. In the conventional ZORAs, the
gap introduced between the unit cells plays the role of a left-hand
capacitance. By using the CPW-fed structure and eliminating the gap
in the radiating element, as an inductor-loaded CRLH TL, the efciency
of the antenna is increased without missing the left-hand resonance.
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
frequency, GHz

r
e
t
u
r
n

l
o
s
s
,

d
B
simulation
measurement
Fig. 2 Comparison of simulated and measured reection coefcients
As a result, in all three modes, the efciency of the antenna is
improved signicantly (Fig. 3). The CST-predicted and measured
far-eld radiation patterns of the antenna are shown in Fig. 4 at 5.5
and 7.5 GHz, respectively. It should be noted that the sleeve balun is
used to measure the antenna radiation pattern [8].
4.5 5.5
2
3
4
5
6
g
a
i
n
,

d
B
frequency, GHz
4.0 5.0 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0
70
80
90
100

e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
c
y
,

%
gain (meas.)
efficiency (sim.)
Fig. 3 Measured gain and simulated efciency of proposed wideband
ZORA
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 16th January 2014 Vol. 50 No. 2 pp. 5960
5.5 GHz
30
20
10
0 dB
0
30
60
90
120
150
180
150
120
90
60
30
5.5 GHz
30
20
10
0 dB 0
30
60
90
120
150
180
150
120
90
60
30
7.5 GHz
30
20
10
0 dB
0
30
60
90
120
150
180
150
120
90
60
30
7.5 GHz
30
20
10
0 dB 0
30
60
90
120
150
180
150
120
90
60
30


Fig. 4 Comparison of CST-predicted and measured radiation patterns,
XZ-plane (left) and YZ-plane (right)
Solid line: simulated co-polarisation; dashed line: measured co-polarisation
As expected, the results show that the proposed antenna has a fairly
good omnidirectional radiation pattern at both the YZ-plane (w = 90)
and the XZ-plane (w = 0). Table 1 shows the overall performance of
the proposed antenna in comparison with the recently reported
ZORAs [57].
Table 1: Summary of antenna performances for proposed and refer-
ence antennas
This work [5] [6] [7]
Centre
frequency
(GHz)
6.38 2.75 2.96 3.58
Antenna size
(mm
3
)
20 20 0.508 40 20 1.5 50 23 1.6 30.5 20 15
Bandwidth (%) 61.6 7 58.1 68.3
Efciency (%) 93 67 68 >80
Gain (dB) 3.3 3.29 1.9 >3
Pattern-type Omnidirectional Dipole-like Dipole-like Omnidirectional
Conclusion: A new wideband asymmetrical ZORA with a combination
of three resonance frequencies has been proposed. The bandwidth of the
antenna has been increased up to 61.6%, whereas the radiation ef-
ciency is above 85% through the entire frequency band. The proposed
antenna has a compact size, which can provide an omnidirectional radi-
ation pattern suitable for wireless applications. These features have been
veried by an electromagnetic simulator and comparison with the exper-
imental results.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2014
3 October 2013
doi: 10.1049/el.2013.3295
One or more of the Figures in this Letter are available in colour online.
N. Amani, M. Kamyab and A. Vaziri (Faculty of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, P.O.
Box 16315-1355, Tehran 1431714191, Iran)
E-mail: Namani@ee.kntu.ac.ir
A. Jafargholi (Institute of Space Science and Technology, Amir Kabir
University of Technology, 424 Hafez Avenue, P.O. Box 15875-4413,
Tehran, Iran)
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ELECTRONICS LETTERS 16th January 2014 Vol. 50 No. 2 pp. 5960