2014 Fourth International Conference on Communication Systems and Network Technologies

Design of a Broadband Planar Equiangular LPDA

Zhen Yu, Xiaoying Ran

Zhen Yu, Jianguo Yu

School of Electronic and Information Engineering

North China Institute of Science and Technology, NCIST
Langfang, China
E-mail: Yzyuzhen2007@sina.com.cn

School of Electronic Engineering

Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, BUPT
Beijing, China
E-mail: Yzyuzhen@ncist.edu.cn
II.

AbstractBased on the principle and structure characteristics

of traditional log periodic dipole antenna, combined with the
advantages of microstrip antenna and broadband planar spiral
antenna, a wideband planar equiangular patch log-periodic
antenna with tooth type working at the center frequency
2.4GHz is presented in this paper. Then, CST software is used
to construct, simulate, and optimize the antenna model. The
antenna is tested by PNA3621 vector network analyzer.
Measurement result shows that the antenna has
good
characteristics with symmetrical radiation pattern, broad
bandwidth, little number of side lobes, and voltage standing
wave ratio with echo loss are relatively ideal in 1.2GH
3.2GHz frequency range, which agree with the simulation
results.
Keywords-LPDA; planar; equiangular antenna;
performance test

I.

A. Structure of LPDA
LPDA is composed of N parallel dipoles which
according to [12]: 

Ln 1  n 1 rn 1 d n 1



  (1)
n
Ln
rn
dn
In Fig.1, n is the serial number of dipoles, Ln is overall
length of the nth symmetry dipole, an is radius of the nth
symmetry dipole, d n is the space among adjacent dipoles,
rn is distance between the vertex and the nth dipole. The
structure of LPDA depends on period rate  and vertex
angle 2 . In order to design conveniently, interval factor 
is introduced. Parameters  ,  , and  are given by

CST;

INTRODUCTION

With the development of radio communication, wideband

and miniaturization are the primary investigative aspects at
present[1]-[7]. Log-periodic dipole antenna (LPDA) is a
kind of ultra-wideband antenna with simple structure and
good performance. The basic unit is dipole with selfsimilarity and has a variety of forms. Lots of research work
have been done to improve the structure and minimize the
LPDA. Literature[8] used the triangle ring as basic oscillator
unit and designed a delta loop log periodic antenna working
at 150MHz~600MHz, which reduced the structure size by
half compared to the traditional LPDA, and CST software is
used to design, simulate, analysis and optimize the antenna
model. Literature [9] used the spiral V type fractal antenna
unit to instead half wave vibrator to reduce the resonant
height.

tan  



Ln
rn

dn
1 

2 Ln 4 tan 

(2)

(3)

where, rn  1  2 ln  .The geometric structure and electric

1 
characteristics of the antenna will be identified as long as
any two of  ,  , and  are confirmed [13].
B. Principle of LPDA
When
the
electric
length
of
dipoles
satisfies L1 / 1  L2 / 2   Ln / n  constant , the
dipoles which work at theses frequencies have stable
electric performance. Because the length of dipoles satisfies
Ln1 / Ln   , the wavelength or frequency meets

In addition, the microstrip antenna has advantages of light

weight, small volume, easy to load and make, high precision,
and good stability, which has been widely applied in small
mobile terminal equipments. Literature [10] designed a
single-layer printed log periodic antenna; Literature [11]
used the LPDA array to enhance the directivity and
developed a double LPDA fan-shaped array.

n 1 / n   or f n 1 / f n  1/  . If  near to 1, antenna
frequency will reach continuous variation. The maximum
frequency to minimum frequency ratio f max / f nin equals to
the maximum dipole length to minimum dipole length
ratio L1 / Ln . If antenna geometric structure is infinitely
large, antenna bandwidth will reach in infinitely wide.
LPDA is an end-fire, linear polarized antenna, the direction

In this paper, a broadband planar equiangular LPDA with

tooth type is produced based on the structure of traditional
LPDA and broadband planar spiral antenna, which works at
the center frequency of 2.4GHz .

978-1-4799-3070-8/14 $31.00 2014 IEEE

DOI 10.1109/CSNT.2014.18

STRUCTURE AND PARAMETERS OF PLANAR

EQUIANGULAR LPDA

41

The radiation region concentrates in central area of the

antenna, the transmission region has weak radiation, the
non-excitation region has no radiation basically. The
maximum current occurs on the length of about 1/4
wavelength sheet metal. When the frequency changes, the
radiation region will move along the spiral curve, as shown
in Fig.4.
After the simulation, get the antenna performance of
radiation pattern, gain, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR),
and return loss (RL) curve. The maximum gain near to 6dB,
as shown in Fig.5.

of maximum radiation follows along the intersection line

from the longest dipole to the shortest dipole, its electric
field polarization direction parallels to the plane of dipoles.
The N symmetry dipoles feed with the double transmission
lines alternately, and two adjacent dipoles connect crosswise.
According to the working status of symmetry dipoles in
LPDA, the whole antenna is divided into three work regions,
that is, transportation region, radiation region, and nonexcitation region. In transportation region, the length of
dipoles approximate  / 2 and the dipoles have strong
motivation, which make chief contribution to radiation. As
the frequency changes, the region will move back and forth
on the antenna to remain the performance stable.

B. Antenna Practicality and Testingt Results

At last, the antenna is tested by the PNA3621 vector
network analyzer, as shown in Fig.6 [14]. The test frequency
range is from 1.2GHz to 3.2GHz with the interval of
25MHz, there are 41 sample points tested together. The
measurement E- plane radiation pattern in polar coordinates,
VSWR, and RL curves are shown in Fig.7 and Fig.8.

C. Stucture and parameters of planar spiral LPDA

According to the structure of planar equiangular spiral
antenna can be obtained the radial coordinate of conductor
edge [12]:
(4)
Rn  R0 e a (  2n
)
here, n is the circle number. The n+1th radius to the nth is a
constant, that is periodic of the antenna.

IV.

The measurement results show that the antenna has good

characteristics with symmetrical radiation pattern, broad
bandwidth, and little number of side lobes in 1.2GHz
3.2GHz frequency range, which agree with the simulated
results. The E-plane 3dB main lobe beam width is about 70.
The radiation pattern is not smooth with jagged splinters,
that is due to the limited test environment of the laboratory
and the reflected radio waves enter the testing antenna. In
the range of 2GHz bandwidth, VSWR is less than 1.5 and
RL is lower than -18dB. Especially near the center
frequency of 2.4GHz, VSWR is near to 1.

a (  2( n1)
)

Rn1 R0 e

 e 2a
   1
Rn
R0 e a (  2 n
)

(5)

So, for two adjacent frequency fn+1 and fn , antenna has the
same electrical performance, as shown in Fig.2.
The paper designs a planar spiral LPDA with selfcompensation structure. Among them, is radiation arm
angle, is center conductor angle, is a tooth angle, is the
angle between two radiation arm center conductor edges,
they have the following relations:
    2
(6)
    180 $
(7)
For the self-compensation structure requirements that:
   

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This subject is sponsored by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No.61372035) and Fundamental
Research Funds for Central Universities of NCIST (No.
DX2013B09DX2013B10) and 2013 Education Scientific
Research Projects of NCIST.

(8)

so,

  45 $   3  135 $
If the tooth width and tooth space are same size,
a
R
  n  n 1
Rn
an

(9)

REFERENCES
[1]

a n  Rn Rn 1   Rn

(10)

[2]

(11)
The performance of the antenna depends on parameters .
We select =0.9, the oscillator number is 8 pairs.

[3]

thus,

  

III.

CONCLUSION

[4]

ANTENNA DESIGN AND TESTING

A. Antenna Model and Simulation Performance

According to the calculated parameters, CST software is
used to establish the planar equiangular LPDA model, as
shown in Fig.3

[5]

[6]

42

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[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]
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and Instrument Company Ltd, 2007.
1

N
O

Ln

Ln+1

n-1

n+1

Figure. 3 Model planar equiangular LPDA

Ln-1

L2

L1

Figure.4 Magnetic field distribution in 2.4GHz

r n 1

dn

dn-1

rn
r1

d1

Figure1. Structure of LPDA

Figure5. Antenna 3D gain figure

Figure 2. Sketch map of planar equiangular LPDA

Figure6. Antenna testing

43

Figure7. E- plane radiation pattern in polar coordinates

Figure8. The measurement VSWR and RL curve

44