0

A MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA WITH

BROADENED BEAMWIDTH

Received 25 November 2007

ABSTRACT: A beamwidth broadening technique for a microstrip patch
antenna is presented here. The antenna consists of a patch radiator with
two phase-reversed auxiliary radiators. This technique allows the beamwidth of a microstrip antenna with a large aspect ratio to be broadened
at the expense of a slight increase in its lateral size. By using the auxiliary radiators, up to 16% increase in the H-plane beamwidth is
achieved. This antenna is also analyzed using a modied aperture
model. Other existing beamwidth broadening techniques are compared
and their applications listed. 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave
Opt Technol Lett 50: 18851888, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23539
Key words: microstrip antennas; antennas; beamwidth; WiFi; WLAN
1. INTRODUCTION

The beamwidth of a microstrip patch antenna varies inversely

proportional to its effective radiation aperture. As the aspect ratio
of a patch antenna increases from 0.5:1 (length of radiating edge to
width of nonradiating edge) to 1.5:1, both its effective radiation
aperture and gain increases while its beamwidth reduces. For a
xed effective radiation aperture, broadening the beamwidth of an
antenna reduces its corresponding gain. An approximated relationship between directivity D and the half-power beamwidth of both
principal planes (HP, HP) is expressed as D (40,000/HPHP)
[1]. The gain can be increased by narrowing the beamwidth.
However, in a point-to-multipoint wireless communication system,
a broad beamwidth is advantageous for a maximum area of coverage.
The advantages of using microstrip antennas have been well
documented in the literature, which includes having a low prole
and easy to manufacture [2]. To increase the gain performance of
Top View
y

y
h
L1
Main Patch
L
3.6

w=35

100

Auxiliary
Radiators

Inset

39

3.6
1.8
37

3.6

SMA
Front View

Ground Plane

x
100

Figure 1

Units: mm

Proposed microstrip patch antenna with auxiliary radiators

DOI 10.1002/mop

-15
-20
-25
-30
2.0

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3.0

Frequency, GHz
Figure 2 Measured return loss for the microstrip patch antennas with
and without auxiliary radiators

the microstrip antenna, an array of radiators is usually employed.

The gain of a microstrip antenna can also be improved using
parasitic dielectric, coupling conductors, and directors [3]. The
gain of a single-element microstrip patch antenna increases when
its radiating edge is enlarged. However, its beamwidth is reduced
correspondingly. It is difcult to increase the gain of a single patch
antenna while maintaining its beamwidth concurrently. Some commonly employed methods to achieve the beamwidth control of a
microstrip antenna include altering the aperture [4], the ground
plane, or the reector [5, 6].
An alternative method for broadening the beamwidth of a
microstrip antenna while retaining its gain performance is presented in the following sections. Broadening the beamwidth of a
patch antenna allows a greater area of coverage. This is advantageous for an antenna covering a sector or a group of antennas
providing high gain omnidirectional coverage. Using this technique, the number of antennas required and its subsequent radio
circuitry are reduced. This is achieved at the expense of a slight
increment in the lateral size of the antenna.
2. ANTENNA GEOMETRY

Side View

Double Sided 60 mil

Roger 4003, r = 3.38

Measured, without Auxiliary Radiator

Measured, with Auxiliary Radiator

-10
|S11|, dB

Zhi Ning Chen, Wee Kian Toh, and Xianming Qing

Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore; Corresponding author:
weekiantoh@gmail.com

-5

A narrowband microstrip patch antenna is used as an example to

demonstrate the beamwidth broadening effects of the auxiliary
radiators as shown in Figure 1. The proposed microstrip patch
antenna is etched at a 100 mm 100 mm 60-ml dielectric
substrate (Roger4003) with r 3.38 and fed at its bottom radiating edge with an inset to a 50- microstrip line followed by an
SMA connector. The ground plane measures 100 mm 100 mm.
The operating frequency is set at 2.4 GHz. As the length L is varied
within 20 55 mm along the x-axis, the inset is adjusted accordingly for impedance matching. The two L-shape auxiliary radiating
elements are connected to the feeding microstrip line for broadening the beamwidth. It is extended parallel to the bottom radiating
edge and the nonradiating edges of the patch antenna. The total
length of each auxiliary arm is one equivalent operating wavelength long at the resonant frequency. Half of the arm is extended
along the x-axis, while the remaining half is set along the y-axis.
The x-axis directed auxiliary radiators are spaced 3.6-mm away
from the lower radiating edge so as to reduce the effect of coupling
between the patch and the feeding strip. The distance between the
centers of the two auxiliary radiators along the x-axis L1 is 74 mm.
The measured return loss readings for the patch antennas with
and without the auxiliary radiators are shown in Figure 2. It is seen

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 50, No. 7, July 2008

1885

y
2b
S3

S1

S5

where E0 is the maximum amplitude of the electric eld, (m, n) are

the TMmn resonating modes, and 2b and 2c are the length of the
radiating slots perpendicular to the y- and x-axis. Only the TM010
[16] cavity mode resonant is considered here. Therefore, the latter
slots are nonradiating and then excluded in this discussion. Although there is no Ez eld component in the far-eld radiation, it
is transformed into its respective Ex (, ) and Ey (, ) eld
components from the radiating slot. The similar formulation is
derived for the rest of the slots accordingly.
By taking the Fourier transforms F() of the excitation within
a slot, the far-eld radiation pattern for a single patch antenna is
derived as follows [14]:

FE n

S2

E ne jkxnx ne jk yny ndxd y

(3)

S6

S4

k xn

Figure 3 Aperture model with radiation slots S1S6.

that there is a 20-MHz difference between the antennas with and

without auxiliary radiators.
3. ANALYSIS

Many analytical techniques for modeling planar microstrip antenna have been investigated using cavity model [7, 8], methods of
moment [9, 10], and others [1113]. A computational efcient
aperture model [14] for a patch antenna is modied to analyze the
proposed structure.
The aperture model of the proposed antenna is shown in Figure
3. This model does not consider the effects of conductor, dielectric,
and surface wave losses. Also, the dielectric substrate and ground
plane are assumed to be innitely large. The radiating slots S1S6
are depicted by their respective dotted rectangular box. Although
there is a bending edge at S4 and S6, they are approximated by
regular rectangular radiating slots since its radiation apertures are
small when compared with that of S1 and S2. Hence, the segmentation technique treatment [15] on the radiation edge is not required. Both S3S4 and S5S6 are modeled as two in-phase
radiating elements. The effective dielectric constant eff is calculated using,
eff

h
r 1 r 1
1 12

2
2
w

1/ 2

(1)

w/h 1
where h and w are the height of the substrate and the width of the
patch, r 3.38 is the relative dielectric constant for Roger4003
material. Because of the fringing elds at the radiating edge and
the effective dielectric constant of this structure, 2b and d of the
slot are modied accordingly, see Figure 3. The width d of slot S1
is set equal to the height of the substrate. The length 2b is
determined by the effective wave number keff, which dictates the
resonant frequency. Using the cavity model [8], the distribution of
Ez component in the slot is expressed as follows:

E z E 0 cos

mx
ny
cos
2b
2c

0 x 2b, 0 y 2c

1886

2b

(2)

2
2
sin cos, kyn
sin sin
0
0

(4)

where n is the slot number, 2b and d are the length and width of
the radiating slot, 0 is the free space wave length, and kxn and kyn
are the respective effective wave number along the x- and y-axis.
Each radiating element comes with a pair of radiating slots, hence
the Ey eld expression for S1 and S2 is expressed as Ey1,2, and
similarly for the two auxiliary radiators.
Accounting for the spatial arrangement between the slots, and
their respective phase and amplitude, an array factor for this
structure is formulated for the total Ey_total eld expression,

E y_total, Ey1,2 Ey3,4 e j

3,4
2

y5,6

e j

5,6
2

(5)

3,4 d aE y3,4 , ,
5,6 d aE y5,6 , ,
3,4 5,6, 0;
da

2
L
g 1

where da is the distance between the auxiliary radiators expressed

in radian, g is the guide wavelength, L1 is the distance between
the two centers of the auxiliary radiators, 3,4 is the phase difference between the two auxiliary radiators, E y3,4 (, ) and E y5,6 (,
) are the normalized eld pattern for the auxiliary radiator for
slots S3, S4 and S5, S6. The phase difference between the two
sources of the auxiliary radiators is 0. The phase of the main
radiator is 180 out of that of the auxiliary radiators; hence, the
eld pattern of the auxiliary radiator is subtracted from that of the
main radiator.
The far eld radiation pattern is expressed as [17],
Er

jke jkr
2r

iE xk xn,k yn cos Ey kxn ,kyn sin

Ex kxn ,kyn sin Ey kxn ,kyn cos cos

(6)

Equation (6) is applied to compute the H-plane 3-dB beamwidth

for the patch antenna both with and without the auxiliary radiators.
They are compared with that of the simulated and measured results
below.

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 50, No. 7, July 2008

DOI 10.1002/mop

TABLE 2 Comparison of Patch Antenna With and Without

Auxiliary Elements for 6 dBi Gain

Gain, Without Auxiliary Radiator, MoM

Gain, With Auxiliary Radiator, MoM
Beamwidth, Without Auxiliary Radiator, MoM
Beamwidth, With Auxiliary Radiator, MoM
Beamwidth, Without Auxiliary Radiator, Aperture Model
Beamwidth, With Auxiliary Radiator, Aperture Model

6.6

Gain, dBi

6.4
6.2
6.0
5.8
5.6
5.4
25

30

35
40
45
Length L, mm
(a)

50

55

110
105
100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65

H-Plane -3 dB Beamwidth, degrees

6.8

60
Reduction in Gain, MoM
Increment in Beamwidth, MoM
Increment in Beamwidth, Aperture Model

Percentage, %

50
40
30
20
10
0

25

30

35
40
45
Length L, mm

50

55

(b)
Figure 4 Gain and beamwidth comparison of antennas with and without
auxiliary radiators, which are expressed in (a) dBi and degrees, and (b)
percentage

Length L (mm)
Gain (dBi)
3-dB H-plane beamwidth ()

Patch Antenna
Without Auxiliary
Elements

Patch Antenna
With Auxiliary
Elements

30
6.0
83.2

42
6.0
90

square lines depict the gain, and the 3-dB H-plane beamwidth of a
regular microstrip patch antenna without any auxiliary elements.
The gray-colored square and circle dotted lines are computed using
the aperture model formulation discussed earlier. The results by
two methods are in good agreement although some assumptions
were applied in the use of aperture model. As the length L is varied
from 25 to 55 mm, 3-dB H-plane beamwidth of the antenna
without auxiliary elements is reduced from 85 to 73, while its
gain is increased from 5.84 to 6.60 dB. Similarly, 3-dB H-plane
beamwidth of the antenna with auxiliary elements is reduced from
97 to 82, while its corresponding gain is increased from 5.65 to
6.25 dBi. From the gure, it can be seen that the proposed antenna
can achieve a wider beamwidth with the same gain as a conventional microstrip antenna without any auxiliary radiators.
Figure 4(b) shows a 10.716% increase in the beamwidth of the
proposed antenna with a 35% decrease in gain. The beamwidth
variation from the aperture model computation indicates a slightly
different beamwidth reduction gradient because the slight variation
in the E-plane 3-dB E beamwidth is ignored in the aperture
model.
Extending the 3-dB H-plane beamwidth of the patch antenna
using auxiliary elements reduces its gain. However, the required
gain can be achieved by increasing the length L of the microstrip
patch. Two scenarios are given as an example to demonstrate the
use of this technique. For example, when length L 30 mm, the
antenna gain and 3-dB H-plane beamwidth of the patch antenna
with and without auxiliary radiating elements are 6.0 dBi, 84 and
5.8 dBi, 93, respectively, see Table 1. By setting the gain to 6 dBi
as a reference, their respective lengths L and 3-dB H-plane beamwidth are L 30 mm, 84 and L 42 mm, 90, respectively, as
seen in Table 2. With these auxiliary elements, there are 11.9 and
8.1% increases in their 3-dB beamdwidth for both scenarios.
Figure 5 shows the simulated average current distribution and
vector plot of the proposed antenna. The currents at the auxiliary
elements are out of phase to that of the main radiating patch. The

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Figure 4(a) shows the gain and 3-dB beamwidth performance of

this antenna when the length L is varied, both with and without the
auxiliary radiators. IE3D, a full-wave simulator, is employed to
model this structure. The impedance bandwidth of both antennas
remains constant at around 0.7%. The black- and gray-colored
TABLE 1 Comparison of the Patch Antennas With and
Without Auxiliary Elements, Length L 30 mm

Length L (mm)
Gain (dBi)
3-dB H-plane beamwidth ()

Patch Antenna
Without Auxiliary
Elements

Patch Antenna
With Auxiliary
Elements

30
6.0
83.2

30
5.8
93.1

DOI 10.1002/mop

Figure 5 Averaged current distribution and vector plot. [Color gure can
be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.
wiley.com]

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 50, No. 7, July 2008

1887

Normalized Radiation Pattern, dB

Measured, Without Auxiliary Radiator

Measured, With Auxiliary Radiator
Aperture Model, Without Auxiliary Radiator
Aperture Model, With Auxiliary Radiator

0
-1
-2
-3

-3 dB Beamwidth, 73 and 82

-4
-5
-50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50
H-plane E, Degrees

Figure 6 Measured and computed normalized radiation patterns for the

antennas with and without auxiliary radiators, at length L 45 mm and
resonant frequency at 2.24 GHz

out-of-phase currents cancel off each other so that effective radiating aperture is reduced when compared with the conventional
patch antenna with the same dimensions. Compared to a conventional antenna with a narrower length, the proposed antenna has
higher gain and wider beamwidth in H-planes as shown in Figure
3(a).
Figure 6 shows the normalized measured radiation patterns for
the patch antenna with a length of L 45 mm. The computed
H-plane E radiation patterns from the aperture model are also
included for comparison. There is a 10.3% increase in the measured beamwidth, slightly (4% or 3) smaller than that from the
simulation shown in Figure 4(b) due to the material and manufacturing tolerance. The aperture model computation agrees well with
the measured results. The increase in the beamwidth of the proposed antenna was observed.
5. CONCLUSION

A beamwidth broadening technique for the microstrip patch antenna has been presented and experimentally validated. The study
has shown that with two additional out-of-phase radiators, the
beamwidth of the patch antenna has been widened. More importantly, with the same achieved gain, the proposed antenna has
achieved a wider beamwidth. This technique can also be applied to
patch antenna array system, where both gain and broad beamwidth
specications of the antenna are important. The computation efcient aperture model formulation for this antenna structure has
been veried with the full wave simulator as well as the results
from measurement.
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2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

SINGLE MODE OPERATION OF A

FABRY-PEROT LASER LOCKED BY A
TUNABLE LASER
Ning Hua Zhu, Wei Han, Wei Li, Wei Chen, Ji Min Wen, Yu Liu,
and Liang Xie
State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, Institute of
Semiconductors, CAS, Beijing, China, 100083; Corresponding
author: nhzhu@semi.ac.cn
Received 27 November 2007
ABSTRACT: In this article, the single mode operation of a FabryPerot laser (FP-LD) subject to the optical injection from a tunable laser
is investigated. The maximum side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) is 53
dB, and the locked wavelength range is about 46 nm, which can cover
58 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) wavelengths with 100
GHz spacing or 115 ITU wavelengths with 50 GHz spacing for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system. In the wavelength range
from 1535 to 1569 nm, the SMSR is over 46 dB, and the frequency response of the injection-locked FP-LD can be improved with the proper
wavelength detuning. 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt
Technol Lett 50: 1888 1892, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23538
Key words: Fabry-Perot laser; frequency response; scattering parameter
1. INTRODUCTION

Semiconductor optoelectronic devices have been widely used because of its compact structure and low power consumption. Intensive studies of the semiconductor laser have been made to optimize
its performance. Because of the low cost and facilitated production, the FP-LD applied to high-speed optical communication is
very desirable. However, the multimode operation limits its applications. Optical injection is an attractive technique as an effective
method for modifying the characteristics of the semiconductor

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 50, No. 7, July 2008

DOI 10.1002/mop