IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 55, NO.
8, AUGUST 2007
comparisons indicated that the REM preconditioned iterative solver
produced accurate solution, and it needs significantly less number
of iterations compared to the same iterative solver for the original
matrix equation.
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approach for calculating radiation patterns of arbitrarily shaped mi-
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[2] I. Gomez-Revuelto, L. E. Garcia-Castillo, M. Salazar-Palma, and T. K.
Sarkar, Fully coupled hybrid-method FEM/high-frequency technique
for the analysis of 3D scattering and radiation problems, Microw. Opt.
Tech. Lett., vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 104107, Oct. 2005.
[3] J. M. Jin, J. A. Berrie, R. Kipp, and S. W. Lee, Calculation of radiation
patterns of microstrip antennas on cylindrical bodies of arbitrary cross
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1997.
[4] J. Liu and J. M. Jin, Analysis of conformal antennas on a complex
platform, Microw. Opt. Tech. Lett., vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 139142, Jan.
2003.
[5] J. M. Song and W. C. Chew, FMM and MLFMA in 3D and fast Illinois
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Eds. Boston, MA: Artech House, 2001, pp. 77118.
[6] J. Lee, J. Zhang, and C. C. Lu, Incomplete LU preconditioning for
large scale dense complex linear systems from electromagnetic wave
scattering problems, J. Comp. Phys., vol. 185, pp. 158175, 2003.
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S. Zhao, J. Bernhard, and W. C. Chew, Simulation of vehicle an-
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Applications Symp., Allerton Park, Monticello, IL, Sep. 2002, pp.
1820.
[8] H. Y. Chao, A multilevel fast multipole algorithm for analyzing radi-
ation and scattering from wire antennas in a complex environment,
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bana, IL, 2002.
[9] R. Barrett, M. Berry, T. F. Chan, J. Demmel, J. Donato, J. Dongarra, V.
Eijkhout, R. Pozo, C. Romine, H. Van der Vorst, and H. , Templates for
the Solution of Linear Systems: Building Blocks for Iterative Methods,
2nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: SIAM, 1994.
0018-926X/$25.00 2007 IEEE
2391
A Miniature Folded Shorted Patch Antenna for
Dual-Band Operation
K. L. Lau, K. C. Kong, and K. M. Luk
AbstractThe design and performance of a folded shorted patch an-
tenna for dual-band operation is presented in this paper. The proposed an-
tenna consists of a folded shorted patch that is excited by a coaxial probe.
By cutting two slots in different parts of the patch, good input impedance
matching has been achieved over two frequency bands. The lower band
possesses an impedance bandwidth (SWR 2) of 21.1% (0.790 to 0.976
GHz) and a peak gain of 7.3 dBi, while the upper band has an impedance
bandwidth (SWR 2) of 32.2% (1.698 to 2.350 GHz) and a peak gain
of 7.5 dBi. Other than the wideband and high gain features, this antenna
also has a low profile of 0 05 and a small size of 0 25 0 36 ,
where is the free space wavelength at the center frequency of the lower
band. Therefore, this antenna is very suitable for the indoor base station
that is required to service several wireless communication systems, included
CDMA800, GSM900, PCS, UMTS, BLUETOOTH and WLAN, by a single
compact antenna.
Index TermsDual-band, folded antenna, shorted antenna, wideband.
I. INTRODUCTION
As is well known, a compact and wideband antenna is desirable for
all modern wireless communication systems. Therefore, conventional
microstrip patch antenna is attractive for the low profile but repulsive
for the large lateral size and narrow impedance bandwidth. In the lit-
erature, several techniques have been reported to reduce the size of the
patch. They included the use of a short-circuited element [1], [2], a high
dielectric constant material [3], slots [4] and a resistive loading [5]. The
first one is the most effective since it can greatly reduce the resonant
length of the patch from C =2 to C =4 or even C =8, where C is
the free space wavelength at the center frequency of the impedance
bandwidth. However, the shorted patch antenna only has a few percent
of bandwidth. To alleviate this problem, bandwidth enhancement tech-
nique such as using a thick foam substrate [6], a stacked configuration
[7], a proximity-coupled feed [8] or a U-shaped slot [9] is introduced
into the shorted patch antenna. As a result, bandwidth of up to 44% is
obtained at the patch height of 0:1C . Recently, a novel U-slot shorted
patch antenna is proposed [10]. By folding the inner part of the U-slot
patch towards the ground plane, wide impedance bandwidth of 53% is
acquired.
As a matter of fact, a dual-band antenna is better than a wideband
antenna if both of them are required to cover two frequency bands
that are far away from each other. Consequently, the researches on
dual-band shorted patch antennas are increasing dramatically. In the
literature, several methods have been reported to develop this type of
antenna. They involved cutting a special slot [11] and using a stacked
structure [12] on the traditional quarter-wave shorted patch antenna.
Although the new antenna has dual-band characteristic, its impedance
bandwidth of each frequency band is narrow (210%). In order to
tackle this problem, a bandwidth widening technique is utilized. By
using proximity-coupled feeds to excite two quarter-wave shorted
Manuscript received August 10, 2006; revised December 15, 2006. This work
was supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Ad-
ministration Region, SAR, China, under Grant CityU 115006 (9041133).
The authors are with the Department of Electronic Engineering, City Univer-
sity of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China (e-mail: kllau@ieee.org).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2007.898649
2392
Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed antenna.
patches that are in stacked configuration, wide impedance bandwidths
of 4754% are obtained in two frequency bands [13], [14]. Neverthe-
less, they will be reduced to around 10% if the height of the antenna
is low (< 0:05L ). Actually, most of the wideband techniques in the
literature are not effective for the low profile antennas. In the last year,
a wideband low-profile antenna is proposed. By folding the open (or
radiating) edge of a quarter-wave shorted patch antenna backwards,
wide impedance bandwidth of 29.4% is acquired at a low profile of
0:046C [15].
In this paper, a dual-band folded shorted patch antenna with a low
profile of 0:05L and a small size of 0:25L 2 0:36L is presented. It is
operated at both TM10 mode and TM30 mode, which is developed by
introducing two slots to the patch of our previously proffered folded
shorted patch antenna [15]. With the proper choose of the sizes and
the positions of these slots, wide impedance bandwidths of 21.1% and
32.2% are measured at the lower and the upper bands, respectively.
Antenna performance procured by the measurement is also compared
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 55, NO. 8, AUGUST 2007
TABLE I
Fig. 2. Standing wave ratio and gain against frequency at the (a) lower band,
(b) upper band.
with the simulation and good agreement is observed. Moreover, details
of the antenna design are given.
II. ANTENNA STRUCTURE
The geometry of the proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 1. This an-
tenna is mounted in the middle of a rectangular ground plane. It con-
sists of a rectangular patch that is supported by a foam substrate above
the ground plane. Along the x-axis, this patch has one end shorted to
the ground and the other end folded backwards. The folded part is sup-
ported by another foam substrate over the main part of the patch. Also,
two slots with different sizes are etched on different positions of the
patch. Moreover, a coaxial feeding probe and a shorting post are con-
nected to the main part of the patch. Let L be the free space wavelength
at 0.883 GHz. For this antenna, the size of the ground plane is 280.2 mm
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 55, NO. 8, AUGUST 2007 2393

Fig. 3. XZ-plane radiation patterns at (a) 0.823 GHz, (b) 0.883 GHz, (c) 0.943 GHz, (d) 1.854 GHz, (e) 2.024 GHz, (f) 2.194 GHz.

2 318 mm (0:82L 2 0:94L ). The thicknesses of the patch and the in details. In fact, the lateral size (or projection area) of this antenna
ground plane are 0.2 mm and 2 mm, respectively. Dielectric constant is 36% that of a regular half-wave square patch antenna with the same
of the foam substrate is 1.1. The other dimensions are listed in Table I center operating frequency.
2394 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 55, NO. 8, AUGUST 2007

Fig. 4. YZ-plane radiation patterns at (a) 0.823 GHz, (b) 0.883 GHz, (c) 0.943 GHz, (d) 1.854 GHz, (e) 2.024 GHz, (f) 2.194 GHz.

III. ANTENNA PERFORMANCE AND ANALYSIS
As we have mentioned above, the proposed antenna is operated at
both TM10 and TM
30 modes. Therefore, it is a dual-band antenna.
The antenna performance is calculated with the aid of a commercial
software package IE3D [16]. Also, it is measured by the 8510C
Network Analyzer and the Compact Range with an HP85301C An-
tenna Measurement System. Fig. 2 shows the standing wave ratio and
gain against frequency curves at the lower and the upper bands, re-
spectively. From the SWR curves, it is clearly seen that this antenna
has two resonances in each frequency band. Since they are close
to each other, wide simulated and measured impedance bandwidths
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 55, NO. 8, AUGUST 2007 2395

TABLE II

TABLE III

Fig. 5. Simulated input impedance against frequency of the proposed antenna Fig. 6. Simulated input impedance against frequency of the proposed antenna
without the slots. with and without the slots.

(SWR < 2) of 17.9% (0.805 to 0.963 GHz) and 21.1% (0.790 and measured peak gains are 7.1 dBi and 7.3 dBi, 7.3 dBi and 7.5 dBi
to 0.976 GHz), 31.2% (1.700 to 2.329 GHz) and 32.2% (1.698 to for the lower and the upper bands, respectively. The corresponding
2.350 GHz) are obtained in the lower and the upper bands, respec- average gains are 5.4 dBi and 5.0 dBi, 6.2 dBi and 6.0 dBi. Actually,
tively. In the same figure, it can also be observed that the simulated there are small discrepancies between the simulated and the measured
2396 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 55, NO. 8, AUGUST 2007

Fig. 7. Antenna characteristics for different values of (a) H , (b) H , (c) L , (d) L , (e) W , (f) s , (g) d , (h) s . Where f = center frequency of the impedance
bandwidth (swr < 2);  =free space wavelength at f .

results because an infinite instead of a finite size dielectric substrate 0.943 GHz, 1.854 GHz, 2.024 GHz and 2.194 GHz, are shown in
is used in the simulation. Fig. 3. For the simulated and measured E components, the main
The xz-plane radiation patterns at several frequencies across beams are tilted at 038 and 046 at 0.823 GHz, 030 and 028
the lower and the upper bands, included 0.823 GHz, 0.883 GHz, at 0.883 GHz, 017 and 017 at 0.943 GHz, 039 and 038
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 55, NO. 8, AUGUST 2007
W
Fig. 8. Antenna characteristics for different values of (a) L W
, (b) , (c)
, (d) . Where =center frequency of the impedance bandwidth (swr 2) at the
f f
lower frequency band;  =free space wavelength at ;
=center frequency of the impedance bandwidth
% BW at the lower frequency band; %BW = % BW at the upper frequency band.
at 1.854 GHz, 030 and 027 at 2.024 GHz, 025 and 025 at
2.194 GHz, respectively. Therefore, the tilt angles are reduced with
the frequency in each frequency band. The simulated E components
(dashed dot line) cannot be observed in Fig. 3 because they are very
small in the ideal case, i.e. simulation modeling. For the measured
E components, they have peak values of 011.06 dB at 0.823 GHz,
017.08 dB at 0.883 GHz, 019.48 dB at 0.943 GHz, 020.42 dB at
1.854 GHz, 025.85 dB at 2.024 GHz and 020.13 dB at 2.194 GHz,
correspondingly. The yz-plane radiation patterns at these frequen-
cies are shown in Fig. 4. It is clearly seen that the simulated and
measured E components are quite large. When compared to the E
components, their peak values are 4.75 dB and 8.19 dB at 0.823 GHz,
00.97 dB and 0.96 dB at 0.883 GHz, 09.47 dB and 05.51 dB at
0.943 GHz, 11.52 dB and 10.64 dB at 1.854 GHz, 7.18 dB and 6.07 dB
at 2.024 GHz, 4.50 dB and 2.66 dB at 2.194 GHz, respectively.
Consequently, their magnitudes are decreased with the frequency in
each frequency band. In fact, the simulated E and E components in
both planes have nulls in the 90 and 270 directions due to an infinite
large dielectric substrate is used in the simulation.
Actually, the radiation patterns of the proposed antenna are similar to
that of the conventional quarter-wave shorted patch antenna. The main
beams of their E components are tilted away from the broadside direc-
tion in the xz-plane and their E components are large in the yz-plane.
The difference is that the main beams of the proposed antenna in the
xz-plane are squinted to the left rather than the right since the currents
flowing on the left vertical wall are more than the right one.
2397
L f
<
(swr 2)
< at the upper frequency band; %BW =
IV. DESIGN GUIDELINES
The design of a small size, low profile, wideband and dual-band
patch antenna is very complicated. The fact is that the smallest antenna
size, the lowest antenna profile and the widest impedance bandwidths
for both of the two frequency bands cannot be achieved simultaneously.
Therefore, we need to determine the effect of each parameter on the
characteristics of the proposed antenna in order to find the tradeoffs be-
tween them in the antenna design. Actually, there are twelve interacting
design parameters that should be determined. Before introducing these
parameters and their effects in relation to the geometry shown in Fig. 1,
we would like to describe the operating principle of this antenna.
A. Operating Principle
We first consider the proposed antenna without the slots (dimensions
are shown Table II), which is able to provide wideband single-band op-
eration. The simulated input impedance against frequency curves are
shown in Fig. 5 (blue lines/lines with square markers). It is clearly seen
that this antenna has two resonancesquarter-wave and half-wave res-
onances. At the quarter-wave resonance fq0 (0.726 GHz), very few cur-
rents are flowing on the folded part of the patch. Therefore, its fre-
quency is similar to the resonance of the antenna without the folded
part of the patch fq (0.768 GHz, red lines/lines with rhombus markers).
Since the physical length of the main part of the patch is 83.5 mm (L1 ),
its electrical length is about a quarter of the wavelength at this reso-
nance. Hence this antenna works like a regular quarter-wave shorted
2398 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 55, NO. 8, AUGUST 2007
patch antenna. At the half-wave resonance fh0 (0.912 GHz), very few
currents are passing through the shorting wall. Consequently, its fre-
quency is similar to the resonance of the antenna without the shorting
wall fh (0.868 GHz, green lines/lines with circular markers). As the
physical length of the patch is 151.1 mm (L12 + H2 0 H1 + L1 ), its
electrical length is about a half of the wavelength at this resonance.
Thus this antenna operates as a regular folded half-wave patch an-
tenna. Because these two resonances are close to each other, this an-
tenna has a wide impedance bandwidth (SWR < 2) of 20.3% (0.778
to 0.954 GHz) at a low profile of 0:046C , where C is the free space
wavelength at the center frequency of this bandwidth.
Next, we consider the proposed antenna with and without the slots
(dimensions are shown Table I). The simulated input impedance against
frequency curves are shown in Fig. 6. As illustrated in the figure, both
of them have two resonances in the lower and the upper frequency
ranges (0.60 to 1.20 GHz and 1.40 to 2.42 GHz). The information of
these resonances is summarized in Table III. According to this table,
cutting slots on the coaxial-fed folded shorted patch antenna not only
can decrease its resonant frequencies, but also can reduce its frequency
ratio between the same type of resonance in the lower and the upper
frequency ranges. Therefore, the slots have diminished the profile and
the size of this antenna. Moreover, they have controlled the frequency
ratio between the lower and the upper frequency bands. When the di-
mensions and the locations of these slots are selected properly, wide
impedance bandwidths have also been obtained in the two frequency
ranges as depicted in Fig. 2.
B. Parametric Studies
In this section, we will summarize the twelve design parameters and
their effects in relation to the antenna shown in Fig. 1. For the first
eight parameters, their initial dimensions are shown in Table II. Their
effects on the antenna characteristics are depicted in Fig. 7(a) to (h).
Without the slots, the proposed antenna can be matched well for single
frequency band only. According to these figures, increasing L12 and
s1 before certain values can obtain wider impedance bandwidth, lower
antenna profile and smaller patch size simultaneously. They can also
be acquired by reducing s2 beyond certain values. However, changing
the values of the other parameters such as H1 , H2 , L1 , W1 and d2
cannot procure these results at the same time. Therefore, we need to
make some trade-offs between them in the design process. For the re-
maining four parameters, their initial dimensions are shown in Table I.
Their effects on the antenna characteristics are shown in Fig. 8(a) to
(d). With the slots, the proposed antenna can be matched well for two
frequency bands. In these figures, it is clearly seen that reducing L3 can
achieve wider impedance bandwidths in both frequency bands, lower
antenna profile and smaller patch size simultaneously. They can also
be obtained by increasing W2 before certain value and reducing L2
beyond certain value. Unfortunately, altering the value of the param-
eter W3 cannot get these results at the same time. Hence, we need to
make a tradeoff for it.
V. CONCLUDING REMARKS
A dual-band folded shorted patch antenna is designed and imple-
mented successfully. The experimental results reveal that it has wide
impedance bandwidths (SWR < 2) of 21.1% (0.790 to 0.976 GHz)
and 32.2% (1.698 to 2.350 GHz) in the lower and the upper frequency
bands, respectively. Therefore, it is capable to cover the operating
bandwidths of several wireless communication systems included
CDMA800, GSM900, PCS, UMTS, BLUETOOTH and WLAN.
Other than the wideband feature, it also has high peak gains of 7.3 dBi
and 7.5 dBi in the two frequency bands. Furthermore, it has a low
profile of 0:05L and a small size of 0:25L 2 0:36L . Consequently,
this antenna should find applications in the modern multi-band indoor
wireless communication systems.
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