IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

12, 2013 1295

Compact CPW-Fed Planar Monopole Antenna

With Wide Circular Polarization Bandwidth
S. Ahdi Rezaeieh, Student Member, IEEE, A. Abbosh, Senior Member, IEEE, and M. A. Antoniades, Member, IEEE

Abstract—The design and implementation of a coplanar wave-

guide-fed planar monopole antenna with circular polarization and
broadband operation is presented. The antenna operates in the
Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) and wireless local area
network (WLAN) (5 GHz) bands with circular polarization (CP)
in both bands. It is demonstrated that a fractional bandwidth for
CP larger than 33% can be attained simply by introducing an in-
verted L-shaped slot in the ground plane and parallel-aligning an
inverted-L-shaped strip. The advantages of the proposed antenna
are the simple yet efficient design of the radiator, a wide 3-dB axial-
ratio operating band, and a compact size.
Index Terms—Circularly polarized antenna, compact antenna,
ISM band antenna, WLAN antenna.

I. INTRODUCTION Fig. 1. Geometry and photograph of the proposed antenna.

T HE RAPID development in the use of wireless technology

in personal and commercial systems in the last decades
has increased the demand for communication devices, such as
design. The CP antennas previously presented are characterized
by a large size [6]–[8], [14], [15], complex techniques [10], non-
antennas, couplers, filters, power dividers, etc., with compact
planar structures [11], [12], or narrow 3-dB axial-ratio band-
size and wideband performance [1]–[4]. In wireless systems
width (ARBW) [5], [9]. Therefore, designing an antenna with
where the positioning of the transmitter and the receiver are not
a compact size and a wide 3-dB ARBW covering the standard
fixed or their operation is vulnerable to weather conditions, cir-
bands realized by previous antennas is desirable.
cular polarization (CP) is desired to prevent the effects of dis-
Due to their low-profile, low-cost, and low-mass features,
placement and path loss of the antennas. In many applications,
coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed planar antennas can be easily
such as global positioning systems, wireless local area networks
placed inside packages, making them an appropriate choice
(WLANs), wireless medical monitoring, and mobile communi-
for numerous wireless systems. Therefore, this letter presents
cations, the physical size of the CP antenna is a major concern.
a CPW-fed planar monopole antenna with a small defected
Therefore, designing a compact antenna with circular polariza-
ground plane for operation in the Industrial, Scientific, and
tion is an essential challenge.
Medical (ISM) (5725–5875 MHz) and WLAN 5.2-GHz
Reviewing the literature reveals a great effort in imple-
(5150–5350 MHz) and 5.8-GHz (5725–5825 MHz) bands. By
menting various methods and techniques both for achieving
sequentially introducing an L-shaped slot into the ground plane,
compact and wideband circularly polarized antennas [5]–[14].
and then introducing a complementary L-shaped strip above it,
Some of the utilized techniques include using an artificial
a 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth larger than 33% is obtained in the
ground [5], slots in the ground [6], S-shaped slots [7], feed
required bands.
networks composed of three Wilkinson power dividers [8], four
notch slots [9], topology-based steps [10], feed positioning with
E- and U-shaped slots [11], asymmetric T-shaped strip [12], II. ANTENNA DESIGN
two linked square slot-rings [13], slotted monopole [14], and The geometry and photograph of the proposed antenna are
inverted L-slits on the ground [15]. presented in Fig. 1. Due to the CPW structure, the radiator and
In CP antennas, simple and planar structures in coincidence ground plane are built on the same layer of Rogers RO4003
with compact size have a great role in applicability of the final square substrate with a side length of 20 mm, thickness of
0.813 mm, dielectric constant of 3.55, and a loss tangent of
Manuscript received June 05, 2013; revised August 15, 2013; accepted 0.0027. The antenna is fed using a 50- CPW feedline that
September 26, 2013. Date of publication September 30, 2013; date of current
has a central signal strip with a width of 3.1 mm and a gap of
version October 17, 2013. This work was supported by the Australian Research
Council Discovery under Grant DP120101214. 0.45 mm. The radiator is a quasi C-shaped monopole connected
The authors are with the School of ITEE, University of Queensland, Brisbane, to the CPW transmission line. Two arms with dimensions of
Qld. 4072, Australia (e-mail: s.ahdirezaeieh@uq.edu.au).
1 6.2 mm and 2.9 1 mm are added to the upper left and
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. right corners of the radiator to improve its impedance matching
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2013.2284003 and axial ratio value. A rectangular strip with dimensions of

1536-1225 © 2013 IEEE

1296 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 12, 2013

1.36 4.16 mm is removed from the feedline to increase the

antenna’s effective electrical size and its operating band.
The main goal of the design is to create circular polarization.
Hence, the design is modified in a way that creates two electric
fields with equal amplitude and 90 phase difference, which
is the basis for circular polarization. Therefore, an inverted
L-shaped slot with dimensions of 3 1.63 mm is created in
the ground plane of the antenna. In alignment with the L-shaped
slot, another inverted L-shaped strip is positioned above the
slot. By adjusting the dimensions of the L-shaped slot and strip,
circular polarization can be created in the 5–6-GHz frequency
band. The structure shown in Fig. 1 can generate left-hand cir-
cular polarization (LHCP) and right-hand circular polarization
(RHCP) radiations in the - and -directions, respectively.

III. DESIGN PROCEDURE

The success of the design of a circularly polarized antenna
depends mainly on whether the 3-dB axial-ratio (AR) band is
entirely enclosed by the 10-dB return-loss band. Therefore, the
main challenge in the design procedure focuses on how the
C-shaped radiator and truncated rectangle strip in coordination
with the L-shaped strips on the ground plane improve the
impedance matching and axial ratio of the antenna. Hence, the
antenna structure given as Antenna 1 in Fig. 2 is first simulated
using Ansoft HFSS ver. 14. Antenna 1 includes only a C-shaped
radiator and a rectangular ground. Applying the conventional
monopole antenna design method, the total length of the
C-shaped radiator is selected as a quarter-guided-wavelength
at the first resonant frequency (5.75 GHz). The length is then
tuned to provide the best impedance matching. Considering the
characteristics of Antenna 1 in Fig. 2, it can be observed that
the antenna is well matched from 5.2 to 7.93 GHz, but it has no
3-dB axial-ratio operating bandwidth. To explain how the 3-dB
axial ratio can be improved when considering the evolution of
the design from Antenna 1 to Antenna 2 and then to Antenna 3,
the amplitude ratio and phase difference (PD) of
the far fields and in the -direction are depicted in
Fig. 2(b).
For circular polarization, two electric fields with identical
amplitudes but with a 90 phase difference should be intro-
duced. The electric field elements of Antenna 1 have neither
the same amplitude nor the 90 phase difference at the same
time. Therefore, to achieve a simultaneous improvement in the
impedance-matching bandwidth and the axial ratio of the an-
tenna, two arms are added to the right and left top corners of
the C-shaped radiator. From the data collected from HFSS, the
lengths of the arms are selected to be and (at
5.75 GHz) to increase the effective electrical size of the antenna
(the total length of the monopole radiator after adding the arms)
so that it can cover the whole WLAN band.
Adding the arms lowers the first resonance by 0.2 GHz, but
decreases the overall operating bandwidth and confines it to
5.15–6.4 GHz. Positioning the arms is done in a way that im-
proves the amplitude and phase of the electric field. However,
it is found that these arms are not able to provide the required
phase difference, but properly positioning them provides the an-
tenna with nearly identical electric field amplitudes, which is in-
dicated in Fig. 2(b). The latter modification improves the total
Fig. 2. (a) Axial ratio, (b) amplitude ratio and their phase differ-
ence, and (c) of Antennas 1–3.
axial-ratio value by 2 dB. However, the antenna still cannot
attain a 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth because of the improper
phase difference.
To further improve the impedance matching of Antenna 2,
an additional rectangular strip is removed from the feedline. In
[15], it is indicated that the 90 phase difference required for
CP excitation can be achieved through designing an inverted-L-
shaped slit on the ground plane. The orthogonal electric field
vectors of the inverted-L slit and the rectangular radiator have
a phase difference of 90 , which can excite CP. However, this
method provided a narrow ARBW. Therefore, to create the re-
quired 90 phase difference for an improved axial ratio across
a wide band, an L-shaped slot is created in the right ground
plane, and another complementary L-shaped strip is added on
top of the slot. These changes are incorporated into Antenna 3
in Fig. 2. Considering the response of Antenna 3 in Fig. 2, it can
be observed that introducing the slot reduces the first resonance
to 5.3 GHz by increasing the effective electrical size of the an-
tenna and improves the impedance matching of the antenna up
to 7 GHz. As depicted in Fig. 2(b), it also provides the 90 phase
difference from 5.2 to 7 GHz in coincidence with identical am-
plitude for the electric fields, thus creating the required 3-dB
axial ratio. The current distribution for Antenna 3 at 5.8 GHz is
depicted in Fig. 3.
IV. PARAMETRIC STUDY
In this section, geometrical parameters that affect the circular
polarization characteristics of the antenna are studied and
AHDI REZAEIEH et al.: COMPACT CPW-FED PLANAR MONOPOLE ANTENNA WITH WIDE CP BANDWIDTH
Fig. 3. Current distributions of Antenna 3 at 5.8 GHz.
Fig. 4. Axial-ratio variations of Antenna 3 with different values of
reported. The optimum reflection coefficient and axial-ratio
variations for the final design (Antenna 3) are presented through
Fig. 2. Therefore, for brevity they will not mentioned in the
parametric studies.
The first and most important element that generates the cir-
cular polarization is the location of the L-shaped strip and slot.
Considering Fig. 4, it is apparent that changing the location of
the strip and slot greatly affects the 3-dB ARBW. Three cases
are considered for this study. The L-shaped strip and slot are
displaced with regards to the “ ” position. Placing the strips at
mm decreases the 3-dB ARBW to a great extent. Set-
ting mm shifts and limits the 3-dB ARBW to between
5.2–5.6 GHz. The last displacement occurs at mm. A
total decrease of 0.5 GHz compared to Antenna 3 ARBW arises.
This displacement study reveals the importance and key func-
tion of the positions of the L-shaped strip and slot in the circular
polarization characteristic of the antenna.
The second parameter that has an important part in the CP
operation of antenna is the length of the L-shaped strip ( ),
which is studied through Fig. 5. Setting mm com-
pletely eliminates the 3-dB ARBW, which remarks the impor-
tance of this element in creating the phase difference between
the E-field components. Increasing the value of to 3 mm re-
sults in a 3-dB ARBW between 4.9–5.7 GHz with a minimum
2.2-dB AR. Setting mm shifts the 3-dB ARBW be-
tween 4.75–6.55 GHz. Increasing the value of beyond its op-
timum value of 5 mm shown in Fig. 1 eliminates the 3-dB band.
This case is not shown in Fig. 5 for brevity.
The last study includes the effects of the arms connected to
the radiator on enhancing the 3-dB axial ratio of the antenna.
Three cases are considered. In the first case, which is repre-
sented in Fig. 6, the right upper arm is eliminated from Antenna
3. As can be seen from Fig. 6, the 3-dB ARBW degrades to
between 5.6–6.2 GHz. The second case considers Antenna 3
without the right and left upper arms. The 3-dB ARBW shifts
1297
Fig. 5. Axial-ratio variations of Antenna 3 with different values of .
.
Fig. 6. Axial ratio of Antenna 3 considering three different configurations.
between 5.45–6.35 GHz. The last case considers Antenna 3
without the left upper arm. This configuration shifts the 3-dB
axial ratio in between 4.8–6.8 GHz. This study reveals the
importance of the arms attached to the radiator in enhancing
the axial-ratio purity to values as low as 0.12 dB (see Fig. 2,
Antenna 3).
V. MEASUREMENTS
Antenna 3, being the optimized design, is fabricated (Fig. 1)
and tested. Due to the very small size of the antenna, ferrite
beads are used to reduce the effect of the coaxial feed cable on
the measurements. However, this will not be the case for ap-
plications of the antenna in mobile and WLAN devices. As an
industry practice, the antenna would simply be fed using a short
miniature coaxial cable or a small finite-width CPW transmis-
sion line and therefore no need to use ferrite beads.
The measured and axial-ratio results for the antenna are
presented in Fig. 7. The antenna provides an impedance band-
width with dB over the range of 4.8–7.2 GHz.
Using the method outlined in [16], the 3-dB axial ratio of
the antenna is measured. The antenna has a measured 3-dB
ARBW from 5.15 to 7.1 GHz, representing a 33% fractional
bandwidth. Considering the effect of the SMA connector and
the mismatching tolerance, the measured impedance bandwidth
and axial ratio of the antenna are in fairly accurate agreement
with the simulated ones.
The simulated and measured gain of the antenna are presented
in Fig. 8. It can be seen that the measured gain is between 2.4 and
3.6 dBi for the 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth from 5.15 to 7.1 GHz,
respectively. As depicted in Fig. 8, the antenna has a simulated
efficiency from 84% to 90% in the same frequency range. The
far-field radiation patterns of the antenna in both the - and
1298
Fig. 7. (a) Axial ratio and (b) of the proposed antenna.
Fig. 8. Gain and efficiency the proposed antenna.
Fig. 9. Measured and simulated radiation patterns of the proposed antenna at
(a) 5.8 and (b) 6.5 GHz.
-planes at 5.8 and 6.5 GHz are measured. As it can be seen
in Fig. 9, the antenna produces mainly LHCP radiation in the
-direction and RHCP radiation in z-direction.
Finally, the proposed antenna is compared to the recent de-
signs presented in [5]–[9]. It is possible to conclude that among
other antennas covering the IEEE 802.11a/h/n/ac standards
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 12, 2013
(5 GHz) with circular polarization, the current design offers
the most compact physical size. It is thus a good candidate for
small portable short-range wireless communication devices for
ISM and WLAN (5 GHz) applications.
VI. CONCLUSION
A circularly polarized CPW-fed monopole antenna has
been proposed, and a prototype antenna has been successfully
implemented and measured. The obtained results show that the
antenna achieves a circular polarization across a 33% fractional
bandwidth at the ISM and WLAN bands (5.15–7.1 GHz) using
the 3-dB axial ratio and 10-dB return loss as a reference.
Compared to other available circularly polarized antennas
operating at the ISM and WLAN (5 GHz) bands, this antenna
is the smallest prototype. Therefore, the proposed antenna is
an excellent candidate for applications such as short-range
wireless communications and navigational systems that require
compact antennas.
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