2014 IEEE International Conference Power & Energy (PECON)

A Modified Dipole Quasi-Yagi Antenna to increase

Directivity and Gain for WLAN Application
Goh Tian Hock, Goh Chin Hock, Sura Fawzi Ghafil, Chandan Chakrabarty, Rafidah Ismail
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
University Tenaga Nasional, Putrajaya Campus, Kajang 42300 Malaysia.

Abstract— WLAN network is the most popular wireless

network used for various electronic devices to exchange data.
Electronic devices such as smart phone, laptop, printer, digital
camera and smart TV are using the Wi-Fi antenna to exchange
data wirelessly. However most of the Wi-Fi antenna is isotropic
antennas which transmit and receive Wi-Fi signal
omnidirectional. According to current IEEE 802.11n standard,
omnidirectional Wi-Fi antenna has limitation to reach 250m
maximum due to its low directivity. In this paper, a Quasi-Yagi
antenna has been built to enhance antenna gain and directivity.

Keywords—WLAN; Wi-Fi: omnidirectional; Quasi-Yagi;

802.11n.

I. INTRODUCTION
The Yagi-Uda antenna, first published in an English
language journal in 1928 [1], has been used extensively as an
end-fire antenna. However, only limited success has been
achieved at adapting this antenna to microwave/millimeter Fig. 1. Photograph of Quasi-Yagi antenna (front plane)
wave operation. Several interesting approaches for this are a
microstrip Yagi array based on the microstrip patch antenna
[2], and a broadband Quasi-Yagi antenna for WIFI and WiMax
application [3].
In this paper, we present a Quasi-Yagi antenna to enhance
antenna gain and directivity. For this Quasi-Yagi antenna,
dipole driven element technique is used to improve the antenna
directivity. Meandered design technique applies to the antenna
in order to miniature the size of antenna. Perfect isotropic
antenna has gain value of 1. Antenna that has gain greater than
1 is considered high gain and directional antenna.

II. QUASI YAGI ANTENNA

To achieve the Quasi-Yagi antenna design objective, dipole
driven design is chosen due to the driver dipole element is
wound to reduce the antenna size[4]. The dipole driver concept
in Quasi-Yagi antenna refers to the antenna structure that
Fig. 2. Photograph of Quasi-Yagi antenna (back plane)
consists of driver element at the front and ground plane. In this
dipole driver designs, it can further increase the directivity of
the Quasi-Yagi antenna.
Figure 1 and Figure 2 both show the design of the Quasi-
Yagi antenna on the front and ground plane. The parameter of
the Quasi-Yagi antenna is shown in Figure 3-4. Table 1 show
the parameter length of each antenna element.

978-1-4799-7297-5/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 222

 2014 IEEE International Conference Power & Energy (PECON)

TABLE I. PARAMETER LENGTH

Part Length(mm)
L1 4
L2 5.3
L3 28
L4 37.3
Ldir 2
Ldri 2.5
Lmdr 6
Lref 1
W1 5
W2 20
Fig. 3. Parameter for Quasi-Yagi antenna (front plane) W3 3
W4 3
Wdir 25
Wdri 6.2
Wmdr 4

III. MEANDERED DESIGN

The meandered dipole can substantially increase to the
front-to-back ratio of the antenna without sacrificing the
operating bandwidth [5]. Meandered design at the driver side is
used in order to minimize the antenna design to fit into the PD
detection counter system. In order to find the accurate antenna
design[6], investigation on the effects of dimension changes to
the meander driven element has been done using the parameter
sweeping process. The parameter of the meander driver parts
are horizontal length (Wmdr) and vertical length (Lmdr).
In this paper, parameter sweeping process is done using
CST microwave Studio simulation software. This software can
simulate the return loss and smith chart.

Fig. 4. Parameter for Quasi-Yagi antenna (back plane)

Fig. 5. Parameters sweeping

223
 2014 IEEE International Conference Power & Energy (PECON)

Fig. 6. Simulation result for reflection coefficient

Fig. 5. Parameters sweeping (zoom in)

TABLE II. PARAMETER SWEEPING PARAMETER

Fig. 7. Measurement result for reflection coefficient

From fig. 6 and fig. 7, conclusion made that measurement

result is much better than simulation result. The reflection
coefficient result from measurement is -47.802dB which is
very good for a Quasi-Yagi antenna. Hence, the graph of
comparison between simulated result and measured result is
According to Figure 5, the parameter sweeping for drawn.
meandered design that best match in 2.4GHz is combination 1
which has Lmdr of 6mm and Wmdr of 4mm. At this
combination, return loss value for the antenna is -24dB.
1.4 1.9 2.4 2.9 3.4
Frequency, GHz
0
IV. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULT
S11, dB

Simulation using CST Microwave Studio simulation tools -20

has been done to get the reflection coefficient and smith chart
value. For the antenna measurement, Advantest R3767CG
Network Analyzer is using which has a frequency range of 300 Measured
-40 S11
KHz to 8 GHz. This network analyzer can measure and output
antenna coefficient precisely. Figure below show the results. Simulated
-60 S11

Fig. 8. Comparison of simulated and measured reflection

coefficient

224
 2014 IEEE International Conference Power & Energy (PECON)

TABLE III. SMITH CHART RESULT

Frequency Type Impedance value (Z)

Lower cut-off frequency 27.828 + j0.961
Center frequency 59.737 + j6.235
Upper cut-off frequency 47.862 – j33.070
Input Impedance 54.6 Ohm

Fig. 9: 3-D Far field radio wave radiation

Fig. 12: 2-D Far field radio wave radiation with gain
According to gain simulation result in fig. 12, the gain
value for Quasi-Yagi is 2.901. Any antenna has gain value
greater than 1 is considering a directional antenna.

Fig. 10: 2-D Far field radio wave radiation
V. CONCLUSION
Conclusion, objective of this paper achieved. The gain of
the antenna is increased from 1 to 2.901. As the gain of the
antenna increase, directivity of the antenna also increases. This
Quasi-Yagi antenna now radiates the Wi-Fi signal in one
direction.
REFERENCES

Fig. 11: Smith chart result for center frequency, lower cut-off
frequency and upper cut-off frequency
[1] H. Yagi, “Beam transmission of the ultra short waves,” Proc. IRE, vol.
16, pp. 715-741,June, 1928.
[2] J.Huang and A. C. Densmore, “Microstrips Yagi array antenna for
mobile satellite vehicle application,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat.,
vol. 39, pp. 1024-1030, July 1991.
[3] A. E. S. A. Jean-Marie Floc'h, "Broadband Quasi-Yagi Antenna for
WiFi and WiMax Applications," Wireless Engineering and Technology,
vol. 4, p. 5, 2013.
[4] W. Sung-Jung, K. Cheng-Hung, C. Keng-Hsien, and T. Jenn-Hwan, "A
Multiband Quasi-Yagi Type Antenna," Antennas and Propagation,
IEEE Transactions on, vol. 58, pp. 593-596, 2010.
[5] M. Tzyh-Ghuang, W. Chao-Wei, H. Ren-Ching, and T. Jyh-Woei, "A
Modified Quasi-Yagi Antenna With a New Compact Microstrip-to-
Coplanar Strip Transition Using Artificial Transmission Lines,"
Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 57, pp. 2469-
2474, 2009.
[6] D. Misman, I. A. Salamat, M. F. A. Kadir, M. R. C. Rose, M. S. R.
Shah, M. Z. A. Aziz, et al., "The effect of conductor line to meander line
antenna design," in Antennas and Propagation Conference, 2008. LAPC
2008. Loughborough, 2008, pp. 441-4

225