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Liquid Crystal Bow-Tie Microstrip antenna for Wireless Communication

Applications

Article  in  JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY REVIEW · August 2011

DOI: 10.25103/jestr.042.03

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  Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Review 4 (2) (2011) 131-134

Research Article
JOURNAL OF
Engineering Science and
Technology Review

www.jestr.org

Liquid Crystal Bow-Tie Microstrip antenna for Wireless Communication Applications

B.T.P.Madhav1,*, VGKM Pisipati1, Habibulla Khan2, V.G.N.S Prasad2, K. Praveen Kumar3, KVL
Bhavani1 and M.Ravi Kumar4
1
Liquid Crystal Research Center, K L University, Guntur, AP, India
2
R&D, Mother Theresa Institute of Science and Technology, Sattupalli, India
3
Vani School of Engineering, Cheviture, India
4
Department of ECE, Sri Saradhi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Nuzvid, India

Received 19 February 2011; Revised 8 May 2011; Accepted 14 June 2011

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

In this paper we presented the design and analysis of Bow-Tie antenna on liquid crystal substrate, which is suitable for
the Bluetooth/WLAN-2.4/WiBree/ZigBee applications. The Omni-directional radiation patterns along with moderate
gain make the proposed antenna suitable for above mentioned applications. Details of the antenna design and simulated
results Return loss, Input impedance, Radiation Patterns, E-Field, H-Field and Current Distributions, VSWR are
presented and discussed. The proposed antenna is simulated at 2.4 GHz using Ansoft HFSS-11.

Keywords: Bow-tie, Microstrip, LC

__________________________________________________________________________________________

1. Introduction
1. Antenna Design
In recent years Microstrip antennas have been widely used
in both theoretical research and engineering applications Figure (1) shows the dimensions of the microstrip bow-tie
due to their light weight and thin profile configurations, antenna. „a‟ is the side length and „θ‟ is the angle of the
low cost of fabrication, reliability, conformal structure equilateral triangle. L1, L2, W1 and W2 are the
and ease of fabrication [1-2]. In this paper bow-tie is dimensions of the matching network [8-9].
designed at 2.4 GHz for wireless LAN applications. The
bow-tie patch actually is the combination of imaginary
image of two triangular patches which are fabricated on a
single substrate [3-4]. Bow-tie antennas are mostly used
in the communication scenario over the rectangular
patches due to their compact nature [5-6].
Liquid crystal material is used as substrate in this
proposed antenna designing. Liquid crystals are
anisotropic materials which show both the properties of a
crystal and a liquid. The nematic LCs are chosen for this
operation because they are having best dielectric
properties at microwave and mm-wave frequencies [7]. Fig. 1. Antenna Schematic
Liquid Crystals and Liquid crystal polymers are much
cheaper than other available
dielectric materials. They are Low cost, low weight (1)
materials and they have low dielectric constant (2.9-3.2
for f < 105GHz) and low loss tangent (0.002-0.0045 for f
< 105GHz). LCs have a unique property of low moisture
absorption (water absorption <0.004%). So in general LC
offers an excellent combination of electronic, thermal,
mechanical and chemical properties that make it as a (2)
promising substrate for electronics packaging [8].
The liquid crystal substrate material is used in the
making of this proposed antenna instead of RT-duroid [6].
The Liquid crystal substrate is having the dielectric Where:
constant of 2.97 and the loss tangent of 0.003.
131
______________
* E-mail address: madhav.mtech@gmail.com
ISSN: 1791-2377  2011 Kavala Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.
 B.T.P.Madhav, VGKM Pisipati, Habibulla Khan, V.G.N.S Prasad, K. Praveen Kumar, KVL Bhavani and M.Ravi Kumar/
Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Review 4 (2) (2011) 131-134

fr : is the resonance frequency

k mn : is the resonating modes The return loss of -14.45 and the VSWR 1.4669 is
obtained at 2.4 GHz from the simulated results. The input
c: is the velocity of light in free space impedance plot for the proposed antenna is shown in
α: is the side length of the bow-tie strip figure (5). The rms of 0.6760 and bandwidth of 1.9192 is
obtained from the results. The 3D gain is shown in the
When triangular resonator is surrounded by a perfect figure (6).
magnetic wall then this expression will be valid.
Figure (2) shows the HFSS generated bow-tie antenna Ansoft Corporation Input Impedance Bow_Tie_Antenna_ADKv1

with the specifications applied to the design. The inner 120

110
100 90
1.00
-1.00
80
70
60
Curve Info
S(1,1))
Setup1 : Sw eep1
rms

0.6760
bandw idth(1, 0)

1.9192

width is 1mm, outer width 18.8mm, arm length 17.1mm, 140

130
0.50
-2.00 -0.50
2.00
50
40

gap port length 1mm, substrate thickness 1.58mm, 150

160 -5.00
30

0.20 5.00 20
-0.20
substrate dimension along x-axis 40mm, substrate 170 10

dimension along y-axis 60mm. The bows are connected to 180 0.00
-0.00
0.20
5.00 0.50
2.00 1.00 0.50
2.00 5.00
0.20
0.00 0
0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80-0.00

the microstrip feedline and the ground plane through a -170

-160 5.00
-0.20 -5.00
0.20 -20
-10

stub and mitered transition to match the bow-tie with the -150 -30

50 Ω feedline. -140
-130
-0.50
2.00 -2.00
0.50
-50
-40

-120 -60
-110 -1.00
1.00 -70
-100 -90 -80

Fig. 5. Input impedance

Fig. 6. 3D gain
Fig. 2. The HFSS generated bow-tie antenna

The co-polarized (EФ) and cross-polarized (Eθ) far-

3. Results and Discussion field radiation patterns for the proposed antenna is
computed at 2.4 GHz. Figure (7) shows the radiation
The return loss and VSWR are computed using Ansoft patterns of the bow-tie antennas.
HFSS and they are shown in figure (3) and figure (4).
Ansoft Corporation Radiation Pattern 4 Patch_Antenna_ADKv1

0 Curve Info
Ansoft
NameCorporation
X Y Return Loss Bow_Tie_Antenna_ADKv1
dB(GainTotal)
0.00
m1 m1
1.0000 -0.0872 -30 30
Curve Info Setup1 : LastAdaptive
4.00
m2 2.3650 -14.4582 Phi='0deg'
dB(S(1,1))
Setup1 : Sw eep1 dB(GainTotal)
-2.00
Setup1 : LastAdaptive
-60 60
Phi='90.0000000000002deg'
-8.00

-5.00 -14.00

-90 90
dB(S(1,1))

-10.00
-120 120

-150 150
-180
m2
-15.00
1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50
Freq [GHz]

Fig. 3. Return Loss

Ansoft Corporation Radiation Pattern 5 Patch_Antenna_ADKv1

0 Curve Info
dB(GainPhi)
-30 30
Setup1 : LastAdaptive
0.00
Ansoft Corporation XY Plot 1 Bow_Tie_Antenna_ADKv1 Phi='0deg'
Name mX1 Y dB(GainPhi)
200.00 -20.00
Curve Info Setup1 : LastAdaptive
m1 1.0000 199.3195 -60 60
VSWR(p1) Phi='90.0000000000002deg'
m2 2.3650 1.4669 -40.00
Setup1 : Sw eep1

-60.00
150.00
-90 90
VSWR(p1)

100.00
-120 120

-150 150
50.00
-180

m2
0.00
1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50
Freq [GHz]

Fig. 4. VSWR
132
 B.T.P.Madhav, VGKM Pisipati, Habibulla Khan, V.G.N.S Prasad, K. Praveen Kumar, KVL Bhavani and M.Ravi Kumar/
Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Review 4 (2) (2011) 131-134
Ansoft Corporation Radiation Pattern 6 Bow_Tie_Antenna_ADKv1

0 Curve Info max min pk2pk avg

-30
-6.00
30 dB(GainTheta)
Setup1 : LastAdaptive
Phi='0deg'
-47.23 -65.47 18.24 -53.73 4. Field Distribution
dB(GainTheta)
-22.00
Setup1 : LastAdaptive 2.24 -25.22 27.45 -4.08
-60 60
Phi='90.0000000000002deg'
-38.00
The 3D field distribution plots give the relationship
-54.00

-90 90
between the co-polarization (desired) and cross-
polarization (undesired) components. Moreover it gives a
clear picture as to the nature of polarization of the fields
-120 120
propagating through the patch antenna. Figure (10) and
-150 150 (11) clearly shows the microstrip bow-tie antenna E-field
-180

Fig. 7. Gain-total, gain phi, gain theta and H-field distribution.

Fig. 10. E-Field Distribution

Fig. 8. Gain-Theta

Fig. 11. H-Field Distribution

Mesh generation is the practice of generating a

polygonal or polyhedral mesh that approximates a
Fig. 9. Gain – Phi geometric domain to the highest possible degree of
accuracy. The term "grid generation" is often used
interchangeably. Typical uses are for rendering to a
The radiation patterns give the good agreement computer screen or for physical simulation such as finite
between the simulated and the measured results. 3D element analysis or computational fluid dynamics. The
radiation pattern results for the proposed antenna using triangulated zones in the mesh shown in figure (12)
concerto software is given in the figure (8) and figure (9). indicate the points in the grid where the current
The antenna parameters are simulated from the HFSS are distributed is concentrated.
listed and shown in table (1).

Table 1. Antenna Parameters

Quantity Value
Max U 0.12471 w/sr
Peak directivity 1.669
Peak gain 1.6731
Peak realized gain 1.5672

Radiated power 0.939 w

Accepted power 0.93675 w
Incident power 1 w
Radiation efficiency 1.0024
Front to back ratio 1.0308 Fig. 12. Mesh Generation

133
 B.T.P.Madhav, VGKM Pisipati, Habibulla Khan, V.G.N.S Prasad, K. Praveen Kumar, KVL Bhavani and M.Ravi Kumar/
Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Review 4 (2) (2011) 131-134
S-parameters are calculated from the average current
distribution of the cross section, and thus the exact current
distribution is not required to be precise.
5. Conclusions
Experimental implementation of this work involves the
LC dielectric characterization at microwave frequencies,
which has been investigated. The measured parameters
were also in good agreement with the simulated results.
The results shown here demonstrate the applicability of
Liquid crystals for the development of low-cost,
lightweight antennas on “all-package” solution for future
wireless communication and remote sensing systems. The
investigation has been limited mostly to theoretical study
______________________________
References
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John Wiley & Sons Inc. 2nd edition. 1997.
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3. Rahim, M.K.A. Abdul Aziz, M.Z.A.,Goh, C.S, “Bow-tie
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134
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due to lack of distributive computing platform. Detailed
experimental studies can be taken up at a later stage to
find out a design procedure for balanced amplifying
antennas.
Ackmowledgement
The authors B.T.P.Madhav, Prof.VGKM Pisipati and
Prof. Habibulla Khan express their thanks to the
management of K L University and Department of
Electronics and Communication Engineering for their
support. Further, VGKM Pisipati acknowledges the
financial support of Department of Science and
Technology through the grant No.SR/S2/CMP-0071/2008.
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