0 IEE 1995 I O Februarr 1995

Electronics Letters Online N o ’ 19950440

H. Nakano and H. Mimaki (College qf Engineering, Ho.sei Universitj,,

,**
Koganei, Tokyo 184, Japan)

References

I NAKANII. H , YAMAUCHI. I , and M I M A K I . H : ’Backfire radiation from

a monofilar helix with a small ground plane‘, IEEE Trana., 19x8.
AP-10, pp. 1359-1364
. 2 KING. H , and WONG, I : ‘Characteristics of 1 to 8 wa\elength
uniform helical antenna’. /BEE Trans, 1980. AP-28, pp. 291 296
3 CRAMPTON, P w : ‘Performance and design of integrated double
helix antennas’. Proc. IEE-ICAP83. 1983. pp. 163-167 shorting post

Small microstrip patch antenna
R. Waterhouse
Inde.mg term. Microsrrip antewia. Anrennns
A novel small microstrip patch antenna is presented. Thc probe-
fed circular microstrip patch incorporates a single shorting poi!
which significantly reduces the overall size of the Antenna
Experimental and theoretical impedance behaviour and radiation
charactenstics of the modified patch are given. Very good
agreement between experiment and theory was achieved
Introduction A common technique to reduce the overall size of a
microstrip patch antenna is to terminate one of the radiating edges
with a short circuit [I]. The short circuit can be in the form of a
metal clamp or a series of shorting posts. These modified patches
are approximately a quarter-wavelength in length and generally
have a broader beamwidth compared to conventionally sized
patches [I]. Recently, it was shown that by changing the number
of shorting posts and the relative position of these posts, the reso-
nance frequency of the short-circuited microstrip patch can be
adjusted [Z]. In fact, by reducing the number of shorting posts the
resonance frequency of the modified patch can be reduced. Thus
for a set resonance frequencies, a significantly smaller element can
be achieved using this technique compared to conventional micro-
strip patches.
In this Letter we present an electrically small circular microstrip
probe-fed patch antenna. Here a single shorting post is incorpo-
rated in the design, resulting in the diameter of the radiating ele-
ment being significantly reduced, to less than 0.1 &, (where & is
the free space wavelength). Because the position of the probe feed
with respect to the shorting post significantly effects thc input
impedance of this antenna, a rigorous full-wave analysis IS used to
accurately predict the input impedance of the modified patch. This
analysis incorporates attachment modes to accurately model the
currents through both the feed and the shorting post. A compari-
son between the theoretical return loss and experiment is given
and the far-field radiation characteristics of the small patch
antenna are also presented. Comparisons of these parameters with
a conventional circular patch mounted on the same substrate are
given such that the merits and disadvantages of the modified
patch can be established.
Antennu and theorp: Fig. I shows a probe-fed circular microstrip
patch antenna incorporating a shorting post. Here the patch of
radius R is mounted on a substrate of thickness d and with a
dielectric constant E,. The coaxial probe feed of radius ru and the
shorting post of radius ro, are located at (x,, ,y,J and (x,,,, yl,J from
the centre of the patch, respectively.
To accurately predict the impedance behaviour and the rddia-
tion characteristics of the modified probe-fed circular patch shown
in Fig. I , the spectral domain electric field integral equation tech-
nique presented in [3] was implemented. Here exact Green func-
tions for the grounded dielectric substrate are incorporated and a
Galerkin form of the method of moments is used to determine the
unknown current coefficients of the impedance matrix. Once these
IEZE
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of probe-fed circular microstrip patch
untenna w t h single shorting post
coefficients have been solved for, the input impedance and other
related properties of the modified patch can be determined (see [3,
41 for details). Two special attachment modes [4] are used in the
analysis, one to accurately model the discontinuity between the
feed and patch conductors and the other to model the discontinu-
ity between the shorting post and patch conductors. As was shown
in [2], the size of the shorting post and the relative positions of the
posts affect the input impedance behaviour of the modified patch.
By using these attachment modes, the coupling between the short-
ing post and coaxial feed is accurately modelled and the radius of
these conductors is also accounted for.
De.~rxnand erperimenr. As was evident in [2]. although reducing
the number of shorting posts effectively reduces the size of the
patch, the input impedance at resonance becomes significantly
larger. This is indeed the case when using a single shorting post. It
w’as found, using the analysis outlined in the preceding section,
that to reduce the input impedance at resonance to close to 50 R,
very small conductors for both the coaxial feed and the shorting
post must be used and also these conductors must he located in
close proximity. In the design of the probe-fed circular microstrip
patch with a single shorting post, the short circuit was moved
slightly away from the patch conductor edge. The reasons for
doing so were to ease the tolerances on the etching of the patch as
well as to reduce the likelihood of exciting higher-order modes in
the vicinity of the post.
~-
-7
151 153 1 55 I 51
frequency, GHz rn
Fig. 2 Predicted and measured retnrn loss of.shorted microstrip patch
Parameters :&, = 4.81, tan6 = 0.015, d = 1.524mrn, R = Y.IYmm, rp =
6.2mm,?, = 0, xn, = 7.0mm. ys, = 0, ru = 0.lmm. r,), = 0.3mm
experiment
theory
Fig. 2 shows the predicted return loss of the probe-fed circular
microstrip patch with a single shorting post and the measured
return loss using a Wiltron 3608 network analyser (refer to the
Figure caption for the relevant dimensions). As can be seen from
this graph, very good agreement between theory and experiment
was achieved, with an error in the predicted minimum return loss

604 ELECTRONICS LETTERS 13th April 1995 Vol. 37 No. 8

Authorized licensed use limited to: DELHI TECHNICAL UNIV. Downloaded on March 12,2020 at 06:54:48 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 frequency of less than 0.2%. The radius of this modified circular
patch is 9.19mm, -0.0475. This compares with a conventional cir-
cular patch (mounted on the same substrate and designed to reso-
nate at the same frequency) with a radius of 27.lmm (R = 0.145).
The significant reduction in size is obtained, however, at the cost
of reduced bandwidth. Once again, for a conventional circular
microstrip patch the predicted l0dB return loss bandwidth is
1.8%,, compared to 1.2% for the single shorting post antenna. This
reduction is expected. as the bandwidth of a microstrip patch
antenna is related to the electrical volume of the radiator.
- 1 2 1
-72 -54 -36
0 18-18 36 54 72
e .deg m
Fig. 3 Memured and predicted f~irlfkldriidiation patterns
Experiment Theor)
- ~~ ~-~ ~ E-plane
~- - ~ - H-plane
Fig. 3 shows the measured E- and H-plane far-field radiation
patterns of the shorted circular microstrip patch antenna. These
are consistent with the predicted patterns (also shown in this
Figure) and the fields expected for a shorted microstrip patch [I].
The predicted directivity of the shorted patch is 2.9dB compared
to 4.0 dB for a conventional circular patch etched on the same
substrate. Once again. this can be attributed to the smaller size of
the shorted element, which is also consistent with the broader 3dB
beamwidth expected [I].
A theoretical comparison of' the crosspolarisation levels for the
shorted patch and a conventional circular patch was made using
the analysis outlined previously. The H-plane crosspolarisation
level for the shorted patch is approximately 14dB greater than for
the conventional circular patch antenna for all angles. This is due
to the increased likelihood of exciting modes which contribute to
the crosspolar fields as a result of the discontinuity on the patch
conductor associated with the shorting post. The predicted E-
plane crosspolarisation levels for both patches were less than
~70dBfor all angles.
Conclusions: A novel small microstrip patch antenna has been
analysed, constructed and teated. The probe-fed circular micros-
trip patch with a single shorting post is significantly smaller in size
than conventional microstrip patch antennas and is thus suitable
for applications where limited antenna real estate is available. The
performance of the antenna was accurately predicted using a rig-
orous full-wave analysis.
0 IEE 1995 21 February 1995
Elec'lecrroni<s Letters Online N o : IYYN426
R. Waterhouse (Depirrrment (fl Communicarion and Electronic
Engineering. Royal Melbourne Institere (f Technology, Melbourne, VIC
3000. Australia)
References
I JOHNSON, R.c., and JASIK. H (Eds.): 'Antenna engineering
handbook' (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1984)
2 SANAD. M.: 'Effect of the shorting posts on short circuit microstrip
antennas'. Proc. IEEE Antenna Propagat. Symp.. 1994, pp. 79&
797
3 WATERHOUSE. R.B : Theoretical investigation of the effects of
substrate parametera in the performance of diode loaded microstrip
patches'. Proc. IEEE Antenna Propagat. Symp., 1994, pp. 7%793
4 ABERLE. JT., and POZAR, D M.: 'Accurate and versatile SolUtiOtIs for
probe-fed microstrip patch antennas and arrays', Electromagnetics.
1991, 11, pp. 1-19
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 13th April 1995
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Modified Berlekamp-Massey algorithm for
two-sided shift-register synthesis
M. Fleischmann
Indexing rerms: Shill regisrers, Algorithms
A modification of the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm (BMA) for
linear feedback shift-register (LFSR) synthesis is presented. The
algorithm realises a two-sided strategy for processing the digits of
a given sequence, starting with an arbitrary index. Finally, some
applications are indicated.
Introduction: Massey introduced in [3] an algorithm for calculating
the shortest LFSR which generates a given finite sequence of digits
S,,, SI,..., S, ,. In [3] the synthesising process is one-sided and a
definite beginning or end o f the sequence is needed. However,
some applications may be imagined where prior knowledge of nei-
ther a sequence border nor the size of the sequence are available.
As a result, the algorithm has to start somewhere within the
sequence, and has to develop the LFSR using a two-sided synthe-
I sising process. To define the problem, the cutting of a sequence of
digits is given as
.... S~,,-.....S~1.S",S,.....SN-l.... (1)
The goal is to find the shortest LFSR with the connection poly-
nomial C ( x ) = 1 + C , x +...+ CLxL which generates the given
sequence cutting such that
V=l
The components of the sequence and the coefficients of C(.r)
should he members of the same field, which can be either finite or
infinite. Without loss of generality we assume So to be the starting
point of the two-sided synthesising algorithm. Besides the length L
of the LFSR, the sequence length determined by 2 N is assumed
not to be known a priori at the very beginning of the algorithm.
; (-1tdx) I
i intermediate result
I I t
Fig. 1 Two-sided strategy of procecsing further components of a given
sequence S nshile developing the LFSR from length li" to length N+'I
Two-sided LFSR synthesising algorithm: Fig. 1 illustrates the
processing of the components of a sequence by the modified
BMA. After each change of the length I of the current shift-regis-
ter structure, further components on both sides of the generated
part of the sequence have to be considered for the following cor-
rection steps. Therefore, the well known correction equation of the
conventional BMA (see eqn. 14 in [3])
(J)C,q(Z)= ' W ( J ) - (6)AZX '%?(s) (3)
is generalised by a left superscript 6, which denotes the direction
of processing (increasing index of the sequence components: 6 =
+ I ; decreasing index: 6 = -1). The generalised correction step
(eqn. 3) can he employed because an LFSR '"'C(X) generating a
sequence of components with increasing index can be reversed
resulting in an LFSR ( '~C(X)generating the components with
decreasing index. If '+"C(s)is given by
(+I)C(Z) = 1+'+')Cis+ ...+'+')C~-1Z:"+(+')C,2' (4)
the reversal of the LFSR (( W(X):t"IC(x)) is obtained by calcu-
lating 1 "C(x)as follows [ I , 41:
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