SYNOPSIS OF THE DISSERTATION On MICROSTRIP ANTENNA GAIN IMPROVEMENT USING SUBSTRATE CAVITY Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement

for the award of the degree of MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY in ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Submitted by Rajeev Kumar

Under the guidance of Mr. Lakhvinder Singh Solanki

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING SANT LONGOWAL INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY LONGOWAL (PUNJAB) (Deemed University) NOV, 2012

INTRODUCTION Microstrip antennas have a variety of applications in widespread wireless communication system. In microwave and even millimeter-wave frequency ranges microstrip antenna has become an attractive tool, because of the advantages like; it is very compact size, light and low cost. It can be interconnected with other RF components neatly and require less space in a component configuration. It is also easy to be fabricated on the planar type substrate as antenna component and also it is convenient to change the shape of patch antenna for the purpose in limited space case by case. Hence, in many papers lots of modified types of microstrip antennas have been suggested [1]. However, microstrip patch antennas suffer from a number of disadvantages as compared to conventional non printed antennas. Some of their major drawbacks are the narrow bandwidth, low gain, and surface wave excitation that reduce radiation efficiency [6]. However, three types of losses ie. conductor loss, dielectric loss and surface wave loss results in lower gain of a patch antenna. The conductor loss and the dielectric loss depend on the quality of the materials being used such as copper or gold, and the substrate, respectively. The dielectric loss is dependent on the loss tangent of materials and substrate thickness while the surface wave loss depends on the permittivity of materials and the substrate thickness [2]. Multiple techniques have been proposed to address the for mentioned bandwidth limitation. The simplest one is to use a thick substrate that potentially could enhance the bandwidth to 20% upon using substrate as discussed in [4]. However that would degrade the antenna efficiency due to undesired surface wave excitation [5]. There have been quite a few reported methods on how to suppress the losses, specifically caused by severe surface waves. The use of high impedance surfaces around patch antennas has been applied but with the increased size of antenna arrays. Appropriate quality of conductor and substrate can reduce the conductor and dielectric losses in Microstrip antenna, the gain of the patch antenna can further be enhanced by suppressing surface waves. Another easy method is to replace the substrate of patch antennas with air. But it becomes bulky, so another method is to form cavity in substrate. Which replace substrate with lower dielectric constant i.e. air (dielectric constant: 1). Here we have lots of option to improve antenna gain.

LITERATURE REVIEW Many of the researches have carried out their work in the field and some important research papers have been used for literature review. In 2012, Manidipa Nath [7], planar antenna structure is presented and evaluated in terms of return loss. The SiO2 material was used to get better performance in terms of return loss bandwidth and radiation pattern. Antenna performance with different low dielectric constant material is under investigation. In Sep 2010, Siew Bee et al. [1], the effects of partial substrate removal on the gain of microstrip patch antennas have been investigated numerically and validated experimentally. Roger 6006 with dielectric constant r = 6.15 and loss tangent of 0.0027 has been used having substrate thickness h = 8.9 mm. It has been seen that by suppressing surface waves and reducing dielectric loss, the gain of the microstrip patch antenna, especially with high permittivity has been improved up to 2.42.7 dB. In 2007, Matekovits et al. [8], the dielectric constant of substrate is modified sinusoidally and modified gain is calculated. By repeating periodically the structure in the orthogonal direction, a high-impedance surface is obtained. Results in improved gain then conventional microstrip antenna but not defined properly. In Sep 2011, Siew Bee et al. [2], presented the paper in which the gain of low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) patch antenna arrays operating at 60 GHz is enhanced by introducing open air cavities around their radiating patches. Compared with the conventional patch antenna arrays without any open air cavity, such suppression of the surface waves have increased the gain up to 2.8 dB over the band of 5764 GHz. In July 2012, By Ke Wu et al. [3], in this paper millimeter-wave and terahertz antennas are discussed. First, comparisons and discussions are presented among the state-of-the art millimeter-wave and terahertz antenna technologies with emphasis on conventional techniques. The paper concludes that metallic-based antennas such as SIW could easily be used up to one terahertz while dielectric-based techniques such as SIIG and SINRD can be deployed to up-terahertz frequency ranges. In 1986, E. Chang et al. [4], this paper investigate the electromagnetic properties of electrically thick rectangular microstrip antennas by varying the thickness of dielectric. It was observed that the bandwidth is increased by 20% as thick dielectric substrate is used. In 2012, R. C. Hadarig et al. [6], in this Paper Bandwidth enhancement of microstrip patch antenna in 2.48GHz band have been presented. Two different structures (AMC/EBG) have been combined with the same microstrip patch antenna in order to

characterize their joint performance. But there is shift in bandwidth which is not compensated in the paper. In April 2011, Awida et .al [9], this paper Explain about Surface integrated Wave guide (SIW) technology that offers low-cost integrated cavity-backed patch antenna structures using the standard PCB fabrication process. The proposed SIW cavity-backed arrays consist of a stack of two substrates: the top substrate for the patches and microstrip feed network and the bottom one for the SIW cavities. This also results in bandwidth enhancement. In 2002, Kamil Agi et al. [10], in this paper the effects of a two-dimensional (2-D) electromagnetic bandgap substrate on the performance of a microstrip patch antenna are investigated. The presence of the defect can increase the radiated power due to the energy storage under the antenna results in improved gain. In 2010, Awida et al. [11], this paper proposed SIW cavity-backed topology for a bandwidth enhancement where it could widen the inherent limited bandwidth of the conventional patch (typically 2%) to about 10%. The proposed patch/slot antenna element is comprised of only a single substrate where SIW cavity is implemented to emulate the conventional metalized cavities to back and surround the patch printed on the top layer. Experimental prototype has demonstrated fractional bandwidth of 9% and realized gain of 8dBi.

DISCUSSION & GAPS In Paper [1], substrate is partially removed around the patch; hence the gain has been improved up to 2.4dB. In paper [7], complete substrate is removed in between patch and ground, this makes antenna sophisticated and; this project will remove substrate between patch and ground as a cavity in slotted form, so that to minimize dielectric constant between the patch and ground and hence gain will improve above 2.4 dB. Another paper [9] SIW technology is used; this paper will interface both substrate removal and SIW for further gain improvement.

OBJECTIVES

The main objective of the present work is to simulate and perform comparative analysis of effect of dielectric during modification of substrate in patch antenna. Main objectives of thesis are: 1 To design & implement microstrip patch antenna with uniform dielectric substrate. 2 To design & implement microstrip patch antenna with modified dielectric substrate by forming cavity. 3 To design & implement microstrip patch antenna with modified dielectric substrate by forming cavity in substrate in different patterns. PROBLEM FORMULATION AND METHODOLOGY The first step in the design is to specify the dimensions of a single microstrip patch antenna. The patch conductor can be assumed of any shape, but here conventional rectangular patch antenna will be used to simplify the analysis and performance results. A microstrip inset feed will be use in this design. Patch dimensions will be designed as per transmission line model. The width & the length of rectangular patch can be calculated according to specified information that includes the dielectric constant of substrate ( r), the resonant frequency (fr), and the height of substrate h. Width of Patch = =
2 0

Effective dielectric constant for W/h>1 + 1 1 1/2 1 + 12 + 2 2

2. 1

+1

where 0 is free space velocity of light.

Effective length Leff =

The extended incremental length of patch L + 0.3 + 0.264 = 0.412 0.258 + 0.8 = 2 Where is wave length of resonance frequency.
2

Actual length of patch L

The feed length and feed width of inset fed patch can be determine with the help of optometrics tool of High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). Second step is to design cavity in substrate by replacing some substrate material through either air or any other dielectric material. At this stage the mixed substrate can be equivalent to homogeneous dielectric layer. The relative dielectric constant of equivalent substrate is given below [12]. =
=1 1

Where hn, respectively.

rn

is thickness and relative dielectric constant of nth dielectric layer

.
=1

The thickness of equivalent substrate is [12]. =

=1

The design and estimation of the parameters of a Microstrip patch antenna is generally complex and requires detailed mathematical approach for full-wave analysis. HFSS is one of the most powerful electromagnetic simulation software for antenna design. HFSS is a full-wave, finite element method based electromagnetic simulator solving the current distribution on 3D and multilayer structures of general shape. It has been widely used in the design of microwave/mm-wave circuits, patch antennas, wire antennas, and other RF/wireless antennas. REFERENCES [1] Siew Bee Yeap, Zhi Ning Chen , Microstrip Patch Antennas With Enhanced Gain by Partial Substrate Removal, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 58, no. 09, pp. 2811-2817, Sep 2010. [2] Siew Bee Yeap, Zhi Ning Chen , Gain-Enhanced 60-GHz LTCC Antenna Array With Open Air Cavities, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 59, no. 09, pp. 34703473, Sep 2011. [3] Ke Wu, Yu Jian Cheng, Tarek Djerafi, and Wei Hong, Substrate-Integrated

Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Antenna Technology, proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 100,No7, july 2012.

[4] E. Chang, S. A. Long, and W. F. Richards, An experimental investigation of electrically thick rectangular microstrip antennas, IEEE Transactions on antennas and propagation, vol. 34, pp. 767772, Jun. 1986. [5] D. M. Pozar, Microstrip antennas, Proc. IEEE, vol. 80, pp. 7991, Jan. 1992. [6] R. C. Hadarig, M. E. de Cos, and F. Las-Heras, Microstrip Patch Antenna Bandwidth Enhancement Using AMC/EBG Structures. International Journal of Antennas and Propagation, Article ID 843754, Volume 2012. [7] Manidipa Nath, Wideband Micromachined Patch Antenna, International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering &Technology (IJSRET) Volume 1, Issue2, pp 016-017, May. 2012. [8] Matekovits, L.; Colome, G.C.V.; Orefice Mario, Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in a Sinusoidally Modulated Dielectric Substrate, IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters, vol. 6, 2007. [9] Awida, M.H., Suleiman, S.F., Fathy, A.E.: Substrate-integrated cavity backed patch arrays: a low-cost approach for bandwidth enhancement, IEEE Transactions on antennas and propagation, 2011, 59, pp. 11551163. [10] Kamil Agi, Mohammad Mojahedi, Babar Minhas, Edl Schamiloglu, and Kevin J. Malloy, The Effects of an Electromagnetic Crystal Substrate on a Microstrip Patch Antenna, IEEE Transactions on antennas and propagation, VOL. 50, NO. 4, april 2002. [11] Awida, M.H., Elkhouly, E., Fathy, A.E.: Low-cost high-efficiency substrate integrated cavity-backed single element antenna. APS Conf.,Toronto, July 2010. [12] Wu. Pan, Shou-zhang, and Wu Yan Chen, Micromachined Patch Antennas on Synthesized Substrates, International Conference on Mirowave and Milimeter Wave Technology Proceedings 2004, pp.58- 61.