IPASJ International Journal of Electronics & Communication (IIJEC)

A Publisher for Research Motivatin........

Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2014

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJEC/IIJEC.htm Email: editoriijec@ipasj.org ISSN 2321-5984

Compact Electromagnetic Bandgap (EBG) Structure in Antenna Applications

P.Saleem Akram1, Dr.T.Venkata Ramana2
1

Associate Professor, Dept of ECE, Nalanda Institute of Engineering & Technology, Sattenapalli, AP, India. 2 Associate Professor, Dept of ECE, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, AP, India.

ABSTRACT
In this paper, a novel spiral shape EBG structure is presented. This new EBG structure is a mushroom-like lattice with each element consisting of an inserted spiral branch. A typical period of the EBG lattice is 4.8%0 at the desired bandgap frequency. Compared with the conventional mushroom-like EBG structure, simulations results are presented, that the area of the spiral EBG structure is less than 14% of the former. Especially, an even lower bandgap position can be achieved if the winding of spiral branch is farther increased. Also a double element microstrip antenna array inserted with the new EBG structure has been fabricated, showing a 4.93 dB mutual coupling reduction.

Key words Electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures, microstrip antenna arrays, mutual coupling, surface wave.

1. INTRODUCTION
The electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) surface, also referred to as a photonic bandgap (PBG) surface or a highimpedance surface, has attracted extensive studies in applying its bangap phenomena for practical uses both in the optical domain and microwave and millimeter-wave areas. And the temptation for creating novel compact EBG configuration has also attracted the efforts of many researchers internationally. This is because compactness is highly preferred in wireless communications. In practice, however, it is very difficult for early EBG structures to accommodate their physical sizes. Since the period of an EBG lattice has to be a half-wavelength at the stopband frequency, it is inconvenient for them to be integrated with circuits and antennas. The study of a mushroom-like EBG structure [1] changes this situation. The period of the EBG lattice dramatically approaches 10% of the free space wavelength. Compared to other EBG structures such as dielectric rods and holes, this structure has a winning feature of compactness [2]. The design of a fork-like EBG structure [3] makes another step towards compact EBG configurations. The period of the EBG lattice is reduced to 7% of the free space wavelength. This paper presents another compact EBG configuration, namely spiral EBG structure. Basically, it is an amelioration of the mushroom-like EBG. It consists of four parts: a ground plane, a dielectric substrate, connecting vias and square metal patches with inserted spiral branches. These spiral branches act as coplanar spiral inductors and introduce additional inductance to the equivalent LC circuit of the EBG surface. A significant improvement of compactness is observed and the measurement results are in good agreement with the FEM simulations. The Spiral EBG structure is then inserted between a two elements microstrip antenna array to reduce the mutual coupling, and a 4.93dB mutual coupling reduction is observed at the desired frequency. This paper demonstrates the advantages of the spiral EBG structure compared to the mushroom-like EBG structure. The advantage of compactness makes this new EBG structure a promising candidate in practical applications.

2. EBG STRUCTURE CONFIGURATION

The operation mechanism of EBG structure can be explained as a distributed LC network with specific resonant frequencies. The electromagnetic properties of the EBG unit cells can be described using lump-circuit elements capacitors and inductors, as shown in Figure.1. In the frequency range where the surface impedance is very high, the equivalent LC circuit acts as a two-dimensional electric filter to block the flow of the surface waves. The central frequency of the band gap is f0= 1/ 2 LC. The inductor L results from the current flowing through the vias, and the capacitor C due to the gap effect between the adjacent patches [2]. Thus, the approach to increase the inductance or capacitance will naturally result in the decrease of bandgap position. The schematic of the proposed spiral EBG structure is shown in Figure. 2(a). Gray parts in the figure represent the metallic patch printed using PCB technique on a dielectric substrate. Each element of this EBG lattice consists of a square metal patch with a spiral branch inserted inside, as shown in Figure. 2(b). The patch is connected to the solid lower ground plane by a metal plated via.

Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2014

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IPASJ International Journal of Electronics & Communication (IIJEC)

A Publisher for Research Motivatin........

Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2014

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJEC/IIJEC.htm Email: editoriijec@ipasj.org ISSN 2321-5984

Figure. 1. Equivalent lump-circuit elements of a typical EBG unit cells

Figure. 2. (a) Configuration of the Spiral EBG structure. (b) Details of one unit of the Spiral EBG lattice. Coplanar spiral inductor has been widely used in microwave circuits. In the spiral EBG structure, the spiral branch performs exactly as a coplanar spiral inductor. Additional inductance is introduced by the branch and cascaded with the inductance formed by the plated via. Furthermore, this structure is very easy to adjust the inductance amount by changing the windings of spiral branch. For example, increasing the windings, more inductance will be introduced and vice versa. Thus variation of the windings results in the tuning of the frequency bandgap position.

3. BAND GAP CHARACTERIZATION

A 3x3 spiral EBG patch array is designed in Ansoft HFSS version 13. The length of the square patch (W) is 6mm. The width of the spiral branch (D) is 0.6mm. The distance between the adjacent patches (G) is 0.4mm. The period of the lattice is W+G=6.4mm. The substrate thickness is 1mm and relative permittivity of 2.2. The method of suspended microstrip [4] is applied to measure the bandgap characterization of the spiral EBG structure. The simulated results are shown in Figure. 4. A distinctive stopband has been observed with the central frequency of 2.26GHz. The frequency range with S21 below -10dB extends from 2.07GHz to 2.34GHz. The period of the EBG lattice is 4.8%0 at the desired bandgap frequency. For comparison, a 3x3 mushroom-like EBG patch array fabricated on the same substrate with the same patch parameters has also been simulated. The simulated results are shown in Figure.3. The bangap position is observed on 6.28GHz. with the bandgap width 5.43GHz - 7.10GHz. By introducing the spiral branch, the bandgap position shifts down 4.02GHz. To achieve the same stopband frequency, a mushroom-like EBG array with much larger patch sizes should be fabricated.

Figure. 3. Simulated S21 of a 3x3 mushroom-like EBG patch array. The period of the EBG lattice is 6.4mm.

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IPASJ International Journal of Electronics & Communication (IIJEC)

A Publisher for Research Motivatin........

Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2014

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJEC/IIJEC.htm Email: editoriijec@ipasj.org ISSN 2321-5984

Figure. 4. Simulated S21 of a 3x3 mushroom-like EBG patch array. The period of the EBG lattice is 17.5mm. To verify this, another 3x3 mushroom-like EBG patch array fabricated on the same substrate has been simulated. The square patch size is 17mm with 0.5mm patch distance. The period of the lattice is 17.5mm. The simulated results are shown in Figure. 4. A stopband with central frequency 2.26GHz is observed, with the bandgap width 2.10GHz 2.42GHz. Considering the period of the spiral EBG lattice is 6.4mm, the area occupied by the spiral structure is less than 14% of the mushroom-like structure. To study the effect of different windings of the spiral branch, four EBG cases are simulated and their windings are 1, 1.5, 2 and 3, respectively. Other parameters such as the gap width, substrate permittivity, and patch size are kept the same as in the previous design.

Figure.5.Comparison of simulated results of spiral EBG structures with different windings of spiral branches (1,1.5, 2 and 3). Figure. 5 shows the simulated results. When the winding is increased, the frequency band gap dramatically decreases. For example, when there is only 1 round of spiral branch, the central frequency of the bandgap is 2.75GHz. When there are 3 rounds of spiral branch, the central frequency of the bandgap decreases to 1.20GHz. In this case, the period of the EBG lattice is 2.5%0 at the desired bandgap frequency. It can be seen that spiral EBG structure has an overwhelming feature of compactness.

4. REDUCTION OF MUTUAL COUPLING BETWEEN MICROSTRIP ANTENNAS

The generation of surface waves decreases the antenna efficiency and degrades the antenna pattern. Furthermore, it increases the mutual coupling of the antenna array which causes the blind angle of a scanning array. Since the EBG structure has already demonstrated its ability to suppress surface waves, three columns of spiral EBG patches are inserted between a microstrip antenna array to reduce the mutual coupling, as shown in Figure. 5. The thickness of the substrate is 1mm and the relative permittivity is 2.2. A two element microstrip antenna array is fabricated on the substrate. The antenna has two resonant frequencies, 2.31GHz and 2.38GHz. The spiral EBG is carefully designed to make the stopband cover the upper resonant frequency of the patch antennas.

Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2014

Page 8

IPASJ International Journal of Electronics & Communication (IIJEC)

A Publisher for Research Motivatin........

Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2014

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJEC/IIJEC.htm Email: editoriijec@ipasj.org ISSN 2321-5984

Figure. 6. Comparison of mutual coupling with and without spiral EBG structure. The experimental mutual coupling results are shown in Figure.6. The EBG structure has little influence on frequency points outside its bandgap. The lower resonant frequency is outside the stopband range and no significant mutual coupling reduction is observed. However, the upper resonant frequency falls in the stopband range and the mutual coupling decreases from -28.92dB to -33.85dB. A 4.93dB mutual coupling reduction is achieved, which proves that the surface wave is suppressed. This is proving capability of spiral EBG structure in reduce the mutual coupling.

5. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a novel compact spiral EBG structure. Simulations en performed. The results verify that the novel EBG structure has a winning feature of compactness. The typical period of the EBG lattice is only 4.8%0 at the bandgap frequency. The EBG structure is then inserted between the antenna elements to reduce the mutual coupling, and a 4.93dB mutual coupling reduction is observed at the desired frequency. This structure, with the advantages of compactness, will find attractive applications in various areas, such as compact antenna, surface wave suppression and antenna array utilities.

REFERENCES
[1] D. Sievenpiper, L. Zhang, R. F. J. Broas, N. G. Alexopolous, and E. Yablonovitch, High-impedance electromagnetic surfaces with a forbidden frequency band, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory & Tech., vol. 47, pp. 2059-2074, Nov. 1999. [2] F. Yang, and Y. Rahmat-Samii, Microstrip antennas integrated with electromagnetic band-gap structures: a low mutual coupling design for array applications, IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagation., vol. 51, pp. 2936-2946, Oct. 2003. [3] L. Yang, M. Y. Fan, F. L. Chen, J.Z. She, and Z. H. Feng, A novel compact Electromagnetic Bandgap structure and its applications for microwave circuits, in IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 183-190, Jan. 2005. [4] M. Y. Fan, R. Hu, Z.H. Feng, X. X. Zhang, and Q. Hao, Advance in 2D-EBG research, J Infrared Millimeter Waves., vol. 22, no. 2, 2003.

AUTHORS
Saleem Akram was born in India, A.P in 1984. He received M.Tech (Communication Engg) from VIT University, Vellore, India. He is a research scholar of GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, India. In the field of Antennas. Presently working as Associate. Professor, in Dept of ECE, Nalanda Institute of Engineering & Technology, Sattenapalli, A.P, INDIA. Dr. T. Venkata Ramana currently working as Associate Professor in ECE Dept. in GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, A.P, India. His research is Satellite Communications. His research topics are published in several National & International Journals.

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