COMNETSAT 2014

Aperture Coupled Microstrip Patch

Antenna Array for High Gain at Millimeter
Waves
Kiran Phalak and Abdelrazik Sebak
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Concordia University
Montreal, QC, Canada, H3G 1M8
k_phala@encs.concordia.ca, abdo@ece.concordia.ca

Abstract Four-element microstrip patch

antenna array is proposed at millimeter wave
frequency. The proposed antenna achieves the
impedance bandwidth of 4.6% at 28 GHz as
well as a flat gain of 13.5 dB over an operating
frequency band. It uses the aperture coupling
along with air cavities to feed the patch
elements. It achieves the side lobe level of -23 dB
in the H Plane and -14.5 dB in the E plane. In
addition, the proposed structure also achieves
the wide beamwidth of 700 in H plane.

at MMWs, high gain can be achieved using

metallic horn [2] antennas. However, ohmic
losses due to metal reduce the radiation
efficiency of horns at millimeter frequencies.
In addition, their bulky structure makes them
unsuitable for the compact system design.
Similarly, high gain can be achieved by
focusing the electromagnetic waves, using a
dielectric lens [3] ahead of a radiating element.
Nevertheless, a lens structure also results in
non-planar antenna structures.

Keywords 28GHz, wide beamwidth,

microstrip patch array, slot coupling

In planar structure designs, aperture coupled

microstrip patch array fed by dielectric line
was presented in [4] at 28.2GHz. However, it
did not present the peak in the broadside
direction. In addition, the gain of the proposed
antenna is limited to 11dB. Substrate
integrated waveguide based aperture coupled
patch array for MMW had also been studied
[5]. It has a high low front-to-back ratio along
with a narrow impedance bandwidth of less
than 1%.

INTRODUCTION
Recently, millimeter wave communication
(MMW) system had been the focus of
commercial applications. The continuous
demand of the wireless communication
devices and applications has resulted in the
scarcity of the available electromagnetic
spectrum in the HF, VHF range.
Technological
advancement
in
the
semiconductor industry, nowadays allows data
speed of gigabit per second range to be
handled very efficiently. In addition, study of
attenuation due to the atmosphere and rain at
millimeter waves revealed that frequency
bands around 28 and 38 GHz have potential
for the fifth generation cellular technology to
fulfill the bandwidth demand [1].
I.

Four-element microstrip patch antenna array

operating at 28 GHz is presented here for high
gain application with a focus on the planar
structure. Aperture coupling slots are used to
feed the patch elements. It uses the multilayer
planar structure with an added air-cavity in the
upper substrate.

In modern applications, planar structures are

desired to design compact systems. Typically,

978-1-4799-5191-8/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

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COMNETSAT 2014

wavelength away from the open end of the

microstrip line. Additionally, as current
maxima on transmission line repeats at an
integer multiple of a half wavelength, the
distance between the consecutive slots is kept
equal to half a wavelength.

ANTENNA DESIGN
The proposed microstrip patch antenna
multi-layer structure is shown in Fig. 1. A
microstrip line is etched on layer 1 made of
Rogers RO4350 material with relative
permittivity of 3.66. Layer 1 is covered with a
ground layer which has aperture coupling slots
cut through it. In layer 2, air-cavities are
created by drilling into RO6002 substrate.
Layer 3 is a solid slab of RO6002 material
with relative permittivity of 2.94. Finally,
rectangular radiating patches are etched at the
top of the dielectric slab, layer 3. The total
antenna size of the proposed antenna structure
is 31 x 10 x 0.94 mm3.
II.

B. Microstrip Patch Elements

Microstrip patch elements are designed on

0.127mm thick Rogers 6002 with dimension of
5.5 x 3.2 mm2 each. In order, to increase the
gain of the structure, four-element linear array
is designed. The spacing between the
consecutive elements is critical to avoid
generating grating lobes. Therefore, patch
elements are spaced 6.3mm away from each
other. An impedance bandwidth is proportional
to the volume of the structure. As length and
width of the patch elements affect the
resonance frequency, they cannot be increased
to widen the impedance bandwidth of the
structure. Therefore, an air cavity of 0.254mm
is created in the upper substrate which in turn
reduces the dielectric constant of substrate and
increases the effective volume of the antenna
structure [6][7].
III. PROTOTYPE AND RESULTS
Fig. 2 shows the effect of an air-cavity on
the performance of a single element patch
antenna. It can be seen that introducing an airgap cavity has increased the impedance
bandwidth of the structure. Furthermore, when
dielectric constant of an upper substrate is
reduced, electric field lines are loosely bound
inside the structure which in turn increases the
gain of the antenna structure.

Fig. 1. Proposed microstrip patch array design layer structure

A. Feeding Section

The proposed antenna contains two main

design sections: feeding and patch elements. A
microstrip line is used to design the 50 input
impedance port. RO4350 with 0.508mm
thickness and a high dielectric constant of 3.66
helps to keep the electric field bound inside a
substrate and weakens the fringing field as
well as reduces back lobe. In aperture coupling
method rectangular slots are used to couple the
energy from microstrip line to upper side of
the ground plane. As a resonant slot in a
ground plane acts as a dipole, it generates a bidirectional radiation pattern. Therefore, the
non-resonant slots of greater than half a
wavelength long are utilized to reduce the
back radiation [6]. The width of the aperture
slot is kept at 0.1 g. Since first current
maxima for an open ended microstrip line
occurs a quarter wavelength away from the
open end, the last slot is placed a quarter

Return Loss/ Gain (dB)

10

-10

-20
S11 with air-cavity
S11 without air-cavity
Gain with air-cavity
Gain without air-cavity

-30
26

27

28

29

30

Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 2. Effect of air-cavity on return loss and gain of single element

14

COMNETSAT 2014

carried out using Agilent E8364B vector

network analyzer.

Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show the effect of

different lower dielectric substrates on return
loss and radiation performance of a single
element patch antenna. As a dielectric
substrate with higher dielectric constant is
used, back lobe radiation is significantly
reduced. However, it does not affect the gain
of the structure, hence increasing the front to
back ratio of the proposed structure.
0

Return Loss (dB)

-10

Fig. 5. Top and bottom view of a prototype for the proposed antenna
structure
-20

As shown in Fig. 6, impedance bandwidth

of 4.6% is observed. However, the resonance
frequency of return loss obtained from CST is
lower than that of HFSS. This is due to
different methods of material property
realization in both simulators and modeling of
input ports. Measurement results for return loss
are more in agreement with HFSS than CST.
The antenna has a relatively flat gain with a
peak value of 13.5 dB. However, drops in the
gain at higher frequencies are observed in
measured results due to an input mismatch.

er2 = 2.2
er2 = 2.94
-30

-40
26.5

er2 = 3.66

27.0

27.5

28.0

28.5

29.0

29.5

Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 3. Effect of lower dielectric substrate on a return loss of a

single element

Front-to-back Ratio/ Gain (dB)

22
20
18
16

FBR er2 = 2.2

FBR er2 = 2.94

14

FBR er2 = 3.66

Gain er2 = 2.2

12

Gain er2 = 2.94

Gain er2 = 3.66

10
8
6
26.5

27.0

27.5

28.0

28.5

29.0

29.5

Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 4. Effect of lower dielectric substrate on the front to back

ration and the gain of a single element
Fig. 6. Return Loss and gain of AFLTSA over the frequency

Furthermore, from Fig. 3, lower dielectric

substrate does not affect the impedance
bandwidth of the antenna structure. Therefore,
lower dielectric substrate with a higher value
of relative permittivity is chosen.

The radiation pattern for the proposed

antenna structure is presented in Fig. 7. Length
of the substrate is adjusted such that the
maximum amplitude of the radiation pattern is
in the direction of the normal to the patch
surface. Front-to-back ratio of 24 dB is
achieved. Side lobe levels for the E-plane and
H-plane are -14.5 dB and -23 dB respectively.
Half power beamwidth of 700 is obtained Hplane, whereas that of E-plane is 21.80. This
reduction in E-plane HPBW is a cost being

A prototype, as shown in Fig. 5, for multilayer

proposed structure is fabricated using PCB
technology. The simulations were carried out
using CST MWS and Ansys HFSS softwares.
Return loss measurement of the structure is

15

COMNETSAT 2014

paid to obtain the higher gain from the

structure.

Fig. 8 shows the efficiency of the antenna

structure. Dielectric material, metallic patch as
well as microstrip line contribute to ohmic
losses in the proposed antenna structure.
However, total efficiency above 85-90% is
observed in the operating frequency band.

Relative amplitude (dB)

-10

E-Plane CST
E-Plane HFSS

CONCLUSION
Four-element patch antenna array is
presented for 28 GHz applications. This planar
antenna structure has an impedance bandwidth
of 4.6% and flat high gain of 13.5 dB. It shows
low side lobe levels below -14.5 dB in both
planes with a wide beamwidth of 700 in the H
plane. A front to back ratio of 22 dB is
achieved.
IV.

-20

-30

(a)
-40
-150

-100

-50

50

100

150

Theta (deg)

Fig. 7(a). Radiation Pattern of proposed design E plane

0

Relative amplitude (dB)

REFERENCES
[1]
-10
H-Plane CST
H-Plane HFSS

[2]

-20

[3]
-30

(b)
-150

-100

-50

50

100

[4]

150

Theta (deg)

Fig. 7(b). Radiation Pattern of proposed design (a) E and (b) H

plane

[5]

100

[6]
Total Efficiency (%)

90

[7]

80

70

60

50

40
27.0

27.5

28.0

28.5

29.0

Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 8. Total efficiency of proposed antenna structure

16

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