126
6, 2007
A Shorted Bowtie Patch Antenna With a
Cross Dipole for Dual Polarization
Ka-Ming Mak, Hang Wong, Member, IEEE, and Kwai-Man Luk, Fellow, IEEE
AbstractA dual-polarized shorted bowtie antenna integrated
with a cross dipole is presented. The electric cross dipole is added
to generate a symmetric radiation pattern and to compensate the
high back radiation due to the shorted patches. This novel dual-po-
larized antenna is designed for the existing DCS, PCS, and 3G mo-
bile communication systems working between 1.71 and 2.17 GHz.
Stable and symmetric radiation patterns at slanted 45 polariza-
tion have been obtained over the operating frequency bands. Mea-
sured isolation between the two input ports is over 28 dB. The gain
of the proposed antenna is also stable with frequency. The average
is about 6.6 dBi.
Index TermsBowtie patch, dipole, dual polarization, mi-
crostrip antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
N recent wireless communication systems, dual-polarized
I antennas commonly have been applied to enhance the signal
reception quality. Compared with space diversity, the polariza-
tion diversity technique is able to reduce the number and size of
antenna systems in base station. Several studies on investigating
the dual-polarized microstrip antennas can be found in the liter-
ature [1][7].
The dual-polarized patch antenna can be realized by a pair
of coupled microstrip lines through two orthogonal slots [1].
However, the antenna is not able to achieve wide bandwidth
and high isolation between the two input ports of the antenna.
Applying etched patches in the cross-shaped element of the an-
tenna [2] proposed by Habib et al. could improve the isolation
between the input ports, but the bandwidth is still narrow. An-
other approach is using a center-crossed slot to couple a square
patch [3]. This method could achieve a good isolation and wide
bandwidth; nevertheless, it requires an air bridge for a crossover
in the balanced feed lines that may cause construction diffi-
culties. Several other dual-polarized antennas have also been
suggested [4][6]. These antennas [4], [5] with aperture-cou-
pled feed would generate high back-radiation, and they result
in drawbacks of low gain and low front-to-back ratio. Although
using additional grounded box as proposed in [7] can minimize
the back-radiation of the dual-polarized patch antennas with the
aperture coupled feed, the configuration of the antenna still in-
volves several layers and results in a complex structure.
Manuscript received October 26, 2006; revised February 6, 2007. This work
was supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Ad-
ministration Region, China under Project CityU 118306.
The authors are with the Department of Electronic Engineering,
City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China (e-mail:
50386324@student.cityu.edu.hk).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2007.893106
1536-1225/$25.00 2007 IEEE
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.
In this paper, a dual-polarized bowtie patch antenna with elec-
tric dipoles is demonstrated. The design is based on a previously
proposed single-fed shorted bowtie antenna with dipole [9]. The
operating principle is that an equivalent magnetic dipole due to
the shorted bowtie patch and an electric dipole are excited to-
gether. Applying this combination to the dual-polarized patch
design, the antenna produces equal 45 and 45 radiation
patterns with low back-radiation. Different from the conven-
tional dual-polarized microstrip patch antennas with aperture
coupled feeds, each feed of the proposed dual-polarized antenna
consists of a folded air microstrip line located underneath the
shorted patch [8], which excites the gap of the bowtie antenna
to achieve a wide bandwidth. Simulation and measurement re-
sults are obtained to verify the performance of this novel design.
II. ANTENNA DESCRIPTION AND DESIGN GEOMETRY
A. Geometry
The geometry of the dual-polarized antenna with detailed di-
mensions is shown in Fig. 1. The configuration of the antenna is
basically divided into two layers. In the lower layer, two shorted
bowtie patches, located symmetrically with respect to the center,
are mounted on a square grounded plane of size 150 150 mm .
Each bowtie is composed of two isosceles triangular patches
with shorting walls and is placed 0.1 corresponding to
the lowest operating frequency) above the grounded plane. The
two triangular patches are separated by a small gap mm.
As for the feeding structure, the antenna is excited by two
bended air microstrip feed lines that are located inside the
shorted bowtie patches orthogonally. The feed lines are sepa-
rated from the patches by mm. One side of the microstrip
line is connected to a SMA (SubMiniature version A) connector
beneath the ground and the other side is joined to the edge of
the opposite triangular patch. The characteristic impedances
of the two portions of feed lines are 50 (with dimensions
of mm, mm) and 100 (with dimensions of
mm, mm). The 100 portion transforms the
high input impedance into 50 . Basically, the dimensions of
the two orthogonal air microstrip lines are almost the same,
except a bended portion for Port 2 (indicated in Fig. 1). It is
bended 1 mm downward to prevent from overlapping with
that for Port 1. The short-circuited tuning stubs with length of
mm, attached to the feed lines, are for achieving better
impedance matching. Under this arrangement, the lower part of
the antenna will radiate as a bowtie slot antenna. Port 1 is for
the 45 polarization and Port 2 is for 45 polarization.
In the upper layer of the antenna, it is made up of four trape-
zoidal patches and four cylindrical wires. Each wire is used
to support a trapezoidal patch above a shorted triangular patch
(with dimensions of mm, mm,
MAK et al.: A SHORTED BOWTIE PATCH ANTENNA WITH A CROSS DIPOLE FOR DUAL POLARIZATION
Fig. 1. Perspective and sectional view of the dual-polarized bowtie antenna.
mm, and mm). Each pair of trapezoidal patches
pasted on a pair of bowtie patches is considered as an electric
dipole.
B. Design Consideration
Due to the above-mentioned feature of the lower part of the
antenna, it performs like a slot antenna that radiates both in the
patch and back directiona bidirectional radiation pattern. In
an attempt to compensate the high back-radiation due to the
magnetic dipole generated by the shorted bowtie patches, an
electric dipole (trapezoidal patches with wires) is employed in
the upper layer. Once the magnetic dipole and electric dipole
are excited simultaneously, the power in the patch direction is
increased and that in the back-radiation is decreased. Therefore
the associated gain is also enhanced.
III. RESULTS
Experimental results of return loss, radiation patterns, and
antenna gain were obtained by an HP8510C network analyzer
and a compact range with an HP85103C antenna measurement
system, respectively. The simulation is based on a method of
moments commercial softer IE3D version 11.1 The measured
return loss and the isolation of the dual-polarized antenna are
shown in Fig. 2. Good impedance bandwidth is found for both
ports, which fulfils the required operating frequency band from
1.71 to 2.17 GHz. The antenna exhibits more than 23% band-
width for dB and is enough to cover the DCS, PCS,
1IE3D version 11.0, Zealand Inc.
127
Fig. 2. Gain, return loss, and isolation of the dual-polarized antenna.
TABLE I
MEASURED AND SIMULATED 3 DB BEAMWIDTH AND FRONT-TO-BACK RATIO
AT 1.71, 1.8, 1.95, 2.17 GHZ
and 3G frequency bands. The measured isolation between the
two input ports of the dual-polarized antenna is better than
28 dB over the bandwidth. Fig. 2 also depicts the simulated and
measured gains of the proposed antenna. Within the operating
frequency from 1.71 to 2.17 GHz, the average gains are about
6.6 and 6.9 dBi from experiment and simulation, respectively.
The efficiency of the antenna is about 92%. The simulated and
measured radiation patterns of the antenna, over the operating
frequencies 1.7, 1.95, and 2.2 GHz, are plotted in Fig. 3. It
illustrates that the radiation patterns at both slanted 45 and
45 polarization are very similar and symmetrical to each
other. It shows a broadside radiation. Detailed parameters
including the half-power beamwidth and front-to-back ratio
of the proposed antenna are tabulated in Table I. The 3 dB
beamwidths of the two polarizations vary only several degrees
over the frequency band. Thus very stable radiation patterns
across the passband are achieved. The front-to-back ratio of
the dual-polarized antenna is about 19 dB. Good agreement
between simulation and measurement is observed.
IV. DISCUSSION
Parametric study for the dual-polarized antenna performance
is presented in this section, including 1) resonant frequency,
2) bandwidth and isolation, 3) pattern, and 4) gain.
1) Resonant Frequency: Since the antenna is designed for
working between 1.71 and 2.17 GHz, we have to find the pa-
rameter that mainly affects the resonant frequency. After setting
the distance to about 0.5 will determine the operating
frequency. The length is 0.36 , in which the antenna will
resonate at the center frequency of 1.95 GHz.
2) Bandwidth and Isolation:
a) Air microstrip line: For broadband operation, air sub-
strate is used in the antenna. Air microstrip lines are placed or-
128
Fig. 3. Simulated and measured far-field patterns at frequencies of 1.71, 1.91,
+ 0
and 2.17 GHz. Port 1: 45 polarization and Port 2: 45 polarization.
thogonally inside the bowtie patches for generating dual linear
polarization with lower coupling between ports. Each of the mir-
costrip feed lines can excite one pair of bowtie antennas for
each polarization. High input impedance is found at the edge
of the triangular patch so that the microstrip line is utilized for
impedance transformation. The feed lines are 50 with width
mm and 100 with width mm. By varying the
feed line length and , the optimal dimensions are mm
and mm. However, the bandwidth is about 15%, which
is not enough to cover the application.
b) Short circuit stub: For achieving even wider bandwidth,
a short circuit tuning stub is attached on the feed line and con-
nected to the patch with length mm and width of 1.6 mm.
3) Pattern:
a) Electric dipole added on top of the bowtie patch: Fig. 4
shows the simulated radiation patterns of the dual-polarized an-
tenna without dipoles. Compared with the case when the elec-
tric dipoles are added, the radiation beamwidths (Fig. 3) at slant
45 and 45 polarizations become closer, and the back ra-
diation has also been suppressed so that the gain of the antenna
is enhanced.
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 6, 2007
Fig. 4. Simulated far-field patterns of the antenna without dipole at frequency
+ 0
of 1.95 GHz. Port 1: 45 polarization and Port 2: 45 polarization. ()
Copolarization for horizontal plane; 000 cross-polorization for horizontal
plane; () copolarization for vertical plane; and ( 000 ) cross-polarization
for vertical plane.
Fig. 5. Gain of the antenna with triangular/rectangular electric dipole and with
various radii (r ) of cylindrical wire.
4) Gain:
a) Shape of parasitic element: It was proposed to use a
rectangular dipole for the single-fed bowtie antenna introduced
in [9]. However, we find that replacing the rectangular dipoles
by trapezoidal dipoles can accomplish higher and more stable
gain. Fig. 5 illustrates a comparison of the simulated gains of
the antenna with rectangular dipole and with trapezoidal dipole.
It can be observed that the gain curve of the latter is higher
and steadier than the former over the band with length and
increased to 0.26 and 0.06 , respectively. However, the
gain fluctuates for further increases in length of and .
b) Radius of the cylindrical wire: Simulation results of the
dual-polarized antenna gain with various radii of the cylindrical
pins are also plotted in Fig. 5. Although the gain of the antenna
increases with the radii of the cylindrical pins, it is not as stable
as the one with smaller pin radii. Therefore, the radii of the
cylindrical wires ought to be kept small.
V. CONCLUSION
A new dual-polarized antenna suitable for mobile commu-
nication base stations has been designed and tested. The pro-
posed antenna yields good radiation characteristics including
symmetric radiation patterns and low backlobe level. It can also
MAK et al.: A SHORTED BOWTIE PATCH ANTENNA WITH A CROSS DIPOLE FOR DUAL POLARIZATION
retain a stable measured gain of about 6.6 dBi over a wide fre-
quency band between 1.71 G and 2.17 GHz.
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