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LITERATURE REVIEW

(1) Research Paper on: Design of rectangular stacked microstrip antenna for Dual-
band [1].

A dual-band characteristic of single layer stacked rectangular microstrip antenna

is experimentally studied. The variations of the length and width of the stacked
rectangular patch antenna has been done and found dual resonance with increasing lower
resonance frequency and almost constant upper resonance frequency with increases of the
length & width of rectangular microstrip antenna. The VSWR has been measured with the
help of Network analyzer.

(2) Research Paper on: A novel stacked wideband microstrip patch antenna with u-
shaped parasitic elements [2].

In this paper, a novel wideband microstrip patch antenna with U-Shaped parasitic
elements stacked with two rectangular patches on a separate layer is proposed. The
antenna is simulated by the full-wave electromagnetic simulator and the results of the
performance of the proposed antenna are investigated. The antenna input impedance
bandwidth is 33% (4.75-6.62GHz) with respect to the centre frequency of 5.68 GHz. The
controlled frequency includes the 802.11a (5.15-5.825GHz) band and the antenna
proposed can be used for wireless LAN. The antenna is designed on a small size ground
plane (25mm x30mm) for application of compact transceivers.

(3) Research Paper on: A broad band stacked microstrip patch antenna [3].

A novel broad band stack microstrip antenna is presented. The proposed antenna is
found to have very broad impedance bandwidth as compared to conventional
electromagnetic coupled antenna. The proposed antenna is able to achieve an impedance
bandwidth of about 88% for VSWR less than 2.

(4) Research Paper on: Probe fed stacked patch antenna for uwb sectoral
applications [4].

A microstrip patch antenna with two E-shaped stacked patches for UWB sectoral
applications is proposed in this paper. The E-shaped patch antenna has an impedance
bandwidth of about 34%. By adding a second E-shaped patch at the top of the first patch a

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bandwidth of 54% has been obtained. The characteristic dimensions of the second patch
as well as the shift between the two patches have been optimized to achieve the ultra
wide, bandwidth and radiation pattern stability over the whole band. The distorting nature
of this antenna has been quantified using time domain characterization tools and the
influence of the ground plane on impedance bandwidth and radiation has been studied.

(5) Research Paper on: A novel stacked e-shaped patch antenna [5].

A novel stacked E shaped patch antenna is proposed in this paper. As compared to

the E shaped microstrip patch antenna in which has an input impedance bandwidth of
33.8%, the proposed antenna has a higher input impedance bandwidth of about 38.41%.
The radiation patterns of the proposed antenna are found to be relatively constant
throughout the entire band of option. Numerical simulation and experimental
measurement of the proposed antenna are presented in this paper.

(6) Research Paper on: A stacked dual-band equilateral-triangular circularly

polarized microstrip antenna [6].

Owing to the smaller patch size of circularly polarized (CP) designs for microstrip
antennas compared to square or circular patches, some CP designs of equilateral-
triangular microstrip antennas have been presented .For these CP designs, the cases of
loading a tuning stub of proper length at the triangular tip or at the center of the bottom
edge of the triangular patch or embedding a cross-slot of unequal slot lengths or a group
of three L-like spur lines of unequal lengths or inserting a narrow slit at the edge of an
equilateral-triangular microstrip patch or a equilateral-triangular microstrip antenna with
truncated tip have been presented. However, it is noted that all the literature above are
limited to single-band antenna. So in this article, we propose a stacked microstrip antenna
to realize dual-frequency operation covering two GPS bands (L1-1575.42MHz, L2-
1227.60MHz). It exhibits a gain greater than 1dB and stable input impedance behaviour
over the desired bands.

(7) Research Paper on: A wideband stacked offset microstrip antenna with improved
gain and low cross polarization [7].

A broadband printed microstrip antenna having cross polarization less than 15 with
improved gain in the entire frequency band is presented. Principle of stacking is
implemented on a strip loaded slotted broadband patch antenna for enhancing the gain

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without affecting the broadband impedance matching characteristics and offsetting the
position of the upper patch excites a lower resonance which enhances the bandwidth
further. The antenna has a dimension of 42 x 55 x 4.8 when printed on a substrate of
dielectric constant 4.2 and has a 2:1 VSWR bandwidth of 34.9%. The antenna exhibits a
peak gain of 8.07 dBi and a good front to back ratio better than 12 dB is observed
throughout the entire operating band. Simulated and experimental reflection
characteristics of the antenna with and without stacking along with offset variation
studies, radiation patterns and gain of the final antenna are presented.

(8) Research Paper on: Analysis of stacked rectangular microstrip antenna [8].

A stacked microstrip antenna with C-type feed is designed in order to enhance the
bandwidth. The effect of the various parameters, such as the rotation feed angle ( ), the
variations of relative permittivity of parasitic patch , the distance of the feed point from
the center (r), and the separation between two stacked patches , have been discussed.
Some designs give a good return loss under -40 dB and wide VSWR bandwidth, such as
case#2 with r2 =4.26 case#4 with r = 6.2mm, case#5 with 6.8 , 2 h h2=2 mm case#1,and
case#2 with h2=8.2 mm. The simulated data are obtained using the IE3D simulator with
method of moments (MoM) commercial code. An infinite ground plane has been
considered for simulations; however, and due to a software constrain, substrate
dimensions are infinite.

(9) Research Paper on: Gap-coupled stacked microstrip antenna for dual band
operation [9].

Theoretical investigations of a gap coupled stacked microstrip antenna is presented

using equivalent circuit concept. It is found that the antenna operates with dual frequency
band characteristics with resonances at 4.76 GHz and 6.79 GHz. The dual nature of the
antenna is realized by adding coplanar V-shaped parasitic elements around the radiating
edges of the fed patch and stacking a rectangular patch above them. The lower and upper
frequency bands are achieved as 443 MHz and 287 MHz respectively. The radiation
patterns show shifts of towards left and 120 towards right for lower and upper resonance
frequencies respectively.

(10) Research Paper on: Characteristic of stacked rectangular and triangular patch
antennas for dual band applications [11].

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 Multi-band antennas have applications in radars and communication systems. For
their light-weight low cost properties, stacked microstrip patch antennas have recently
gained increasing support as dual frequency antennas. This paper briefly presents a
general technique for the theoretical determination of the input impedances and the
radiation patterns of stacked microstrip patch antennas of arbitrary shapes. It then
investigates various cases of stacked rectangular and triangular patch antennas. For these
antennas, some approximations are introduced in the modelling technique in order to
make it efficient on personal computer. The investigations on the stacked rectangular
patch antenna focus on antennas with dissimilar substrates, non-aligned patches or
unequal patch sizes. Effects of some radomes on the characteristics of the stacked
rectangular patch antennas are also included in the paper. As far as the stacked triangular
patch antenna is corned, its analysis is presented.

(11) Research Paper on: Broadband stacked microstrip patches antennas [12].

Full-Wave Analysis Method (FWAM) is employed to show that a stacked microstrip

-patch antenna (SMDP). I may have a much wider bandwidth than that of the ordinary
uni-patch one. By means of Discrete Complex Image Theory (DCIT), the Integrals (SI)
involved is accurately calculated at a speed several hundred times faster than Numerical
Integration Method (NIM). The feeding structure of the SMDPA is then improved and the
bandwidth is extended to about 22% or more for VSWR <2. Finally, a matching network
is constructed to obtain a bandwidth of about 25% for VSWR < 1.5.

(12) Research Paper on: Bandwidth enhancement of stacked rectangular microstrip

patch antenna [13].

A rectangular microstrip patch antenna has been investigated and its performance
has been analyzed with the aid of Microwave Office Package (MW-Office 2000). An
additional rectangular conductive plate of comparable dimensions was placed above the
patch in order to enhance the bandwidth. The package was used to analyze the effect of
the top patch, in particular the variation of VSWR with two parameters, namely the
distance between the two patches and the size of the upper patch. A bandwidth of I I X
for VSWR<2 has been achieved for stacked rectangular patch designed to operate in the
S-band when a dielectric of thickness one centimetre and relative permittivity Er =2.6 has
been taken into consideration.

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(13) Research Paper on: A dual band circularly polarised microstrip antenna with a
single feed [14].

A novel circularly polarized (CP) single-fed microstrip antenna is presented. The

antenna consists of stacked structure of a rectangular ring patch over another rectangular
ring. The proposed design has a reduced antenna size as compared to the conventional CP
microstrip antenna at a given operating frequency. The impedance and axial ratio
bandwidths are large and CP radiation quality is excellent over the entire upper
hemisphere. These antennas feature more than 9dBi gain. The proposed antenna is
suitable for global positioning system (GPS) applications.

(14) Research Paper on: A high performance circularly polarised stacked patch
antenna with low mutual coupling [15].

A broadband circularly polarised stacked patch antenna element and a 4-element

planar array, which have high efficiencies at 10 GHz, are presented in this paper. In
addition to the low axial ratio given by the array, all possible bandwidths are obtained to
be greater than 20% with an overall antenna efficiency greater than 75%. The mutual
coupling between proposed elements at a centre-spacing of 0.667o is also observed to be
less than -25 dB.

(15) Research Paper on: Modelling and design of electromagnetically coupled

microstrip-patch antennas and antenna arrays [16].

This work is an effort to investigate and derive a simple equivalent-circuit model to

represent an electromagnetically coupled microstrip-patch antenna A simplified theory is
developed, based on the broadside-coupled lines and improved-transmission line
methods, to provide for the practical design of such antennas without involving
complicated, time-consuming, difficult numerical methods A number of sample patches
are designed, made, and tested to verify the. These patches are also incorporated into an
array, to evaluate their performance in an array environment.

(16) Research Paper on: Optimization of stacked microstrip antenna for circular
polarization [17].

We propose a new C-type feed location to achieve circular polarization from stacked
rectangular microstrip antenna. A systematic process to optimise the axial ratio (AR)
bandwidth and ellipticity is presented. A main radiator and a parasitic patch of identical

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size are considered and the separation between them has been optimized to achieve a
directive gain of 8.82 dBi, 3-dB AR-bandwidth of 14% and ellipticity (minimum AR) of
0.07dB at centre frequency. The proposed technique is very useful for rapid design of
circularly polarized stacked microstrip antennas with high gain and large AR-bandwidth.

(17) Research Paper on: Widely tunable stacked microstrip antenna using varactor
diodes [18].

This paper reports a novel tunable microstrip antenna using varactor diodes
implemented along the non-radiating edges of the patch. This type of loading changes the
propagation characteristics and slows down the phase velocity along the non-radiating
edges. Therefore, the mechanism is similar to the loaded line phase shifter. The antenna is
therefore resonant at frequencies where its effective electrical length is 180. The phase
constant of an equivalent transmission line of the patch is tuned by the varactors that are
inserted into the transmission line in parallel. The present approach is believed to have
two advantages compared to the previous work. First, the radiation pattern is expected to
be less affected by voltage tuning as the radiating edge is not modified. Second, as the
influence of the varactor loading depends on the location of loading, the number and
locations of the varactors provide a very flexible design process.
The drawback of this approach arises due to the losses of the diode. When the RF
current on the patch flows into the varactor, the antenna gain decreases due to a diode
series resistance. In this paper, a parasitic patch is stacked on the driven patch in order to
compensate for the lowered gain.

(18) Research Paper on: Wideband stacked patch antenna array on ltcc for w-band
[19].

A design of a stacked microstrip patch antenna and a 16-element array on Ferro A6-
M LTCC operating at W-band is presented. A parasitic patch is added on LTCC substrate
to increase bandwidth. The stacked configuration is designed by using an equivalent
circuit together with EM simulators. The manufactured antenna array is integrated with a
WR- 10-to-microstrip-line transition to facilitate RF testing. The S parameters are
measured on a probe station and radiation pattern testing is done using a WR-10
excitation in anechoic chamber. The array of size 9.3 mm x 9.3 mm x 0.4 mm has the
measured maximum gain of 14.2 dBi at 84 GHz and gain higher than 11.2 dBi between

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78.5 GHz and 98.5 GHz which results as -3-dB radiation bandwidth of 23%. The antenna
efficiency of the array is 48% at the highest.

(19) Research Paper on: V-slotted rectangular microstrip antenna with a stacked
patch [20].

The probe fed single layer V-slot rectangular patch antenna was found to provide
impedance bandwidth of about 36.510. The stack patch, as another resonator is added to
extend the antenna bandwidth to 47%. The radiation pattern of this configuration is also
studied.

(20) Research Paper on: Stacked square ring resonators for bandwidth enhancement
[21].

The advantages of microstrip structures as antenna elements or resonators have

Aroused much interest in their theoretical and experimental studies. A novel structure that
has not been studied well yet is the square ring patch, which is geometrically an
intermediate configuration between a printed loop and a patch. Several interesting
features are associated with this patch. Its size is substantially smaller than that of a
conventional square patch, and depends on the ring width. And, its input impedance is
considerably higher, whereas its impedance bandwidth is smaller, in comparison with a
similar size patch. Normally, the deviation of its properties from those of a square patch
increases by decreasing its width. It is known that stacking similar size patches increases
the impedance bandwidth. In this paper, we have investigated this property for two
stacked square rings. A good number of simulations are carried out, using Ensemble
4.02 of Boulder Microwave Technologies Inc. to understand the behaviour of stacked
rings, and determine suitable parameters. An optimized configuration is also fabricated
and tested.

(21) Research Paper on: Stacked multiple slot microstrip patch antennas for wireless
communication system [22].

A novel multiple slot microstrip patch antenna for wireless communication is

proposed. This paper presents stacked probe fed inverted multiple slot microstrip patch
antenna. The composite effect of integrating these techniques and by introducing the
novel multiple shaped patch, offer a low profile, high gain, and compact antenna element.
Simulated results for main parameters such as return loss, impedance bandwidth,

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radiation patterns and gains are also discussed herein. The study showed maximum
achievable gain of about 11.44 dBi with simplicity in designing and feeding, can well
meet for wireless communication system especially for base station.

(22) Research Paper on: Stacked microstrip antenna with wide band and high gain
[23].

The microstrip antenna with high gain is usually constructed a s a planar array.
However, it can be also made by arraying parasitic elements in the radiating direction
over a radiating patch. On the other hand, it has been reported that the impedance
bandwidth of patch antenna increases by locating a parasitic element over a radiating
circular patch"). In this paper, we propose the microstrip antenna, composed of three
elements; the radiating element, first parasitic element (called matching element) to widen
the bandwidth of impedance and second parasitic element (director) to increase the gain.
The experimental considerations on the characteristics of this stacked antenna are
reported.

(23) Research Paper on:Stacked microstiup antennas for broadband circular

polarization [24].

Several microstrip antenna (MSA) configurations are available to generate the

circular polarization (CP), which can be obtained by either single feed or dual feed. Some
of the single feed MSAs are: nearly square, comer chopped square, square or circle with a
slot, circular patch with a notch, etc. However, these antennas have very small axial ratio
bandwidth of the order of 1%. Square or circular MSA fed at two orthogonal points with
equal amplitude and 90' phase difference yields wider axial ratio bandwidth than the
single feed MSA, but the VSWR bandwidth is small. In this paper, several stacked MSA
configurations using either square or circular patches have been proposed to increase both
the axial ratio and VSWR bandwidths with higher directivity. Only one patch at the
bottom layer is fed at two orthogonal points with equal amplitude and 90" phase
difference, and the other parasitic square or circular patches are stacked to yield
broadband CP. These antennas have been analyzed using IE3D software based on Method
of Moments.

(24) Research Paper on:Stacked L-shaped probe fed microstrip antenna [25].

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 An L-shaped probe fed microstrip antenna is investigated. The antenna is made of a
rectangular patch supported by a thick foam dielectric layer. The patch is proximity fed
via L-shaped probe. Simulation results confirm previously reported improvement in the
bandwidth of 35%. The analyses are extended to examine the effect of supporting stacked
patch above the original one. An impedance bandwidth of 46% has been achieved when
the separation between the stacked parasitic patch and the original patch is 4.5 mm.

(25) Research Paper on: Stacked H-shaped microstrip patch antenna [26].

A small H-shaped microstrip patch antenna (MPA) with enhanced bandwidth is

presented. The H-shaped antenna is first studied by a transmission line model and then is
fully analyzed with a MoM code. A stacked patch configuration is proposed to increase
the narrow bandwidth, radiation efficiency and directivity. The stacked H-shaped MPA is
studied using Chus fundamental limit for electrically small antennas.

(26) Research Paper on: Stacked dual-band circularly polarized microstrip patch
antenna [27].

This paper presents a stacked dual-band circularly polarized microstrip patch antenna
for GPS receivers. The dual-band operation is obtained by stacking two layers of
microstrip antennas working at two discrete frequencies. Each of them is fed by dual
probes. The technique of redundant via hole is proposed in order to feed the upper layer
patch through the lower layer antenna. A prototype of the antenna was realized and the
measured results are presented.

(27) Research Paper on: Slot-coupled stacked microstrip antennas [28].

Microstrip patch antennas are attracting interest due to their potential application in
monolithic phased arrays where active devices for phase shifters and other components
can be integrated with radiating elements, preferably on the same substrate. However, it is
difficult to achieve efficient radiating structures on high dielectric permittivity substrates
like gallium arsenide (GaAs). The problem can be overcome by using multilayer
structures and aperture coupling to couple power from the microstrip feed line to the
antenna. According to published results, however, slot-coupled patch antennas exhibit a
narrow bandwidth of the order of a few percent. This can be improved using stacked
patches. An investigation of previous publications reveals that designs for slot-coupled
stacked patches are not yet available. The purpose of this paper is to present the design of

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slot-coupled stacked microstrip antennas which possess wide bandwidth characteristics.
The antennas are developed for future monolithic phased array applications.

(28) Research Paper on: Single and stacked circular microstrip patch antennas
backed by a circular cavity [29].

In this communication, a full wave moment method solution for a probe-fed circular
microstrip patch antenna, backed by a circular cavity both in single and in stacked
configurations, is used to analyze the effect of a parasitic patch on antenna bandwidth. In
addition, the effect of recessing a single patch into the antenna cavity is studied. In both
cases, theoretical results for the scattering and radiation characteristics of the antenna are
presented.

(29) Research Paper on:Reconfigurable multi-band stacked microstrip patch antenna

for wireless applications [30].

A reconfigurable stacked Microstrip Patch Antenna (MSA) of operating frequencies

in the range of (2-5) GHz is proposed for wireless applications. The new antenna is
composed of two layers; the bottom layer is a patch with two slots designed on each side
that can be controlled via switches. By adjusting the status of the switches, the resonance
frequencies can be varied, thus achieving frequency re configurability. In order to
increase the number of resonance frequencies and to enhance the bandwidth of the patch,
another patch is placed on top of the first antenna. The two patches are separated with a
dielectric layer optimized to yield the maximum number of resonance Frequencies,
bandwidth and gain.

(30) Research Paper on: Proximity coupled stacked configuration for wideband
microstrip antenna [31].

Two main disadvantages of the typical microstrip antenna are low gain and narrow
bandwidth. These two major drawbacks have limited its applications despite of other
advantages as compared to the conventional antenna. These advantages are low profile
and conformability. For the purpose of designing a wideband microstrip antenna, two
already proven bandwidth enhancement techniques; the patch stack configuration and
coplanar parasitic patch was studied. Several configurations were proposed and from the
simulation results, the antenna bandwidth was improved from the typical 8 ~ 9% up to
36% by using these two techniques with a simple coaxial probe feed without any

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matching network. Actual fabrication was also carried out and several measurements
were conducted to verify its performance. The measurement result, even though do not
fully conformed to the simulation result, has proven the potential of the above mentioned
bandwidth enhancement techniques.

(31) Research Paper on: Probe fed stacked patch antenna for wideband applications
[32].

A new design of a U-slot microstrip antenna with an E shaped stacked patch is

presented that achieves an impedance bandwidth of 59.7%. Parameters such as substrate
thickness, slot length, width are investigated and design results from parametric
simulations are presented. The electric current distributions on the patch and the radiation
patterns are also demonstrated in this paper.

(32) Research Paper on: Microstrip antenna design based on stacked patches for
reconfigurable two dimensional planar array topologies [33].

In this work, a probe fed microstrip antenna design for the implementation of two
dimensional arrays with individually fed radiating elements is presented. The performance
of the antenna element both isolated and in a 4 x 4 fixed array topology is analysed using
ADS and HFSS simulation software. Prototypes of the antenna element and of the array
are manufactured and measured for the experimental validation of the design.

(33) Research Paper on: Enhancement of array gain with stacked parasitic elements
[34].
Microstrip antennas with stacked parasitic elements have been demonstrated to have
broad bandwidth and high gain. The broad band characteristics of microstrip antennas
with stacked parasitic elements have been studied extensively and are now well
understood. Contrarily, enhancing the gain of a microstrip antenna with stacked parasitic
elements has been attempted only by a few researchers over the years. Recently, an
increase in gain of 3 dB has been reported for a stacked concentric ring patch antenna
array. In practice, using stacked parasitic elements for gain enhancement is both easy and
less costly since no increase in array size is required to provide the additional effective
isotropic radiated power (EIRP) for completing the communication link. This paper
reports an experimental investigation of gain enhancement of a 2x2 microstrip array at
29.5 GHz using stacked parasitic antenna elements. EIRP and radiation patterns as a

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function of spacings between the parasitic and driven antenna layers were measured.
These results will be presented and discussed in the paper.

(34) Research Paper on: Design and measurement of a wideband aperture- coupled
and polarization-agile stacked-patch antenna-array for monopulse radar
applications [35].

A wideband, circularly-polarized antenna array covering the frequency range 1.7

GHz to 2.5 GHz for telemetric monitoring and mono pulse application is presented. Using
a sub array design, mono pulse functionality can be achieved with an external comparator
network. The high bandwidth of 38 % is realized by using the principle of the aperture-
coupled stacked patch microstrip antenna. By integrating a quadrature coupler, the
polarization sense can be selected. Sequential rotation technique is used for enhancing
polarization purity. The theoretical analysis is based on the finite-difference time-domain
(FDTD) method. A stacked-patch antenna element, a 2x2 antenna quadrant and a 4x4
antenna array have been designed, fabricated and measured. The measured return loss of
one quadrant is Better than 11 dB in the desired bandwidth for both circular polarization
senses. Maximum antenna gain ranges between 7 dB and 18 dB for the sum pattern while
the null depth of the difference pattern is always better than 30 dB. Theoretical and
measured results of S parameters and radiation patterns are presented and discussed.

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