HFSS Tutorial 11: Quarter-Wave Recess-

fed Patch Antenna with Vias and Gain

Enhancement
Goal: design a microstripline edge-fed patch antenna operating at
2.425 GHz using a FR-4 substrate with thickness 1.6 mm, and
. The return loss must be less than 20 dB at 2.42 GHz.

1. Open Tutorial 2 ans save it as Tutorial 10.

2. Set the following parameters
, , , , .

3. Add the following parameters:

Via Radius: ,
Via-edge Clearance: ,
Via Center Distance: ,

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 Wave Port Width: ,
Wave Port Height: .
4. Change the position of air box to ( ).
5. Assign Wave Port to the port surface and add integration line
and deembeding.
6. Perform a simulation from 1 GHz to 3 GHz.
Analysis->Add Solution Setup
Set solution frequency to 3 GHz. Set Maximum Number of
Passes to 99. Set convergence criteria to 0.01. Set Port
impedance convergence criteria 0.1%. Check “Use Radiation
Boundary on Port”.
7. Add Interpolation Sweep from 1 GHz to 3 GHz. Step size 0.01.
Setup1->Add Frequency Sweep
8. Perform simulation
Sweep->Analyze
9. Plot the return loss and find that the resonance is close to
our goal.
10. Create the via at ( ) and assign
copper material to it.
11. Add variable as follow

12. Use Duplicate Along Line to create the via array.

Set number of vias and space ( ). Check the “Attach
to Object” box.
13. Substrate the vias from the FR-4 Subtrate.
14. Perform a frequency sweep and plot the return loss. It is found
that the resonance frequency is too low.
15. Add Parametric Sweep for . The result show that the
should be between 16 mm and 20 mm to meet the target
resonance frequnecy.
16. Add Parametric Sweep for . The result shows that
. However, the match is not good.

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17. Add Parametric Sweep for . The result shows that
at , the center frequency reaches 2.394 GHz and
return loss -21.35 dB. Check the antenna gain at this frequency.
18. Add the following parameters:
Substrate Via Radius: ,
Substrate Via Center Distance: .
Substrate Via-edge Clearance: ,

19. Create the via at ( ).

20. Use Duplicate Along Line to create the via array.
Set number of vias and space ( ). Check the “Attach
to Object” box. Redo again but with and space ( ).
21. Perform a frequency sweep. The center frequency reaches 2.436
GHz and return loss -20.94 dB. Check the antenna gain at this
frequency.

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