Designing and Simulating a Microstrip Patch Antenna

Designed by

Raza Hussain

Introduction
A microstrip patch antenna consists of a very thin patch, which is placed at a small fraction of wavelength above a conducting ground plane. The patch and the ground plane are separated by a dielectric. The patch conductor is normally copper and can assume any shape, but regular shapes are generally used to simplify analysis and performance prediction. The relative permittivity (r) of the substrate is an important parameter to consider, because it enhances the fringing fields that account for radiation. A microstrip patch antenna is characterized by its length L, width W, and thickness h, as shown in the figure below:

Where,

h = height of the substrate

Objective
The objective of this lab is to construct and analyze a rectangular patch antenna using AWR Microwave Office.

Creating the Schematic Diagram

Follow the steps below to create the schematic diagram of a patch antenna: Click Project in the menu bar and select Add Schematic > New Schematic, and name it Patch. Select Elements tab from Project Browser, and select Microstrip. Select Lines, and select MLIN from the types of lines which appear below.

Drag a line into the schematic window and place it there. The length and width of the line can be changed by selecting L and W respectively, above the line. This is shown in the following figure:

Select four lines in the same manner, and place them orthogonally to each other. Select Obsolete from the drop down menu of Microstrip, and select MBEND.

Drag this bend into the schematics window and place it there. The width and angle of the bend can be changed by selecting W and ANG respectively. This is shown in the following figure:

In the same manner select four bends and connect them to the lines, as shown in the following figure:

Select all the objects in the schematic by pressing Ctrl+A, and click on New Schematic Layout View. A new window will open. In this window again select all the objects, and click on snap together. Both these buttons are present in the toolbar.

Creating the EM Structure

Click Project and select Add EM Structure > New EM Structure. Double click Enclosure in the Project tab. A window will open which will contain the dielectric information. Under Enclosure enter the following values:

X-Dimension = 100 Y-Dimension = 100 X-Divisions = 200 Y-Divisions = 200 Now click Dielectric Layers and enter the information. Now click Boundaries and select Approximately Open and Perfect Conductor. Copy the image from Schematic 1:2 and paste it in the EM Structure. Select Rectangle Conductor from the toolbar and add a conductor of 3mm x 17mm in the EM Structure, and connect it to the antenna structure. Again select Rectangular Conductor, and fill the gap between the lines. Now select all and click Edge Port, and add a port at the terminal of the 3mm x 17mm conductor. The result will be like shown in the following figure:

Creating Graph
Click Project and select Add Graph. Select the Rectangular plot. Options > Project Options, and then add the start, stop and step frequency, and click apply. After this click Ok. Right click Graph 1 in the project tab and select Add Measurement.

Measurement Type: Port Parameters Measurement: S Data Source Name: EM Structure 1 To Port Index: 1 From Port Index: 1 Click Apply, and then click Ok.

Adding Project Frequencies

1. Choose Options > Project Options. The Project Options dialog box displays. Click the Frequencies tab to specify global frequency values. 2. To specify a frequency sweep, enter values for Start, Stop, and Step. To specify a frequency point, select the Single Point check box, and enter a Point value. 3. Click Apply and then OK.

Analyzing the Design

Click simulate > analyze