Received October 2, 2017, accepted November 1, 2017, date of publication November 14, 2017,

date of current version February 14, 2018.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2773566

Design of Wideband Circularly Polarized Vivaldi

Antenna With Stable Radiation Pattern
XUE REN 1,2 , (Student Member, IEEE), SHAOWEI LIAO3 , (Senior Member, IEEE),
AND QUAN XUE3 , (Fellow, IEEE)
1 StateKey Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2 Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Millimeter-Wave and Wideband Wireless Communications, City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Research Institute,
Shenzhen 518057, China
3 School of Electronic and Information Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China.

Corresponding author: Quan Xue (eeqxue@[Link])

This work was supported by the Science Technology and Innovation Committee of Shenzhen under Grant JSGG20150331154209122.

ABSTRACT This paper presents a wideband circularly polarized (CP) antenna based on two Vivaldi antenna
elements. The two elements are orthogonally placed for compact consideration, and are driven by a specially
designed wideband feeding network that splits the input signal into two-way signals with equal magnitude
and orthogonal phase. In order to avoid crossing of the feeding lines of two Vivaldi elements, a small shift
between them is introduced. This, however, will result in the undesired phase difference of two Vivaldi
elements inevitably. To compensate the phase difference and ensure a wide axial ratio bandwidth, the feeding
network is specially designed. Besides, to make full use of the antenna space, the feeding network is placed
on the surface of two Vivaldi elements. For demonstration purpose, a prototype is fabricated. The measured
results show a -10 dB impedance bandwidth of 101.3% (2.35 to 7.18 GHz) and 3 dB axial-ratio bandwidth
of 118.4% (2.05 to 8 GHz), and the maximum realized gain is 7.5 dBic. Meanwhile, stable radiation patterns
are achieved with the cross-polarization lower than −20 dB across the wide operating bandwidth at boresight
direction.

INDEX TERMS Wideband, circular polarization, Vivaldi antenna, phase compensation.

I. INTRODUCTION for directivity improvement or gain enhancement [10]–[13],

Circularly polarized (CP) antennas provide a stable link ultra-wideband application [14]–[18], miniaturization [19],
between thetransmitting and receiving terminals. Compared and dual-polarization application [20]. Due to its inherent
with linearly polarized (LP) antennas, CP ones have advan- advantage, some researchers also have developed some CP
tages of suppressing multipath interference and reducing antennas by using the Vivaldi structure, which also feature
polarization mismatch. Therefore, CP antenna has been with wide bandwidth and high gain [21]–[23]. In [21], the CP
widely studied in recent years to fulfill different applications. performance was realized by four adjacently vertical placed
With the development of the modern communication sys- antenna elements. Obviously, this will lead to a bulky struc-
tems, wide bandwidth, high gain, and stable radiation pattern, ture. The proposed antenna in [22] exhibits an impressive
and high gain are main concerns in CP antenna design. Of wideband −10 dB return loss and 3 dB axial ratio (AR)
these special demands. Wide bandwidth is crucial for sys- bandwidth. Nevertheless, its radiation pattern is unstable at
tem integration, frequency scanning, and certain wideband high frequencies, which may limit its application in frequency
system applications. As a result, many different types of scanning systems. In [23], four half Vivaldi elements were
wideband CP antennas have been reported, such as spiral placed in a metal cavity and fed at bottom of antenna to real-
antenna [1], [2], loop antenna [3], [4], aperture antenna [5], ize CP performance with a compact structure. The antenna
antenna arrays [6], [8], etc. showed a -10 dB return loss bandwidth of 57.3% and -3 dB
The Vivaldi antenna was first described by Gibson AR bandwidth of 41.4%. Yet the slot for coupling feed dete-
in 1979 [9]. This type antenna was then widely studied riorates front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern. Besides,
and applied in wireless communication system due to its its operating band is limited by the AR bandwidth.
wide bandwidth, simple structure, and high gain. Recently, In this paper, a new cross-shaped Vivaldi antenna with
various modified LP Vivaldi antennas have been proposed wideband (101.3%) and right-handed (RH) CP radiation is

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 X. Ren et al.: Design of Wideband CP Vivaldi Antenna With Stable Radiation Pattern

FIGURE 1. Perspective view of the proposed wideband CP antenna.

FIGURE 2. Perspective View of the antenna main body.

proposed. With proper design of the main body and quadra-
ture wideband power divider, a wide bandwidth of return loss
and AR are achieved simultaneously. Besides, the radiation 0.508 mm, a dielectric constant of 3.36 and tangent loss
pattern is stable in passband of the antenna. The feeding of 0.0016 is used. Margin area of the Vivaldi antenna element
network is integrated on the surface of the proposed antenna, is utilized to implement the feed network. Thus, no additional
enabling the antenna could make full use of the antenna space. substrate is needed and the proposed antenna’s structure is
As the feeding structures of the two Vivaldi elements are simplified. For better understanding and analyzing, we divide
not exactly the same, this will introduce extra phase shift, the CP antenna into two parts, i.e., main body and feeding
and then lead to deterioration of AR at boresight radiation. network.
To deal with this problem and ensure a wide AR bandwidth,
the feeding network is specially designed to compensate the A. MAIN BODY
phase shift. The perspective view of the designed CP antenna’s main body
Section II of the paper describes the operating prin- is given in Fig. 2. The additional length of the input transmis-
ciple, main body and feeding network of the proposed sion line is utilized to facilitate analyzation. The two elements
CP antenna. The design procedures are also given in this are almost 90◦ symmetrical, except the two microstrip-to-
section. Section III presents the assembled antenna, measure- slotline transitions, one of which is placed above the other
ment results, and discussion. Finally, Section IV gives the to avoid overlapping at the cross-over. Fig. 3 shows the
conclusion. detailed structure of element 1 and element 2. The tapered
microstrip line, microstrip-to-slotline transition, open-ended
II. ANTENNA DESIGN slotline, and open-ended microstrip line (r1 , r2 , lp , wp ) are
The basic structure of the CP antenna is composed of two used to improve the impedance matching and excite the expo-
orthogonally placed Vivaldi elements and a quadrature feed- nentially tapered slot antenna effectively. In reality, a slot with
ing network. The proposed wideband CP antenna is realized the width of Hsub should be etched on element 1 at the half
by connecting the main body and feeding network properly. upper part along the center line, also, the same slot should be
Fig. 1 illustrates the configuration and coordinate system of etched on element 2 at the half lower part along the center
the proposed CP antenna. Each Vivaldi element can produce line to realize the compact cross-placing implement strategy,
a LP radiation. Therefore, by feeding the two elements with as shown in Fig. 3. Therefore, the transmission lines on ele-
two signals of equal amplitude and 90◦ phase difference, ment 2 has to be cut off at the center line. Here, the metalized
the circularly polarized antenna can be realized. The antenna via and patches etched on both sides of the substrate are used
can inherit the merits of Vivaldi element, including wideband to reconnect the cut off transmission line. The via is shown
and high gain. Unlike its former CP counterparts, the pro- in the inset of Fig. 3 (b). The exponential curve C1 follows
posed antenna is constructed by two crossly placed Vivaldi to following equation
reduce the overall size. Furthermore, to make good use of the
y = B1 eRz + B2 (1)
antenna’s space. The feeding network is etched on the surface
of two Vivaldi elements. The output ports of feeding network where B1 and B2 are constant, and R is the exponential factor.
connecting with the tapered microstrip line section of antenna The parameter g in Fig. 3 (b) denotes this shift between
main body. The substrate Rogers 4350 with a thickness of two microstrip-to-slotline transitions of the two elements.

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FIGURE 4. The phase difference of far field when element 1 and element
2 are excited in phase respectively (g=2mm).

FIGURE 3. Structure of antenna element 1 and element 2 (a) Top view of

element 1 (the Hsub in element 1 is the substrate thickness of element 2);
(b) Top view of element 2 (the side view of element 1 is ignored for
clarify).

FIGURE 5. AR performance of the antenna in Fig. 1 (line with symbol) fed

by ideal orthogonal signals (g=2mm), and the simulated and measured
If the shift was zero, the two elements should be fed by AR of fabricated CP antenna.
two signals with equal amplitude and ideal quadrature phase
difference to produce an ideal CP radiation at boresight direc-
tion. This shift, however, inevitably introduces some phase
shift between two elements in far field. As shown in Fig. 4,
the phase difference becomes larger at higher frequencies,
which will deteriorate the AR bandwidth. Fig. 5 shows the AR
performance of the main body in Fig. 2 when it is fed by ideal
orthogonal signals. It can be seen that it suffers from poor
AR performance at high frequencies. Therefore, in order to
guarantee a wide AR bandwidth, compensation of this phase
shift is necessary. This will be considered in feeding network
design.

B. FEEDING NETWORK AND ANTENNA’S DESIGN

PROCEDURE
To make most of the antenna space, we propose to design FIGURE 6. Structure of feeding network.
feeding network by utilizing the unexploited area of Vivaldi
elements. Thus, no extra substrate is required, which also body. As shown in Fig. 6, it is located on two crossly placed
makes the antenna to be assembled easily. With this motiva- substrates, i.e., substrate 1 and 2. In order to ensure the wide-
tion, we proposed our feeding network in Fig. 6. The feeding band performance, the wideband power divider is constructed
network is designed according to the construction of main by two cascade Wilkinson power dividers. The wideband

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FIGURE 7. Schematic circuit of the stub-loaded phase shifter.

FIGURE 9. Detailed structure of feeding network (a) Top view of substrate

2; (b) Top view of substrate 1 (only the used area is shown for clarity).

FIGURE 8. Comparison of cumulative phase shift among stub-loaded

phase shifter, three quarters wavelength and half wavelength
transmission lines.

phase shifter is realized by utilizing the half wavelength trans-

mission line with open-ended stubs and short-ended stubs.
The half wavelength transmission line is chosen because FIGURE 10. Simulated results of the feeding network.
the diameter of the open-ended slot is larger than quarter
wavelength and the impedance of the stubs becomes imprac-
ticable for quarter wavelength. The equivalent circuit model
is shown in Fig. 7. The open-ended and short-ended stubs
are located at the two ends of main transmission line which
makes the phase response more dispersive than conventional
transmission line. The comparison of the cumulative phase
response among this structure, transmission line with length
of half wavelength and three quarters wavelength is shown
in Fig. 8. It can be seen that the stub-loaded phase shifter
shows a more dispersive phase response, thus maintains a
wider bandwidth of 90◦ phase difference with the counterpart
from port 1 to port3, whose electric length is three quarters
wavelength. The detailed structure of the feeding network is
shown in Fig. 9. Also, the metalized via is used to connect
the transmission line that has to be cut off at the center line,
as shown in Fig. 9 (b).
FIGURE 11. Simulated phase difference between two output ports
The assembly method is the same as the main body (port 2 and port 3) of the feeding network in Fig. 6, and phase difference
introduced above, thus, it is not repeated here. The between Ephi and Etheta in far field of the proposed CP antenna.
parameters of the open- ended stubs, short-ended stubs
(ls , lop , lstub ) are tuned to achieve the desired phase tion, the frequency response is shown in Fig. 10, it can be
response. Here, to compensate the phase shift mentioned in seen that wideband power divider is realized. The −15 dB
section II-A, the phase difference between port 2 and port bandwidth of S11 is from 2.9 to 7 GHz with the isolation better
3 should larger than 90◦ correspondingly. After optimiza- than −19.4 dB. In addition, the phase difference between

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FIGURE 13. Photography of the fabricated wideband CP antenna.

to construct the main body according to the structure and

assemble method introduced in section II-A.
2) The second step is to investigate the value of E-field
phase difference in far filed of two LP antennas.
3) The third step is to design the wideband feeding
network. By tuning the parameters of phase shifter,
the quadrature signal can be obtained considering the phase
compensation.
4) The forth step is to connect the main body and feeding
network together. Also, the assemble method is the same
as the main body. The feeding network structure should be
placed at the unexploited area of antenna’s surface to make
the whole structure compact.
5) Finally, optimization of the whole antenna should be
carried out.

III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

FIGURE 12. AR performances vs different length of (a) lop and (b) ls .
The High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) was used to
optimize the proposed wideband CP antenna. The optimized
parameters’ value of wideband CP antenna are shown as
two output ports is shown in Fig. 11. The phase difference follows: wp = 0.2 mm. lp = 25 mm, r1 = 6 mm, r2 = 3 mm,
between two output ports is obviously slightly larger than 90◦ Hsub = 0.508 mm, w0 = 1.15 mm, lslot = 8 mm, wslot =
in the passband. The trend of this phase difference curve is 2 mm, l1 = 40 mm, w1 = 60 mm, g = 1.7 mm, g1 = 0.1 mm,
corresponding opposite to that of the far field phase difference lp1 = 0.8 mm, wp1 = 1 mm, rvia1 = 0.25 mm, r3 = 4 mm,
shown in Fig. 4, which will finally ensure good 90◦ phase r4 = 3 mm, wr3 = 0.42 mm, wr4 = 0.7 mm, lse1 = 20.7 mm,
difference in far filed of CP antenna at higher frequencies. lse2 = 8.4 mm, lse3 = 5 mm, ls = 5.4 mm, ws = 0.14 mm,
As a result, the good and wideband AR performance can be lop = 4.9 mm, wop = 0.14 mm, lstub = 17.56 mm, wstub =
guaranteed. 0.77 mm, rvia2 = 0.25 mm, lse4 = 23.9 mm, lse5 = 17.5 mm,
In order to describe how the parameters affect the AR lpg = 2 mm, wpg = 2 mm, lsg = 3 mm, wsg = 2.5 mm,
performance of proposed CP antenna. Parametric study is rp = 0.77 mm, rvia3 = 0.3 mm ,R1 = 100 , R2 = 200 .
described in this part. Fig. 12 shows the AR performance vari- The phase difference of Ephi and Etheta in far field of
ation with different length of the open-ended stub (lop ) and the proposed wideband CP antenna is shown in Fig. 9.
short-ended stub (ls ). It can be seen that with increasing lop It shows that the phase difference is about −90±10◦
from 2mm, the AR performance will become better. However, from 2 GHz to 7 GHz, which is good for AR perfor-
the AR bandwidth becomes much narrow when it reaches up mance. The fabricated wideband CP antenna is shown
to 6mm. In Fig. 12 (b), the AR deteriorates with the increas- in Fig. 13.
ing of ls . These two parameters affect the AR performance In order to validate the design of the proposed wideband
because they control the purity of quadrature output. antenna, an antenna prototype has been fabricated and tested.
The design procedure of this wideband CP antenna can be A 50 ohm SMA connector was used to feed the antenna,
summarized as follows: as shown in Fig. 13. The vector network analyzer E5071C
1) The first step is to design a LP Vivaldi antenna with was used during the measurement process. Radiation char-
good impedance matching. Then by using two LP antennas acteristics of the antenna were measured in Satimo Near-Field

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FIGURE 14. Simulated and measurement S11 of the proposed CP antenna.

FIGURE 15. Gain and efficiency of the proposed CP antenna.

Measurement System. The simulated and measured results of

S11 are shown in Fig. 14, and it can be seen that the proposed
antenna has a −10 dB impedance bandwidth from 2.35 GHz
FIGURE 16. Simulated and measurement radiation pattern of the
to 7.18 GHz (namely, 101.3%). proposed CP antenna at (a) 3 GHz; (b) 5 GHz; (c) 7GHz.
The simulated AR of the proposed CP antenna shown
in Fig. 5 is corresponding to the phase difference of CP
antenna in Fig. 11. For instance, the phase difference is close that the efficiency is around 85% in passband. The simulated
to −90◦ at 3.5 GHz and 5.8 GHz in Fig. 11. Consequently, AR, Gain, and S11 show good agreement with measured
the AR is close to 0 dB at these two frequencies. The mea- results.
sured AR of fabricated CP antenna is shown in Fig. 5 with Fig. 16 depicts the simulated and measured normalized
a 3 dB AR bandwidth of 118.4% (2.05 GHz to 8 GHz). radiation patterns of the CP antenna in the xz- and yz-plane
Thanks to the compensation on the phase shift introduced at 3 GHz, 5 GHz, and 7 GHz, respectively. At boresight,
by distance between two microstrip-to-slotline transitions the LHCP radiation is about 20 dB lower than the RHCP
on the two elements of antenna main body, the simulated one at both xz- and yz-plane. It can be seen that measured
and measured results exhibit a better AR at high frequen- radiation patterns are stable and symmetrical in the wide
cies. As a result, the proposed antennas shows a wide AR passband. The beamwidth becomes a little narrower with
bandwidth. In addition, the AR bandwidth is superior to frequency increasing, which is due to the increase of realized
the bandwidth of impedance matching, which ensures the gain in operating bandwidth. In addition, the front-to-back
wideband performance of CP antenna. Fig. 15 illustrates the ratio performance is also good. The slight difference between
realized gain of the fabricated CP antenna in the operating the simulated and measured results may due to the imperfect
bandwidth. The measured gain of the antenna is more than hand soldering, fabrication and assembly error.
3 dBic from 2.65 GHz, and the peak gain is about 7.5 dBic The radiation part of the proposed antenna is the tapered
at 7 GHz for RHCP within AR bandwidth. The measured slot. It also can be viewed as a special kind of horn antenna.
efficiency is also presented in Fig. 15. It can be observed While compared with metallic horn antenna, the proposed

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XUE REN (S’17) was born in Henan, China. He QUAN XUE (M’02–SM’04–F’11) received the
received the M.S. degree in electromagnetic fields B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engi-
and microwave technology from the University neering from the University of Electronic Science
of Electronic and Technology of China, Chengdu, and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu,
China, in 2015. From 2015 to 2016, he was a China, in 1988, 1991, and 1993, respectively.
Research Assistant with the Shenzhen Key Labo- In 1993, he joined UESTC as a Lecturer. He
ratory of Millimeter-Wave and Wideband Wireless became a Professor in 1997. From 1997 to
Communications, Shenzhen Research Institute, 1998, he was a Research Associate and then a
City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China. Research Fellow at the Chinese University of
He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with Hong Kong. In 1999, he joined the City University
the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, Department of Electronic of Hong Kong and was a Chair Professor of Microwave Engineering. He
Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and the Shenzhen also served as the Associate Vice President at the Innovation Advancement
Key Laboratory of Millimetre-Wave and Wideband Wireless Communica- and China Office from 2011 to 2015, the Director of the Information and
tions, Shenzhen Research Institute, City University of Hong Kong. His cur- Communication Technology Center, and the Deputy Director of the State
rent research interests include circularly polarized antennas, beamforming Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, Hong Kong. In 2017, he joined the
antennas, metamaterials, and microwave and millimeter-wave circuits. South China University of Technology, where he is currently a Professor
and also serves as the Dean of the School of Electronic and Information
Engineering.
SHAOWEI LIAO (M’13–SM’16) received the He has authored or co-authored over 300 internationally referred journal
Ph.D. degree in electromagnetic fields and papers and over 130 international conference papers. He was the Co-Inventor
microwave technology from the University of of five granted Chinese Patents and 15 granted U.S. Patents, in addition
Electronic Science and Technology of China to 26 filed patents. His research interests include microwave/millimeter-
(UESTC), Chengdu, China, in 2010. From 2007 to wave/THz passive components, active components, antenna, microwave
2009, he was a Research Assistant in the Depart- monolithic integrated circuits, and radio frequency integrated circuits.
ment of Electronics, Carleton University, Canada. He served the IEEE as an AdCom Member of MTT-S from 2011 to 2013.
In 2011, he was at the School of Electronic Engi- He was the recipient of 2017 H. A. Wheeler Applications Prize Paper Award.
neering, UESTC, as a Lecturer. From 2011 to He was an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY
2012, he served as a Senior Research Associate in and TECHNIQUES from 2010 to 2013, the Editor of the International Journal
the Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, of Antennas and Propagation from 2010 to 2013, and an Associate Editor
Hong Kong. From 2012 to 2013, he was at Bell Labs Research in China, of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS from 2010 to 2015.
Shanghai Bell, Alcatel-Lucent, as a Research Scientist. From 2013 to 2017, He is currently an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS on ANTENNA
he was an Engineer with the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, City AND PROPAGATIONS, since 2016.
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. In 2017, he joined the South China
University of Technology, where he is currently an Associate Professor.
Dr. Liao has authored or co-authored over 20 internationally
referred papers in IEEE journals. He is Co-Inventor of five granted
U.S./European/international patents, in addition to six filed patents. He
is the Reviewer of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION,
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, and IEEE MICROWAVE
AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS. He was the recipient of 2017 H. A.
Wheeler Applications Prize Paper Award. His research includes various
antennas, computational electromagnetics, microwave components, and
metamaterials.

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