The design of Broad Band Circularly Polarized

Microstrip Antenna
T.B. Chen, Y.C. Jiao, and F.S. Zhang
National Laboratory of Antennas and Microwave Technology, Xidian University,

Xi’an 710071, P. R. China

the Wilkinson power divider as the feeds, which can achieve
Abstract–A broadband circularly polarized microstrip antenna
circular polarization in required bandwidth.
is provided in this paper. Such antenna with dual substrate and
one air layer, and single circular metal disk as radiate patch. The
dual capacitively coupled feed disk are contacted with the II. The DESIGN of ANTENNA
Wilkinson power divider, the power of the two outputs is equal in A) Wilkinson power divider
amplitude and 90-degree phase shift. The 3dB axial ratio The structure of Wilkinson power divider [4]
is shown in
bandwidth as large as 56%, the VSWR<2-impedance bandwidth
Fig.1, such divider like a 3-port network, the impedance of
of about 64%, the 1dB variation of antenna gain bandwidth of
each port is matched. Port 1 as the input, port2 and port3 as the
about 52%. The polarized feature of antenna pattern is well in
30% bandwidth.
output.
The two output are isolated ( S 23 = S 32 = 0 ). The
I. INTRODUCTION characteristic impedance of two λ/4 offsets is 2Z 0 ,
The microstrip line is mostly applied to integrated circuit, where Z 0 = 50Ω . The S-parameter matrix of Wilkinson
antenna and antenna array since its advantages of light weight, power divider can be expressed as follows:
small size, easy to be fixed with foundation. The structure of ⎡0 1 1 ⎤
j ⎢
microstrip antenna is very simple, which is a printed circuit [S ] = 1 0 0 ⎥⎥ (1)
2⎢
board with all the power dividers, matching network and patch ⎢⎣1 0 0 ⎥⎦

on one side, the metal board on the other side. Now since the The antenna feed system is provided in this section the
more request of broad frequency band for military and demotic left-hand polarized wave is achieved when the port.3 equal in
multi points communication, narrow band of microstrip amplitude with port.2, but phase lead 90 degree, the right-hand
antenna is its constraint to get further development in polarized wave is achieved. The required phase can be

technology. The circular polarization of microstrip antenna is obtained by connected with a λ/4 50 Ω microstrip line.

achieved by use of two feed or a feed with power divider. But

2
the frequency band of such methods is narrow, the 3dB axial
ratio bandwidth as large as 1%[2]. A kind of antenna with the 1
combination of high dielectric constant substrate and air layer 3
is provided in this paper, a air layer in middle position with a
layer of substrate in each side, the circular metal disk as the
radiate patch. Such antenna can achieve broadband. Dual Fig.1 Wilkinson power divider

circular metal disk feed by capacitively coupled contact with

0-7803-9433-X/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE. APMC2005 Proceedings

 y

Radiate patch d x
R

h1 , ε1
r l
Substrate 2 l
groundplane 1
h2 , ε 2
Fig.3 ANSOFT emulation model
2 3
Fig.2 profile of antenna
TABLE 1 Principle parameters of antenna

B) The Principle Structure of Antenna f(GHz) 25 w2 (mm) 0.2 h (mm) 0.2

The antenna is comprised of two layers of substrate and ε 4.4 r(mm) 0.41 R(mm) 2.1
one layer of air. The basic structure is shown in Fig.2. A variety
εe 3.3324 l1 (mm) 1 d(mm) 1.65
of antenna principle parameters are designed at first, then
emulation is developed by use of ANSOFT HFSS9.0 software, λ e (mm) 6.574 l 2 (mm) 0.2 w1 (mm) 0.385

where the structure of antenna get optimized, the HFSS model

TABLE 2 Relationships among different parts
is shown in [Link] input signal is divided in two routes with
equal amplitude and difference phase by Wilkinson power R = 0.328λ e r = 0.19 R
divider as figure 3 show. Where the signal feed into two l1 = 0.082λ0 l 2 = 0.205l 2
capacitively coupled patch through metal pillars across down
d = 0.251λ e
layer of substrate and ground plane. The principle parameters
of antenna are shown in Table 1.
III. .SIMULATION RESULT
In Table.1, ε is relative dielectric constant, the FR4
According to former analysis, the optimization of
substrate is used in design. ε is equivalent dielectric constant.
e
microstrip antenna is presented, and the great simulation result
λ e is equivalent wavelength of microstrip, w1 is the width of
is achieved in broadband.
50 Ω microstrip and w is the width of 100 Ω microstrip. The
2

thickness of two layer of substrate h is 0.2mm, the size of

groundplane is 10 × 10 mm . The distance from groundplane to
2

the upper substrate is l . l is distance from capacitively

1 2

coupled patch to the upper substrate. h should be further

smaller than l as usual. R is the radius of circular patch; r is
1

the radius of capacitively coupled patch. D is the position of

feed point. The relationship among different parts of microstrip
antenna is shown in Table 2.

Fig.4 Axial-ratio of antenna

 Fig.8 H-field pattern f=21GHz

Fig.5 VSWR of antenna

Fig.9 E-field pattern f=28GHz

Fig.6 Antenna gain

Fig.4 show the axial characteristic curve of antenna,

3-dB axial bandwidth is 14.2GHz and 56% to the central
Fig.10 H-field pattern f=28GHz
frequency. Fig.5 show the VSWR curve, the bandwidth
of VSWR<2 is about 15.9GHz and 64% to the central Fig.7-Fig.8 shows the left-hand CP radiation pattern in
frequency. The gain characteristic curve of antenna is 21Ghz, the pattern in 28Ghz are shown in Fig.9-Fig.10.
shown in Fig.6, the variation of gain is among 2.6dB The patterns of antenna in 21-28Ghz are efficient.
through 3-dB axial bandwidth, the maximum value of
gain is about 7.59dBi. IV. CONCLUSION
The broadband CP microstrip antenna is provideded in
this paper, the main characteristic of structure are feed by
capacitively coupled disk, divided by Wilkinson power
divider. A λ 4 microstrip transformed line contact with
each out port of divider to achieve circular polarization.
Simulation result show the polarization characteristic is
well, 3dB axial ratio bandwidth as large as 56%, the
VSWR<2 impedance bandwidth of about 64%, the 1dB
Fig.7 E-field pattern f=21GHz
variation of antenna gain bandwidth of about 52%. The
polarization pattern of antenna keeps well among
21-28Ghz.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by the National Laboratory of pp.1648-1652, 1984
Antennas and Microwave Technology, Xidian University. [3] F.E. Gardiol and J. F. Zuercher:“ Broadband patch antennas A SSFIP
The authors would like to thank the reviewers whose update”, in IEEE [Link], pp.2-5, 1996
thoughtful comments added to the efficacy of this paper. [4] K. B. Hsieh, M. H. Chen, and K. L. Wong:“ Single-feed dual band
circularly polarized antenna”, Electron. Lett. 1170-1171, June 11,1998
REFERENCE [5] D.M. Pozar and S.M. Duffy:“ A dual band circularly Polarized
[1] C. Y. Huang, J. Y. Wu, K. L. Wong:“ Slot-coupled microstrip antenna for aperture-coupled stacked microstrip antenna for global position Satellite”,
broadband circular polarization”, Electron, lett.34, 835-836, April 30, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat.45, 1618-1625, Nov 1997
1998 [6] Kin-lu Wong:“ Broad-band single-patch circularly polarized microstrip
[2] G. A. E. Vandenbosch and A. R. Van de Capelle:“ Study of the capacitively antenna with dual capactively coupled feeds”, IEEE Transactions on
fed microstrip antenna”, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat, vol.42, antennas and propagation, vol.49, NO.1, January 2001