A miniaturized Vivaldi antenna by loading with parasitic patch and lumped resistor

A miniaturized Vivaldi antenna is presented in the paper. On the basis of original antenna, the miniaturized Vivaldi antenna applies parasitic patch and lumped resistor to improve impedance characteristics. The proposed load can expand the lower operating frequency to 1.96 GHz without changing antenna dimensions. The size of antenna is set as 43 × 40 mm². This size is about 0.28λ_L × 0.26λ_L, where λ_L is the free space wavelength at 1.96 GHz. The loaded Vivaldi antenna is fabricated and measured. The simulated and measured results clarify the viability and effectiveness of the proposed design. The measured impedance bandwidth (VSWR ≤ 2) is from 2 GHz to more than 18 GHz. In addition, the measured radiation patterns and a peak gain between −1 and 9 dB can be obtained in the band of 2–18 GHz.     

Via-less CRLH-TL unit cells loaded compact and bandwidth-enhanced metamaterial based antennas

The via-less composite right hand left hand (CRLH)-TL unit cells loaded compact and bandwidth-enhanced metamaterial (MTM) antennas have been designed and experimentally investigated. Four novel unit cells are designed and its dispersion characteristics of the proposed unit cells are numerically calculated which follows CRLH-TL properties. Further, the conventional metallic vias of CRLH-TL have been eliminated to increase the fabrication flexibility. The four CRLH-TL unit cells are loaded into monopole antennas which result, four via-less open-ended MTM antennas respectively. Its ZOR (zeroth order resonance) bandwidth is increased by realizing small shunt capacitance and large shunt inductance. Further, to increase overall antenna bandwidth, merging of ZOR mode to the higher and lower order modes into a single pass band has been done by realizing proper CRLH-TL unit cells. The each proposed antenna has a dimension of 0.13λ₀ × 0.08λ₀ × 0.0085λ₀, where the free space wavelength λ₀ at 1.6 GHz. The four proposed antennas have S₁₁ < −10 dB fractional bandwidths (FBW) 173% (1–13.6 GHz), 169% (1.2–14.5 GHz), 158% (1.6–13.5 GHz) and 158% (1.6–13.5 GHz) respectively. The optimum gain and desired radiation characteristics have been obtained for all proposed antennas, which can be suitable for UWB applications. The CST-MWS has been used for the parametric study of the proposed antennas. A good agreement has been observed between simulated and experimental results.     

Corrugated SIW K band horn antenna

In the recent years, the strong demand for high performance, low cost and high gain antennas for telecommunication, surveillance, and imaging applications has rapidly grown at microwave and higher frequencies. High speed wireless links require modular, compact size and high directivity with low cross polarization antennas. To demonstrate the proposed concepts and design features, in this paper, a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) feeding technique has been created having well behaved gain and suitable −10 dB bandwidth from 23.8 GHz to 25.7 GHz (roughly 2 GHz bandwidth), while the impedance bandwidth for VSWR < 2.5 is nearly 3 GHz. The simulated antenna attains 12.5 ± 1 dB gain over majority of K band with an occupied size of 82 mm × 40 mm × 2.54 mm and has roughly 95% radiation efficiency. The proposed antenna is an excellent candidate for integrated low cost K band and even higher frequency systems. The simulations are done by two full wave packages i.e. ANSYS HFSS and CST MWS that associated with finite element method (FEM) and finite difference time domain (FDTD), respectively. The results show good agreements between these two methods.     

A printed monopole ellipzoidal UWB antenna with four band rejection characteristics

An antenna design with four band rejection characteristics for UWB application is demonstrated. The proposed unique UWB antenna has shape of an embedded ellipse at top of trapezoidal patch (named as ellipzoidal), 50 Ω impedance microstrip line feed and a truncated beveled ground plane. To realize four band stop characteristics, three inverted U-shaped and a single I-shaped slots each of half guided wavelength are utilized on radiating element. The fabricated antenna has dimensions of 27 mm × 36 mm × 1.6 mm. This four band notched ellipzoidal UWB antenna has measured frequency bandwidth 2.8–14 GHz for magnitude of S₁₁ < −10 dB level. The measured ellipzoidal antenna exhibits four band rejection characteristics for magnitude of S₁₁ > −10 dB at 3.55 GHz for WiMAX band (3.26–3.9 GHz), 4.55 GHz for ARN band (4.35–5.05 GHz), 5.7 GHz for WLAN band (5.5–6.65 GHz) and 8.8 GHz for ITU-8 band (7.95–9.35 GHz). The proposed ellipzoidal UWB antenna maintains omnidirectional radiation pattern, gain, linear phase response, <1 ns group delay, and transfer function in the whole UWB operating bandwidth except at notched frequency bands.     

A wideband high gain dielectric resonator antenna for RF energy harvesting application

A novel high gain and broadband hybrid dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is designed and experimentally validated. To obtain the wide impedance bandwidth, the proposed antenna geometry combines the dielectric resonator antenna and an underlying slot with a narrow rectangular notch, which effectively broadens the impedance bandwidth by merging the resonances of the slot and DRA. An inverted T-shaped feed line is used to excite both antennas, simultaneously. It supports amalgamation of different resonant modes of the both, DRA and slot antenna. The measured results show that the proposed antenna offers an impedance bandwidth of 120% from 1.67 to 6.7 GHz. The antenna gain is next enhanced by a reflector placed below the antenna at an optimum distance. On engineering the height and dimension of this reflector the antenna gain is improved from 2.2 dBi to 8.7 dBi at 1.7 GHz. Finally, antenna operation is attested experimentally with a rectifier circuit in the frequency range of 1.8–3.6 GHz, where various strong radio signals are freely available for RF energy harvesting. The measured maximum efficiency of the rectifier and rectenna circuit were found to be 74.4% and 61.4%, respectively.     

Design and analysis of implantable CPW fed bowtie antenna for ISM band applications

A novel implantable coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed crossed bowtie antenna is proposed for short-range biomedical applications. The antenna is designed to resonate at 2.45 GHz, one of the industrial-scientific-medical (ISM) bands. It is investigated by use of the method of moments design equations and its simulation software (IE3D version 15). The size of the antenna is 371.8 mm³ (26 mm × 22 mm × 0.65 mm). The simulated and analyzed return losses are −23 and −25 dB at the resonant frequency of 2.45 GHz. We have analyzed some more performances of the proposed antenna and the results show that the proposed antenna is a perfect candidate for implantation. The proposed antenna has substantial merits like low profile, miniaturization, lower return loss and better impedance matching with high gain over other implanted antennas.     

UWB Metamaterial-based miniaturized planar monopole antennas

In this paper, ultra wide band (UWB) metamterial based compact planar antennas have been designed and experimentally verified. Four novel unit cells have been realized and each unit cell dispersion characteristics are numerically calculated which follows CRLH-TL properties. These four CRLH-TL unit cells are loaded into monopole antennas which result, four open-ended MTM antennas respectively. Further, a novel via free version of CRLH-TL unit cells have been designed, which increases the fabrication flexibility. The compactness has been achieved by realizing ZOR (zeroth order resonance) mode and its bandwidth is increased by realizing small shunt capacitance and large shunt inductance. Further, by optimizing CRLH-TL unit cells, two closely spaced zeroth-order and first-order resonance modes are merged into a single pass band, which gives wide bandwidth. The each proposed antenna has a compact dimension of 0.27 λ₀ × 0.19 λ₀ × 0.02 λ₀ (22 × 15 × 1.6 mm³), where λ₀ is a free space wavelength at 3.8 GHz. The four proposed antennas have S₁₁ < −10 dB impedance bandwidths of 8.4 GHz, 8.5 GHz, 8.2 GHz and 8.3 GHz respectively. The optimum gain, good efficiency, desired radiation characteristics in frequency domain analysis and less distortion of waves in time domain analysis have been achieved for proposed antennas, which are most suitable for UWB applications. The CST-MWS has been used for the parametric study of the proposed antennas. A good agreement has been observed between simulated and experimental results.     

Wheel shaped modified fractal antenna realization for wireless communications

A compact, low profile circular fractal patch antenna with low latency, low cost, high speed and multiband is presented. With the help of CST Microwave Studio Suite TM the proposed structure has been designed and analyzed. The simulated results are fixed experimentally. The suggested antenna has dimension of 32 × 36 mm² (W × L) and operating from 2.93 GHz–9.53 GHz with VSWR ≤ 2. The aerial is assembled on FR-4 (ε_r = 4.4) substrate with a thickness of substrate 1.25 mm. Detailed parametric studies of the antennas have been carried out. This microstrip fed antenna is suitable for ultra wideband (UWB), S, C and part of the X band applications.     

Design of a compact U-shaped slot triple band antenna for WLAN/WiMAX applications

This article presents a small, low-profile planar microstrip antenna that is applicable for both WLAN and WiMAX applications. The goal of this paper is to design an antenna which can excite triple-band operation with appreciable impedance bandwidth to combine WLAN/WiMAX communication specifications simultaneously in one device. The designed antenna has a compact size of 10 × 26 mm². The proposed antenna consists of an inverted U-shaped slot radiator and a defected ground plane. Overall the design method and parametric study found appropriate dimensions, which provides three distinct bands I from 2.40 to 2.52, II from 3.40 to 3.60 and III from 5.00 to 6.00 GHz that covers entire WLAN (2.4/5.2/5.8 GHz) and WiMAX (2.5/3.5/5.5) bands. Finally, a prototype antenna was fabricated and experimentally characterized to verify the design concept as well as to validate the simulation results. Thus the simulation results along with the measurements show that the antenna can simultaneously operate over WLAN and WiMAX frequency bands.     

A compact double-sided MIMO antenna with an improved isolation for UWB applications

This paper presents compact size 4 × 4 cm² MIMO antenna for UWB applications. The proposed antenna consists of four symmetric circular elements printed on low cost FR4 substrate with partial slotted ground plane. The two sides of the substrate are symmetric and each side is consisting of two radiators with the partial ground planes associated to the two other elements mounted on the other side. The two elements of the front side are orthogonal to the two other elements of the back side in order to increase the isolation between elements. For further reduction in the mutual coupling between elements, decoupling structures are presented in the top and bottom layers of the substrate. The simulated and measured results are investigated to study the effectiveness of the MIMO-UWB antenna. The results demonstrate the satisfactory performance of MIMO-UWB antenna, which has a return loss less than −10 dB from approximately 3.1 GHz to more than 11 GHz with an insertion loss lower than −20 dB through the achieved frequency band, and a correlation less than 0.002. Moreover, the proposed MIMO model exhibits a nearly omni-directional radiation pattern with almost constant gain of average value 3.28 dBi.     

A Compact CPW-Fed Planar Stacked Circle Patch Antenna for Wideband Applications

The article investigates the performance of planar and compact CPW-fed microstrip patch antenna that offers 10 dB impedance bandwidth over the wide frequency range between 2.59 and 7.61 GHz. The parametric analysis of various design variables is included to acquire the final design of proposed antenna. The prototype exemplary of designed antenna is experimentally tested to obtain the return loss, VSWR, radiation response and gain characteristics. The close agreement is acquired between simulated and experimental results.The projected antenna has compact size of 0.61λ₀ × 0.44λ₀ × 0.027λ₀ mm³ and offers a 10 dB wide impedance bandwidth of 5.02 GHz. Thus, it may be considered suitable for variety of wireless applications including WLAN, Wi-MAX, fixed satellite services, wireless point-to-point applications etc.

     

A compact low-profile dual-band antenna for WLAN and WAVE applications

A compact and low-profile patch antenna with a simple structure is presented for the wireless local-area network (WLAN) and the wireless access in the vehicular environment (WAVE) applications. The proposed antenna with an overall size of only 23 mm × 25 mm is fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW), and yields 10-dB impedance bandwidths of about 250 MHz centered at 2.44 GHz and of about 22% ranging from 5.13 to 6.38 GHz suitable for the WLAN 2.4/5.2/5.8 GHz and the WAVE 5.9 GHz (IEEE 802.11p) applications. Also, good dipole-like patterns and high average antenna gain of ≥2.3 dBi over the operating bands have been obtained. In this design, resonance can be effectively controlled by simply tuning the shaped slots on the patch. Mechanism of mode excitations and effect of the added slot's length on resonance for the proposed antenna are examined and discussed in detail. The experimental results have validated the proposed design as useful for modern mobile communication.     

Multiband monopole antenna loaded with Complementary Split Ring Resonator and C-shaped slots

This paper presents a compact semi circular monopole antenna loaded with Complementary Split Ring Resonator (CSRR) and two C-shaped slots is proposed for Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and C-band applications. The size of the proposed antenna is 20 × 20 × 0.5 mm³. The resonance frequency of WiMAX (3.73 GHz) is achieved by introducing CSRR slots on the ground plane. To realize multiband characteristics for GSM (1.77 GHz), WiMAX (2.6 GHz) and C-band (4.15 GHz), two C-shaped slots of quarter wavelength are introduced in radiating element. The extraction procedure of negative permittivity for the proposed CSRR is discussed in detail. The proposed antenna is fabricated and measured. Simulated and measured results are in good agreement. Omni directional radiation pattern is obtained in H-plane and bi directional radiation pattern is obtained in E-plane. Parametric study of CSRR and C-shaped slot are examined to obtain best results. The proposed antenna has significant advantages, including low profile, miniaturization ability, and good impedance matching.     

Broadband proximity fed ring microstrip antenna arrays

Various gap-coupled array configurations of ring microstrip antennas and rectangular slot cut ring microstrip antennas with proximity fed slot cut ring microstrip antenna for larger bandwidth and gain are proposed. The rectangular slot in ring patch reduces its orthogonal TM₀₁ and TM₀₂ mode resonance frequencies and along with TM₁₀ modes of fed and parasitic ring patches, yields broadband response. The gap-coupled configuration with ring patch and slot cut ring patch yields bandwidth of nearly 430 MHz with broadside radiation pattern and peak gain of more than 9 dBi. By gap-coupling ring patches along all the edges of proximity fed pair of slot cut ring patch, a 3 × 3 ring microstrip antenna array is realized. It yields bandwidth of more than 460 MHz with peak gain of more than 10 dBi. To further improve upon the bandwidth, a 3 × 3 array of ring patches in which rectangular slot is first cut on the edges of ring patch which are gap-coupled along x-axis and further cut inside the patches which are gap-coupled along x and diagonal axes, is proposed. Both of these configurations yield bandwidth of more than 500 MHz (>45%) with a peak gain of around 10 dBi.     

Low power high gain CMOS LNA based on inverter cell and self-body bias for UWB receivers

A low-power low-noise amplifier (LNA) utilized a resistive inverter configuration feedback amplifier to achieve the broadband input matching purposes. To achieve low power consumption and high gain, the proposed LNA utilizes a current-reused technique and a splitting-load inductive peaking technique of a resistive-feedback inverter for input matching. Two wideband LNAs are implemented by TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The first LNA operates at 2–6 GHz. The minimum noise figure is 3.6 dB. The amplifier provides a maximum gain (S₂₁) of 18.5 dB while drawing 10.3 mW from a 1.5-V supply. This chip area is 1.028×0.921 mm². The second LNA operates at 3.1–10.6 GHz. By using self-forward body bias, it can reduce supply voltage as well as save bias current. The minimum noise figure is 4.8 dB. The amplifier provides a maximum gain (S₂₁) of 17.8 dB while drawing 9.67 mW from a 1.2-V supply. This chip area is 1.274×0.771 mm².     

Resonant characteristics of aperture type FSS and its application in directivity improvement of microstrip antenna

In this paper, we propose an aperture type frequency selective surface (FSS) by employing an array of 12 × 12 unit cell elements and its resonant characteristics is analyzed. A resonant cavity antenna is then formed by the ground plane substrate and the FSS superstrate. The high reflective behavior of the proposed FSS at an offset of the resonance is then utilized for improving the performance of this cavity antenna. The impedance bandwidth and directivity are improved up to 0.66 GHz and 8.95 dBi, simultaneously at an optimum gap of 17.6 mm between the antenna substrate and FSS superstrate. For validation purpose, prototypes of both patch antenna and FSS, are fabricated and characterized. A fairly good agreement is achieved between the measured and simulated results.     

Hexagonal boundary Sierpinski carpet fractal shaped compact ultrawideband antenna with band rejection functionality

In this paper a second iteration Sierpinski carpet fractal shape UWB antenna with hexagonal boundary is presented. The antenna covers the frequency band from 3 GHz to 12 GHz (VSWR ≤ 2). The proposed antenna has the capability to reject 5.15–5.825 GHz band assigned for IEEE802.11a and HIPERLAN/2 which is achieved by embedding a ‘Y’ shaped slot in the radiator that extends to the central conductor of the CPW feed as well. A fabricated prototype is developed where the simulation and experimental results are in good agreement. Measured peak antenna gain varies from 1.25 dBi to 6 dBi within the band. The proposed antenna has a compact size of 33 mm × 32 mm that includes the substrate around the radiating element. Time domain characteristic reveal that the antenna is non-dispersive with a variation of measured group delay within 0.5 ns over the entire band.     

Dual band monopole antenna based on metamaterial structure with narrowband and UWB resonances with reconfigurable quality

In this article, an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) monopole antenna based on Metamaterial (MTM) unit cell with reconfigurable feature has been developed. The proposed antenna covers 3.1–10.6 GHz for UWB applications and it has a reconfigurable narrow-band for L-band (1.27 GHz) and wireless applications. The gaps in Split Rings Resonator (SRR) element are made for the Left-hand capacitance and Ω-shape strip layer by four via junctions are used for Left-hand inductance. The antenna is printed on FR-4 low cost substrate with relative permittivity of 4.4 and thickness of 1.6 mm. The total size of the antenna is 40 mm × 40 mm. The simulation is carried out using HFSS commercial full-wave software. In addition, the experimental results are presented and compared with simulated results. The antenna gives a maximum peak gain of 6 dBi with Omni-Directional radiation pattern and high efficiency of more than 70%. By embedding four switches in Ω-shape strip layer, a reconfigurable antenna has been successfully designed for wireless applications with sufficient qualification. The monopole part covers the UWB spectrum and the CRLH is responsible for the controllable narrowband resonance. The simulation and experimental results are confirmed by the numerical results.     

Design of a novel bandwidth-enhanced double-slot TSA and analysis according to the microwave network theory

In this paper, a novel bandwidth-enhanced ultra-wideband (UWB) tapered slot antenna with Y-shaped corrugated edges, is proposed. In the double-slot structure, the two slots are separated by a V-shaped metal surface with straight edges, which is beneficial to improve the directivity of the antenna. Meanwhile, an exponential Y-shaped corrugated edge is designed. This novel corrugated edge can not only improve the impedance bandwidth, but also enhance the gain of the antenna. Additionally, according to the theory of microwave network, this paper analyzes the reason of bandwidth enhancement realized by double-slot structure. The proposed antenna provides 167% fractional bandwidth from 2.5 GHz to 28 GHz. The gain of the proposed antenna is more than 10 dB from 3.5 GHz to 25 GHz, and more than 8 dB at the whole operating band.     

Compact Chip-Resistor Loaded Active Integrated Patch Antenna for ISM Band Applications

As technology is moving towards miniature structures, demand for designing efficient compact antennas is increasing simultaneously. So it would be valuable to improve the features of small antennas, such as bandwidth and gain. A compact chip-resistor loaded microstrip antenna at 2.48 GHz frequency for industrial scientific and medical (ISM) band, with dimensions of 10 × 10 mm² is presented in this paper. With a novel geometry design, antenna is promoted to an active integrated antenna (AIA) on a two-layer printed circuit board (PCB), which contains passive antenna and active circuitry with a common ground plane. A monolithic amplifier is used to have an improvement around 10 dB in antenna gain. The impedance bandwidth has been increased during chip-resistor loading and adding active circuitry processes. For chip-resistor loaded antenna, that is 5.7 and 9.48% in simulation and measurement respectively. Moreover, the active integrated antenna has the measured impedance bandwidth of 58.7%. Since the low gain and narrow bandwidth of compact microstrip antennas might be a challenge for their operation, by compensating these drawbacks, proposed antenna would become more practical for special medical diagnostic applications, where doctors need stronger signals for monitoring.