A high‐gain compact circularly polarized microstrip array antenna with simplified feed network

A broadband high‐gain circularly polarized (CP) microstrip antenna operating in X band is proposed. The circular polarization property is achieved by rotating four narrow band linearly polarized (LP) microstrip patch elements in sequence. Since the conventional series‐parallel feed network is not conducive to the miniaturization of the array, a corresponding simplified feed network is designed to realize the four‐way equal power division and sequential 90° phase shift. With this feed network, the impedance bandwidth (IBW) of the CP array is greatly improved compared with that of the LP element, while maintaining a miniaturized size. Then, parasitic patches are introduced to enhance the axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW). A prototype of this antenna is fabricated and tested. The size of proposed antenna is 0.93λ₀ × 0.93λ₀ × 0.017λ₀ (λ₀ denotes the space wavelength corresponding to the center frequency 10.4 GHz). The measured 10‐dB IBW and 3‐dB ARBW are 13.6% (9.8‐11.23 GHz), 11.2% (9.9‐11.07 GHz) respectively, and peak gain in the overlapping band is 9.8 dBi.     

A compact wideband circularly polarized antenna with two pairs of driven patch arrays

In this article, a new wideband circularly polarized (CP) antenna is presented. The antenna is composed of a circular‐loop feeding structure which provides sequential phase (SP), four primary‐parasitic crown patches and four secondary‐parasitic crown patches. The circular‐loop SP structure is used to feed the two pairs of crown patches by a capacitively coupled way. The presented antenna features a wide 10‐dB impedance bandwidth (IBW) of 23% (6 GHz, 5.31‐6.69 GHz), and a wide 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) of 11.1% (5.875 GHz, 5.55‐6.2 GHz). The proposed antenna features compact structure and broad 3 dB‐ARBW, which could include the WLAN (5.725‐5.85 GHz), ITS (5.8 GHz), and WIFI (5.85‐5.925 GHz) band.     

Epsilon‐shaped circularly polarized strip and slot‐loaded ultra‐wideband antenna for Ku‐band and K‐band

A compact epsilon‐shaped (ε) ultra‐wideband (UWB) antenna for dual‐wideband circularly polarized (CP) applications has been investigated in this article. It consists of a stepped stub loaded modified annular ring‐shaped radiator and modified CPW ground plane. The ground plane is loaded with two semicircular notches and a spiral‐shaped slot. The impedance bandwidth (IBW) is 97.02% (10.4‐30 GHz) along with an overall footprint of 20 × 20 mm². The fractional axial ratio bandwidth (3‐dB ARBW) for two wide bands is 38.50% (13.30‐19.64 GHz) and 6.45% (26.25‐28.00 GHz), respectively. The proposed antenna is left‐hand circularly polarized with a peak gain of about 5.09 and 5.14 dB in both 3‐dB ARBW bands. The proposed antenna is dominating other reported CP antenna structures in terms of number of CP bands, 3‐dB ARBW, IBW, peak gain, and dimensions.     

A new broadband circularly polarized square‐slot antenna with low axial ratios

A new broadband circularly polarized (CP) square‐slot antenna with low axial ratios is proposed in this article. The antenna is comprised of an L‐shaped microstrip line with tapered section and a square‐slot ground plane with some stubs and slots, which are utilized as perturbations for the desirable antenna performance. By loading stubs and slots in the square‐slot ground plane, the 2‐dB axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) and 10‐dB return loss bandwidth for the presented antenna can be markedly improved. The measured results show that its 2‐dB ARBW is 4.2 GHz (54.2% from 5.65 GHz to 9.85 GHz) and its 10‐dB return loss bandwidth is about 8.9 GHz (92.7% from 5.15 GHz to 14.05 GHz). The proposed antenna features compact structure and broad 2‐AR bandwidth which could completely cover the WLAN (5.725‐5.85 GHz) band. Therefore, the proposed antenna is suitable for circular polarization applications in C band.     

Wideband asymmetric microstrip‐fed circularly polarized antenna with monofilar spiral stub for WLAN application

A wideband circularly polarized printed antenna is proposed and fabricated, which employs monofilar spiral stubs and a slit in the asymmetrical ground plane which are fed by an inverted L‐shaped microstrip feedline. The CP operation is realized by embedding an inverted‐L shaped strip and modified ground plane and can be markedly improved by loading monofilar spiral stubs asymmetrically connected at the edge of the ground plane. After optimization, the measured results of the finally structure demonstrate that a 10‐dB bandwidth of 67.6% from 4.6 to 9.3 GHz and a 3‐dB axial‐ratio bandwidth (ARBW) for circular polarization (CP) of 60.1% from 5 to 9.3 GHz could be achieved which could completely cover the WLAN (5.725‐5.85 GHz) band. Therefore, the proposed antenna is suitable for circular polarization applications in C band. To explain the mechanism of broadband circular polarization operation, the analysis of magnetic fields distributions and a parametric study of the design are given. Compared to other recent works, a simpler structure, wider axial ratio and impedance bandwidths and a more compact size are the key features of the proposed antenna.     

Novel dual‐band asymmetric U‐shaped slot antenna for dual‐circular polarization

A novel dual‐band, dual‐circularly polarized antenna is proposed and fabricated. The proposed antenna consists of an asymmetric U‐shaped slot and an inverted L‐shaped slot which are designed to excite two orthogonal E vectors with equal amplitude and 90° phase difference (PD), in addition, fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW) Furthermore, a left‐hand circular polarization in the direction of z > 0 and a right‐hand circular polarization instead of the opposite direction both at the lower and upper bands are exhibited by the radiations of the antenna. Good agreement is achieved between the measurement and simulation, which indicates that a 10‐dB bandwidth of 38.75% from 2.56 to 3.8 GHz and 21.8% from 10.01 to 12.53 GHz, while a 3‐dB axial‐ratio bandwidth (ARBW) of 13.4% from 2.77 to 3.2 GHz and 9.23% from 10.25 to 11.25 GHz at two operation bands, respectively, are covered in the designed antenna. To explain the mechanism of dual‐band dual‐circular polarization, the analysis of magnetic fields distributions and a parametric study of the design are given. Meanwhile, compared to other recent works, a single layer structure, wider axial ratio and impedance bandwidths and a more compact size are the key features of the proposed antenna.     

Dual‐band dual‐polarized compact planar monopole antenna for wide axial ratio bandwidth application

In this article, a geometrically simple, microstrip line‐fed planar monopole structure with slanting edge ground plane is designed to realize the dual‐band dual‐polarized operation. The proposed antenna consists of a rotated U‐shaped patch and an electromagnetically coupled L‐shaped parasitic radiating element. Owing to the combination of microstrip line‐fed radiating patch and a slanting‐edge rectangular ground plane on the opposite side of the substrate, the proposed dual‐band antenna can generate broad axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) in the upper frequency band. The overall dimension of the prototype is only 32 × 32 × 1.6 mm³. The measured results validate that the proposed antenna has two operational frequency bands, 29.84% (1.54‐2.08 GHz) for linearly polarized radiation and 71.85% (3.96‐8.4 GHz) for circularly polarized radiation. Measured result shows that 3‐dB ARBW of the proposed antenna is 73.54% (3.80‐8.22 GHz) in the higher frequency band. It shows that the higher frequency band exhibits a left‐hand circularly polarized radiation in the boresight direction.     

A broadband circularly polarized monopole antenna

A compact modified C‐shaped monopole antenna with broadband circular polarization is proposed, fabricated and measured. The antenna structure is simple and only consists of combined modified C‐shaped radiation patch and an improved ground plane with the overall size of 25 × 25 × 1 mm³. By cutting the corner on the modified C‐shaped patch and adding triangular stubs on the ground plane, the wide impedance bandwidth and axial ratio bandwidth are achieved. The design process of the antenna is given, and the circular polarization mechanism of the circularly polarized antenna is analyzed from the surface current distributions. The measured impedance bandwidth is 95.2% (4.4‐12.4 GHz) with return loss better than 10 dB, and the measured 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth is 96.8% (4.42‐12.72 GHz). The peak gain is above 3.0 dBi within the working band, which indicates that it is suitable for application of ultra‐wideband (UWB) wireless communication systems and satellite communication systems.     

Single layer CPSSA array with change polarization diversity in broadband application

The present study proposes a novel broadband circularly polarized (CP) multiple‐input multiple‐output antenna array designed for C‐band applications. The first step was the introduction of a reconfigurable circularly polarized square slot antenna (CPSSA) capable of changing polarization diversity, which could cover impedance bandwidth (BW) from 4.48 to 8.21 GHz with 1.9 GHz of ?3 dB axial ratio (AR) BW. Then, a feed network composed of 90° and 180° couplers, a crossover, and delay lines was presented. The CPSSA with two metalized via‐holes adopted with two ports polarization diversity fed the networks. A number of reconfigurable CP array antennas using the polarization diversity technique have been presented so far. However, given that the proposed layout designed in a single layer had advantages of reduced antenna size and increased antenna gain and ARBW, this approach has received due attention over recent years. Another promising feature of this approach is its capability to change the polarization diversity by rotation of phases in the array feed network using PIN diodes.     

Reconfigurable wide band circularly polarized antenna array for WiMAX,C‐Band,a and ITU‐R applications with enhanced sequentially rotated feed network

In this article, a wide‐band circularly polarized slot antenna array with reconfigurable feed‐network for WiMAX, C‐Band, and ITU‐R applications is proposed. Different novel methods are used in proposed array to improve antenna features such as impedance matching, 3 dB axial‐ratio bandwidth (ARBW), gain, and destructive coupling effects. Miniaturized dual‐feed square slot antenna, with one attached L‐shaped strip and a pair of T‐shaped strip at ground surface for improving impedance matching and circular polarization (CP) purity, is presented. For further enhancement of CP attributes, reconfigurable sequentially rotated feed network is utilized to obtain wider 3 dB ARBW. Furthermore reconfigurable property of network gives controlling Right and Left handed CPs, respectively. Finally, a special form of Electromagnetic Band gap structure is employed on top layer of substrate that provides high isolation between radiating elements and array feed network to enhance overall performance of antenna. The measured results depict 3 dB ARBW from 4.6 to 7.2 GHz, impedance bandwidth from 3.3 to 8.8 GHz for VWSR<2, and peak gain of 10 dBi at 6 GHz. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:825–833, 2015.     

A wideband circularly polarized antenna array with sequential rotation feed

A novel wideband circularly polarized (CP) antenna array is designed, which consists of a horizontally placed wideband phase shifting feed network and four vertically placed linearly polarized dipole antenna elements, and the circular polarization is realized based on sequential rotation feeding technology. By placing two parasitic strips and two grounding strips on the top and side of each T‐shaped dipole antenna element, the impedance bandwidth and circular polarization performance of the antenna can be further improved. The simulation results show that the 10‐dB impedance bandwidth of the antenna is 93% (1.56‐4.27 GHz) and the 3‐dB AR bandwidth is 80.7% (1.7‐4.0 GHz). The measured results are in good agreement with the simulation results. Due to the use of orthogonally placed wideband feed network and wideband array elements, the proposed antenna array has a wider circular polarization bandwidth than the similar antenna arrays reported.     

A compact double‐layer wideband circularly polarized microstrip antenna with parasitic elements

In this article, a new broadband circularly polarized (CP) microstrip patch antenna (MPA) with a sequential phase (SP) square‐loop feeding structure is proposed. The presented antenna is composed of a square‐loop feeding structure, four L‐shaped parasitic patches with L‐shaped slots, four parasitic square patches, and a corner‐truncated square patch. At first, a SP square‐loop is designed as a feeding structure. Then, four L‐shaped parasitic patches with L‐shaped slots are utilized to generate one CP mode by a capacitive coupled way. At last, four parasitic square patches and a corner‐truncated square patch are together placed above the SP feeding structure to broaden the circularly polarized bandwidth (CPBW). The presented antenna has a wide 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) of 16.7% (5.4 GHz, 4.95‐5.85 GHz), and a wide 10‐dB return loss bandwidth of 25.5% (5.5 GHz, 4.8‐6.2 GHz). The proposed antenna features compact structure and broad 3‐AR bandwidth which could completely cover the WLAN (5.725‐5.85GHz) band. Therefore, the proposed antenna is suitable for circular polarization applications in C band.     

Broadband circularly polarized Z‐shaped dipole antenna with parasitic strips

A Z‐shaped dipole antenna with parasitic strips is proposed for wideband and unidirectional circular polarization operation in this article. The dipole arms are bent into L‐shape for circular polarization, and printed balun is used to achieve good impedance matching. To further extend the axial ratio bandwidth, two parasitic strips are employed to introduce an additional band of circularly polarized operation at the high frequency. Measured results demonstrate that the proposed antenna has a 10‐dB impedance bandwidth of 63.3% (1.64‐3.16 GHz) and a 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 51.1% (1.72‐2.9 GHz). Stable radiation patterns with gain around 9 dBic along +z‐axis are also observed.     

Wideband circularly polarized dielectric resonator antenna coupled with meandered‐line inductor for ISM/WLAN applications

A new meandered‐line inductor fed wideband circularly polarized rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with partial ground plane has been developed in this work. Meandered‐line inductor feed and partial ground plane are used for generation of orthogonal modes, hence circular polarization (CP) in DRA. By controlling the length of meandered‐line inductor, three different CP DRA have been designed for different wireless applications such as Wi‐MAX and WLAN/ISM 2400 band. Distribution of electric field inside rectangular DRA shows that all three antenna having TE_11δ mode. Finally, a lower frequency band application at 2.4 GHz (ISM) called here as Proposed Antenna, has been considered for fabrication. This designed antenna shows measured ?10 dB input impedance bandwidth of 20.67% and 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 27.95% in broadside direction. All these three CP antennas (Antenna‐1 to Proposed Antenna) are showing stable gain and right hand circular polarization in broadside direction.     

Broadband printed quadrifilar helix antenna using parasitic strip technique

A circularly polarized (CP) printed quadrifilar helix antenna (QHA) with enhanced bandwidth is proposed in this communication. This QHA is fed by a feeding structure with superior performance, which uses wide‐band 90° and 180° planar bulun. The feeding network can simply realize the 90° phase shift and four equal power divisions within a wide band range. Enhanced impedance matching and CP radiation characteristics can be achieved with the parasitic strips between helix arms. The study of proposed antenna performance with different geometric parameters has been conducted. The final antenna exhibits a good impedance bandwidth (IBW) of approximately 37.4% (1.65‐2.41 GHz), and the 3‐dB axial‐ratio bandwidth (ARBW) is over 43.9% (1.6‐2.5 GHz). Broad pattern coverage, pure CP radiation at all designed bands and a wide 3 dB axial‐ratio beam width of 150° makes this antenna an excellent candidate for satellite communications and navigation systems.     

Bandwidth enhancement of a circularly polarized tapered crossed slot antenna with corner parasitic directors

This paper presents a single‐feed wideband circularly polarized (CP) antenna with tapered crossed slots and corner directors. According to the multi‐mode resonance concept, the antenna uses two identical cross placed Vivaldi‐like tapered slots as the wideband radiating elements, and four rectangular parasitic patch directors are connected on each corner of the ground for further enhancing the bandwidth. A simple second‐order stepped microstrip line with a via on the other side of the substrate is used to feed the antenna. Two pairs of capacitors and inductors are placed on each slot to realize a 90° phase difference for CP operation. The proposed antenna is designed, fabricated and measured. Simulation results are in good agreement with the measured results that demonstrate a 10 dB impedance bandwidth (IMBW) from 1.98 to 5.71 GHz (3.73 GHz, 97.01%) and a 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) from 2.13 to 3.91 GHz (1.78 GHz, 58.94%). The antenna outperforms most of the reported cross slot antennas for its wide IMBW and ARBW.     

Low‐profile omnidirectional circularly polarized antenna based on substrate integrated waveguide technology

A substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) circularly polarized (CP) antenna with omnidirectional radiation in the azimuthal plane is proposed. The antenna consists of five identical end‐fire CP antenna elements in a pentagonal array configuration, which is loaded on a circular substrate. Each element contains an H‐plane horn antenna in SIW structure and a printed dipole antenna. Five parasitic curve elements are introduced to improve the omnidirectional property of the antenna. Combined with complementary dipoles theory and SIW technology, prototype antenna is designed, fabricated and measured. With a low profile of 0.024λ₀, the antenna has a 10‐dB return‐loss impedance bandwidth of 4.08% (2.4～2.5 GHz) and a 3‐dB axial‐ratio (AR) bandwidth of 5.76% (2.36～2.50 GHz). The antenna works well in the 2.45 GHz ISM band, with good cross‐polarization and excellent omnidirectional property.     

Design of a compact wideband CP metasurface antenna

In this article, a new compact metasurface circularly polarized (CP) antenna is presented, where the rotating 45° periodic ellipse patch is used to achieve polarization conversion from linearly polarized to CP. The meta‐surface is composed of 4 × 4 ellipse patches with 45° rotation, which are etched on the top layer of upper substrate. A slot ground plane and a coplanar waveguide structure are printed on both sides of bottom substrate, and the bottom substrate is directly connected to the upper substrate, which can make the antenna profile lower. As demonstrated in this article, the presented antennas have good characteristics of excellent 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 17.4% (5.25‐6.25 GHz), and wide 10‐dB impedance bandwidth of 20.6% (5.0‐6.15 GHz).     

Mode investigation of parasitic annular ring loaded dual band coplanar waveguide antenna with polarization diversity characteristics

This document presents a dual band dual polarized coplanar waveguide (CPW) antenna with single port feed. Lower resonating band is circular polarized, while the upper band is linear polarized. A novel concept of realizing dual polarization by suppressing the undesired modes is introduced in this work. Orthogonal Even/Odd modes are excited at lower band and a phase difference of 90° is maintained between them. Hence, circular polarization behavior is realized for lower operating band. For upper band, Odd mode is suppressed by introducing step shaped modifications in the ground plane at left side of the feed line, resulting in linear polarized upper band. Dual band nature of the antenna is confirmed by 10 dB impedance bandwidth extending from 3.91‐5.31 GHz to 7.51‐8.72 GHz. Circular polarized nature of lower band is confirmed by enclosure of lower band by 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth extending from 4.01 to 5.59 GHz. Advantages of proposed antenna involves the use of single port feed for generating dual polarization performance along with compact antenna size.(30 × 30 × 1.6 mm³).     

A wideband compact antenna with quad‐circular polarized bands in its operating regions

This article presents the design of an offset CPW‐fed slot antenna which exhibits a narrow impedance bandwidth (IBW; |S₁₁| ≤ ?10 dB) extending from 1.20 GHz to 1.45 GHz and another wide impedance bandwidth from 1.86 GHz to 8.4 GHz thus covering almost all the conventional operating frequencies. The antenna is loaded with semicircular and rectangular stubs and meandered microstrip lines to realize circular polarization at 1.35 GHz, 3.3 GHz, 4.9 GHz, and 7.5 GHz with axial ratio bandwidth (axial ratio ≤ 3 dB) of 19.25% (1.2‐1.46 GHz), 4.24% (3.24‐3.38 GHz), 4.1%(4.8‐5 GHz), and 5.2% (7.3‐7.69 GHz) respectively thus covering the GPS, WiMAX, WLAN, and X‐band downlink satellite communication application bands. The mechanism of generation of CP is discussed using vector analysis of surface current density distribution. The gain is fairly constant in the wide IBW region with maximum fluctuation of 1.2 dB. The structure is compact with an overall layout area of 0.27λ × 0.27λ, where λ is the free‐space wavelength corresponding to the lowest circular polarized (CP) frequency. A comparison of the proposed antenna with previously reported structures is performed with respect to impedance bandwidth, compactness, number of CP bands, LHCP to RHCP isolation and gain to comprehend the novelty of the proposed design. A prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated and the measured results are in accord with the simulated results.