Broadband active microstrip antenna design with the simplified realfrequency technique

This paper deals with the design of broadband active microstrip antennas where the amplifier is integrated with the radiator. Theoretically sound definitions for gain and noise figure of the active antenna are introduced, and their relationships with the definitions for the composing circuit and radiator parts are explained. A sequential design procedure is presented that allows the straightforward and optimal design of transmitting and receiving antennas with multiple active stages, taking into account input and output matching, the gain-versus-frequency curve as well as the noise performance. The theoretical concepts are illustrated with two examples: one of a transmitting active antenna and one of a receiving antenna. The former one is a two-stage design that achieves nearly 25% of bandwidth with regard to gain and matching and 24 dB gain improvement as compared to the matched passive antenna. The second one is a receiving antenna (one stage) with a measured noise figure of 1.2 dB in a bandwidth of over 17% and a gain improvement of 11.9 dB over the corresponding passive antenna. Finally co- and cross-polar radiation patterns in E- and H-plane prove that the antennas also have favorable radiation characteristics in a wide bandwidth (at least 18%)     

Active Integrated Antenna Design Using a Contact-Less, Proximity Coupled, Differentially Fed Technique

A novel contact-less, differential feeding technique suitable for integrated active antenna design is demonstrated. This technique utilizes an odd mode signal to generate fringing fields on either side of a microstrip gap under the antenna. This allows electromagnetic energy to be efficiently coupled from the transmission lines to the radiating antenna. In a balanced integrated antenna amplifier configuration, the proposed non-contact feeding method removes the need for any balun or power combining network. Hence in theory, a compact RF front-end design with lower losses can be realized. This feeding method has been successfully applied to the design of simple passive microstrip patch antennas and active integrated antennas (AIA). Simulated and measured results are also included to validate the proposed feeding concept and antenna designs. The performance of the proposed differential feeding technique on a simple microstrip patch antenna has been systematically studied. The study suggests that the proposed proximity method is broadband in nature, allowing antennas operating at different resonant frequencies to be swapped without the need to change the feed dimensions and without degrading the matching performance     

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.

     

A 0.7-7 GHz wideband reconfigurable receiver RF front-end in CMOS

In this paper,a 0.7-7 GHz wideband RF receiver front-end SoC is designed using the CMOS process.The front-end is composed of two main blocks:a single-ended wideband low noise amplifier (LNA) and an inphase/quadrature (I/Q) voltage-driven passive mixer with IF amplifiers.Based on a self-biased resistive negative feedback topology,the LNA adopts shunt-peaking inductors and a gate inductor to boost the bandwidth.The passive down-conversion mixer includes two parts:passive switches and IF amplifiers.The measurement results show that the front-end works well at different LO frequencies,and this chip is reconfigurable among 0.7 to 7 GHz by tuning the LO frequency.The measured results under 2.5-GHz LO frequency show that the front-end SoC achieves a maximum conversion gain of 26 dB,a minimum noise figure (NF) of 3.2 dB,with an IF bandwidth of greater than 500 MHz.The chip area is 1.67 × 1.08 mm2.     

小型化缝隙加载圆极化及宽带微带贴片天线设计

提出了一种十字形缝隙加载的小型宽带及圆极化微带贴片天线的设计方法。该天线通过在方形贴片上加载一个大尺寸的十字形缝隙实现天线的尺寸缩减,介质基片采用由FR4和空气层组成的层叠结构,在缝隙中嵌入L型枝节,只需通过调整枝节上同轴线馈电点的位置来获得圆极化或宽带阻抗匹配。ANSYS HFSS仿真分析表明,天线的圆极化带宽（AR≤3 dB）为1.7%,阻抗带宽（VSWR≤2）为5.8%,天线在宽带范围内具有稳定的增益,峰值增益为7.8 dB,同时贴片面积缩减了52.3%。改变馈电点的位置可调节两个谐振频率使天线阻抗带宽达到9.4%,比传统的微带贴片天线阻抗带宽提高了114%。     

A 24-GHz Patch Array with a Power Amplifier/Low-Noise Amplifier MMIC

This paper presents an active patch array designed at 24 GHz. It can be used as a front-end component for a phased array. A series resonant array structure is chosen which is compact and easy excite. With 5 elements, the array proved a 12-dB antenna gain. A power amplifier and a low noise amplifier are designed on a single GaAs chip (PALNA). Bias switch is used in the PALNA, which greatly reduces the switch loss in a transceiver and increases the efficiency. 20-dB small signal gain is achieved in both power amplifier and low noise amplifier. The active patch array is built by the combination of the patch array and PALNA. The measured active gain of this antenna is 35-dB for the PA mode and 31-dB for the LNA mode. This active patch array can obtain an EIRP of 34 dBm with a total radiated power of 22dBm and a maximum PAE of 32%. To check the noise performance, we applied sources at both normal temperature and 77K (liquid nitrogen) and extracted the noise figure (3.5 dB) of the active antenna by the Y factor method. The results proved that the active antenna is working efficiently as both a transmitting and receiving antenna.     

Ultrabroadband printed (UBP) antenna

An ultra broadband printed (UBP) antenna is presented which consists of a diplexer and two aperture stacked patch antennas. S-parameter theory is used to investigate the input impedance behavior of the UBP antenna. This antenna can produce a 10-dB return loss bandwidth of almost 120% with constant gain of 6.5 dB. A relatively uniform radiation pattern over the entire band was also achieved.     

Broadband dual-polarized patch antennas fed by capacitively coupledfeed and slot-coupled feed

Designs of broadband dual-polarized patch antennas fed by promising feed structures of a capacitively coupled feed and a slot-coupled feed (antenna A), two capacitively coupled feeds of a 180° phase shift and a slot-coupled feed (antenna B), and two capacitively coupled feeds of a 180° phase shift and two slot-coupled feeds (antenna C) are proposed and experimentally studied. The first two feed designs are for the excitation of a single-element broadband patch antenna, while the last design is for a two-element broadband patch antenna. These proposed patch antennas have a thick air substrate, and the 10 dB return-loss impedance bandwidths obtained for the two polarizations are all greater than 13%. High isolation (<-30 dB for antenna A, <-32 dB for antenna B, <-35 dB for antenna C) between the two feeding ports for the entire impedance bandwidth of the proposed antennas can be obtained. Also, improved cross-polarization levels (>20 dB) in both E and H plane patterns for the two polarizations of antennas B and C are achieved     

Broadband Stacked Patch Antenna with Low VSWR and Low Cross‐Polarization

A low cross‐polarization broadband stacked patch antenna is proposed. By means of the stacked patch configuration and probe‐fed strip feed technique, the VSWR 1.2:1 bandwidth of the patch antenna is enhanced to 22% from 804 MHz to 1,002 MHz, which outperforms the other available patch antennas (<10%). Furthermore, the antenna has a cross‐polarization level of less than ?20 dB and a gain level of about 9 dBi across the operating bandwidth. Simulation results are compared with the measurements, and a good agreement is observed.     

MMIC compatible printed antennas

A printed antenna that provides a broadband, efficient solution to integrating antennas with MMICs is presented. The antenna is based upon a proximity coupled stacked patch configuration with optimised layers. A prototype was developed with a 10 dB return loss bandwidth of 21% and a gain of 8 dBi across this band.     

Stacked patch antenna fed by a coplanar waveguide

A broadband patch antenna fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW) is presented. The antenna was designed based on the stacked patch technique developed for aperture-coupled patch antennas. It is similar in configuration to a conventional stacked patch antenna, but the lower of its two patches is fed with a conductor-backed CPW Both simulation and measurement show that the antenna has bandwidth of over 10% (for |S/sub 11/| /spl les/ -10 dB) centred at 10 GHz.     

应用于毫米波无线接收系统的高集成化LTCC AIP设计

介绍了一种基于低温共烧陶瓷工艺的新型高度集成毫米波无源接收前端,该前端由阵列天线、馈电网络和带通滤波器构成.上述无源器件以天线集成封装方式经过一体化设计,并应用于毫米波无线系统.首先,设计了2×2线极化空气腔阵列天线,通过采用新颖的内埋空气腔体结构,使天线最大增益提高了2.9 dB.其次,将具有双层谐振结构的三阶小型化发卡型带通滤波器和天线馈电网络进行一体化设计.该滤波器测试结果显示:插入损耗为1.9dB,3 dB相对带宽为8.1％(中心频率为34 GHz).最后将上述天线和滤波网络进行一体化设计,实现了三维无线接收前端.在集成结构中,通过采用金属柱栅栏抑制了寄生模式.测试结果显示天线最大增益可达14.3dB,通过集成滤波馈电网络,其阻抗带宽为2.8 GHz.该新型一体化集成前端系统具有良好的射频性能,可作为全集成无源前端应用于Ka波段无线系统中.     

A broadband planar quasi-Yagi antenna

A novel broadband planar antenna based on the classic Yagi-Uda dipole array is presented. This "quasi-Yagi" antenna achieves a measured 48% bandwidth for VSWR <2, better than 12 dB front-to-back ratio, smaller than -15 dB cross polarization, 3-5 dB absolute gain and a nominal efficiency of 93% across the operating bandwidth. Finite-difference time-domain simulation is used for optimization of the antenna and the results agree very well with measurements. Additionally, a gain-enhanced design is presented, where higher gain has been achieved at the cost of reduced bandwidth. These quasi-Yagi antennas are realized on a high dielectric constant substrate and are completely compatible with microstrip circuitry and solid-state devices. The excellent radiation properties of this antenna make it ideal as either a stand-alone antenna with a broad pattern or as an array element. The antenna should find wide applications in wireless communication systems, power combining, phased arrays and active arrays, as well as millimeter-wave imaging arrays.     

Compact Circularly Polarized Antenna with a Capacitive Feed for GPS/GLONASS Applications

This letter presents a novel compact circularly polarized patch antenna for Global Positioning System/Global Navigation Satellite System (GPS/GLONASS) applications. The proposed antenna is composed of a simple square radiating patch fed by a capacitive dual‐feeder to increase the impedance bandwidth and a lumped element hybrid coupler to achieve the broadband characteristic of the axial ratio (AR). The realized antenna dimensions are 28 mm × 28 mm × 4 mm, which is the most compact size among the dual‐band GPS/GLONASS antennas reported to date. The measured results demonstrate that the proposed antenna has a gain of 2.5 dBi to 4.2 dBi and an AR of 0.41 dB to 1.51 dB over the GPS/GLONASS L1 band (1.575 GHz to 1.61 GHz).     

A High‐Gain Microstrip Patch Array Antenna Using a Superstrate Layer

A dielectric superstrate layer above a microstrip patch antenna has remarkable effects on its gain and resonant characteristics. This paper experimentally investigates the effect of a superstrate layer for high gain on microstrip patch antennas. We measured the gain of antennas with and without a superstrate and found that the gain of a single patch with a superstrate was enhanced by about 4 dBi over the one without a superstrate at 12 GHz. The impedance bandwidths of a single patch with and without a superstrate for VSWR < 2 were above 11%. The designed 2×8 array antenna using a superstrate had a high gain of over 22.5 dB and a wide impedance bandwidth of over 17%.     

A Circuit-Theoretic Approach to the Design of Quadruple-Mode Broadband Microstrip Patch Antennas

A novel method for the design of broadband patch antennas is described. The approach taken is to broadside couple two dual-mode patch antennas, resulting in a quad resonance antenna. The equivalent circuit of the antenna is similar to that of microwave filters, thus filter design techniques maybe employed to synthesize the antenna to obtain maximum return-loss bandwidth. This is the first time an increase in the bandwidth is achieved on a relatively thin substrate antenna as a result of coupling four resonant modes using two stacked circular microstrip patches. Electromagnetic simulation and measured results demonstrate bandwidth improvement of over four times that of a single-mode design.     

A 1.1 V 6.2 mW,wideband RF front-end for 0 dBm blocker tolerant receivers in 90 nm CMOS

This paper presents the design and implementation of a low power, highly linear, wideband RF front-end in 90 nm CMOS. The architecture consists of an inverter-like common gate low noise amplifier followed by a passive ring mixer. The proposed architecture achieves a high linearity in a wide band (0.5–6 GHz) at very low power. Therefore, it is a suitable choice for software defined radio (SDR) receivers. The chip measurement results indicate that the inverter-like common gate input stage has a broadband input match achieving S11 below −8.8 dB up to 6 GHz. The measured single sideband noise figure at an LO frequency of 3 GHz and an IF of 10 MHz is 6.25 dB. The front-end achieves a voltage conversion gain of 4.5 dB at 1 GHz with 3 dB bandwidth of more than 6 GHz. The measured input referred 1 dB compression point is +1.5 dBm while the IIP3 is +11.73 dBm and the IIP2 is +26.23 dBm respectively at an LO frequency of 2 GHz. The RF front-end consumes 6.2 mW from a 1.1 V supply with an active chip area of 0.0856 mm².     

一种新型UWB平面单极子微带天线阵的设计

提出了一种新型平面单极子微带天线阵,以平面矩形单极子天线为原型,通过改变辐射贴片的形状实现对原有天线性能的优化。设计了中心频率为2.4 GHz,相对带宽是42%,增益达13 dBi的宽频带四单元平面单极天线阵。通过仿真与实验表明,该天线在1.93 GHz~2.93 GHz频带内反射系数均小于-10 dB。     

Design of a Noise-Canceling CMOS Wideband Receiver Front-End with Inherent Active Balun

This paper presents the design of an ESD-protected noise-canceling CMOS wideband receiver front-end for cognitive and ultra-wideband (UWB) radio-based wireless communications. Designed in a 0.13-μm CMOS technology, the RF front-end integrates a broadband low-noise amplifier (LNA) and a quadrature down-conversion mixer. While having ESD and package parasitics absorbed into a wideband input matching network, the LNA exploits a combination of a common-gate (CG) stage and a common-source (CS) stage to cancel the noise of the CG-stage and to provide a well balanced differential output for driving the double-balance mixer, which has a merged quadrature topology. A variable-gain method is developed for the LNA to achieve a large factor of gain switch without degrading the input impedance match and the balun function. Drawing 24 mA from 1.5 V, simulations show that the proposed front-end has a 3-dB bandwidth of around 10 GHz spanning from 1.8 GHz up to 11.8 GHz with a maximum voltage conversion gain of 30 dB and a noise figure of 4.3–6.7 dB over the entire band.     

一种紧凑型双圆极化有源接收天线设计

设计了一种S波段紧凑型双圆极化有源接收天线,该有源接收天线将微带贴片天线与90°混合电桥、低噪声放大器集成设计,既实现了有源天线的整体小型化又提高了各器件间的连接效率;并通过背馈玻璃绝缘子和一种半差分的方式馈电,在改善微带贴片天线方向图对称性的同时,简化了传统差分式馈电的复杂结构.仿真和实测结果表明,该有源接收天线在2.2~2.3 GHz内端口驻波比小于1.47,噪声系数小于0.73 dB,主瓣内轴比小于2.4 dB,G/T值大于-13.9 dB/K,与已有公开文献的有源接收单元天线相比,在保持结构紧凑的同时,其G/T值有较大幅度提升.