Eccentric annular slot patch antenna with frequency agility for UHF RFID reader applications

The design of a simple ultrahigh frequency RFID (radio frequency identification) reader antenna that can operate within the North America RFID band (902–928 MHz) is studied. To generate circular polarization (CP) radiation in this band, a novel method of loading two narrow open‐ended slots (slits) into an eccentric annular slot patch is proposed. To allow optimum impedance matching with enhanced CP bandwidth, the radiating patch is loaded to an L‐shaped ground plane. From the experimental results, the proposed antenna can yield an impedance bandwidth (10‐dB return loss) between 650 MHz to 1125 MHz, while good CP bandwidth (3‐dB axial ratio, AR) from 901 MHz to 930 MHz is also attained. Furthermore, gain level and efficiency of more than 7.8 dBic and 90%, respectively, were also measured. By simply removing one of the slits, this proposed antenna can also be modified to operate within the China (840–846 MHz) and European (865–868 MHz) RFID 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.     

Low‐profile UHF RFID reader antenna with CP radiation and coupled feeding technique

A low profile annular‐ring patch antenna with circularly polarized (CP) radiation for radio frequency identification (RFID) reader applications in the ultra‐high frequency (UHF) band (922‐928 MHz) is presented in this article. Perturbation method is applied by loading a pair of triangular open‐notch into the outer circumference of ring patch, and good impedance matching can be determined by using the coupled feeding technique. The overall size of this proposed antenna is 150 mm × 150 mm × 10.4 mm. The measured results show desirable 10‐dB impedance bandwidth and 3‐dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 3.5% (908‐941 MHz) and 0.65% (922‐928 MHz), respectively. Stable antenna peak gain and efficiency of 7.2 dBic and 87% are also exhibited, respectively.     

CPW‐fed C‐shaped slot antenna for broadband circularly polarized radiation

A novel broadband circularly polarized (CP) C‐shaped slot antenna fed by a coplanar waveguide is presented. The broadband CP operation can be achieved simply using a C‐shaped slot in the ground to produce orthogonal surface currents for left‐hand circular polarization. Using the semicircle‐shaped radiator patch, wide impedance bandwidth and broad axial‐ratio (AR) bandwidth can be obtained simultaneously. The measured results show that the proposed antenna can provide a 10‐dB impedance bandwidth of 105% from 2.78 to 8.92 GHz, and a 3‐dB AR bandwidth of 70.4% from 2.9 to 6.05 GHz. Finally, an antenna prototype with a reflector for unidirectional pattern applications is also developed. The proposed antenna has broader impedance and CP bandwidths but with a more compact size compared with the previous designs. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:739–746, 2015.     

A 2 × 2 array antenna with circular polarization and conical beam radiation

A circular disk patch antenna loaded with a hemi‐circular slot is initially proposed for achieving circular polarization (CP). To exhibit broad CP bandwidth that can cover the WLAN 2.4 GHz operating band, the patch antenna is fed by an L‐shaped probe. To further attain conical beam radiation with peak gain of ～8 dBic at ±30 degrees theta angle (θ), a 2 × 2 array type is proposed in this study, in which four circular disk patch array elements are arranged in a sequentially rotated fashion via a corporate feed network. Here, desirable 3‐dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth and 10‐dB impedance bandwidth of ～5% and 21% were measured. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:223–228, 2014.     

Broadband circularly polarized printed falcate‐shaped monopole antenna

In this study, a simple broadband circularly polarized (CP) printed monopole antenna for S/C‐band applications is proposed. The CP antenna is composed of a falcate‐shaped monopole with a right‐angle trapezoid stub, then wide impedance and axial ratio (AR) bandwidths are achieved. By placing one rectangular split‐ring resonator above the stub for generating upper CP mode, both of impedance and CP performances are further improved. The proposed antenna is fabricated on a FR4 substrate and measured. The measured ?10‐dB impedance bandwidth is 107%, ranging from 2.4‐7.9 GHz, and the measured 3‐dB AR bandwidth is 94% (2.4‐6.6 GHz), covering the entire wireless local area network (WLAN) and WiMAX bands.     

Annular ring slot antenna design with reconfigurable polarization

A microstrip‐fed conventional annular ring slot (ARS) antenna with linear polarization (LP) is initially studied. To generate two orthogonal degenerate modes for circular polarization (CP) radiations, two identical meandering perturbation slots (MPS) are symmetrically loaded into the ARS. By further incorporating a PIN diode switch across each MPS, the proposed antenna can switch between left‐hand CP (LHCP), right‐hand CP (RHCP), and LP. All three polarizations have shown good impedance bandwidth and broad CP bandwidth that can satisfy the wireless local area network (WLAN) 2.4‐GHz operating band (2400–2480 MHz). Furthermore, desirable gains of 1.8–2.0 dBi and 2.40–2.84 dBic are also exhibited at LP and LHCP/RHCP, respectively. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 26:110–120, 2016.     

Circularly polarized rectangular DRA coupled through orthogonal slot excited with microstrip circular ring feeding structure for Wi‐MAX applications

In this article, a wideband circularly polarized rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (RDRA) coupled through orthogonal slots and excited with a new microstrip circular ring has been investigated. Circular polarization has been achieved by using plus shaped (+) slot on the ground plane and excited through a new microstrip circular ring feed. TE_11δ mode has been excited in the RDRA which has been confirmed through the distribution of E ‐field and dielectric waveguide model (DWM) method of RDRA. Circularly polarized (CP) RDRA offering measured ?10 dB input impedance bandwidth of 20.79% (centered at 3.27 GHz) and 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth in broadside direction of 12.09% (centered at 3.39 GHz), respectively. From the CP radiation pattern, proposed design confirms that right ‐ handed CP (RHCP) in broadside direction. The difference between RHCP field and left ‐ handed CP (LHCP) field are above ?26 dB in operational band. In addition, the proposed CP antenna offers stable gain and radiation efficiency in working bands and it is suitable for IEEE 802.16e/d Wi‐MAX (3.3‐3.7 GHz) band.     

Circularly polarized planar monopole antenna for ultrawideband applications

A broadband circularly polarized (CP) planar monopole antenna is proposed here for ultrawideband (UWB) communication. The antenna is composed of a modified annular ring patch fed by a tapered microstrip line and a rectangular semiground plane on the opposite side of the substrate. Capability of generating wide axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) is another feature of the proposed antenna. Wide ARBW is achieved by introducing a rectangular slot and a stub in the ground plane. The CP antenna has an impressive ARBW of 5.52 GHz (81.42%, 4.02‐9.54 GHz) within the UWB frequency range (3.1‐10.6 GHz). Measured 10‐dB return loss bandwidth of the proposed antenna is 120.86% centered at 7.48 GHz (2.96‐12 GHz). The proposed antenna is well used for wireless local area network (5.2 and 5.8 GHz), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (5.5 GHz), and other wireless systems in C band as well as CP‐UWB antenna communication.     

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 circularly polarized hybrid dielectric resonator antenna with bi‐directional radiation characteristics for various wireless applications

In this article, a wideband circularly polarized (CP) dielectric resonator (DR) over an asymmetric‐slot radiator based hybrid‐DR antenna is proposed with bi‐directional radiation characteristics. Bi‐directional CP radiation of the dual sense is obtained using a rectangular‐DR over asymmetric‐rectangular‐slot radiator with L‐shaped feed line. The asymmetric‐slot radiator feed by L‐shaped stub with the coplanar waveguide is used for generating two orthogonal modes, namely TE ^x _δ11 and TE^y_1δ1 in the combined (rectangular‐DR and asymmetric‐slot radiator) hybrid‐DR antenna, which is verified by the distribution of electric field inside the rectangular DRA. The measured reflection coefficient bandwidth (S₁₁ < ?10 dB) and axial ratio (AR) bandwidth (AR < 3 dB) of the hybrid‐DR antenna are 80.5% (1.87‐4.39 GHz) and 43.8% (1.75‐2.73 GHz), respectively. The antenna radiation is in the broadside (θ = 0°, ? = 0°) direction as well as in the backside (θ = 180°, φ = 0°) direction with equal magnitudes in both the directions. Right‐handed and left‐handed CP waves are achieved respectively, in the boresight (+Z) and the backside (?Z) directions. The proposed CP hybrid‐DR antenna gives an average gain of 3.55 dBic and radiation efficiency of 95.0% in both directions. The proposed antenna covers various wireless useful bands such as ISM 2400 band, Wi‐Fi, Bluetooth, and Wi‐MAX (2.5‐2.7 GHz).     

Dual‐band circularly polarized aperture‐coupled stack antenna with fractal patch for WLAN and WiMAX applications

This article presents a novel circular polarized (CP) aperture coupled stack antenna for wireless local area network and worldwide interoperability for microwave access dual‐band systems. The compact stack antenna consisted of square fractal patch, aperture couple, feed line and the perturbation. The square patch is constructed with the complementary Minkowski‐island‐based fractal geometry. By way of adjusting the relevant parameters, we can obtain the dual‐band responses at 3.5 and 5.25 GHz respectively. The CP of each band are presented. The measured 10 dB return loss impedance bandwidth are 270 MHz (7.5%) for 3.5 GHz band and 450 MHz (8.6%) for 5.25 GHz band. The 3 dB axial ratio bandwidths for each bands are 1.4 and 0.76%, the polarization of radiation patterns are both left‐hand CP, and the antenna power gain are 2.84–3.1 and 0.16–2.2, dBic respectively. The proposed antenna is successfully simulated and measured with frequency responses, radiation patterns and current distributions. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:130–138, 2014.     

Dual‐band circularly polarized dielectric resonator antenna for wireless applications

This letter investigates an integrated antenna configuration for WLAN/WiMAX applications. The proposed composite antenna configuration is simply the grouping of ring dielectric resonator along with reformed square‐shaped slot antenna. Three significant characteristics of proposed article are: (1) aperture act as magnetic dipole and excite HE_11δ mode in ring dielectric resonator antenna; (2) reforming of square aperture generates orthogonal modes in ring DRA and creates CP in lower frequency band; (3) annular‐shaped Microstrip line along with reformed square aperture creates CP wave in upper frequency band. With the purpose of certifying the simulated outcomes, prototype of proposed structure is fabricated and tested. Good settlement is to be got between experimental and software generated outcome. Experimental outcomes show that the proposed radiating structure is operating over 2 frequency bands that is, 2.88‐3.72 and 5.4‐5.95 GHz. Measured 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth in lower and upper frequency band is approximately 9.52% (3.0‐3.4 GHz) and 5.85% (5.64‐5.98 GHz), respectively. These outcomes indicate that the proposed composite antenna structure is appropriate for WLAN and WiMAX applications.     

A novel wideband circularly polarized modified square‐slot antenna with loaded strips

In this article, a novel inverted L‐shaped microstrip‐fed wideband circularly polarized (CP) modified square‐slot antenna is designed. By cutting a pair of triangle chamfers and introducing a pair of triangle patches at the square‐slot, the antenna achieves a wideband CP radiation. Moreover, CP performance of the antenna can also be remarkably enhanced by protruding an L‐shaped strip and embedding a tuning rectangle slot into the slot ground. The measured results demonstrate that the axial‐ratio bandwidth for AR < 3 is 75.1% (from 4.45 to 9.8 GHz) and the impedance bandwidth (|S₁₁| < ?10 dB) reaches 65.8% (from 4.95 to 9.8 GHz). In addition, surface current studies are performed to illustrate the operating mechanism of CP operation, and the antenna has bidirectional radiation characteristics with an average gain of ~4 dBic within the CP band.     

A circular patch antenna with parasitic element for UHF RFID applications

This article initially proposes a directly‐fed circular patch antenna with L‐shaped ground plane for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) applications in the 900 MHz (902?928 MHz) ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band. To achieve circularly polarized (CP) radiation, two arc‐shaped notches are loaded into the main patch. To enhance the CP bandwidth so that the proposed antenna can also cover the UHF RFID band for Europe (866?869 MHz), a parasitic element is printed besides the main patch. Experimental measurements show that the 10‐dB return loss bandwidth of the proposed antenna was 30.95% (833?1138 MHz) and its corresponding 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth was 8.95% (865?946 MHz). Good gain and radiation efficiency of more than 7 dBic and 90%, respectively, were also exhibited across the two desired UHF RFID bands. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:681–687, 2015.     

Planar integrated substrate integrated waveguide circularly polarized filtering antenna

A new design of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) circularly‐polarized (CP) filtering antenna is presented, which is based on dual‐mode (TE₁₀₂ and TE₂₀₁) cavities. The satisfying filtering performance of the antenna is realized by a coupled‐resonator circuit of two dual‐mode SIW cavities. And the radiating element of the antenna is a cavity‐backed CP slot antenna which is formed by a nonuniform ring slot integrated with the back cavity. To demonstrate the idea, a prototype antenna operating at X band is designed, fabricated, and measured. Measured results show that the 10‐dB impedance bandwidth is 4.2% (from 11.6 to 12.1 GHz), the 3‐dB axial‐ratio (AR) bandwidth is 4%, and the gain is 5.6 dBi at the center frequency of 11.8 GHz.     

Ultra‐wideband slot antenna for wireless communication systems

In this article, a new ultra‐wideband rectangular‐slot antenna is proposed and developed for multiband wireless communication systems. The radiating slot is fed by a microstrip line with a microstrip fork‐shaped tuning stub. The frequency characteristic and radiation performance of the proposed antenna are successfully optimized, and a prototype is fabricated and tested. The measured results show that the impedance bandwidth can cover the band from 1.85 to 6.1 GHz with return loss of better than 10 dB, and the corresponding radiation displays omnidirectional patterns across the interested bands. With these frequencies, the proposed structure is especially suitable for applications in wireless communication systems, where a single antenna is needed to operate simultaneously at different bands, such as PCS (1.85–1.99 GHz), UMTS (1.92–2.17 GHz) and all WLAN bands (2.4–2.48 GHz and IEEE802.11a WLAN applications at 5.15–5.35 GHz and 5.725–5.825 GHz). © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2006.     

Design and development of enhanced bandwidth multi‐frequency slotted antenna for 4G‐LTE/WiMAX/WLAN and S/C/X‐band applications

A multi‐frequency rectangular slot antenna for 4G‐LTE/WiMAX/WLAN and S/C/X‐bands applications is presented. The proposed antenna is comprised of rectangular slot, a pair of E‐shaped stubs, and an inverted T‐shaped stub and excited using staircase feed line. These employed structures help to achieve multiband resonance at four different frequency bands. The proposed multiband slot antenna is simulated, fabricated and tested experimentally. The experimental results show that the antenna resonates at 2.24, 4.2, 5.25, and 9.3 GHz with impedance bandwidth of 640 MHz (2.17‐2.82 GHz) covering WiMAX (802.16e), Space to Earth communications, 4G‐LTE, IEEE 802.11b/g WLAN systems defined for S‐band applications. Also the proposed antenna exhibits bandwidth of 280 MHz (4.1‐4.38 GHz) for Aeronautical and Radio navigation applications, 80 MHz (4.2‐4.28 GHz) for uncoordinated indoor systems,1060 MHz (5.04‐6.1 GHz) for the IEEE 802.11a WLAN system defined for C‐band applications and 2380 MHz (7.9‐10.28 GHz) defined for X‐band applications. Further, the radiation patterns for the designed antenna are measured in anechoic chamber and are found to agree well with simulated results.     

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.     

New broadband circularly polarized antenna with an inverted F‐shaped feedline

In this article, we present a new broadband CP square‐slot antenna with an inverted F‐shaped feed‐line. The antenna is composed of an inverted F‐shaped feed‐line, pairs of isosceles triangular chamfers, I‐shaped slots, rectangular slots and triangular patches, and a Z‐shaped strip. By introducing these strips and slots into the square‐slot, multiple CP modes can be stimulated simultaneously, which eventually enhances 3‐dB ARBW and 10‐dB impedance bandwidth (IBW) of the presented antenna. The measured results show that its IBW (|S₁₁| < ?10 dB) is about 7.2 GHz (87.8% from 4.6 to 11.8 GHz) and its ARBW (AR < 3 dB) is 8.3 GHz (96% from 4.5 to 12.8 GHz).