Unit 3

Aperture Antennas

Dr. S. Ramprabhu
Assistant Professor
Department of Electronics Engineering
Madras Institute of Technology
Anna University
Chennai 600 044
Microstrip Antennas
 Session Meta Data

Author Dr. S. Ramprabhu

Version No 1.0
Release Date 22-09-2023
Reviewer

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 Revision History

Date of Revision Details Version Number

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 Session Objectives

 To introduce the concept of microstrip antenna and

its design considerations

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 Session Outcomes

 At the end of the session, students will be able to

 Design a microstrip antenna for the given

specification

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 Outline
• Microstrip Antenna Design

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 Microstrip Antennas
• In high-performance aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, and missile
applications, where size, weight, cost, performance, ease of
installation, and aerodynamic profile are constraints, low-
profile antennas may be required.

• Mobile radio and wireless communications require antennas

with similar specifications.

• Microstrip antennas are preferred !

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 Advantages
• Low profile
• Conformable to planar and non-planar surfaces
• Simple and inexpensive to manufacture using modern printed-
circuit technology, mechanically robust when mounted on
rigid surfaces, compatible with MMIC designs.
• Very versatile in terms of resonant frequency, polarization,
pattern, and impedance.
• By adding loads between the patch and the ground plane, such
as pins and varactor diodes, adaptive elements with variable
resonant frequency, impedance, polarization, and pattern can
be designed

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 Disadvantages
• Low efficiency
• Low power
• High Q (sometimes in excess of 100),
• Poor polarization purity
• Poor scan performance
• Spurious feed radiation
• Very narrow frequency bandwidth (can be increased by
increasing the height of the substrate) – Surface waves should
be taken care

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 Characteristics
• Microstrip antennas consist of a very thin (t << λ0, where λ0 is
the free-space wavelength) metallic strip (patch) placed a small
fraction of a wavelength (h << λ0, usually 0.003λ0 ≤ h ≤0.05λ0)
above a ground plane.

• The microstrip patch is designed so its pattern maximum is

normal to the patch (broadside radiator).

• For a rectangular patch, the length L of the element is usually λ0/3

< L < λ0/2.

• The strip (patch) and the ground plane are separated by a

dielectric sheet whose dielectric constants are usually in the
range of 2.2 ≤ ɛr ≤ 12.
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 Characteristics

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 Choice of Substrate
• Thick substrates whose dielectric constant is in the lower end of
the range are desirable for good antenna performance because
they provide better efficiency, larger bandwidth, loosely bound
fields for radiation into space, but at the expense of larger
element size.

• Thin substrates with higher dielectric constants are desirable for

microwave circuitry because they require tightly bound fields to
minimize undesired radiation and coupling, and lead to smaller
element sizes; however, because of their greater losses, they are
less efficient and have relatively smaller bandwidths.

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 Patch Antenna Types
• Microstrip antennas are also referred to as patch antennas.
• The radiating elements and the feed lines are usually photo
etched on the dielectric substrate.
• The radiating patch may be square, rectangular, thin strip
(dipole), circular, elliptical, triangular, or any other
configuration.
• Square, rectangular, dipole (strip), and circular are the most
common because of ease of analysis and fabrication, and their
attractive radiation characteristics, especially low cross-
polarization radiation.
• Microstrip dipoles are attractive because they inherently
possess a large bandwidth and occupy less space, which makes
them attractive for arrays
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 Patch Antenna Types

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 Typical Feeds for Microstrip Antennas

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 Typical Feeds for Microstrip Antennas

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 Feeding Methods
• The microstrip feed line is a conducting strip, usually of much
smaller width compared to the patch. Easy to fabricate, simple to
match and model.
• Coaxial-line feed, where the inner conductor of the coax is attached
to the radiation patch while the outer conductor is connected to the
ground plane, are also widely used. Easy to fabricate and match, and
it has low spurious radiation.
• The aperture coupling is the most difficult of all four to fabricate
and it also has narrow bandwidth, easier to model and has moderate
spurious radiation.
• Proximity Coupling has the feed line between the two dielectric
substrates.
• Proximity coupling has the largest bandwidth, easy to model and has
low spurious radiation. Fabrication is difficult.
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 Methods of Analysis
• The most popular models are the transmission-line, cavity and
full wave
• Transmission-line model is the easiest of all, it gives good
physical insight, but is less accurate and difficult to model
coupling.
• Cavity model is more accurate but at the same time more
complex. Provides a good physical insight and is rather difficult
to model coupling.
• Full-wave models are very accurate, very versatile, and can treat
single elements, finite and infinite arrays, stacked elements,
arbitrary shaped elements, and coupling.

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 Transmission Line Model
• Finite dimensions of the patch along the length and width leads
to fringing of the fields at the edges.

• The amount of fringing is a function of L, W and h.

• For the principal E-plane fringing is a function of the ratio of
the length of the patch L to the height h of the substrate (L/h)
and the dielectric constant 𝜀r of the substrate
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 Transmission Line Model
• Most of the electric field lines reside in the substrate and parts
of some lines exist in air.

• As W/h >>1 an ɛr>>1, the electric field lines concentrate

mostly in the substrate.

• Fringing makes the microstrip line look wider electrically

compared to its physical dimensions.

• Some of the waves travel in the substrate and some in air, an

effective dielectric constant ɛreff is introduced to account for
fringing and the wave propagation in the line.

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 Transmission Line Model

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 Transmission Line Model

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 Transmission Line Model
• For low frequencies the effective dielectric constant is
essentially constant.
• At intermediate frequencies its values begin to monotonically
increase and eventually approach the values of the dielectric
constant of the substrate.
• The initial values (at low frequencies) of the effective
dielectric constant are referred to as the static values and is
given by,

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 Transmission Line Model
• Due to fringing effects, the patch of the microstrip antenna
looks electrically larger than its physical dimensions.

• For the principal E-plane (xy-plane), the dimensions of the

patch along its length have been extended on each end by a
distance ΔL, which is a function of the effective dielectric
constant εreff and the width-to-height ratio (W/h).

• Practical approximate relation for the normalized extension of

the length

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 Transmission Line Model

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 Transmission Line Model
• Effective patch length is

• For the dominant mode TM010, the resonant frequency of the

microstrip antenna is

• Modified expression for resonant frequency considering

fringing

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 Transmission Line Model

where

• The q factor is referred to as the fringe factor (length

reduction factor).
• As the substrate height increases, fringing also increases
and leads to larger separations between the radiating edges
and lower resonant frequencies.

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 Design Procedure
The procedure assumes that the specified information includes the
dielectric constant of the substrate (ɛr), the resonant frequency (fr),
and the height of the substrate h.
1. For an efficient radiator, a practical width that leads to good
radiation efficiencies is

2. Determine the effective dielectric constant of the microstrip

antenna using

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 Design Procedure
3. Determine the extension of the length ΔL using

4. The actual length of the patch can now be determined by

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 Test your Understanding
• Design a rectangular microstrip antenna using a substrate
(RT/duroid 5880) with dielectric constant of 2.2, h = 0.1588 cm
(0.0625 inches) so as to resonate at 10 GHz.

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 Summary
• Learnt about microstrip antenna design procedure

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 References

1. John D Krauss, Ronald J Marhefka and Ahmad S.

Khan, "Antennas and Wave Propagation: Fourth
Edition, Tata McGraw-Hill, 2006. (UNIT I, II, III).

2. David M. Pozar, "Microwave Engineering", Fourth

Edition, Wiley India, 2012. (UNIT I, IV, V)

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