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Performance profile comparison of the quasi-lumped

element resonator antenna
a

Seyi Stephen Olokede , Clement Anowe Adamariko & Adebayo Taiwo Akinyemi

Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Olabisis Onabanjo University, PMB

5026, Ifo, Ogun State, Nigeria
b

Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Ilorin, PMB 1515, Ilorin, Kwara State,
Nigeria
c

ECAS Telecoms & Systems Nigeria, 522 Usoma Close, Maitama, Abuja, Nigeria
Published online: 22 Jan 2015.

To cite this article: Seyi Stephen Olokede, Clement Anowe Adamariko & Adebayo Taiwo Akinyemi (2015): Performance
profile comparison of the quasi-lumped element resonator antenna, Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, DOI:
10.1080/02533839.2014.998162
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02533839.2014.998162

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Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, 2015

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02533839.2014.998162

Performance prole comparison of the quasi-lumped element resonator antenna

Seyi Stephen Olokedea*, Clement Anowe Adamarikob and Adebayo Taiwo Akinyemic
a
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Olabisis Onabanjo University, PMB 5026, Ifo, Ogun State, Nigeria;
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Ilorin, PMB 1515, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria; cECAS Telecoms & Systems
Nigeria, 522 Usoma Close, Maitama, Abuja, Nigeria

Downloaded by [Universiti Sains Malaysia] at 08:21 16 February 2015

(Received 8 March 2013; accepted 30 March 2014)

The performance prole comparison of the quasi-lumped element resonator antenna is presented. The specic advantages
of this antenna are investigated by comparing it to the standard long wire antenna approach, and, in particular, also to
the many available differently loaded wire antenna approaches, which are also optimized for maximal radiation efciency and directivity for example, the capacitively loaded long wire antenna and the planar H-shaped elements loaded
transmission line design. It was noted that the quasi-lumped element resonator antenna formed by small interdigital
capacitors and line inductors proved to be compact in size with an aperture size of 5.8 5.6 mm2 and better directional
characteristics.
Keywords: antenna; footprint; quasi-lumped; wire

1. Introduction
Advances in computer architecture and technology during
the 1960s through the 1990s have had major impact on
the advances of modern antenna technology (Balanis
1997). Subsequently, this has contributed in great measure
to the rapid reduction in antenna physical size due largely
to the development of the integrated circuit. This is due
largely to ever increasing demand for mobile phones, GPS
systems, handheld portable wireless equipment for internet, short- and long-range communication devices, RFID
applications, etc. The need for small antennas is becoming
crucial and pressing, partly because of insufcient space
to t conventional antennas, as often times, the platform
onto which the antenna is to be mounted or interfaced, is
itself physically small. It is imperative to address the issue
of compact antennas with reference to the effect on small
platforms. It then behoves system designers to note that
these applications and continued growth of wireless
devices will continue to challenge the community to create
smaller and more multifunctional antennas (Volakis, Chen,
and Fujimoto 2010).
Therefore, in a bid to proffer an alternative and efcient compact antenna solution, the quasi-lumped element resonator antenna was introduced by Ain et al. The
authors presented the design of a long linear (in terms of
wavelengths) quasi periodically loaded printed transmission line antenna and showed some comparisons
between simulated and measured results. The work was
ground breaking as the antenna footprint was
5.8 5.6 mm2, which is analogous to the size of a ngertip yet with a reasonable efciency and radiation
*Corresponding author. Email: solokede@gmail.com
2015 The Chinese Institute of Engineers

characteristics. The authors proposed a digit-like or

multi-nger-like periodic structure of parallel in-plane
conductors with reasonable Q-factor. It consists of an
interdigital capacitor in parallel with a straight strip conductor. The inductor is the centre nger shorted across
the capacitor. The pads connected at both ends of the
structure act as capacitors to ground, which can be
adjusted to tune the resonant frequency of the resonator.
The authors further compared their work with a conventional Microstrip Patch Antenna (MPA) to better validate
the superiority of their proposed antenna. However,
vague non-specic comparisons merely with completely
different antenna types are misleading and not useful to
give evidence concerning the advantages of the present
design. Instead, we intend to do a thorough performance
prole comparison by rst and foremost, comparing the
proposed antenna with the standard long wire antenna
approach in more detail to the extent of identifying the
specic advantages of their designs. Also, we intend to
compare it to some available differently loaded wire
antenna approaches, which are also optimized for maximal radiation efciency and directivity. To accomplish
this, three objectives were set as follows. The rst one
was to design and investigate the performance prole of
standard wire antennas. The second one was to compare
these antennas with different performance enhancement
capacitive loaded planar wire and nally, to compare
them with the performance enhancement MPAs. This is
done in order to better compare their work with existing
and popular planar antennas, but this time with performance enhancement congurations.

S.S. Olokede et al.

2. Theoretical framework

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2.1. Wire antennas

2.1.1. Printed standard wire antenna
The short dipole antenna is the simplest of all antennas.
It is simply an open-circuited wire, fed at its centre. For
short dipole antennas that are smaller fractions of a
wavelength, the radiation resistance becomes smaller
than the loss resistance, and consequently, this antenna
can be very inefcient. The bandwidth for short dipoles
is difcult to dene; hence, the antennas are typically
used in narrowband applications. The half-wave dipole
antenna is just a special case of the dipole antenna. For
very small dipole antennas, the input impedance is
capacitive, but as the dipole gets larger, the input resistance increases, along with the reactance. If the dipole
antennas length becomes close to one wavelength, the
input impedance becomes innite, and consequently, innite impedance occurs whenever the dipole antenna is an
integer multiple of a wavelength. Full-wavelength dipole
antenna has specic advantages and features of higher
directional characteristics than the shorter quarterwavelength dipole antenna, symmetrical and therefore
omini-directional, and nally, the elds are linearly
polarized as the E-eld only has one vector component.
Considering the impedance as a function of the dipole
length, reducing the length slightly makes the antenna
become resonant. If the dipoles length is reduced to
0.48, the input impedance of the antenna becomes
Zin = 70 , with no reactive component. The radiation
pattern remains virtually the same.
2.1.2. Capacitive loaded wire antenna
The major disadvantage of a wire antenna is the low
radiation efciency. To improve on this, a capacitive
loaded and planar H-shaped transmission line were
investigated and reported by Simovski and He (2001).
The intent of this work is to improve the radiation characteristics and reduce antenna size. To form an effective
impedance wire, one can periodically break up each
wire, and separate the neighbouring broken ends by a
small gap , which must be small compared to the wire
diameter d as shown in Figures 1(a) and (b). This small
gap forms a planar capacitor width capacitance stated
in Equation (1), where is the dielectric constant of the
medium lling the gap. The variable p shown in Figure 1
denotes the period of the broken elements along the zdirection. It is henceforth noteworthy that p must be
large compared to d so that the model of a long thin
wire is valid, and therefore, the chain broken wires can
be treated as an effective wire with the following uniformly distributed impedance per unit length. The radiation eld generated by a nite-length line source (dipole)
can be calculated by using the Fourier transform (with

Figure 1. Capacitive loaded wire antenna (Simovski and He

2001), (a) standard wire; (b) planar H-shaped transmission line
(Simovski and He 2001).

respect to the parameter kz) since the solution for a line

source problem gives the solution for each Fourier
spatial harmonic of the antenna current as reported by
Simovski and He (2001). In this way, one obtains the
radiation pattern and the radiation resistance (which is
related to the radiation efciency).
CS ee0

d2
:
4d

(1)

2.1.3. H-shaped transmission line wire antenna

Printed antennas for microwaves can be fabricated in a
simple and inexpensive way. For printed antennas, the
broken wires under discussion become conducting strips
of width w1 and small thickness t<<w1, supported by a
dielectric substrate. The formulae required to accommodate the inuence of the dielectrics on the radiation, as
done in (He et al. 2000) for a conventional MPBG
antenna, was reported in (Simovski and He 2001). If the
gap for two neighbouring strips of width w1 and length
p is small, one can obtain a desired value for Cs. Then,
the value of the capacitance Cs becomes small, and the
model of the effective impedance wire is not valid (He,
Simovski, and Popov 2000). To increase the value of the
capacitance Cs, it may be ideal to use the chains of conducting particles having the shape of the letter H (lying
on the xz-plane). The strip arms that are parallel to the
x-axis (of length w2) contribute little to the radiation
since the currents owing in the two neighbouring arms
of two adjacent strips are in opposite directions. The
only role of these strip arms is to increase Cs. Therefore,
the capacitance between the adjacent H-particles is the
capacitance between two horizontal strip arms separated
by a small distance . Cs can be chosen large enough in
the present study since the strip length p can be chosen
close to the horizontal lattice period a (with the model of
the thin impedance wire still valid). In the case, when
t<<w1<<p, the capacitance Cs practically does not
depend on the strip width w1 and can be calculated by
the following simplied formula as reported in Lo and
Lee (1993) and Marcuvitz (1951).

Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers

CS



2w2 ee0
16
;
log
1  j2
p

(2)

where is the relative permittivity of the material lled

in the gap and is as stated in Equation (3).


1
j
:
(3)
1 2d=w2  d

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2.2. Microstrip patch antenna

In Figure 2 of Ain et al. (2013), a conventional MPA
excited by a coaxial feed probe was reported. Instead,
we examined a conventional microstrip-fed patch
antenna in this work along with other performance
enhancement MPAs. The input impedance is usually
high at the edges of a patch, and thereafter, nosedives as
it approaches the centre. Simultaneously, the current is
low at the ends of a half-wave patch and increases in
magnitude towards the centre. Therefore, the input
impedance (Zin = V/I) could be reduced if the patch is
fed closer to the centre. An inset-fed method is an appropriate solution to boost its performance. Also, the voltage decreases in magnitude by the same amount as the
amount of the increased current. Consequently, using
(Zin = V/I), the input impedance scale is
 
pR
(4)
Zin 0:
Zin R cos2
t
In a coupled-fed patch antenna, the inset feed is stopped
just before the patch. Consequently, a capacitive effect is
introduced due to the presence of gap that exists between
the patch and the feed. Therefore, the advantage of the
feed is the effect of the introduced capacitance, which
neutralizes the inductance added by the probe feed.
Much more, a quarter wavelength transmission lines can
be used to match the input impedance (Zin) of an antenna
to the transmission line (Z0). When this is done, the
input impedance is given as
Zin Z0

Z12
;
ZA

(5)

where ZA is the impedance of the antenna. In essence,

the parameter Z1 can be altered by changing the width of

Figure 2. Different long wire antenna design for the purpose

of comparison, (a) standard dipole; (b) capacitive chain loaded;
(c) planar H-shaped.

the quarter wavelength transmission line. This alteration

in turn changes the input impedance Z1. Basically, the
wider the transmission line, the lower the impedance Z0.
3. Antenna geometry and design
The antennas were designed and fabricated as shown in
Figures 2 and 3 below. The designs were excited with
either a coaxial feed probe or microstrip line feed as
appropriate, particularly for the patch antennas. In all the
designs, namely the standard long wire antenna, available loaded wire antenna types which are optimized for
maximal radiation efciency and directivity such as the
capacitive loaded long wire antenna and the planar
H-shaped element transmission line design, coaxial feed
probe was employed. All the designs were simulated
using Finite Integration Technique (FIT) solver CST
microwave studio (CST 2013). The designs were photoedged on Duroid RC4003C microwave laminate
grounded substrate of thickness 0.813 mm, a metal thickness of 0.035 mm, a loss tangent (tan ) of 0.0027 and a
permittivity of 3.38. The same board was used in all the
designs to ensure that these antennas have the same congurations as the quasi-lumped element resonator
antenna in order to standardize conditions for the comparison. The electrical length of a standard dipole was
determined to be 28 mm, and the half dipole was
14 mm. The dipole width is set at 0.6 mm, which is
twice the etch limit of 0.3 mm. The same electrical
length was determined for the capacitive chain loaded
dipole antenna, but with additional 4 mm which was
divided into eight spaces of 0.5 mm per space.
This was done to form the spacing in order to create
the capacitive loading. In H-particle, each H-shape occupies a space of 2.8 mm with a spacing of 0.37 mm. The
design dimensions of the MPAs are indicated in Figure 3
below. One step towards designing the resonator was to
rst dene the substrate and ground plane layer by creating the brick. The next step requires that the properties
of the dielectric substrate be dened in the material
parameter box. The values of the substrate parameters
were inserted into the material parameter dialog box, and
the brick consisting of the substrate was created. Thereafter, the ground plane layer was created by clicking an
extrude option in the dialog box pop-up. The required
data were imputed in the new extrude dialog box. The
inner and outer radii of the probe were calculated using
a CST impedance calculator to ensure that the dimensions of the radii were equal to the input impedance of
approximately 50 . Also, the height of the probe was
determined experimentally. By activating the coaxial
probe dialog box, the height and dielectric constant of
the substrate were inserted. Subsequently, the ground
plane side of the probe was connected to the RF connector. The ports were dened to represent the excitation

S.S. Olokede et al.

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Figure 3. Different microstrip-fed patch antenna design for the purpose of comparison, (a) coaxial probe; (b) microstrip-fed;
(c) inset-fed; (d) inset-coupled; (e) quarter wavelength transmission line.

source of the antenna. Ideally, the port size was 10 times

as wide as the width of the microstrip line and 5 times
as high as the height of the substrate.
The Antenna (on planar substrate) template is set
at the beginning of the design. By this, the boundary
conditions were already properly set for this structure.
Usually on the ground plane, an electric boundary condition is set that behaves like an innite solid perfect electric conductor (PEC) brick. All other boundary planes
were set to open or open (add space) in order to realize
free space behind their boundary planes. In virtually
all designs, the symmetry has been magnetic. Therefore,
the calculation domain was cut in half as well as the
number of mesh cells. When the eld monitor is set, the
radiation characteristics, E- and H-elds can be examined. With the CST Microwave Studio, the eld monitors can be set to obtain additional information on the
electromagnetic eld distribution at specic frequencies.
In all the designs, E-eld, H-eld and Far-eld were
chosen at a frequency of 5.8 GHz from the eld monitor dialog box. Finally, the transient solver was selected
for all the designs. By activating this solver, the shorter
calculation time is guaranteed with excellent accuracy in
terms of the antenna performance.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Return loss, input impedance and VSWR of wire
antennas
HP 8720D (50 MHz20 GHz) network analyzer was used
in the experiment to measure the return loss, antenna
bandwidth and resonant frequency. It also has the capability to display the smith chat, thus making it possible to
measure the input impedance. Before the network
analyzer can be adapted for measurement; it must rst be
calibrated at one port only except when isolation measurement is needed. For bandwidth measurement, the
10-dB (VSWR 2:1) point was used, and it is adequate
to determine the frequency range. The recorded data from
the measurement was compared with simulated results to
determine the level of agreement of the two results. The
simulated and measured S11 of the antennas are as

depicted in Figure 4. The simulated S11 of the capacitive

loaded was 23.74 dB at 5.8 GHz with a bandwidth of
199 MHz. The measured S11 was 19.86 dB with a bandwidth of 140 MHz. The measured input impedance was
52 j02.82. The simulated and measured voltage
standing wave ratio (VSWR) as shown in Figure 5 was
1.321:1. Also for the planar H-shaped transmission line
long wire antenna, simulated and measured S11 was
22.54 dB at 5.788 GHz with a bandwidth of 209 MHz.
The measured S11 was 18.68 dB and the bandwidth of
150 MHz.
The measured input impedance was 49 + j09.26.
The simulated and measured VSWR was 1.302:1 at the
frequencies of 5.78 GHz and 5.80 GHz, respectively.
Finally, the simulated and measured VSWR as shown in
Figure 6 was 1.2:1. For standard long wire, the simulated
S11 was 27.17 dB with a bandwidth of 140 MHz. The
measured S11 was 26.05 dB and the bandwidth of
130 MHz. The measured input impedance was
49.67 + j10.07. The simulated and measured VSWR
was 1.321:1 at the frequencies of 5.767 GHz and
5.8 GHz, respectively.
4.2. Return loss, input impedance and VSWR of MPA
antennas
Essentially, the conventional microstrip patch was
excited with microstrip feed of width 1.898 mm. The
simulated and measured return losses are as given in
Figure 6. The simulated S11 was 21.98 dB with a bandwidth of 68 MHz. The measured S11 was 18.22 dB
with a bandwidth of 60 MHz and input impedance of
50.01 j1.21. The simulated VSWR shown in Figure 7
was 1.38:1 at a frequency of 5.78 GHz, whereas the
measured VSWR was 1.29:1 at a frequency of 5.8 GHz.
The inset-fed Microstrip patch was designed and excited
with Microstrip inset-fed (at an inset distance of
R = 0.0960 mm) of width 1.898 mm. The simulated S11
was 18.05 dB at 5.8 GHz with a bandwidth of
169 MHz. The measured S11 was 15.36 dB and the
bandwidth was 145 MHz. The simulated and measured
input
impedances
were
51.18 j1.91 ,
and
49.18 + j7.91, respectively.

Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers

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Figure 4. Simulated and measured return loss of the wire antennas.

Figure 5. Simulated and measured VSWR of different wire antennas.

Figure 6. Simulated and measured return loss of different MPAs.

The simulated VSWR was 1.57:1, whereas the measured VSWR was 1.48:1. Also, the inset-coupled MPA
was excited with Microstrip inset-fed (at an inset distance of R = 0.0960 (mm) of width 1.898 mm). The

simulated S11 was 14.55 dB at 5.8 GHz with a bandwidth of 139 MHz. The measured S11 was 13.98 dB
with the bandwidth of 119 MHz and measured input
impedance of 48.51 + j12.22. The simulated VSWR

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S.S. Olokede et al.

Figure 7. Simulated and measured VSWR of different MPAs.

was 1.28:1 at the frequency of 5.808 GHz, whereas the

measured VSWR was 1.61:1. The quarter wavelength
MPA was excited with a Microstrip feed line of width
1.898 mm and a quarter wavelength width of 1.025 mm.
The simulated S11 was 21.18 dB at 5.8 GHz with a
bandwidth of 151 MHz. The measured S11 was
19.24 dB at the same resonant frequency as obtained in
the simulation but with the bandwidth of 130 MHz and
measured input impedance of 50.32 j08.14.
The simulated VSWR was 1.316:1 at the frequency
of 5.8 GHz. The measured VSWR was the same with
the simulation and both occur at the same frequency of
5.8 GHz.
4.3. Radiation pattern of long wire antennas
Though radiation patterns of antennas are three-dimensional, these patterns can however be represented by
two-dimensional planes which are orthogonal to each
other. These two-dimensional planes correspond to
E-plane and H-plane. To measure these two planes, the
measurement of the radiation pattern was done using the
following equipment, namely HP 83620B (10 MHz
20 GHz) signal generator, a transmitting dipole antenna,
a rotating machine and Agilent 8565E (9 kHz50 GHz)
spectrum analyzer. The antenna under test (AUT) was
attached to the rotating machine, while the standard
transmitting standard dipole antenna was attached to a
xed tripod stand. The proposed antenna (AUT) acts as
a receiving antenna. Both the receiving and transmitting
antenna were strategically positioned to ensure there was
alignment between them. It is also imperative that the
two antennas (transmitting and AUT) maintain a distance
sufciently large from each other such that the distance
falls within a region popularly referred to as the far eld.
The minimum permissible distance depends on the
dimensions of the antenna in relation to the wavelength.

Thereafter, the transmit signal from the signal generator

was set at 5 dBm at the set measurement frequencies.
The radiation pattern will normally be observed on the
screen of the spectrum analyzer, and the power levels at
the transmit frequencies were measured.
Usually, one part of the measurement is done on the
polarization plane, the E-plane, whereas the other is on a
plane perpendicular to the polarization plane. For an
E-plane cut, the resonator was aligned so that it was horizontally polarized while the holder was rotated from 0
to 360 such that the measurements were taken at 10
intervals. For an H-plane cut, the resonator was moved
in such a way that it was vertically polarized while the
holder was rotated. Besides, an H-plane cut can also be
carried out by orienting the position of the transmitting
antenna such that it becomes vertically polarized. Thereafter, the cable power loss must be subtracted from the
received power to get the actual received power.
These values must be normalized with a maximum
value of the received power to get the normalized
received power. Then, the normalized input power data
for each 10 should be plotted as the radiation pattern on
the polar graph for each of the AUT. The measurements
were recorded, plotted and compared with the simulation
radiation pattern obtained from the CST Design Environment. It is worthy of note that all the designs radiation
patterns were measured in an anechoic chamber. The
radiation pattern of the planar H-shaped long transmission line wire antenna was as shown in Figure 8(a). The
simulation gain was 7.342 dBi with main lobe magnitude
of 3.8 dB, main lobe direction of 90, angular width
(at 3 dB) of 81.1, and a side lobe level of 2.4 dB for
E-plane. In H-plane, the main lobe magnitude was 2 dB,
main lobe direction of 35, and an angular width (3 dB)
of 155.9. In Figure 8(b), the radiation pattern of the planar capacitive loaded wire antenna is shown. The simulation gain was 9.19 dBi with main lobe magnitude of

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Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers

Figure 8. Simulated and measured radiation pattern of different wire antennas, (a) H-shaped; (b) capacitive; (c) standard.

7.3 dB, main lobe direction of 35 and angular width (at

3 dB) of 43.7 for E-plane. In H-plane, the main lobe
magnitude was 1.9 dB, main lobe direction of 90, an
angular width of 31.8 and a side lobe level of 2.4 dB.
The simulation gain was 9.19 dBi with main lobe magnitude of 7.3 dB, main lobe direction of 35 and angular
width (at 3 dB) of 43.7 for E-plane. In H-plane, the
main lobe magnitude was 1.9 dB, main lobe direction of

90, an angular width of 31.8 and a side lobe level of

2.4 dB. Finally, the radiation pattern of the planar standard long wire antenna is as shown in Figure 8(c). The
simulation gain was 6.3 dBi with main lobe magnitude
of 5.8 dB, main lobe direction of 35 and angular width
of 45 for E-plane. In H-plane, the main lobe magnitude
was 2.1 dB, main lobe direction of 10, an angular width
of 31.8 and a side lobe level of 2.6 dB.

S.S. Olokede et al.

4.4. Radiation pattern of MPA antennas

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The radiation pattern of the MPAs was as shown in

Figure 9. In Figure 9(a), the simulation gain was 6.49
dBi with main lobe magnitude of 2 dB, main lobe

direction of 35 and angular width (3 dB) of 155.8 for

E-plane. In H-plane, the main lobe magnitude was
3.8 dB, main lobe direction of 90, a side lobe level of
0.9 dB and an angular width of 81.1. In Figure 9(b),

Figure 9. Simulated and measured radiation pattern of different MPAs, (a) conventional; (b) inset-fed; (c) inset-coupled; (d) wavelength.

Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers

Table 1. Performance prole comparison of the proposed and different planar wire antennas.
Size
(mm)

Bandwidth
(MHz)

Return loss
(dB)

VSWR

Gain
(dBi)

E-plane side
lobe ()

E-plane
beamwidth ()

5.8 5.6
10 21.6
10 28.7

340
130
140

50.97
26.05
23.74

1.006:1
1.32:1
1.20:1

9.38
6.30
7.04

4.2
1.7
2.4

30.4
45.0
43.7

15 34.2

145

15.36

1.48:1

9.32

4.7

73.6

Antenna type
Proposed antenna
Standard long wire dipole
Capacitive loaded long
dipole
Planar H-shaped
transmission line

Table 2. Performance prole comparison of the proposed and different microstrip patch antennas.

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Antenna type
Proposed antenna
Coaxial fed
Microstrip fed
Inset fed
Inset coupled
Quarter
wavelength

Size (mm)

Bandwidth
(MHz)

Return loss
(dB)

VSWR

Gain
(dBi)

E-plane side lobe

()

E-plane beamwidth
()

5.8 5.6
17.48 21.6
28 13.81
27 13.81
28 13.81
28 13.81

340
75
60
145
119
130

50.97
17.18
18.22
15.36
13.98
19.24

1.006:1
1.115:1
1.29:1
1.48:1
1.61:1
1.316:1

9.38
8.19
6.49
9.32
8.66
6.0

4.2
1.4
0.9
4.7
4.7
2.8

30.4
90.8
81.1
73.6
66.2
59.3

the radiation pattern of the inset-fed MPA was depicted.

The simulation gain was 9.32 dBi with main lobe magnitude of 6.5 dB, main lobe direction of 10, angular width
(3 dB) of 76.5 and a side lobe level of 4.7 dB for
E-plane. In H-plane, the main lobe magnitude was
6.2 dB, main lobe direction of 0 and an angular width
of 73.6. Similarly, the radiation pattern of the insetcoupled MPA was shown in Figure 9(c). The simulation
gain was 8.66 dBi with main lobe magnitude of 6.67 dB,
main lobe direction of 6, a side lobe of 5.2 dB and
angular width at 3 dB of 69.9 for E-plane. In H-plane,
the main lobe magnitude was 6.24 dB, main lobe direction of 10, a side lobe level of 4.7 dB and an angular
width of 66.2. Finally, the radiation pattern of the quarter wavelength MPA was as shown in Figure 9(d). The
simulation gain was 6.004 dBi with main lobe magnitude
of 3.6 dB and main lobe direction of 90 for E-plane. In
H-plane, the main lobe magnitude was 2.7 dB, main lobe
direction of 30 and an angular width of 141.
5. Performance prole comparison
5.1. Performance prole comparison between the
proposed antenna and wire antennas
The Table 1 below compares the performance prole of
the proposed antenna and some selected planar long wire
antennas operating at the same frequency of 5.8 GHz and
excited similarly. These planar long wire antennas are
popular because of their inherent attributes of small size
and relatively good radiation characteristics (Simovski
and He 2001) and hence will be logical as ideal candidates

on the basis of comparison with the proposed antenna.

Therefore, the quasi-lumped element resonator antenna
exhibits better characteristics as it represents a size reduction capability of about 69.77% over the next smaller
available antenna size, as seen in Planar H-shaped long
wire transmission line design.

5.2. Performance prole comparison between the

proposed antenna and MPA antennas
Table 2 below shows the performance proles of various
printed single element antennas with the view to comparing them to the quasi-lumped element resonator antenna.
Although, going through the table, inset-fed MPA looks
attractive as it exhibits good gain, good bandwidth and
sufcient return loss. Similar performance was also
noticeable in inset-coupled MPA and quarter wavelength
MPA. On a general note, none of them was able to compete with the quasi-lumped element resonator antenna as
it exhibits a better bandwidth, which is more than 100%
compared to the inset-fed patch antenna, that appears to
be the best among alternatives to quasi-lumped element
resonator antenna. Additionally, the antenna also demonstrated its brilliant performance in terms of size reduction, better gain, return loss, beam width and VSWR.

6. Conclusion
Appropriate performance prole comparison between
the quasi-lumped element resonator and some relevant

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10

S.S. Olokede et al.

planar metal antennas was undertaken and has been

presented. In all cases, all the antennas were
designed, fabricated and measured except the quasilumped element resonator antenna. Detailed comparisons between all of the results have been properly
presented and in all cases, tabulated. In most cases,
the return loss characteristics indicated that the resonant frequency and impedance bandwidth were properly matched. In general, simulated eld patterns were
observed to be in good agreement with the experimental results. In a few cases, there were notable dissimilarities in the results particularly, with the
radiation pattern plots between the simulation and
measurement result. Reasons for such dissimilarities
were equally advanced. Nonetheless, there were close
agreements in most cases. The desired results of compact capability of the quasi-lumped element resonator
were pronounced in all the cases. Also, reasonable
antenna performances were also achieved in all the
cases investigated.

Nomenclature
AUT
antenna under test
CST
computer simulation technology
FIT
nite integration technique
GPS
global positioning system
MPA
microstrip patch antenna
Q-factor
quality factor
RFID
radio frequency identication
VSWR
voltage standing wave ratio

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