ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print) IJECT Vol.

5, Issue Spl-2, Jan - March 2014

Effect of Dielectric Permittivity and Height on a

Microstrip-Fed Rectangular Patch Antenna
Suvadeep Choudhury
Dept. of ECE, Supreme Knowledge Foundations Group of Institutions,
Mankundu, West Bengal, India
h
Abstract
Proper selection of dielectric material is an important task for
designing a patch antenna. In the present work, the variations Dielectric
in resonant frequency, bandwidth, |s11| (in dB) of a microstrip-
fed rectangular patch antenna have been studied by varying the
substrate thickness and its dielectric constant.
Patch Ground
Keywords
Microstrip Patch Antenna, Dielectric, Permittivity, Bandwidth,
Resonant Frequency

I. Introduction
With the development of modern wireless communications, there
is an increasing demand for compact microstrip antennas. This is
mostly due to their versatility in terms of possible geometries, light
weight construction and suitability of integration with microwave
integrated circuits that makes them applicable for many different
situations. The basic antenna geometry comprises of a dielectric
substrate sandwiched between the ground and radiating patch.
The substrate, besides providing mechanical strength to the overall
antenna design, also allows surface waves to propagate through it.
Because the dimensions of the antenna are finite, the fields along
the edges undergo fringing. The amount of fringing is a function
of the antenna dimensions as well as the height of the substrate.
Since waves travel both in air as well as in the substrate, so an
effective dielectric constant (eff), given by (1) is introduced to
account for the fringing effects [1].
wf
Y Y
Z
X X
Z
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 1: Antenna Geometry (a) Front View (b) Back View (c) Side
View
The design procedure is segmented in two parts:
1. Keeping h fixed, relative permittivity (r) is varied and the
corresponding variation in resonant frequency, operational
bandwidth and |s11| are studied.
2. The height of the antenna (h) is varied and the corresponding
variation in resonant frequency is studied for three dielectrics:
Rogers TMM3 (r=3.27), FR4 (r=4.4) and Rogers TMM6
(r=6.0).

(1)
where, W= width of the patch, h= height of the substrate.
Though some recent work has been done to measure the
radiation characteristics [5-6] with change in dielectric height
and permittivity, but scant attention has been paid to examine
the frequency characteristics and its variations with change in
these parameters.
III. Results
Fig. 2 and 3 shows the variation in resonant frequency, operational
bandwidth and |s11| with variation in dielectric constant at a fixed
dielectric height (h). From the graphs it is observed that with
increase in r both the resonant frequency as well as the operational
bandwidth decreases.

II. Theory
A dielectric is characterized by two basic parameters; the dielectric
constant (r) and the loss tangent (tan ). In the present work, the
dielectrics are taken as lossless (tan =0). The substrate height
(h) and dielectric constant (r) of the substrate are very important
factors that influence the variation of bandwidth as well as the
surface waves.
A microstrip fed dipole antenna on a rectangular patch has been
modeled. The required width (wf) of the microstrip feeding line
is calculated for a characteristic impedance Z0=50 [2],

(2)
Fig. 2: Variation of Resonant Frequency and Operational
where, Bandwidth With r

w w w. i j e c t. o r g International Journal of Electronics & Communication Technology 129

IJECT Vol. 5, Issue Spl-2, Jan - March 2014
Fig. 3: Variation of |s11| at resonant frequency with r
The magnitude of s11 at the first resonant frequency primarily
decreases with increase in r up to certain extent after which it
starts to increase. Also with increase in r, higher order resonant
peaks are also observed which results in decrease in the |s11| value
for the first peak.
Fig. 4: Variation of Resonant Frequency With Dielectric Height
Next, the height of the dielectric has been varied keeping r
fixed and the variation of resonant frequency is observed. Three
dielectric substrates have been considered.
As the substrate height increases, fringing also increases and leads
to lower radiation frequencies.
IV. Conclusion
The effects of varying the dielectric constant and thickness have
been studied in this paper. With increase in dielectric constant both
the resonant frequency as well as the bandwidth decreases. So the
130 International Journal of Electronics & Communication Technology
ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print)
antenna system becomes narrowband with increase in r.
With increase in the permittivity, |s11| decreases up to a certain
extent after which it starts to increase because of higher order
resonant peaks which decrease the value of the first peak.
With increase in height of substrate, the fringing increases which
decreases the operating frequency of the antenna system.
V. Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank The Department of Electronics and
Communication Engineering, Supreme Knowledge Foundation
Group of Institutions, for its help in the completion of the present
work.
References
[1] Balanis C.A.,Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, 3rd
Ed., John Wiley and Sons, UK.
[2] Pozar D.M.,Microwave engineering, 3rd Ed., New York,
Wiley, 2005.
[3] Garg R., Bhartia P., Bahl I., Ittipiboon A., Microstrip
Antenna Design Handbook, Artech House, MA, 2001.
[4] James J.R., Hall P.S.,Handbook of Microstrip Antennas,
Peter Peregrinus Ltd., IEE Electromagnetic Wave Series
28.
[5] Kumar K.P., Rao K.S., Rao V.M., Uma K., Somasekhar
A., Mohan C.M.,"The effect of dielectric permittivity on
radiation characteristics of co-axially feed rectangular patch
antenna: Design & Analysis, Int. Journal Adv. Research in
Comp. and Comm. Engg., Vol. 2, Issue 2, Feb 2013.
[6] Hasan M.R., Suman A.A.,Substrate Height and Dielectric
Constant Dependent Performance of Circular Micro Strip
Patch Array Antennas for Broadband Wireless Access,
Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Info. Sc.,
Vol. 3, No. 10, Oct 2012.
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