Wireless Pers Commun

DOI 10.1007/s11277-017-4177-4

Miniaturized Multiband Slotted Microstrip Antenna

for Wireless Applications

Amanpreet Kaur1 • Gurmohan Singh2 • Manjit Kaur1

 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017

Abstract A miniaturized multiband slotted Microstrip antenna for wireless applications is

designed and its characteristics have been investigated. The proposed antenna consists of a
substrate, one side of substrate is having rectangular radiating patch containing C-shaped
slots and other side is having a partial ground plane. The dimensions for proposed antenna
are kept small to 25 9 25 9 1.6 mm. The number, length/width, and positions of the
C-shaped slots have been selected suitably so as to achieve results for return loss, VSWR in
frequency bands of interest. The proposed antenna characterizes four bands at resonant
frequencies of 3.39, 4.29, 5.46, and 5.77 GHz with return loss values of -16.45, -19.24,
-11.85, and -12.35 dB and VSWR values of 1.37, 1.24, 1.69, and 1.64 respectively. The
designed antenna can serve IEEE 802.11a radio WLAN applications in frequency band
5.180–5.825 GHz, IEEE 802.16-2004 fixed WiMAX applications in frequency band
2–11 GHz, and IEEE 802.16e mobile WiMAX applications in frequency band 2–6 GHz.
The proposed antenna has nearly omnidirectional radiation pattern exhibiting reasonable
gains across the desired frequency bands.

Keywords Microstrip
C-shaped slots
Partial ground
WiMAX
WLAN
Multiband

& Gurmohan Singh

gurmohan@cdac.in
Amanpreet Kaur
kauramanpreet07@gmail.com
Manjit Kaur
manjeet@cdac.in
1
ACS Division, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali 160071, India
2
DEC Division, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali 160071, India

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1 Introduction

Recent developments in short-range radio links, such as worldwide interoperability for

microwave access (WiMAX) and wireless local area network (WLAN) have led to massive
advancements in miniaturized antenna structures. Antennas are required in applications
involving transmitters and receivers, however in some cases antennas are hidden inside
laptop computers and radios providing Wi-Fi facility. Antennas are required by radio
receiver or transmitter in order to provide coupling between electrical connections and the
electromagnetic field. Radio transmitters and receivers are utilized to convey signals in
broadcast radio, Wi-Fi, point-to-point communication links and many remote controlled
devices [1, 2]. Nowadays, antennas are required to be compact in size and should be
capable of providing multiband operation [3].
In the modern wireless communication, WLAN and WiMAX technologies are the most
rapidly growing areas. These can provide the ability to roam around covering a broad area
while maintaining a connection to the network. This enhances the flexibility and gives
freedom to the users. Wireless technology is gaining popularity amongst the home users as
it can be easily installed without creating a panic for selection of a proper location. All
these applications require an antenna. For this reason portable antenna technology has
advanced along with mobile and cellular technologies. A suitable antenna is the foremost
requirement in all the devices as it can improve the transmission and reception and also
reduces the power consumption [4]. Microstrip antennas are well suited for wireless
applications owing to their advantages viz. low profile, ease of fabrication and small size
[18].
Several Microstrip antennas designs have been reported; however, in many cases they
are comparatively of large size and mostly incapable of multiband operation. A small
printed antenna is presented for providing triple band operation with horizontal strips
attached to radiation element [1]. A novel coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed antenna is
reported [2]. Modifications are generally made in ground plane or radiation patch [1, 2].
These antennas face problems while embedding into a small space. Various other slotted
antennas are designed; a CPW-fed monopole antenna having embedded slots [5], mean-
dered split-ring slots in Y-shaped monopole radiator [6], and a slot monopole antenna
containing rectangular parasitic elements [7]. All these antennas [5–7] are designed for
operation in single band or in dual band. These antennas provided proper gain, fair radi-
ation patterns for the desired operational frequency bands. Further size reduction tech-
niques need to be deployed which can be useful for generation of multiple resonant modes.
Antennas are designed with L-shaped slots for miniaturizing the antenna size [8, 9]. An
antenna is designed with L- and U-shaped slots in the rectangular patch which provides
proper resonating bands [10]. An antenna is proposed with modified fork shaped strips and
provided multiband operation [11]. An antenna composed of an ACS-fed monopole with
two open-ended slots is presented [12]. The positions of the slots are selected suitably in
order to achieve characteristics of dual stopband rejection. An antenna was presented for
performing notched operation to operate in two bands; WLAN and C-band satellite
communication system by inserting rectangular slots into radiating patch and M-shaped
slots in the feed line in [13]. An antenna with a rectangular ring which is having S-shaped
strip and is attached to the feedline, a crooked U-shaped strip and strips attached onto the
bottom layer is presented [14]. A multi resonator-loaded antenna suitable for multiband
operation is presented [15]. The rectangular patch is embedded with dual L-shaped strips
which are inverted, and a cross-shaped strip line is employed to feed the antenna which

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helped in the achievement of additional resonance frequencies and also in the enhancement
of bandwidths [16]. An antenna having a circular ring with Y-shaped strips is presented. A
defected ground structure is used. The addition of Y-shaped strips aids in exciting resonant
modes and also aids in the miniaturization of the structure [17]. Many dual and multiband
antenna designs including the microstrip feed line antennas [19–21]; the antennas with
probe feed [22–24] have been reported.

2 Antenna Design Procedure

An antenna small in size with capabilities of operating at all frequencies for suitable ap-
plications is desired. The proposed slotted Microstrip antenna designed to operate in quad
band is shown in Fig. 1. The antenna consists of a radiating patch with symmetrical
C-shaped slots, and a ground plane. The antenna is designed owing to the fact that
microstrip antenna is low profile and simple in structure. The antenna is designed such that
it remains compact in size and provides results in the desired frequency bands. The
complete antenna design with edge connected coaxial feed is shown in Fig. 2.
A compact and small antenna can be designed that provides the desired operational
capabilities including omnidirectional radiation patterns at WiMAX and WLAN frequency
bands by following an appropriate procedure. The dimensions of the patch and antenna are
significantly reduced, while keeping dimensions compatible with fabrication facility. The
slots are cut into the patch which are symmetrical and are mirror images. The design of the
slots is based on the expectation that these slots can be easily cut when the patch is
compact and provides the desired resonating frequencies.
An edge connected coaxial feedline is used to feed the antenna, which is partially
backed by ground plane in order to provide connection between antenna and external
circuit. As the patch including the slots is kept small and is backed by the ground plane
partially, so the radiation pattern is expected to be omnidirectional. The dimensions of the
proposed antenna including the size of the substrate, length of the slots and the ground
plane are optimised. Simulations showing reflection coefficient (S11), gain, voltage
standing wave ratio (VSWR) and radiation patterns were carried out using EM field solver
tool (HFSS). Table 1 depicts the values for optimal parameters of the proposed geometry.
C-shaped slots are inserted for obtaining results in the desired frequency bands. The

Fig. 1 a Top-view b Side-view c Back-view of the proposed antenna geometry

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Fig. 2 Complete antenna design

with edge mounted SMA coaxial
connector feeding microstrip line

Table 1 Optimal parameters of

Parameter Size (mm) Parameter Size (mm)
the proposed geometry
Lg 25 C1 4.5
Wg 25 C2 4.5
H 1.6 C3 7.5
L1 12.2 C4 9.5
W1 4 C5 9
Lp 12.5 C6 11.5
Wp 23 C7 10

optimum results are achieved by varying the ground length. FR4 substrate having per-
mittivity of 4.4 and a thickness of 1.6 mm is used for imprinting the proposed antenna. The
dimensions of the substrate are 25 mm 9 25 mm 9 1.6 mm. A 23 mm 9 12.5 mm
rectangular patch is attached to a 4 mm wide feed line. The feed line is partially backed by
the ground plane which provides a connection between the antenna and an external circuit
through a 50-X edge mounted SMA coaxial connector. The top view and back view of the
designed antenna with coaxial probe and optimized dimensions is shown in Fig. 3a and b
respectively. The antenna is fed through a 2.5 mm radius, 50 X coaxial probe with an SMA
connector on the bottom side of the plane near the apex.
The measurement set up for testing the performance of designed antenna is shown in
Fig. 4. All the parameters of the antenna were measured by using vector network analyser
(VNA).

3 Result and Discussion

The proposed Microstrip antenna geometry is designed & simulated using HFSS tool to
obtain various parameters like return loss, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR), band-
width, gain and radiation pattern. The designed antenna is tested using VNA tool. The

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Miniaturized Multiband Slotted Microstrip Antenna for…

Fig. 3 a Top-view of designed antenna b Back-view of designed antenna

Fig. 4 Laboratory setup for

measuring antenna parameters

designed antenna can serve IEEE 802.11a radio WLAN applications in frequency band
5.180–5.825 GHz, IEEE 802.16-2004 fixed WiMAX applications in frequency band
2–11 GHz, and IEEE 802.16e mobile WiMAX applications in frequency band 2–6 GHz. A
comparison between dimensions, gain and number of frequency bands, feed mechanism
used and application of the proposed antenna with other similar microstrip antennas is
shown in Table 2.
Return loss is the difference between forward and reflected power in dB, generally
measured at the input of the coaxial cable connected to the antenna, for maximum power
transfer the return loss should be as small as possible, this mean that the return loss should
be a large negative number as possible. Table 3 depicts simulated values of various
antenna parameters for different frequency distributions.
Figure 5 shows comparison between simulated and measured values of S11 parameter.
The values of return loss obtained at resonant peaks of 3.398, 3.570, 5.32, and 5.73 GHz
are -26.48, -29.87, -14.88, and -13.89 dB respectively. The values of VSWR at these
resonant peaks are 1.10, 1.07, 1.44, and 1.51. Appreciable bandwidths of approximately
238, 566.8, 722, and 90 MHz are achieved for four frequency bands. The bandwidth is
calculated by subtracting lower resonating frequency from the upper frequency at -10 dB.

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Table 2 Comparison of proposed antenna with other similar microstrip antennas

Authors Frequency bands Gain dBi (max) Size (mm) Feed Line

Thomas and Sreenivasan [1] 3 3 38 9 30 9 0.8 Microstrip

Liu et al. [2] 3 4.13 25 9 25 9 0.8 CPW
Liu et al. [5] 2 6.6 30 9 25 9 1.6 CPW
Liu et al. [6] 3 2.72 23 9 36.5 9 0.8 CPW
Huang and Yu [7] 2 4.3 50 9 30 9 1.6 CPW
Lu and Huang [8] 3 4.8 30 9 25 9 1.6 CPW
Hu et al. [9] 3 5 28 9 32 9 1 CPW
Moosazadeh and Kharkovsky [10] 3 3.8 15 9 15 9 1.6 Microstrip
Xu et al. [11] 5 4.29 34.5 9 18 9 1 Microstrip
Li et al. [12] 3 2.36 27.5 9 13 9 1.6 ACS
Manshouri et al. [13] 2 10 18 9 20 9 0.8 Microstrip
Xu et al. [14] 3 3.55 35 9 25 9 1 CPW
Hu et al. [15] 3 2.6 18 9 19 9 1 Microstrip
Liu et al. [16] 3 3.4 20 9 30 9 1.6 Microstrip
Pei et al. [17] 3 2.57 25 9 38 9 1.6 Microstrip
Proposed antenna 4 8 25 9 25 9 1.6 Microstrip

Table 3 Simulated values of antenna parameters for different frequency distributions

Frequency band Fl Fc Fh Return loss, S11 Bandwidth VSWR
(GHz) (GHz) (GHz) (GHz) (dB)max (MHz)

3.160–3.398 3.160 3.398 3.39 -26.48 238 1.10

3.398–3.964 3.398 3.570 3.96 -29.87 566.8 1.07
4.743–5.465 4.743 5.32 5.46 -14.88 722 1.44
5.680–5.770 5.770 5.73 5.77 -13.89 90 1.51

Table 4 depicts measured values of various antenna parameters for different frequency
distributions. The values of return loss obtained at four resonant peaks of 3.39, 4.29, 5.46,
and 5.77 GHz are -16.45, -19.24, -11.85, and -12.35 dB respectively. The values of
VSWR at these resonant peaks are 1.37, 1.24, 1.69, and 1.64. Appreciable bandwidths of
approximately 320, 90, 90, and 40 MHz are achieved for four frequency bands.
Figure 5 shows comparison between simulated and measured values of S11 parameter.
Voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) parameter is used for matching and tuning of the
transmitting antennas. For practical applications the value of VSWR lies between 1 and 2.
Figure 6 shows a comparison between simulated and measured values of VSWR.
The radiation pattern usually depicts the field strength of the radio waves from antenna.
2D radiation pattern is shown in Fig. 7. The radiation pattern is found to be nearly
omnidirectional. The radiation pattern helps to determine the directions in which the
antenna radiates its maximum power.

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0 Simulated Return Loss (S11)

Measured Return Loss (S11)

-5

Return Loss (S11) in (dB) -10

-15

-20

-25

-30

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 5 Comparison between simulated and measured values of return loss (S11)

Table 4 Measured values of antenna parameters for different frequency distributions

Frequency band Fl Fc Fh Return loss, S11 Bandwidth VSWR
(GHz) (GHz) (GHz) (GHz) (dB)max (MHz)

3.25–3.57 3.25 3.39 3.57 -16.45 320 1.37

4.20–4.29 4.20 4.29 4.29 -19.24 90 1.24
5.41–5.50 5.41 5.46 5.50 -11.85 90 1.69
5.73–5.77 5.73 5.77 5.77 -12.35 40 1.64

22
Simulated VSWR
20 Measured VSWR
18

16

14

12
VSWR

10

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 6 Comparison between simulated and measured values of VSWR

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Fig. 7 2D radiation pattern for centre frequency of every frequency band a Fc = 3.39 GHz, b Fc = 3.57 -
GHz, c Fc = 5.32 GHz, d Fc = 5.73 GHz

The value of ground length is varied and its effect on the magnitude of reflection
coefficient of the antenna is shown in Fig. 8. A significant increase in reflection coefficient
is achieved owing to changes in the ground length from 8 to 10.5 mm. From comparison, it
is observed that minimum value of reflection coefficient is achieved at 10.5 mm length.

3.1 Effect of Introducing Slots

First of all two C-shaped slots were cut into the rectangular radiating patch in order to get
the resonating frequencies. Figure 9 shows the complete geometry of the antenna with two
C-shaped slots. The resonating frequencies obtained were not suitable for wireless
applications.
Figures 10 and 11 depicts the values of S11 parameter and VSWR for simulated antenna
geometry with two C-shaped slots.

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Miniaturized Multiband Slotted Microstrip Antenna for…

Fig. 8 Comparison of return loss for different values of ground length

Fig. 9 Simulated antenna

geometry with two C-shaped
slots

The values of return loss and VSWR for simulated antenna geometry with two C-shaped
slots obtained at different frequencies is depicted in Table 5
It is observed from Table 5 that the obtained frequency values do not satisfy the
frequency requirements desired for wireless applications. Therefore, further modifications
in number of C-Slots, lengths/widths and position of slots within antenna structure were
carried out to obtain the optimum results for desired frequency bands.
Comparisons of the simulated and measured values are done on the basis of results
obtained for different parameters. The deviation of measured results is attributed to many
factors viz. irregularities in fringing edges of the patches, differences in actual dimensions
printed on PCB, and the use of connectors which represent points of discontinuity & losses
and due to environmental conditions. The deviations are also partly attributed to inaccu-
racies in the antenna manufacturing process.

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Fig. 10 Return loss of the simulated microstrip antenna geometry with two C-shaped slots

Fig. 11 VSWR of the simulated microstrip antenna geometry with two C-shaped slots

Table 5 Values of return loss

Frequency VSWR Return loss (dB)
and VSWR for different
frequencies
3.7 1.65 -12.14
4.6 1.85 -10.49
6.7 1.45 -14.59

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4 Conclusion

A microstrip antenna design for quad band operation is presented. The proposed antenna is
containing C-shaped slots which are embedded into the rectangular patch enabling the
operation of antenna in the desired operational bands. The desired operational bands for
WLAN and WiMAX applications are obtained. The dimensions of the antenna are
25 mm 9 25 mm 9 1.6 mm. The proposed antenna is having small size, multiband
characteristics, omnidirectional radiation pattern and simple structure. For this reason it
can be used for WLAN/WiMAX applications.

References
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Amanpreet Kaur is pursuing Masters of Technology in Electronics

Product Design and Technology from Centre for Development of
Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali, India. She has completed her
Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics and Communication
Engineering from PDM College of Engineering for Women,
Bahadurgarh in 2013. Her research interest includes Antenna Design
and Embedded System Design.

Gurmohan Singh has obtained his Bachelor of Technology degree in

Electronics and Communication Engineering from Giani Zail Singh
College of Engineering and Technology, Bathinda and Master of
Technology degree in Mircoelectronics from Panjab University,
Chandigarh in 2001 and 2005 respectively. Presently, he is pursuing
Ph.D. from NIT, Jalandhar He is working as a Principal Engineer in
Digital Electronics and Communication Division at C-DAC, Mohali.
He is involved in many technological research areas in the field of
electronics design. He has more than 10 years of experience. His major
research interests are nanoelectronic devices and circuits,
heterostructures, miniature antenna design for portable devices and
low power VLSI design techniques and processor and IP core design.

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Miniaturized Multiband Slotted Microstrip Antenna for…

Manjit Kaur is working as Senior Engineer at Centre for Develop-

ment of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali, India. She has
obtained her Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communi-
cation Engineering, BCET Gurdaspur, Punjab, India and Masters of
Technology in Microelectronics from Punjab University, Chandigarh,
India. Presently, she is pursuing Ph.D. from PEC University of
Technology, Chandigarh. She has more than 8 years of experience.
Her research interests includes quantum physics, emerging nano-re-
search devices and technologies, antenna design and processor and IP
core design.

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