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Wide-Band Circular Patch Antenna for Pattern
Diversity Application
Lan Cui, Wen Wu, Senior Member, IEEE, and Da-Gang Fang, Life Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—A low-profile wide-band circular patch antenna with
pattern diversity is proposed. The TM11 mode of the patch is ex-
cited by two feeding loops with in-phase current, which radiates
broadside beam. The TM01 mode is excited by another set of
feeding loops with anti-phase current, which radiates conical
beam. The two modes can operate at an overlapped frequency
range. The proposed antenna is fabricated and measured. The
measured impedance bandwidth (VSWR < 2) for the broadside
beam is from 1.71 GHz to 2.25 GHz, and for the conical beam is
from 1.36 GHz to 2.17 GHz. The measured gains of the broadside
beams and conical beams are 8 dBi - 9.7 dBi and 3.8 dBi - 6.4 dBi,
respectively. The isolation between the two input ports is better
than -25 dB. The antenna can be used as a pattern diversity an-
tenna for modern mobile communications.
Index Terms—Circular patch antenna, pattern diversity,
broadside beam, conical beam, wide-band antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
W ITH the rapid development of modern communication
systems, diversity techniques for antennas are widely
used for different applications, including vehicular communi-
cations, mobile communications and indoor wireless commu-
nications. These applications require antennas to operate at
multiple frequencies or to have wide-band performance, to
radiate different patterns, or to realize different polarizations.
For example, in indoor wireless communications, ceil-
ing-mounted antenna with monopole-like radiation pattern is
widely used. It is very attractive for the antenna to have the
diversity of providing a monopole-like pattern and a broadside
radiation pattern, resulting in a hemispherical coverage.
Microstrip antennas are widely investigated due to their low
cost, low profile and easy fabrication. Various techniques have
been proposed for bandwidth improvement in patch antennas.
For rectangular patch antennas with broadside radiation pat-
terns, the techniques of parasitic patch, L-shaped probe and
magnetic-coupled loop have been proposed for wide-band
performance [1]-[3]. For circular patch antennas with mono-
pole-like radiation patterns, L-shaped probe, coupled annular
ring, conductive vias and multi-point feeding loops are used
Manuscript received December 16, 2014; revised January 27, 2015; ac-
cepted February 10, 2015. This work was supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China under Grant 61301018.
The authors are with the Ministerial Key Laboratory of JGMT, Nanjing
University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210094, China
(e-mail:blue8169@hotmail.com;wuwen@mail.njust.edu.cn;fangdg@mail.njus
t.edu.cn).
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1
[4]-[7]. However, the research about the combination of the two
patterns in a single wide-band patch antenna needs more at-
tention according to the modern communications demands. It is
difficult that the pattern diversity antenna on a common aper-
ture has a wide-band overlapped frequency range and also
keeps the advantages when it operates at each single mode in a
simplified structure.
Several single patch antennas that have the diversity capa-
bility of providing broadside radiation pattern and mono-
pole-like radiation pattern have been studied. In [8]-[9], the
circular patch antenna can radiate the conical beams and
broadside beams separately by two different sets of L-shaped
probes. However, the hybrid ring match network for the
broadside beam is complex. A hybrid-fed circular patch an-
tenna operating at TM11 and TM01 modes was proposed for
WLAN applications with high isolation [10]. The L-shaped
probes in [8]-[9] and the driven rod in [10] make them impos-
sible to realize in full PCB fabrication. In [11], a small-size
microstrip antenna topology was proposed to provide pattern
diversity. The even and odd modes of a shorted patch are
adopted to achieve the pattern diversity [12]. However, the
overlapped frequency ranges of the two antennas are narrow.
In this letter, a wide-band circular patch antenna with the
loop-fed technique for pattern diversity is proposed, in which
all the structures are in easy PCB fabrication. By exciting one
set of the open feeding loops with in-phase current, the patch
antenna can radiate a broadside beam within a wide band. On
the other hand, the circular patch can also support a conical
beam by using other two open feeding loops with anti-phase
current. The broadside beam and conical beam can operate at an
overlapped frequency range of 24% by using two symmetrical
printed shorted posts for impedance match. The proposed an-
tenna achieves good stability of radiation patterns for the two
modes in a wide-band range with a low profile and provides an
alternative to enhance design flexibility in wide-band circular
patch antenna for pattern diversity.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
A. Antenna Configuration
The geometry of the proposed circular patch antenna is
shown in Fig. 1. It is composed of a circular patch, two different
sets of feeding open loops, two printed shorted posts, two
T-junction power dividers and a ground plane. All structures
are printed on the microwave substrate Rogers 4003C (r=3.55,
thickness t=0.813mm). The circular patch is separated from the
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(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 1. Configuration of the proposed antenna: (a) top view, (b) y-z plane for
broadside beam, and (c) x-z plane for conical beam.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. Magnetic field distribution for: (a) broadside beam and (b) conical
beam.
ground plane by an air substrate of thickness of H. Port 1 is
excited for the broadside beam and Port 2 is for the conical
beam. As shown in Fig. 1(b), two feeding open loops are placed
in the y-z plane. In order to excite the TM11 mode of the patch,
the two loops should provide two equivalent magnetic current
in phase. To simplify the feed structure, the two loops are
placed mirror symmetrically and the two output microstrip
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lines of an equal T-junction power divider are rotated deployed
to excite the loops. This design avoids a 180° delay line for a
traditional power divider, which has frequency dispersion ef-
fect. Fig. 2(a) shows the magnetic field distribution at 1.8 GHz
on the circular patch excited by the set of feeding open loops
through Port 1. It is shown that the patch operates in TM11 mode.
On the other hand, the other set of mirror symmetrical feeding
open loops are placed in the x-z plane as shown in Fig. 1(c). In
order to excite the TM01 mode of the circular patch, the two
loops should provide two equivalent magnetic current out of
phase. Another equal T-junction divider printed on the bottom
substrate is used. As the circular patch and the feeding loop are
magnetically coupled, the magnetic field distribution on the
patch is similar to the one introduced by the two loops under it,
where a magnetic current loop is observed. Thus the TM01
mode can be excited only using two loops instead of four
feeding loops in [9]. Fig. 2(b) shows the magnetic field distri-
bution at 1.8 GHz on the patch excited by the two loops through
Port 2, where the distribution is not in a perfect circular sym-
metry due to the non-circular-symmetrical placement of the
loops. Thus the azimuthal ripple of the conical radiation pattern
will be slightly increased.
It is presented in both Fig. 1(b) and Fig. 1(c) that each
feeding open loop is printed on one side of the vertical substrate
and the microstrip feeding line with an open stub is printed on
the back of the substrate. The open loop can be recognized as a
parallel resonator, which introduces another resonant frequency
different from that of the patch. The two resonators are mag-
netically coupled, resulting in a wide-band performance. To
excite the broadside beam and conical beam of a circular patch
at the same frequency and to achieve the impedance match, two
shorted posts are employed as shown in Fig. 1(b). The shorted
posts are realized using symmetrically printed microstrip lines
on the both sides of the substrate, which connect the circular
patch and the ground plane. The Ansoft HFSS is used in the
simulation.
TABLE I
DIMENSIONS FOR THE ANTENNA IN FIG. 1 (IN MILLIMETERS)
R Wg H t w w1 w2
45 200 19 0.813 0.46 21 7.5
w3 wp l2 l3 d1 d2 s1
5 0.8 7 7 24 14.5 1.9
s2 Rp ls1 ls2 ws1 ws2
1.9 48 3 3 4 4
B. Parametric Analysis
The circular patch is with the thickness of H=19mm (0.12,
where is the free space wavelength referred to 1.85GHz. The
radius of the circular patch operating in TM11 and TM01 modes
can be obtained by the operating frequency and the air substrate
thickness. They are about 33.5mm (0.21) and 79mm (0.49)
respectively. In order to combine the two modes in a single
patch at a overlapped frequency range, the proposed circular
patch has a radius of R=45mm (0.28), in which two shorted
posts are placed with Rp away from the patch center to achieve
the impedance match for the two modes. The dimensions of the
proposed circular patch are shown in Table I.
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(a) (b)
Fig. 3. Simulated Zin for the two beams with or without the shorted posts: (a)
broadside beam and (b) conical beam.
(a) (b)
Fig. 4. Zin for broadside beam with different shorted post position Rp: (a) real
part and (b) imaginary part.
(a) (b)
Fig. 5. Zin for conical beam with different shorted post position Rp: (a) real part
and (b) imaginary part.
In our previous study [9], the important dimension parame-
ters of the feeding open loops for conical radiation pattern has
been involved. The separate design for the broadside beam and
the conical beam is similar and the parametric study is available
as well. However, the difficulty in the pattern diversity antenna
is the combination of the two beams sharing a common aperture
under the condition of well impedance matching at the same
frequency. The effects of the shorted posts have been studied.
Fig. 3 shows the input impedance Zin of the antenna operating
for the two beams with or without the two printed shorted posts
respectively. It can be shown that the real part and the imagi-
nary part of Zin can be reduced significantly when the antenna
operates at broadside mode with the shorted posts. Thus, the
antenna is easy to be matched. The posts effects for Zin of the
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antenna operating at conical beam mode are also shown in Fig.
3(b). Zin has been increased for easier impedance match. Fig. 4
and Fig. 5 show the input impedance with different post posi-
tion Rp for the two beams respectively. When the post position
is from 36 mm to 48 mm, the real part of Zin for broadside beam
is reduced gradually and tends to be flat in a frequency range.
When Rp is 44 mm, the variation is very small. Furthermore, the
post position Rp has relatively small effect on Zin for conical
beam, but it can be used for fine tuning of the impedance match.
It can be concluded that the shorted posts are very important for
the impedance match for the two beams and the post position is
a critical parameter for the broadside beam.
Fig. 6. The photograph of the proposed antenna.
Fig. 7. Measured and simulated S-parameters of the proposed antenna.
III. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS
A prototype of the proposed antenna shown in Fig. 6 was fab-
ricated and measured. The circular patch, vertical feeding open
loops, and the bottom substrate with the power divider are
inserted with each other and the junctions are soldered. Fig. 7
presents the simulated and measured refection coefficients of
the two input ports and the isolation between them. The meas-
ured impedance bandwidth (VSWR<2) for the broadside beam
is from 1.71 GHz to 2.25 GHz (27.3%), and for the conical
beam is from 1.36 GHz to 2.17 GHz (45.9%). The overlapped
range is from 1.71 GHz to 2.17 GHz with the bandwidth of 24%
centered at 1.94 GHz. The isolation between the two ports is
better than -25 dB over the band. The measured frequency
range for the broadside beam is slightly shifted from the sim-
ulated one. It is attributed to a small air gap between the upper
substrate and the vertical substrate introduced by the intersec-
tion installation errors. However, if four plastic cylinders with
height of H are used to sustain the upper substrate to keep the
distance instead of the inserted installation, the errors can be
reduced. It is observed in full-wave simulation that the slight
variation less than 1 mm of H has relatively small effect on the
impedance match for the broadside and conical beam radiations
as long as there is no air gap between the upper substrate and
the vertical substrate.
Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 show the measured and simulated normal-
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ized radiation patterns for the broadside beam and the conical is higher than the simulated one due to the background noise.
beam in the operating band. When one port is measured, the The radiations variation in the azimuth plane is between 0.84
other is terminated with a broadband load of 50 ohms. It is dB and 2.6 dB in the range of 1.4 GHz to 1.9 GHz. At the upper
shown that the radiation patterns of the two beams are com- frequency range, the azimuthal ripple is increased due to the
plementary with each other. For broadside radiation patterns, field distortion. The measured peak gains for the broadside
the measured cross-polarization level is about -20 dB. For beams are about 8 dBi - 9.7 dBi from 1.7 GHz to 2.2 GHz and
conical radiation patterns, the measured co-polarized patterns for the conical beams are about 3.8 dBi - 6.4 dBi from 1.4 GHz
in the elevation plane are symmetric and the cross-polarization to 2.2 GHz, as shown in Table II.
levels are about -13 dB. The measured cross-polarization level TABLE II
MEASURED GAINS OF THE ANTENNA
Frequency (GHz) 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 2.1 2.2
Gain Broadside 9 9.3 9.7 9.5 8.8 8
(dBi) Conical 4.2 4.2 3.8 4.5 4.2 4.6 5 6.4 6.3

IV. CONCLUSION
A wide-band circular patch antenna with different radiation
patterns fed by two different sets of symmetrical feeding open
loops has been presented. The TM11 mode and the TM01 mode
of the circular patch are excited at an overlapped operating
(a) (b) range on a common aperture. The printed shorted posts are used
for impedance match under the operations of two beams. The
low-profile antenna (about 0.120) can provide a broadside
radiation pattern and a conical radiation pattern in a wide-band
range, which support a hemispherical coverage for indoor dis-
tributed communication systems. The proposed design pro-
vides flexibility in pattern diversity antenna with full PCB
technology that is important in mass production.

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