1292 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

13, 2014

Harmonic Suppressed Slot Loop Antenna Fed by

Coplanar Waveguide
Yu-Wei Liu, Yen-Ju Lu, and Powen Hsu, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—A harmonic suppressed coplanar waveguide

(CPW)-fed slot-coupled circular slot loop antenna is proposed.
Two coupling slots placed inside the radiating slot loop and con-
nected directly to the CPW are used for the harmonic suppression.
By properly adjusting the coupling slot lengths, the second and
third harmonics can be suppressed separately or simultaneously.
The principle of harmonic suppression is discussed, and simula-
tion and measurement results are also presented and discussed.
Index Terms—Coplanar waveguides, harmonic suppression, slot
antennas.

I. INTRODUCTION

T HE SUPPRESSION of higher-order harmonics is an

important design issue in many wireless communication
systems, especially in active integrated antennas (AIAs). This
is because the undesired harmonic emissions may reduce the
system efficiency, degrade the system performance, and cause
the possible electromagnetic interference and compatibility
problems. Adding filters in AIAs is a conventional and com-
monly used technique to suppress the higher-order harmonics.
However, it suffers from the increases in size and cost of
RF front ends and yields an additional insertion loss at the
fundamental frequency [1], [2]. Thus, designing a harmonic
suppressed antenna (HSA) for elimination of the filter becomes
a better choice, especially when the size of the device is strictly
limited. Many techniques and structures have been used to
design various HSAs, such as the photonic band-gap structure
(PBG) [3], defected ground structure (DGS) [4], hybrid PBG
and DGS structure [5], [6], tuning length with resonator ele-
ment [7], slot on microstrip patch antenna [8]–[10], T-shaped
slot antenna [11]–[14], etc. All these have a complicated
structure, and they are not suitable for uniplanar designs. For
uniplanar designs, an inductively coupled stepped-impedance
slot [15] and two rectangular slots etched on the center con-
ductor of the coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission line [16]
have been used to suppress the harmonics of a CPW-fed slot
antenna. PBG structures have also been successfully applied to
the uniplanar design to suppress the harmonics of a CPW-fed
slot loop antenna [17]. However, since the PBG structures are
Manuscript received June 14, 2014; accepted June 24, 2014. Date of pub-
lication July 09, 2014; date of current version July 17, 2014. This work was
supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan, under Contract NSC 102-
2221-E-002-042-MY2.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Grad-
uate Institute of Communication Engineering, National Taiwan University,
Taipei 10617, Taiwan (e-mail: phsu@ntu.edu.tw).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2014.2335194
Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed CPW-fed slot-coupled circular slot loop an-
tenna with harmonic suppression.
attached to the feeding CPW line, the overall antenna size is
much increased.
In this letter, a novel uniplanar harmonic suppressed
CPW-fed slot-coupled circular slot loop antenna is proposed.
The structure of the proposed antenna is very simple. Since
the coupling slots used for harmonic suppression are placed
inside the slot loop, the overall antenna size would not be
increased. The principle of harmonic suppression is discussed,
and simulation and measurement results are also presented and
discussed.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
The geometry of the proposed uniplanar harmonic sup-
pressed CPW-fed slot-coupled circular slot loop antenna is
shown in Fig. 1. The widths of strip and gap of the feeding
CPW are denoted as and , respectively. A pair of concentric
arc slots, namely the coupling slots, with radius , width ,
and spreading angle with respect to the center of the CPW
transmission line is connected to the two gaps of the CPW. A
circular slot loop with radius , width , spreading angle
360 - , and having a breach surrounding the CPW is placed
outside the coupling slots. The width of the metallic strip gap
between the coupling slot and the radiating slot loop is .
The principle of harmonic suppression for the proposed an-
tenna can be explained by the coupled line filters [18]. The cou-
pling region indicated in Fig. 1 can be seen as a coupled trans-
mission line, of which one is a coupling slot and the other is a
portion of the radiating slot loop. Although the coupling region

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LIU et al.: HARMONIC SUPPRESSED SLOT LOOP ANTENNA FED BY CPW 1293

Fig. 2. Coupled line section equivalence of coupling region in Fig. 1.

is depicted on only the left-hand side of the antenna, there is

another coupling region on the corresponding right-hand side.
Since the ends of the coupling slot and the slot loop are both
terminated with short circuits, the coupling region can be mod-
eled as a four-port coupled line section with two of the four
ports terminated with short circuits, as shown in Fig. 2. Thus,
the four-port coupled line section becomes a two-port circuit. In
Fig. 2, represents the electrical length, and and repre-
sent the image impedances defined by:
Fig. 3. Geometry of the proposed harmonic suppressed CPW-fed slot-coupled
input impedance at port 1 when port 2 is terminated circular slot loop antenna with unequal lengths of coupling slots.
with .
input impedance at port 2 when port 1 is terminated
with .
Under matched condition, i.e., , the image impedance
derived from [18, Table 8.8] becomes

(1)

where and are characteristic impedances when the cou-

pled line section is driven in even and odd modes, respectively.
When the coupled line section is set to be a half-guided-wave-
length long, i.e., , the image impedance reduces to
zero, indicating a stopband.
Using above principle, if the lengths of both arms of the cou-
pling slot in Fig. 1 are designed to be a half-guided-wavelength
at the 2nd harmonic resonant frequency of the radiating slot
loop, then the coupled line section works as a bandstop filter for
the 2nd harmonic, and the radiating slot loop can resonate with
its 2nd harmonic frequency suppressed. Similarly, if the lengths
of both arms of the coupling slot in Fig. 1 are designed to be a
half-guided-wavelength at the 3rd harmonic frequency, then the
3rd harmonic frequency of the radiating slot loop can be sup-
pressed. If the pair of coupling slots is designed with unequal
lengths corresponding to half-guided wavelengths at the 2nd
and 3rd harmonic frequencies, respectively, as shown in Fig. 3,
then both 2nd and 3rd harmonics can be suppressed. Comparing
Fig. 3 to Fig. 1, an additional spreading angle is used in this
double harmonic suppression case.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
All simulations for the proposed antenna are carried out by
using the high frequency simulator ANSYS HFSS 11.0. The
substrate used is FR4 with dielectric constant , loss tan-
gent , and thickness mm. Three CPW-fed
slot-coupled slot loop antennas are simulated and fabricated,
namely the 2nd harmonic suppressed antenna, the 3rd harmonic
suppressed antenna, and the hybrid harmonic suppressed an-
tenna, which correspond to suppressions of only the 2nd har-
monic, only the 3rd harmonic, and both 2nd and 3rd harmonics,
respectively. For comparison, a conventional circular slot loop
Fig. 4. Geometry of the conventional circular slot loop antenna fed inductively
by a CPW.
antenna fed inductively by a CPW, as shown in Fig. 4, is also
simulated and fabricated using the same substrate. It should
be noted that resonances for a CPW inductively fed slot loop
occur when its perimeter is equal to the odd integer multiples of
a half-guided-wavelength, e.g., . The cor-
responding resonant frequencies are , respectively,
where is the fundamental resonant frequency. Since the fun-
damental resonance is hardly excited without adding additional
tuning structures [19], the first three resonant frequencies that
can be excited would be , and . In the following de-
sign, is chosen to be 0.8 GHz, thus the first three harmonic
frequencies excited are 2.4, 4.0, and 5.6 GHz.
A 50- CPW transmission line with width of strip mm
and width of gap mm is utilized for feeding the an-
tennas. The overall antenna size for each of the antennas is the
same, i.e., mm and mm. As stated above, the
design frequency for the 1st harmonic resonance is set at
GHz. The parameters of all antennas are adjusted so that they
have the closest possible 1st harmonic resonant frequency and a
good input match. For the 2nd harmonic suppressed antenna, the
1294 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 13, 2014

Fig. 6. Simulated instantaneous current distributions for 2nd harmonic sup-

pressed antenna at (a) 2.4 and (b) 4.0 GHz; 3rd harmonic suppressed antenna
at (c) 2.4 and (d) 5.6 GHz; and hybrid harmonic suppressed antenna at (e) 2.4,
(f) 4.0, and (g) 5.6 GHz.

coefficient bandwidths of the 2nd, the 3rd, and the hybrid

harmonic suppressed antennas at the first harmonic frequency
is 7.77% (2.35–2.54 GHz), 7.35% (2.36–2.54 GHz), and 8.62%
(2.33–2.54 GHz), respectively.
Fig. 5. Simulated and measured reflection coefficients for the conventional slot
Simulated instantaneous current distributions at 2.4 and
loop antenna and the three proposed harmonic suppressed antennas. 4.0 GHz for the 2nd harmonic suppressed antenna are plotted
in Fig. 6(a) and (b), respectively; those at 2.4 and 5.6 GHz for
the 3rd harmonic suppressed antenna are in Fig. 6(c) and (d),
parameters used are: mm, mm, respectively; and those at 2.4, 4.0, and 5.6 GHz for the hybrid
mm, mm, , and mm. harmonic suppressed antenna are in Fig. 6(e), (f), and (g), re-
For the 3rd harmonic suppressed antenna: mm, spectively. At the first harmonic frequency of 2.4 GHz, strong
mm, mm, mm, current distributions around the slot loop shown in Fig. 6(a), (c),
, and mm. For the hybrid harmonic sup- and (e) reveal that the circular slot loop is resonating with its
pressed antenna: mm, mm, perimeter equals . At the suppressed harmonic frequency
mm, mm, , and of 4.0 or 5.6 GHz, Fig. 6(b), (d), (f), and (g) show that most of
mm. For the conventional circular slot loop antenna: the currents are concentrated around their respective coupling
mm and mm. The simulated and mea- slot, that the coupling to the slot loop is very small, and that the
sured reflection coefficients for the conventional circular slot slot loop is not resonating. All these phenomena comply with
loop antenna and the 2nd, 3rd, and hybrid harmonic suppressed the design principle discussed previously in Section II.
antennas against frequency are shown in Fig. 5. The simulated Radiation patterns simulated and measured at 2.4 and
and measured results are in good agreement. 4.0 GHz for the 2nd harmonic suppressed antenna are plotted
It can be seen from Fig. 5 that the first three resonant in Fig. 7(a), those at 2.4 and 5.6 GHz for the 3rd harmonic
frequencies for the conventional circular slot loop antenna suppressed antenna are in Fig. 7(b), and those at 2.4, 4.0, and
are 2.4, 4.0, and 5.6 GHz, respectively, that the 2nd and 5.6 GHz for the hybrid harmonic suppressed antenna are in
3rd harmonics are suppressed for the 2nd and 3rd harmonic Fig. 7(c). The H- and E-planes indicated in these figures are -
suppressed antennas, respectively, and that both 2nd and 3rd and -planes, respectively. From Fig. 7(a)–(c), the simulated
harmonics are suppressed simultaneously for the hybrid har- and measured patterns are in reasonable agreement. The peak
monic suppressed antenna. The measured 10-dB reflection gains measured at the suppressed harmonic frequencies are
LIU et al.: HARMONIC SUPPRESSED SLOT LOOP ANTENNA FED BY CPW 1295

inside the radiating slot loop, the overall antenna size remains
unchanged. It has been shown that by properly adjusting
the coupling slot lengths, the 2nd and 3rd harmonics can be
suppressed separately or simultaneously. The principle of
harmonic suppression has been discussed, and experimental re-
sults have been presented to verify the principle. This coupling
slot technique can also be used to suppress the harmonics for
rectangular slot loop and slot dipole antennas.

Fig. 7. Simulated and measured radiation patterns for (a) the 2nd harmonic
suppressed antenna, (b) the 3rd harmonic suppressed antenna, and (c) the hybrid
harmonic suppressed antenna.
lower than those measured at the 1st harmonic frequency by
at least 5 dB. These results are consistent with those of the
reflection coefficient measurements shown in Fig. 5. The radi-
ation patterns of the hybrid harmonic suppressed antenna are
not symmetric compared to those of the 2nd and 3rd harmonic
suppressed antennas. This is because the 2nd and 3rd harmonic
suppressed antennas, as shown in Fig. 1, are symmetric with
respect to the -plane, however the hybrid harmonic sup-
pressed antenna, as shown in Fig. 3, is not. The antenna gains
in the broadside direction of the 2nd, the 3rd, and the hybrid
harmonic suppressed antennas at 2.4 GHz are 3.4, 3.9, and
3.8 dBi, respectively.
IV. CONCLUSION
A uniplanar harmonic suppressed CPW-fed slot coupled
circular slot loop antenna has been presented. Since the two
coupling slots used for the harmonic suppression are placed
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