Printed folded dipole array antenna in the 5 GHz band, the two smaller folded dipoles are formed

in the 5 GHz band, the two smaller folded dipoles are formed into a
with directional radiation for
2.4=5 GHz WLAN operation
Chia-Ching Lin, Chih-Ming Su, Fu-Ren Hsiao
and Kin-Lu Wong
A printed linear array antenna comprising three half-wave folded
dipole elements with the first two elements operating in the 5 GHz
band and the third one operating in the 2.4 GHz band for WLAN
operation is presented. The array antenna provides directional radia-
tion patterns with vertical polarisation for frequencies across both the
2.4 and 5 GHz WLAN bands, and the measured antenna gain is
3.5–3.7 dBi for the 2.4 GHz band and 4.5–5.0 dBi for the 5 GHz
band.
1  2 array with a centre-to-centre spacing of 47 mm (about 0.85 free-
space wavelength at 5500 MHz). The enhanced gain can lead to an
increase in the operating range for WLAN operation in the 5 GHz band,
which is attractive and sometimes demanded for practical applications.
For the feeding network design, the two smaller folded dipoles are
fed in series, which can enhance the operating bandwidth to cover
the 5 GHz band. Also note that lines 6 and 7 are used for blocking the
2.4 GHz signal into the smaller folded dipoles. Similarly, lines 4 and 5
are for blocking the 5 GHz signal into the larger folded dipole. This
feeding network design technique is described in detail in [2]. Other
microstrip lines are designed such that 50 O input impedance is seen at
the feeding point. Detailed dimensions of all the microstrip feedlines
are given in Fig. 1.

Results: The proposed array antenna was constructed and tested.

Introduction: It is well known that half-wave folded dipoles have the
advantages of wider impedance bandwidth and higher antenna gain,
compared to ordinary half-wave dipoles. In addition, the half-wave
folded dipole can function as a self-balancing antenna [1]. This
suggests that, when a folded dipole is integrated with the system
ground plane of a wireless device for practical applications, there will
be very small or no excited surface currents flowing on the system
ground plane. In this case, the system ground plane can perform
mainly as a reflector, not a part of a radiator, and the radiation pattern
of the folded dipole integrated with the system ground plane will
become directional in the forward direction. This characteristic makes
the folded dipole a good candidate for achieving directional radiation
for wireless communication applications.
In this Letter we present a novel folded dipole array antenna with
directional radiation for wireless local area network (WLAN) operation
in the 2.4 GHz (2400–2484 MHz) and 5.2=5.8 GHz (5150–5350=
5725–5875 MHz) bands. The proposed antenna is suited for application
Fig. 2 shows the measured return loss for the proposed antenna
with a smaller ground plane (the design shown in Fig. 1) and a
larger ground plane. Small variations in the measured return loss are
seen, which suggests that the performance of the proposed antenna is
insensitive to the size of the ground plane. This behaviour agrees with
the expectation, and the ground plane in this design thus mainly
functions as a reflector, making directional radiation possible for the
proposed antenna. In addition, the obtained impedance bandwidths
for the lower and upper bands reach 170 MHz (2340–2510 MHz) and
1540 MHz (5140–6680 MHz), respectively, and cover the 2.4 and
5 GHz WLAN bands.
0
5140 6680
10
return loss, dB

in a dual-band WLAN access point that demands a directional antenna.

Details of the antenna design and experimental results of a constructed
prototype are presented.
2340 2510
20
Antenna design: The proposed folded dipole array antenna (see
Fig. 1) is a 1  3 linear array and comprises three half-wave folded with small ground plane
dipole elements with the first two elements operating in the 5 GHz with large ground plane
band and the third one operating in the 2.4 GHz band. The array 30
antenna is printed on the front surface of an FR4 substrate, and a 1000 3000 5000 7000
frequency, MHz
ground plane is printed on the back of the substrate for accommodat-
ing the feeding network. Fig. 2 Measured return loss for proposed antenna with small ground plane
(200  16 mm2) and large ground plane (200  100 mm2)
z 0.8 mm FR4 substrate

¥ x Figs. 3 and 4 plot the measured radiation patterns at the centre

y
frequencies of the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. As expected, good directional
line 1: 50 W, length = 12 mm,
width = 1.5 mm
radiation patterns with vertical polarisation (Ey) are seen for both
line 2: 50 W, 8 mm, 1.5 mm
line 12 frequencies. Other frequencies across the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands
line 3: 50 W, 11 mm, 1.5 mm via-hole 6.5 were also measured, and similar directional radiation patterns as plotted
line 11
line 4: 50 W, 7.5 mm, 1.5 mm 2 line 10
here were observed. In addition, for the case with a large ground plane
line 5: 50 W, 7.5 mm, 1.5 mm 17 line 7 (0.25l1)
(200  100 mm2), the radiation pattern was also measured and no
2
line 6: 50 W, 16.5 mm, 1.5 mm
1.5 line 6 (0.25l1)
special distinction was seen. Fig. 5 shows the measured antenna gain.
line 7: 50 W, 16.5 mm, 1.5 mm line 9
50 W microstrip line
Across the 2.4 GHz band, the antenna gain is 3.5–3.7 dBi, and higher
line 8: 50 W, 3 mm, 1.5 mm line 8
2 feeding point antenna gain (4.5–5.0 dBi) is obtained for the 5.2=5.8 GHz bands.
line 9: 87 W, 3.8 mm, 0.5 mm line 5 (0.25l2)
line 10: 25 W, 5 mm, 3 mm line 4 (0.25l2) q = 0° (+z)
q = 0° (+z)
line 11: 50 W, 6 mm, 1.5 mm 44 line 3 z
line 12: 50 W, 55 mm, 1.5 mm 2 line 2 x
via-hole y
line 1
l1 = guided wavelength at 2442 MHz
l2 = guided wavelength at 5550 MHz 2 90°
6 -90°
-20 -40 dB
90° f = 2442 MHz -90°
(+y) (+x)
ground ground in back (200 ¥ 16 mm2) f = 90° (+y)

Fig. 1 Geometry of proposed folded dipole array antenna for 2.4=5GHz

WLAN bands 180° 180°
y-z plane x-z plane
180° 0°
(+x)
The three folded dipoles are designed to operate as half-wave
resonant structures. However, the required lengths (44 and 17 mm) of
Eq
the three folded dipoles are all less than 40% of the desired centre Ef
270°
frequencies (2442 and 5500 MHz) in this study. This is owing to the x-y plane
presence of the dielectric substrate, which lowers the resonant length of
the antenna. In addition, to achieve enhanced antenna gain for operating Fig. 3 Measured radiation patterns at 2442 MHz

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 27th November 2003 Vol. 39 No. 24

 q = 0° (+z) q = 0° (+z) Conclusion: A novel dual-band directional folded dipole array
z
antenna has been proposed, and a prototype has been implemented
x
y and tested. Results indicate that the obtained bandwidths cover the
2.4 and 5 GHz WLAN bands and good directional radiation patterns
-90°
-20 -40 dB
90° f = 5500 MHz -90° 90° with vertical polarisation have been obtained. The proposed antenna
(+y) (+x)
is suited for application in a WLAN access point demanding a
f = 90° (+y)
directional antenna.

180° 180°
y-z plane x-z plane # IEE 2003 21 August 2003
180° 0° Electronics Letters Online No: 20031136
(+x)
DOI: 10.1049/el:20031136
Eq Chia-Ching Lin, Chih-Ming Su, Fu-Ren Hsiao and Kin-Lu Wong
Ef (Electrical Engineering Dept., National Sun Yat-Sen University,
270°
x-y plane Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan)
Fig. 4 Measured radiation patterns at 5500 MHz E-mail: wongkl@ema.ee.nsysu.edu.tw

References
5
1 BUXTON, C.G., et al.: ‘The folded dipole: a self-balancing antenna’,
Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., 2001, 29, pp. 155–160
2 CHIOU, T.W., and WONG, K.L.: ‘A compact dual-band dual-polarized patch
antenna for 900=1800-MHz cellular systems’, IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propag., 2003, 51, pp. 1936–1940
antenna gain, dB

2
2350 2450 2550
a

6
antenna gain, dB

3
4800 5400 6000
b
frequency, MHz

Fig. 5 Measured peak antenna gain

a 2.4 GHz band b 5.2=5.8 GHz bands

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 27th November 2003 Vol. 39 No. 24