2016 International Conference on Automatic Control and Dynamic Optimization Techniques (ICACDOT)
International Institute of Information Technology (I²IT), Pune
THz Rectangular Slitted Microstrip Patch Antenna
Design for Biomedical Applications, Security
Purposes & Drug Detection
1 1
Aman Nag
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Punjabi University, Patiala
Patiala, India
er.amannag@gmail.com
1
Avneet Kaur
Department of Electronics and Communication Engg.
Punjabi University, Patiala
Patiala, India
avneet.parhar@gmail.com
Abstract—In this paper, a microstrip rectangular patch
antenna with reduced ground capable of operating in terahertz
(optical) frequency range has been designed and proposed. The
antenna has been fed by microstrip feedline which has aninput
impedance of 292.6 Ω closely matching with the input impedance
of SMA connecter of impedance 292 Ω for maximum power
transfer to the antenna. The ground and patch of the
propounded antenna have been made using annealed copper,
whereas the seafoam is employed as the substrate material
having dielectric constant εr=1. The proposed antenna is capable
of operating in the frequency band of 1.69 THz to 1.82 THz with
high gain and directivity of 5.95 dB and 5.78 dBi respectively.The
rectangular slitted microstrip patch antenna (RSMPA) resonates
at 1.752 THz frequency and has an overall bandwidth of 130
GHz. The performance of the proposed antenna design has been
further analysed in terms of impedance bandwidth (THz), return
loss (dB), VSWR, HPBW and impedance (ohms). The
propounded antenna design can be successfully employed for
biomedical applications and security purposes. The antenna
simulation has been performed by using CST Microwave Studio
2014.
Keywords— Biomedical applications, Explosive Detection,
High gain, HPBW, Optical antenna and THz
I. INTRODUCTION
The THz frequency range offers a communication
channel with greater advantages over microwave/millimeter
frequency ranges in terms of wider communication bandwidth,
high data transfer rate, spatial directivity and resolution with
system compactness. The THz communication link is most
likely secure communication for small distances, point to
point, demanding high information data rate[1]. The THz
frequencies ranging from 1 THz to 300 THz are used for
biomedical purposes like detection of colon cancer, detection
of brain tumor, detection of skin cancer and breast cancer,
security applications such as drug detection, explosive
detection and mail screening[2]. However, for communication
purposes the antennas like horn antenna and planar antenna
978-1-5090-2080-5/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Divesh Mittal
Department of Civil Engineering
Punjabi University,Patiala
Patiala, India
mtl.divesh@gmail.com
2
Ekambir Sidhu, Assistant Professor,
Department of Electronics and Communication Engg.
Punjabi University, Patiala
Patiala, India
*
esidhu@pbi.ac.in
have been employed due to integration incapability and low
return loss. However,the horn antennas provide high gain with
phase error and they are not compact[3]. But the planar
microstrip patch antenna for THz frequency applications can
be suitably employed for wireless communication due to their
ease of fabrication/integration and compactness.
The microstrip patch antenna is fabricated on a substrate
which acts as an intermediate between ground plane at the
bottom side of substrate and a radiating patch on top side of
substrate[4]. Thesubstrate of microstrip patch antenna plays a
crucial role in overall desirable results and parameters for the
antenna design. Researchers suggests to use photonic bandgap
as substrate for improved antenna efficiency, gain as well as
bandwidth[5][6][7].Researchers have analyzed the effect of
different dielectric substrate material in optical microstrip
patch antenna to reduce surface wave propagation on
patch[8][9]. The stacked microstrip patch antenna of wideband
and high gain has also been investigated which predicts that
the high gain of above 10 dB can be achieved with larger
ground plane[10].
In the proposed antenna design seafoam material having
dielectric constant of 1 has been employed.The section II is
concerned with antenna configuration which explains the
dimensions of the propounded antenna. The section III
discusses the simulated results and the characteristics of the
antenna such as return loss, gain, directivity, VSWR,
HPBWand finally the section IV concludes the work
describing the multiple applications of the proposed antenna.
II. ANTENNA GEOMETRY
The fig. 1 (a), fig. 1 (b) and fig. 1 (c) and illustrates the
geometry of the proposed optical antenna. In the proposed
rectangular slitted microstrip patch (RSMPA) design,
substrate of dimensions (100 × 60 × 15.70) μm3 has been
employed. The substrate is of seafoam material having
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dielectric constant of 1. In the proposed antenna design, the
microstrip feed line of dimensions 31 × 20 × 16μm3has been
employed to feed the rectangular radiating patch having
dimensions of 64 × 50 × 16 μm3. The arrangement of
substrates, patch, feed line and ground has been shown in the
fig. 1 (d). The dimensions of the substrates, feed line, patch
and ground of the proposed antenna design are given in Table
I. The annealed copper material is used for feedline, patch and
ground. There is a slot carved on the radiating patch through it
which helps in improving the return loss of the proposed
antenna design. The input impedance of the feedline is 292.6
Ω which closely matches with the input impedance of SMA
connecter having impedance of 292 Ω to transfer maximum to
the radiating patch. The proposed antenna design has been
designed and simulated in CST Microwave Studio 2014.

Fig. 1 (c) Bottom view of the proposed antenna.

Fig. 1 (d) 3D View of proposed antenna

Fig. 1 (a) Top view of the proposed antenna TABLE I. ANTENNA DIMENSIONS

Antenna Dimensions Value (μm)

Length of Substrate, LS 100

Width of Substrate, WS 60
Thickness of Substrate, TS 15.7
Length of rectangular Patch, LP 64
Width of rectangular Patch, WP 50
Thickness of rectangular Patch, TP 16
Length of Ground, Lg 99
Width of Ground, Wg 60
Thickness of Ground, Tg 2.67
Length of Feedline, LF 31
Width of Feedline, WF 20
Thickness of Feedline, TF 16
Length of Slot, LS1 1
Fig. 1 (b) Side view of the proposed antenna.
Width of Slot, WS1 30
Thickness of Slot, TS1 16

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 III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The design of the proposed RSMPA has been analysed in
terms of resonant frequency (THz), bandwidth (GHz), Return
loss (S11) (dB), gain (dB), directivity (dBi), VSWR, HPBW,
radiation efficiency and impedance (ohms). The fig. 2 (a)
shows the frequency (THz) vs return loss (dB) for the proposed
antenna at THz frequencies (1.69 THz to 1.82 THz). The return
loss at frequency 1.75 THz is -27.8 dB. The proposed antenna
design has a bandwidth of 122 GHz as shown in fig. 2 (b). The
antenna design has a high gain and directivity of 5.95 dB and
5.78 dBi respectively as shown in fig. 3 and fig. 4. It has been
observed that the VSWR of the proposed antenna design lies Fig. 3 Gain of simulated antenna in CST Microwave Studio 2014.
below the maximum acceptable value of 2 as shown in fig.5.
The fig. 6 illustrates the Smith chart plot of the proposed
antenna. It has also been observed that the proposed antenna
has impedance of 292.6 Ω. The fig. 7 shows the HPBW (half
power beam width) plot of the proposed antenna design.
The proposed antenna design can be effectively be used for
the detection of explosives like HMX (1.78 THz)[11], mail
screening and identification (0.3 THz to 2 THz),drug detection
(1 THz to 6 THz)[12], biomedical purposes and detection of
moisture content in leaves which can be beneficial for
prepration of medicines[13].

Fig. 4 Directivity of simulated antenna in CST Microwave Studio 2014.

Fig.2(a)Return loss plot (S11) showing resonant frequency of simulated

antenna.

Fig. 5 VSWR plot of the simulated antenna in CST Microwave

Studio 2014.

Fig. 2 (b) Return loss plot (S11) showing bandwidth of simulated antenna

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Fig. 6 Smith Chart of proposed antenna
Fig. 7 HPBW chart of the proposed antenna.
IV. CONCLUSION
This paper presents an approach for novel design and
development of a rectangular microstrip patch antenna
(RMSPA) using sea foam as a substrate having dielectric
constant of 1.The proposed antenna has been designed and
simulated using CST Microwave Studio 2014. The proposed
RSMPA design has resonant frequency of1.75 THzand
operating frequency range of 1.69 THz-1.82 THz. The
proposed antenna design has an impedance bandwidth of 130
GHzand the VSWR is less than the maximum acceptable
value i.e. 2. It has been observed that the proposed antenna has
maximum gain of 5.95 dB and has the maximum directivity of
5.78 dBi at resonant frequency of 1.75 THz.The HPBW (half
power beam width) plot of the proposed antenna design is 48.3
degree. The proposed antenna covers diverse range of
applications, for example, detection of explosives, drugs,
security applications such as mail screening inspection and
monitoring water content in leaves.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are grateful to our honorable Prof. Ekambir Sidhu,
Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and
Communication Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala for
his constant bolstering, guidance, and never ending support.
1 IEEE STUDENT MEMBER, 2 IEEE MEMBER
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