The 8th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2014)

A Dual Band Metamaterial Antenna with Circular

Polarization
Bashir D Bala, Mohamad Kamal B.A Rahim, Noor Asniza Murad, Noor Asmawati Samsuri
Communication Engineering Department,
Universiti Teknologi Malasiya,UTM,
Johor Bahru, Malaysia
bashirdbala@yahoo.com, mkamal@fke.utm.my, asniza@fke.utm.my, asmawati@fke.utm.my.

Abstract— In this paper, A dual band metamaterial antenna proposed antenna has potential applications in modern wireless
with circular polarization is proposed. The antenna consists of a communication systems.
circular patch with etched circular slot printed on an infinite
ground plane. The metamaterial property is imposed onto the
antenna with the used of series capacitive slot and a shorted II. ANTENNA DESIGN
inductive via. The circular polarization is obtained at the zero The proposed antenna configuration with CRLH TL unit
order mode resonance (ZOR) frequency (2.42 GHz) and a linear cell model is shown in Fig. 1. A circular patch antenna is
polarization at negative order mode resonance (NOR) frequency
(2.15 GHz). A realized gain of 5.88 dB and 0.877 dB is obtained
designed and fabricated on a square Taconic substrate of size
at ZOR and NOR respectively. An efficiency of 86% and 44% is 50mm with the permittivity (εr) of 3.5, loss tangent (δ) of
obtained at 2.42 GHz and 2.16 GHz respectively. Details of the 0.0018 and height (h) of 1.52 mm. The antenna consists of a
antenna design and approach are described, and the simulated circular patch of radius (R) with embedded circular slot (s) on
and measured results for the loaded and unloaded antenna are top of the substrate with an infinite ground plane at the bottom.
discussed and compared. The antenna is suitable for WLAN CRLH property is imposed on the antenna by etching a
application (2.39 GHz- 2.45 GHz). circular slot on the top patch to account for the series
Index Terms— Circular polarisation, Dual band, capacitance CL and an inductive via of diameter (a) connecting
Metamaterial, Zero order mode (ZOR), Negative order mode the outer circular ring to the ground plane to accounts for the
(NOR). shunt inductance LL. The series inductance LR is the
inductance on top patch and the shunt capacitance CR is the
I. INTRODUCTION coupling between the top patch and the ground plane. Fig. 2
Recent development in wireless communication industry shows the equivalent circuit model of the CRLH unit cell and
paves way for designing an efficient and low profile antenna Table 1 shows the parameters of the antenna. The ZOR
with multiband functionality. Several design techniques have frequency is a function CL, CR, LL and LR while the NOR is a
been employed in designing these multiband antennas [1], [2], function of LL and CL. Fig. 3. shows the prototype of
[3] but recently the concept of loading antennas with fabricated antenna.
metamaterial (MTM) unit cell has received an unprecedented
attention of many researchers[4]. The concept of MTM based
on composite right/left handed transmission line (CRLH-TL)
offers a design freedom of incorporating lumped and
distributed parameters onto the antenna model, so that positive,
zero and negative order modes are supported at a specified
frequency.
Recently, a dual band co-planar waveguide (CPW)-fed
shunt zeroth-order mode antenna is presented [5], In [6] dual
mode patch antenna based on resonant type MTM transmission
line was presented, Metamaterial inspired monopole with
loaded CRLH unit cell was proposed in [7] which operates in
two narrow bands. But it is worth noting that the antennas
reported in [5-7] are linearly polarized at either modes of
operations.
In this paper, A dual band metamaterial-Inspired antenna
with circular polarization is proposed. The antenna is circular Fig.1. Geometry of the proposed antenna
polarized at the zeroth-order resonant (ZOR) frequency and
linearly polarized at the negative order resonant frequency
(NOR). The antenna is loaded with CRLH-TL unit cell. The

978-88-907018-4-9/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 917

 The 8th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2014)

modes can be clearly observed; the ZOR mode whose effect

can be attributed mainly to the series capacitance (C L) and the
Table 1: Geometrical dimension of the proposed antenna
NOR is as a results of the shunt via (LL). The ZOR is circularly
Geometrical Parameters (mm)
polarized (CP) due to the position of the shorted via with is 45°
L R a S εr h δ
50.0 20.4 0.5 0.4 3.5 1.52 0.0018 on xy- plane while the NOR is linearly polarized (LP). The
unloaded antenna with same dimensions as the loaded antenna
resonates at 2.2 GHz with linear polarizations. The axial ratio
for the loaded dual band antenna is presented in Fig. 5. The
simulated -3dB axial ratio bandwidth at slot (s = 0.4) is 20
MHz (2.414-2.394) GHz. The simulated surface current
distributions on the top patch are shown in Fig. 6 for various
signal input phases. Circular polarizations is obtained with any
pair (0°, 90° and 180°, 270°) orthogonal modes.

14

Fig.2. Equivalent circuit model 12

10

Axial ratio
8

0
2.36 2.38 2.40 2.42 2.44
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 3. Fabricated prototype Fig.5. Simulated axial ratio in (dB) for the circular polarization

0
Reflection coefficients S11 (dB)

-5

-10

-15

-20

-25
(a) (b)
-30 Simulation Unloaded antenna
Simulation Loaded antenna
Measurement Loaded antenna
-35
1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8

Frequency (GHz)

Fig.4. Simulated and measured reflection coefficients (S11)

III. SIMULATION AND E XPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The antenna is simulated using full wave Computer
Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave studio and
(c) (d)
measured using the Vector Network Analyzer (VNA). Fig. 4.
Shows the Simulated and measured reflection coefficients (S11) Fig. 6. Simulated surface current distributions on the top patch at 2.42 GHz
when the input phase is (a) 0° (b) 90° (c) 180° and (d) 270°.
for the loaded and unloaded antenna. Shift in the measured
ZOR frequency is due to fabrication tolerance. Two different

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 The 8th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2014)

IV. CONCLUSIONS
The simulated radiation patterns at different modes of A dual band metamaterial antenna with circular
operations with good performance and broadside patterns are polarization has been designed and presented. The antenna is
obtained in Fig. 7. The antennas gains and efficiency is shown loaded with metamaterial unit cell using a series capacitive
in Fig.8. The realized gain of 5.88 dB is obtained at the ZOR circular slot and the inductive via shunted to the ground plane.
(2.42 GHz) and 0.87 dB at the ZOR (2.15 GHz) while an ZOR and NOR frequency modes were generated with circular
efficiency of 86% and 44% are obtained at 2.42 GHz and 2.15 and linear polarizations respectively. The size of the antenna is
GHz respectively. 50 x 50 mm2. The realized gain of 5.882 dB and 0.877 dB is
obtain at ZOR and NOR frequency modes respectively. An
0 efficiency of 86% and 44% are obtained at 2.42 GHz (ZOR)
5
330 30 and 2.15 GHz (NOR) respectively. The antenna is suitable for
0 WLAN applications (2.39 GHz- 2.45 GHz)

300 60
-5
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
-10 The authors thank the Ministry of Higher Education for
supporting the research work (MOHE), Research Management
270 -15 90 Centre (RMC) and Communications Engineering Department,
5 0 -5 -10 -15 -10 -5 0 5
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM-JB) for support of the
-10 research paper under the grant no R.J130000.7923.4S007,
04H38, 4L811and 08J55.
-5
240 120
E-plane (Co-polar)
H-plane (Co-polar)
0
H-plane (Cross-polar)
E-plane (Cross-polar) REFERENCES
210 5
150
180
(a) [1] J. Malik and M. V. Kartikeyan, “Metamaterial Inspired Patch Antenna
With L-Shape Slot Loaded Ground Plane for Dual Band
0 (WIMAX/WLAN) Applications,” Progress In Electromagnetics
Research Letters, vol. 31, no. February, pp. 35–43, 2012.
330 5 30 [2] W. Hu, Y. Z. Yin, S. . Fan, J. . Deng, and M. Zhang, “Compact CPW-
Fed Square Slot Antenna For Dual-Band Operation,” Progress In
0
Electromagnetics Research Letters, vol. 20, no. January, pp. 165–173,
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300 60 [3] K. Wong, Compact and Broadband Microstrip Antennas, vol. 3. New
-5 York, NY, USA: Wiley, 2002.
[4] C. Caloz and T. Itoh, Electromagnetic Metamaterials: Transmission
-10 Line Theory and Microwave Application. New Jersey: IEEE Press,
Wiley, Hoboken NJ, 2006.
[5] H. . Lee, “A Compact Co-Planar Waveguide-Fed Zeroth-Order
270 -15 90 Resonant Antenna with an Improved Efficiency and Gain Employing
5 0 -5 -10 -15 -10 -5 0 5
Two Symmetric Unit Cells,” Electrical and Electronic Engineering, vol.
-10 1, no. 1, pp. 12–16, Aug. 2012.
[6] J. . Niu, “Dual-band dual-mode patch antenna based on resonant-type
-5
metamaterial transmission line,” Electronics Letters, vol. 46, no. 4, p.
240 120 266, 2010.
E-plane (Co-polar) [7] A. A. Ibrahim, A. M. E. Safwat, and H. El-hennawy, “Triple-Band
H-plane (Cross-polar)
0
E-plane (Cross-polar)
Microstrip-Fed Monopole Antenna Loaded With CRLH Unit Cell,”
H-plane (Co-polar)
IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 10, pp. 1547–
5 1550, 2011.
210 150

(b) 180
Fig. 7. Simulated radiation patterns for both E- and H-plane at (a) 2.15 GHz
(b) 2.42 GHz.

10 100

80
5
Efficiency (%)
Gain (dB)

60

0
40
Simulated Gain (dB)
Radiation efficiency (%)
5 20
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5

Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 8. Simulated radiation efficiency and gain of the proposed antenna

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