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ScienceDirect
Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
Procedia
Procedia Computer
Computer Science
Science 00 (2019)
171 (2020) 000–000
2115–2120 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

Third International Conference on Computing and Network Communications (CoCoNet’19)

Third International Conference on Computing and Network Communications (CoCoNet’19)
Inset
Inset Fed
Fed Miniaturized
Miniaturized Antenna
Antenna with
with Defected
Defected Ground
Ground Plane
Plane for
for
LoRa
LoRa Applications
Applications
a b
Aayush
Aayush Pandey
Pandeya ,, M.
M. V.
V. Deepak
Deepak Nair
Nairb
a Department of Electronics and Communication, The LNMIIT, Jaipur and 302031, India
a Department of Electronics and Communication, The LNMIIT, Jaipur and 302031, India
b Department of Electronics and Communication, The LNMIIT, Jaipur and 302031, India
b Department of Electronics and Communication, The LNMIIT, Jaipur and 302031, India

Abstract
Abstract
Nowadays, there is a lot of research about communication technology for long range communication with low power consumption
Nowadays, there of
for IoT (Internet is Things)
a lot of research about (Long
devices.LoRa communication
Range) is technology for long range
one of the modulation communication
technique with it.
that facilitates low power
The consumption
antennas used for
for IoT (Internet of Things) devices.LoRa (Long Range) is one of the modulation technique that facilitates
LoRa are mostly monopole because the size of the patch antenna at frequencies below 1 GHz is not sizable for IoT devices.it. The antennas usedThis
for
LoRa are mostly monopole because the size of the patch antenna at frequencies below 1 GHz is not sizable for IoT
paper discusses the miniaturization technique for patch antenna to work in frequencies suitable for LoRa application. In this paper, devices. This
paper discusses
a rectangular the inset
patch miniaturization
fed antennatechnique for patch
with the etched antenna
ground to work which
is proposed in frequencies suitable
can be used in thefor LoRa
ISM application.
band. In this
This antenna paper,
resonates
aatrectangular patch inset fed antenna with the etched ground is proposed which can be used in the ISM band. This
871 MHz. The proposed design generates linearly polarized waves. Fabricated results show VSWR = 2, and has a bandwidth of antenna resonates
at
28871
MHz,MHz. Theisproposed
which designthan
15 MHz more generates linearlydesign.
the simulated polarized waves.
Ansys HFSSFabricated results
is used for showsimulation
antenna VSWR =and 2, and has a bandwidth
a prototype which hasof
28
beenMHz, which and
fabricated is 15tested
MHzusing
more Keysight
than the simulated design.Analyzer
Vector Network Ansys HFSS is used for antenna simulation and a prototype which has
N9925A.
been fabricated and tested using Keysight Vector Network Analyzer N9925A.
c 2020 The

© The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by
by Elsevier
Elsevier B.V.
B.V.
c 2020
 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This is an open
Peer-review access
under article under
responsibility of the
theCC BY-NC-ND
scientific licenseof(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
committee the Third International Conference on Computing and Network
Peer-review under(CoCoNet’19).
Communications
Communications responsibility of the scientific committee of the Third International Conference on Computing and Network
(CoCoNet’19).
Communications (CoCoNet’19).
Keywords: Microstrip patch antenna; Single feed; ISM band ;
Keywords: Microstrip patch antenna; Single feed; ISM band ;

1. Introduction
1. Introduction
In the present day and age, people can enjoy many devices which include wearable devices like smartwatches,
In the present day and age, people can enjoy many devices which include wearable devices like smartwatches,
health tracker. These devices are a result of IoT. IoT represents the connection of electronics devices through the
health tracker. These devices are a result of IoT. IoT represents the connection of electronics devices through the
internet. Gartner Inc. expects that there will be around 20.8 billion devices connected by 2020 and it also predicted
internet. Gartner Inc. expects that there will be around 20.8 billion devices connected by 2020 and it also predicted
the connection of 6.8 billion devices by 2016 [6]. The proliferation of IoT has been extensive since the introduction
the connection of 6.8 billion devices by 2016 [6]. The proliferation of IoT has been extensive since the introduction
of smartphones, hence there is a need to connect a large number of electronic devices in a cheap and energy efficient
of smartphones, hence there is a need to connect a large number of electronic devices in a cheap and energy efficient
way keeping the size constraint of the devices in consideration.
way keeping the size constraint of the devices in consideration.

∗ Aayush Pandey. Tel.: +91-968-044-6025.

∗ Aayush Pandey. 16UEC006@lnmiit.ac.in
Tel.: +91-968-044-6025.
E-mail address:
E-mail address: 16UEC006@lnmiit.ac.in

1877-0509  c 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

©
1877-0509 c 2020 Thearticle
 Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This
This isisan
anopen
openaccess
access article under
under the BY-NC-ND
the CC CC BY-NC-ND licenselicense (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This is an open access article under
of the
Peer-review under
Peer-review under responsibility
responsibility ofCC
the theBY-NC-ND
scientific
scientific license
committee of (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
committee of the
the Third Third International
International Conference
Conference on ComputingonandComputing and Network
Network Communications
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Third International Conference on Computing and Network Communications
Communications
(CoCoNet’19). (CoCoNet’19).
(CoCoNet’19).
10.1016/j.procs.2020.04.228
2116 Aayush Pandey et al. / Procedia Computer Science 171 (2020) 2115–2120
2 Aayush Pandey / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000

With such a high density of wireless devices, there is a need for cheap, reliable, and power efficient modulation
scheme. LoRa(Long Range) is the new modulation scheme which is getting popular in the IoT domain because of Its
power efficiency [4].
LoRa works on frequencies below 1 GHz (433 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz). These frequencies are unlicensed and
are available all around the world, making it the perfect network provider for the IoT devices and hence LoRa antennas
are slowly in use [1]. Recently the LoRa antenna used are mostly whip / monopole antennas. Patch antennas are less
developed in the domain of LoRa because of their size. The size miniaturization is a significant issue for the patch
antennas working in frequencies below 1 GHz [7].
In this paper, ground etching technique is applied to reduce the size of the antenna for sub GHz frequency. The
antenna proposed is a rectangular inset fed patch antenna with area 57.919 mm x 45.13 mm and the ground is etched
just below the patch, the dimensions of the etched part are 57.919 mm x 26 mm. The total volume of the antenna is
67.744 x 55 x 1.58 mm3 . The size reduction achieved is 69.54%.

2. Ground Etched Inset fed Patch Antenna

Fig. 1: Antenna Design Geometry

2.1. Antenna Design And Geometry

The geometry of the proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 1. The proposed antenna is fabricated on a thin sheet of
FR4 substrate with a dielectric constant of 4.4 and loss tangent of 0.02. The rectangular patch of dimensions 57.92
mm x 45.13 mm is inset fed along the x-axis and 28.77 mm from the edge along y-axis which is found to be best
suited using Ansys HFSS The rectangular patch is inset fed along the y-axis, and the length of the transmission line is
11.92 mm which is found to be best suited for impedance matching at 50 Ω using the algorithm of optimetrics tool in
Ansys HFSS.
The ground is etched with dimensions 57.92 mm x 26 mm the position of the etched part is just below the patch,
and the length of 26mm is found out to be optimum for radiating at 868 MHz in Ansys HFSS. The fabricated antenna
is shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 2(a) shows the patch and Fig. 2(b) shows the ground plane of the fabricated antenna.
The transmission line calculation can be theoretically backed by the following equations.
β = propagation constant, l = length of transmission line, λo = wavelength in vaccum, λg = guided wavelength,
W = Width of the patch antenna, L = Length of the patch antenna, r = Dielectric Constant of the substrate(4.4 for
FR4), θ = electric length
 
 
 
r + 1 r − 1  1 
e f f = +    (1)
2 2  W 

 1 + 12( ) 
h
 Aayush Pandey et al. / Procedia Computer Science 171 (2020) 2115–2120 2117
Aayush Pandey / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 3

(a) Patch (b) Ground

Fig. 2. Fabricated Antenna

λo
λg = √ (2)
e f f

2π
β= (3)
λg

θ = βl (4)

2.2. Principle Of Operation

The designed rectangular patch antenna is an inset fed antenna it was initially designed for 1.57 GHz because
as the resonant frequency reduces the dimensions of the rectangular patch increases. Taking the reference from [12]
on defected ground it was observed that as the length of slots in the ground were increased it resulted in shifting of
resonant frequency towards the lower side. Hence a slot was made just below the patch and it’s length is varied using
optimetrics tool in Ansys HFSS till the frequency near 868 MHz was achieved. The surface current distribution of
patch and ground is shown in Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 3(b). respectively.

(a) Surface Current Distribution of patch at 881 MHz (b) Surface Current Distribution of ground at 881 MHz

Fig. 3. Surface Current Distribution

2.3. Patch Antenna Calculation

The dimension of the patch antenna was derived out of the following equations for the patch to resonate at 1.57
GHz. This antenna was the initial starting point without any ground etching. W = Width of the patch antenna, L =
Length of the patch antenna, r = Dielectric Constant of the substrate(4.4 for FR4), fo = Resonating Frequency,
c = speed of light, h = height of substrate
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4 Aayush Pandey / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000

Fig. 4: Patch antenna calculation model Fig. 5: Antenna Measurement Setup

Fig. 6. Reflection Coefficient Fig. 7. VSWR plot

 
 ( + 0.3)( W + 0.264) 
c c  e f f 
W= , L= − 0.824h  h  (5)
 √ W 
r + 1 2 fo e f f 
2 fo (e f f − 0.258)( + 0.8) 
2 h

2.4. Hardware Used

Hardware used to measure the S parameter for the proposed antenna is vector network analyzer(VNA). The RF
signal is applied through the VNA as shown in Fig. 5.

3. Result And Observation

For experimental validations of the proposed design, Keysight Fieldfox Vector Network Analyzer N9925A was
used. The results and observations from the antenna design are shown in the subsections below.

3.1. Reflection Coefficient

Fig. 6. depicts the return loss in the simulated, and the fabricated proposed ground etched inset fed rectangular
patch antenna.
Reflection coefficient is the ratio of the amplitude of the reflected wave to the incident wave. The smaller the value
of reflection coefficient the better it is for the impedance matching of antenna i.e less power is being transmitted back
to the source.
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Aayush Pandey / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 5

Fig. 8. Bandwidth comparison Graph Fig. 9. 2-D plot at 881 MHz

The fabricated design gives a bandwidth of 28 MHz and the antenna resonates at 871 MHz, the antenna covers 14
MHz on either side of resonating frequency which falls below -10 dB, and hence cover the frequency 868 MHz at
which LoRa network operates. The fabricated and simulated design results show a good agreement, there is a return
loss of -27 dB.

3.2. Gain

Gain is the ratio of the amount of power transmitted by the antenna in the direction of the main lobe over the
amount of power transmitted by the isotropic antenna in that direction. A gain of 0.6 dBi is observed in the simulation
software Ansys HFSS.

3.3. VSWR

Voltage Standing Wave Ratio shows the efficiency with which the power is being transmitted from the power source
through the transmission line to the antenna.. Fig. 7. shows the VSWR plot of the proposed antenna comparing the
simulated and experimental VSWR. Generally, if the VSWR is under 2, it is considered to be a good match.

3.4. Effect of Ground Etching on Bandwidth

As it is observed in the simulation software Ansys HFSS as the slot was created in the ground, there was a decrease
in the resonant frequency of the patch antenna.
Along with that, the bandwidth of the antenna is also reduced. The bandwidth of the antenna without an etched
ground was 47 MHz and after the ground was etched the bandwidth was reduced to 13 MHz in the simulation as
shown in Fig. 8.

3.5. Radiation Pattern

The radiation pattern in an antenna shows the angular dependence of the strength of the signal from the source or
antenna.
Fig. 9. shows the 2-D radiation pattern. As the antenna pulls the signal better from a particular direction hence the
proposed antenna is directional(with constant phi values and changing values of theta). Fig. 10 shows the 3-D plot of
the radiation pattern of the proposed antenna.
Half Power Beam Width is the angular separation between the points having power half the power of the power at
the peak. The HPBW for the proposed antenna is 60◦ .

3.6. Field Distributions

Field mapping of electric field on the patch antenna helps in various aspects of antenna design like diagnostic
purposes, prototype design and overall understanding of Operational behaviour.
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Fig. 10. 3-D polar plot at 881 MHz Fig. 11. E field pattern at 881 MHz

Fig. 11. shows the E field distribution in the patch of the antenna. It is visible that the current is travelling towards
the top end of the antenna while radiating.

4. Conclusion

Proposed inset fed rectangular patch antenna with the etched ground has the size of an antenna resonating at 1.57
GHz then ground etching technique was applied to shift the resonating frequency from 1.57 GHz to 881 MHz in
the simulation. This helped in size reduction of a patch antenna for LoRa-WAN, and it resonates at 871 MHz has a
bandwidth of 28 MHz and gives a gain of 0.58 dB the experimental bandwidth is 15 MHz higher than the simulated
bandwidth. The practical design results are in agreement with the simulated design results.

References

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