Performance Comparison of Rectangular and
Circular Coplanar Textile Antennas
Ameni Mersani, Lotfi Osman
Microwave Electronics Research Laboratory: LR18ES43
Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar
2092 Tunis, Tunisia
mersani.ameni@gmail.com, lotfi.osman@supcom.tn
Abstract—This paper presents a comparative study of a
rectangular and circular patch antennas above the AMC
structure, operating on two 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequency
bands for WLAN applications. This structure is entirely made
using textile materials. The results of simulations and
measurements are presented to compare the performance of the
two antennas. CST Microwave Studio is used to design and
compare the performance of antennas. Based on the results
found, it has been found that the rectangular patch antenna has
a better performance compared to the circular patch antenna.
And the proposed antennas have a good performance/size ratio
compared to antennas exiting in the literature.
Keywords—textile antenna, AMC, electro-textile, rectangular
patch, circular patch, gain, performance
I. INTRODUCTION
For the past ten years, wireless communication networks
have developed a great deal because of their applications that
can convey all kinds of information (location, RFID,
physiological and environmental parameter, broadcast and
emergency call management). For some time, we have been
seeing more specific wireless networks and the BAN (Body
Area Network) is one of them. It is a set of communicating
sensors implanted on clothes, on people or in people. High-
speed data transmission, linked to the ever-increasing
demand for mobile devices, has generated great interest for
microstrip antennas, which are probably the most used
antennas in compact commercial designs.
The main advantages of these antennas are a low weight;
volume and thickness, low cost, the simplicity of
manufacture, the possibility of networking, the integration of
discrete elements and conformability facilitating the
implementation on any type of support. However, this type of
element has limitations, including narrow bandwidth, low
gain and the possibility of resonating with a single frequency
[1]. The simplest geometry of a microstrip antenna consists
of a single radiating element called patch, etched on the upper
facade of a monolayer dielectric substrate, while the ground
plane is etched on the other facade. It is an easy configuration
to manufacture, but it is limited in its functional performances
[2-5]. Given the advantage of the coplanar line (ease of
manufacture, low weight, and low profile), coplanar antennas
are the most solicited. To ensure wireless communication, the
system must have a radiating element. The latter must be
light, less expensive, easy to integrate and small footprint
(thin). The fabric material is one of the important elements
978-1-7281-4064-3/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
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Jean-Marc Ribero
University Nice-Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, LEAT
UMR 7248 Sophia Antipolis
Cedex, France
jean-marc.ribero@unice.fr
for the design of textile antennas, it is necessary to know its
electromagnetic properties (permittivity, permeability, and
losses). Zelt, Shield or copper polyester taffeta can be used as
the conductive material for the radiating element and the felt,
denim and cotton substrates.
The coplanar antenna without reflective plane has backward
radiation to be isolated from the human body. Therefore, the
coplanar antenna is always associated with an AMC
structure. The latter offers the potential advantage of
improving radiation patterns, efficiency, bandwidth and
decreasing the size of the antenna [6]. These structures make
it possible to obtain more compact antennas by favoring their
directivities.
Although several AMCs antenna for WLAN application has
been presented in the literature, see [7-10]. The dimensions
of the antenna with an AMC structure are still considered
very large. Until then, the smallest volume of a textile antenna
functioning at 2.45/5.8 GHz and with a finite-size AMC is
30×90×8 mm3 with a gain equal to 6.4 dB and 8.15 dB for
both 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequency bands [10].
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
The proposed antennas using a patch of different shapes,
including the rectangle and the circle, to compare their
performance in terms of bandwidth and efficiency are shown
in Figure 1. The antennas are designed on a felt substrate with
a thickness of 2 mm, a relative permittivity of 1.22, a loss
tangent of 0.016 and a total size of W × L.
Fig.1. Structure of proposed textile antennas (a) rectangular textile antenna
[11], (b) circular textile antenna [12].
The dimensions of the proposed antennas are shown in Table
1.
The formulas used to determine the dimensions of the
rectangular antenna are as follows [13].
 Table 1. Dimensions of antennas from 2.15 GHz to 8 GHz and from 5.5 GHz to 6.5 GHz. This
Parameters Value, mm is due to the advantages of the rectangular antenna compared
W 32 to a circular antenna of the same design which are:
L 36 (i) The bandwidth of a rectangular portable antenna is slightly
R1 32 higher because of its larger physical area.
R2 39
(ii) Higher-order modes are distant from each other in the
g-l 30
case of a rectangular patch antenna, whereas the circular
g-w 7.65
circuit requires a short-circuit pin at its center to suppress the
modes of a higher order.
(iii) The design of a rectangular patch is easy and its
!" # electromagnetic simulation takes less time.
W=
#$%
&' (1) (iv) Slot analysis on a rectangular patch antenna is easier than
%
3
'% () '% *) - on a circular antenna.
εreff = + ,1 + 12 / 0*400 (2)
# # .

<
5'%677 (89:;5 (89#>?;
=
< (3)
5'@A$$*89#BC;50 (89C;
ΔL = 0.421 h
=
Leff = L + 2 ΔL (4)
VD
L=0
2fr00EFr
(5)

And the radius of the circular patch is given by [13]:

G
R1 = 3 (6)
4= HJ
{)(0 [KLM N()9OO#>]}04
HI%J0 4=

C9OP)0×)8Q
with (7)
$% E'%
F=

Fig. 3. Comparison gain of the circular and rectangular patches.

The gain measured in the direction normal to the plane of the

antenna (direction of the X-axis).
The rectangular antenna gain shown in Fig. 3 is 1.8 dB at the
2.45 GHz band and 5 dB at the second band of the antenna.
While at the level of the circular antenna, the gain is 0.9 dB
and 4.3 dB in the two bands 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz,
respectively.

Fig. 2. Reflection coefficient of rectangular antenna and circular antenna; at

2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz. (a) (b)

Taking into account the design steps mentioned, we realized

our prototype antennas using as Felt type substrate having a
relative permittivity εr = 1.22 and thickness H = 2 mm with a
single layer of Zelt as a radiating element (thickness = 0.0635,
Conductivity = 1.749 × 10 5).
The S11 antennas shown in Fig. 2. It compares the measured
reflection coefficients of both rectangular and circular
antenna. It can be seen that the antenna with rectangular patch
has a wider impedance band (for S11 <-10 dB) while the
antenna with circular patch has a narrow bandwidth. The
rectangular antenna resonates from 2.24 GHz to 3 GHz and
from 4.7 GHz to 7 GHz, while the circular antenna resonates
Fig. 4. Radiation pattern of proposed antennas.
This section compares the antenna radiation. Diagrams were
drawn in the E-plane of the antenna. From the diagram shown
in Fig. 4, it is observed that the two antennas have an
omnidirectional diagram. For the rectangular antenna the
directivity is 2.51 dBi and 5.88 dBi for the frequencies 2.45
GHz and 5.8 GHz; while it is 0.63 dBi and 5.45 dBi for the
circular antenna

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 Fig. 7. Coefficient of reflection of an AMC.

Fig. 5. Efficiency of circular and rectangular patch antennas.

Efficiencies of the two antennas are simulated in CST

microwaves.
The efficiency of the rectangular antenna shown in Fig. 5
reaches a value close to 87% in the first band and 82% at 5.8
GHz, while for the circular antenna, the efficiency is 70% at
2.45 GHz and 82% at 5.8 GHz.
III. AMC DESIGN

A. AMC unit cell

The Micro-Wave Studio software (CST-MWS) was used to
perform all the necessary simulations. The AMC unit cell
simulation model is shown in Fig. 6. It is a square-based
AMC unit cell, where a periodic boundary condition (PBC)
is applied across its boundaries in both X and Y directions.
Plane wave excitation
Fig. 8. Textile antenna above the AMC structure.
The prototype antenna manufactured is shown in Fig. 8. A
comparison between rectangular and circular measured S11
antenna is shown in Fig. 9. In the lower band, the rectangular
antenna has a frequency from 2.4 GHz to 2.6 while for the
circular antenna the bandwidth varies from 2.4 GHz to 2.8
GHz; and for the upper band the bandwidth of the rectangular
antenna is 5 GHz to 6.6 GHz and for the circular antenna from
5.8 GHz to 6.4 GHz

Fig. 6. Model simulation of a unit cell of AMC.

Figure 7 shows the reflection coefficient (S11) of AMC with

a plane wave coming from the normal direction. It can clearly
be seen that the phase of the reflected wave, which has the
PMC characteristic, is about 0 ° in both the 2.4 GHz and 5.8
GHz bands. The operating bandwidth of the proposed AMC
plane, defined by the phase of the reflected wave between 0 °
and 90 °, is between 1.3 GHz and 2.62 GHz in the first band
and between 5.4 GHz and 6 GHz in the second band.
Calculations show that this proposed structure is capable of
operating in the desired WLAN bands. The textile antenna is
placed at the height of the 2×3 matrix above AMC, as shown
in Fig. 8. The overall double band AMC structure measures
75×50 mm² and comprises only six cells each measuring
25×25 mm2. Fig. 9. Reflection coefficient of rectangular and circular antenna + AMC.

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Table2. Performance of rectangular and circular antenna
BW (MHz) Gain (dB) Directivity (dBi) Efficacity (%)
2,45 GHz 5,8 GHz 2,45 GHz 5,8 GHz 2.45 GHz 5.8GHz 2.45 GHz 5.8 GHz
AMC rectangulaire antenna 400 1600 6.1 6.7 7.9 9.6 44 54

AMC circulaire antenna 200 600 5.1 6 6.2 6.8 45 60

Table 2 summarizes the performance of two antennas, we

note from the results found that the rectangular antenna with REFERENCES
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to the literature.

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