See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/273459027

Radiation Pattern Improvement of a Microstrip Patch Antenna using

Electromagnetic Bandgap Substrate and Superstrate

Article  in  WSEAS Transactions on Communications · January 2007

CITATIONS READS

7 1,982

3 authors, including:

George S. Kliros
Hellenic Air Force
74 PUBLICATIONS   394 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Special Issue: “Nanomaterials for Nanoelectronics and Photonics” View project

Graphene Metamaterials based Absorbers for EMC/EMI Applications View project

All content following this page was uploaded by George S. Kliros on 13 March 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS Issue 1, Volume 6, January 2007 ISSN: 1109-2742 45

Radiation Pattern Improvement of a Microstrip Patch Antenna

using Electromagnetic Bandgap Substrate and Superstrate
G. S. KLIROS, K. S. LIANTZAS, A. A. KONSTANTINIDIS
Department of Aeronautical Sciences
Division of Electronics & Communication Engineering
Hellenic Air-force Academy
GREECE
gsksma@hol.gr, gskliros@gmail.com

Abstract: - Microstrip patch antennas have some limitations such as restricted bandwidth of operation, low
gain and a potential decrease in radiation efficiency due to surface wave losses. Electromagnetic bandgap
(EBG) crystals can offer a real solution to these problems. In this paper, we have simulated the performance
of a microstrip patch antenna with a hexagonal low-permittivity EBG crystal used both as substrate and
superstrate. The EBG structure was analyzed using our implementation of the Plane Wave Expansion method
in MATLAB. The input return loss, radiation pattern and the directivity of the antenna were calculated using
the CST Microwave Studio transient solver based on the Finite Integration Technique (FIT). The designed
microstrip antenna showed significant suppression of surface modes compared to conventional patch antenna,
thus, improving the gain and far-field radiation pattern. It is also shown that the presence of the EBG-
superstrate is very efficient for improving the radiation directivity. The performance of antenna as a function
of frequency over the operating bandwidth as well as a function of spacing between substrate and superstrate is
studied.

Key-Words: - Electromagnetic Bandgap (EBG) Materials, Microstrip Patch Antennas, Photonic Crystals,
Plane Wave Expansion Method (PWE), Finite Integration Technique (FIT).

1 Introduction [6]. However, these techniques have the funda-

In modern wireless and communication systems,
there is an increasing demand for integration of
antennas not only with radio-frequency front-end
circuits but also with intermediate-frequency or
even base-band (including analog and digital
signals) components [1]. Due to its low cost,
minimal weight and planar structure, microstrip
patch antenna (MPA) probably is the most likely
candidate for this integration. Especially, for
millimeter-wave applications, the size of the patch
antenna may be much smaller compared to the
printed circuit board (PCB) substrate, where the
analog and digital devices are integrated. As a
consequence, MPAs have found high-performance
applications like in aircraft, spacecraft, satellite,
mobile radio and wireless communications [2,3].
However, MPA designs have some operational
limitations such as restricted bandwidth due to its
resonant nature, low gain and poor radiation patterns
due to surface wave losses.
Some techniques are explicitly designed to
suppress the surface waves. They include optimi-
zing the antenna dimensions so that the surface
wave is not excited [4,5], grooving the dielectric or
covering the patch by additional dielectric layers
mental drawback of increasing the weight, thickness
and complexity of the microstrip antenna, thus,
negating many of the advantages of using MPAs.
Photonic Crystal (PC) substrate is a simple
solution to the problem of surface waves. Photonic
crystals [7], also known as electromagnetic bandgap
(EBG) materials, are a new class of periodic
metallic, dielectric, or composite structures that
when introduced to an electromagnetic signal can
exhibit a forbidden band of frequencies (or photonic
bandgap: PBG) in which the incident signal
destructively interferes and thus is unable to
propagate. It is proposed [8,9] that if a 2D-photonic
crystal is used as substrate of a MPA, then a
broadband response can be obtained from this
inherently narrowband antenna. This will result in
improvements in the radiation characteristics of the
patch antenna, by reducing pattern side-lobes and
improving front-to-back pattern ratios and overall
efficiency. A MPA with a 2D-PC substrate has been
fabricated by Agi et. al.[10,11] and Finite-difference
time-domain (FDTD) calculations have been
employed to determine the effects of the PC
substrate.
In this paper, we study the performance of a
MPA with a PC structure as substrate and another
46 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS Issue 1, Volume 6, January 2007 ISSN: 1109-2742

similar structure as superstrate (acting as a lens or consider the TM mode band structure. After
passive array) [12]. The PC-structure is composed defining the basic PC geometry, the dispersion
of dielectric rods in a periodic arrangement with relation for a normal incident plane wave can be
hexagonal symmetry. The presence of the ground calculated. The so called ‘gap map’ [15] for the
plane allows the feeding of the antenna by the structure is obtained by sweeping the ratio R/a and
direct-coupled microstrip method. The plane wave recording the width of the gap. This ‘gap map’
expansion method implemented in MATLAB was allows us to choose the ratio R/a that maximizes
used to calculate the photonic band diagram of the the available photonic band-gap for the desirable
designed PC structure. The input return loss, frequency of operation. The dispersion diagram for
radiation pattern and the directivity of such a patch TM modes of our structure was computed with the
antenna were simulated using the commercial plane wave expansion method (PWE) and the result
software package CST Microwave Studio, a time is shown in Fig. 2.
domain field solver based on the finite integration
technique (FIT) [13].
The remainder of the paper is organized as
follows: In Section 2 the photonic crystal structure
used as substrate is presented and the band diagram
of the TM propagating modes is used in order to
choose the suitable dimensions of the structure. In
Section 3, we present simulation results concerning
the performance of the MPA with PC-substrate. The
performance of a MPA with both a PC-substrate and
a PC-superstrate is studied in Section 4. We
conclude with a summarizing Section 5.

2 Selection and design of the PBG

Substrate and Superstrate
Although different geometries of PC structures can
be used as substrates [14], our proposed structure is Fig. 1: The MPA designed on a PC substrate.
a hexagonal 2D-lattice with lattice constant α
composed of dielectric rods with radius R and
relative dielectric constant εr=2.2 (PTFE Glass
Fiber). The hexagonal lattice is chosen because it
has proved capable of providing a stop band for any
in-plane direction of propagation due to the high
symmetry of the Brillouin zone (BZ) associated
with it. The patch is rectangular with 12.5 mm
length and 16 mm width. The substrate has size
56.2 mm x 64 mm x 0.8 mm with a ground plane of
thickness 2.4 mm. The feeding line is a standard 50
Ω microstrip line of dimensions 2.5 mm x 24 mm. A
direct contact feeding method is used and the best
impedance match is obtained when the line is
displaced 2.1 mm from the patch edge. A schematic
diagram of the designed MPA with PC substrate is Fig. 2: Photonic band structure of the proposed
shown in Fig. 1. photonic crystal substrate.
The central working frequency for such a
conventional patch antenna (without any PC It can be seen that a complete band gap exists,
structure) is 7.48 GHz. The TM0 mode has no cutoff which forbid propagation in the normalized
frequency in such a substrate. The cutoff frequency frequency (ωα/2πc) range from 0.50 to 0.54,
for the first TE1 mode is safely away from the regardless the polarization and the direction of wave
working frequency. Thus, one only needs to propagation. From the ‘gap map’ of figure 3, it is
eliminate the TM0 mode. So we only have to seen that the bandgap occurs for the interval R/a ∈
 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS Issue 1, Volume 6, January 2007 ISSN: 1109-2742 47

[0.2, 0.4]. The maximum complete bandgap arises
around R/a=0.28. Together with a central normali-
zed frequency 0.52 this gives a physical lattice
period a =20.8 mm and rod radius R =5.82 mm.
Fig. 3: Photonic Band-gap plot of the proposed
photonic crystal substrate as a function of norma-
lized radius R/a.
characteristics, which was accomplished using a
trial-and-error approach to locate the probe
excitation point.
In the case of a patch antenna, the device is a
single-port device, therefore, only the return loss
(S11) parameter is calculated. From this calculation,
the resonant frequency of the patch can be located
by observing the location of the deepest null, that is,
the best match between patch and feed. Figures 4
and 5 show the calculated input return loss S11 for
the conventional MPA and MPA with PC-substrate,
respectively. The presence of the PC structure
increases the resonant frequency from 7.48 GHz to
8.97 GHz due to lowering of the effective dielectric
constant. The suppression of surface waves by the
PC substrate leads to a smooth curve (absence of
ripples) of the input return loss S11. The
improvements concerning the minimum return loss
and the operational 10 dB bandwidth, by using the
photonic crystal substrate, are obvious.

3 Simulation of the MPA with PBG

substrate
For our simulation, we use CST Microwave Studio
which is based on Finite Integration Technique
(FIT) [13]. FIT applied to Cartesian grids in the
time domain, is computationally equivalent to the
standard Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD)
method. For high frequency electromagnetic
applications, time domain simulations methods are
highly desirable, especially when broad-band results
are needed. FIT therefore shares FDTD’s advan- Fig. 4: Simulation results of input return loss S11
tageous properties like low memory requirements for the conventional patch antenna versus freque-
and efficient time stepping algorithm. FIT combined ncy. The resonant frequency is 7.48 GHz.
with Perfect Boundary Approximation (PBA) can
maintain the convenient structured Cartesian grids.
The solver that we used for all our simulations is a
transient time domain solver. A Gaussian modulated
sinusoid pulse was applied at the input transmission
line.
The basic geometry of the designed MPA with
PC substrate placed on top of a ground plane is
shown in Figure 2. The thickness of the substrate is
chosen to be equal to the operational wavelength of
the conventional patch λ=c0/f0=40 mm. The
presence of the ground plane allows the feeding of
the antenna by the direct-coupled microstrip
method. It is desirable to have a large ground plane Fig. 5: Simulation results of input return loss S11 for
which is considered infinite when it is larger than the patch antenna with PC substrate versus freque-
the free space wavelength divided by 20 [16]. The ncy. The resonant frequency is shifted to 8.97 GHz.
goal was to achieve the resonance with optimum
48 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS Issue 1, Volume 6, January 2007
Fig. 6: Far-field radiation pattern from the
conventional patch antenna at 7.48 GHz. The main
lobe magnitude is 7.4 dBi, the main lobe direction
20 deg., the angular width (3 dB) 109 deg., and the
side lobe level -14.9 dB.
Fig. 7: Far-field radiation pattern from patch
antenna with PC substrate at 7.48 GHz. The main
lobe magnitude is 8.4 dBi, the main lobe direction 0
deg., the angular width (3 dB) 75.5 deg., and the
side lobe level -25.2 dB.
Finally, the radiation patterns at 7.48 GHz for the
designed MPA without and with PC structure are
presented in Figures 6 and 7 respectively. As it is
seen, the gain value is increased, the patterns are
smoother and the back and side radiation lobes have
been reduced. There is a 1.0 dBi improvement in the
directivity when a PC substrate is used. In addition,
ISSN: 1109-2742
the frequency dependence of the radiation pattern is
reduced while using the PC substrate, indicating that
the surface wave mode has been mitigated in the
frequency range of operation (about 7.5 to 9 GHz).
Fig. 8: Schematic representation of the MPA with
both PC substrate and superstrate.
4 Simulation of the MPA with both
PC-substrate and PC-superstrate
In this section a Photonic Crystal is used as
substrate as well as superstrate of the designed MPA
with the geometry described in section 2. The PC
superstrate had the same geometrical structure
(except for thickness) as the PC substrate (this can
make the fabrication of the whole antenna system
easier and cheaper). A schematic representation of
the MPA with both PC substrate and superstrate
(used in our CST-simulation) is given in Figure 8.
When the PC structure is used as a MPA’s
superstrate, it is illuminated by the electromagnetic
fields radiated from the patch antenna, and almost
all of the dielectric elements of the superstrate are
excited so that the field distribution on its surface is
quite uniform. So the photonic crystal superstrate is
excited to serve as an aperture antenna, its effective
aperture size becomes much larger than that of the
original antenna and therefore, the antenna’s
directivity is expected to be drastically improved.
The calculation of the input return loss (S11)
indicates that the presence of the superstrate does
not shift the operational frequency of the MPA. The
maximum improvement in the performance of the
antenna was achieved when the thickness of PC-
superstrate was chosen to be equal to the original
operational wavelength λ0=40 mm and the distance
between the PC-substrate and superstrate has been
taken equal to the new operational wavelength d =
λ= 33.4 mm. The improvement in the directivity is
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS Issue 1, Volume 6, January 2007 ISSN: 1109-2742 49

shown in Figure 9. The directivity of the MPA has

been drastically improved from 7.4 dBi to 15.5 dBi.
However, we observe a small increment in the level
of the side lobes.

Fig. 10: Computed gain of the MPA with both PC

substrate and superstrate versus frequency.

For a frequency below ~9 GHz, the PBG prohibits

the electromagnetic waves to propagate through the
PC-superstrate and thus, the gain decreases. On the
other hand, when the frequency increases well
above ~9 GHz, the propagating electromagnetic
field in the superstrate has a component parallel to
the upper surface and this decreases the directivity
and the gain. Figure 11 shows the directivity of the
Fig.9: Far-field radiation pattern for patch antenna
designed MPA as a function of the spacing between
with both PC substrate and PC cover at 8.97 GHz.
the substrate and superstrate at the new operating
The main lobe magnitude is 15.5 dBi, the main lobe
frequency of 8.97 GHz. When the spacing is equal
direction 0 deg., the angular width (3 dB) 24.8 deg.,
to the operating wavelength (d=λ=33.4mm), the
and the side lobe level -15.9 dB.
directivity reaches its maximum. This could be
related to some kind of interference effect between
the substrate and superstrate.
One knows that the directivity of an aperture antenna
is usually larger than that of a MPA. The maximum
directivity of an aperture antenna is given by
D max =10×log (4πA/λ 2 ) (dB) , where A is the area
of the aperture. Since A=56.2 mm × 64 mm and
λ=33.4 mm, in the present configuration, the
theoretical maximum value of the antenna directivity
is Dmax=16.1 dB. Therefore, the directivity of the
designed MPA with both the PC-substrate and the
PC-superstrate is already very close to the theore-
tical maximum directivity (~ 16.0 dB) of the antenna
with the same size and operating frequency.
As the foundation of the antenna design, it is
necessary to investigate the effect of frequency as
well as the effect of the spacing between PC- Fig. 11: Computed directivity of the MPA with both
substrate and PC-superstrate on the gain and PC substrate and superstrate versus distance at the
directivity of the proposed MPA. Figure 10 shows operating frequency of 8.97 GHz.
the gain of the MPA with both PC-substrate and
superstrate as the frequency varies. As it seen, the Finally, the far field three-dimensional patterns of
gain reaches its maximum value in the vicinity of the conventional and designed PC-MPA at the
the resonant frequency ~9 GHz. operational frequencies are given in Figures 12-15.
50 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS Issue 1, Volume 6, January 2007
Fig. 12: 3D-Far-field radiation pattern from the
conventional MPA at the operational frequency of
7.48 GHz. The maximum directivity is ~7.4 dBi.
Fig. 14: 3D-Far-field radiation pattern from MPA
with both PC-substrate and superstrate at the
frequency of 7.48 GHz. The maximum directivity is
~13.5 dBi.
5 Conclusion
We have simulated the performance of a MPA with
a hexagonal Photonic Crystal (PC) structure used
both as substrate and superstrate. The PC-structure is
composed of dielectric rods with low relative
permittivity εr=2.2 (PTFE Glass Fiber). The plane
wave expansion method (PWE) have been imple-
mented in MATLAB in order to investigate the
effects of periodicity and the radius of rods on the
location and bandwidthof the photonic bandgap. The
input return loss, radiation pattern, and the
directivity of the antenna were calculated using the
CST-Microwave Studio time domain field solver
based on the finite integration technique (FIT).
ISSN: 1109-2742
Fig. 13: 3D-Far-field radiation pattern from MPA
with PC-substrate at the frequency of 8.97 GHz.
The maximum directivity is 8.23 dBi.
Fig. 15: 3D-Far-field radiation pattern from MPA
with both PC-substrate and superstrate at the
operational frequency of 8.97 GHz. The maximum
directivity is ~15.5 dBi.
At the operational frequency, the numerical results
showed that the performance of the designed MPA
was improved significantly. It has been demon-
strated that the antenna directivity can be increased
by about 7 dBi while the backside level is reduced.
The maximum improvement was achieved when the
PC substrate had a thickness equal to the original
operational wavelength λ0 and the distance between
the PC-substrate and the PC-superstrate was chosen
to be equal to the new operating wavelength. The
dependence of the antenna directivity on the
frequency as well as on the spacing between
substrate and superstrate has also been investigated.
As it is well known, surface waves also contribute to
 WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS Issue 1, Volume 6, January 2007 ISSN: 1109-2742 51

the coupling problem faced in antenna arrays[17,18]. antenna directivity, Microwave Opt. Technol.
The use of MPA with low levels of surface wave Lett., Vol. 22, 1999, pp. 136-139.
excitations would be desirable for arrays. Therefore, [13] F. Hirtenfelder, T. Lopetegi, M. Sorolla, L.
the next stage in this work is to study and simulate Sassi, Designing components containing
the performance of a phased array configuration of photonic band-gap structures using time domain
the designed MPA. field solvers, Microwave Engineering, March
2002, pp. 23-29.
References: [14] A. Delustrac, F. Gadot, E. Akmansoy and T.
[1] J. Park, S. Jeon, Y. Wang and T. Itoh, Integrated Brillat, High-directivity planar antenna using
antenna with direct conversion circuitry for controllable photonic bandgap material at
broad-band millimeter-wave communications, microwave frequencies, App. Phys. Lett., Vol.
IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., Vol. 51, 78, 2002, pp. 4196-4201.
2003, pp. 1482-1488. [15] E. Yablonovitch, Photonic Bandgap Structures,
[2] K. F. Lee and W. Chen, ed., Advances in J. Opt. Soc. Amer. B: Opt. Phys., Vol. 10, 1993,
Microstrip and Printed Antennas, New York, pp. 283-295.
Wiley, 1997. [16] J. Huang, Finite ground plane effects on micro-
[3] K. Wong, Compact and Broadband Microstrip strip antenna radiation patterns, IEEE Trans.
Antennas, New York, Wiley, 2002. Antennas Propag, Vol. 31, 1983, pp. 649-653.
[4] M. Khayat, J. Williams, D. Jackson, and S. [17] H. César, C. Fernandes and D. A. Nascimento,
Long, Mutual coupling between reduced surface Analysis of the Phased Antenna Array With
wave microstrip antennas, IEEE Trans. Photonic Material, WSEAS Trans. on Comuni-
Antennas Propag, Vol. 48, 2000, pp. 1581- cations., Vol. 3, 2004, pp. 419-425.
1593. [18] H. César, C. Fernandes and S. P. Santos,
[5] D. Jackson, J. Williams, A. Bhattacharyya, R. Change in the Directivity of Planar Array With
Smith, S. Buchheit and S. Long, Microstrip PBG Substrate, WSEAS Trans. on Comuni-
patch design that do not excite surface waves, cations., Vol. 3, 2004, pp. 433-438.
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., Vol. 41, 1993,
pp. 1026-1037.
[6] N. Alexopoulos and D. Jackson, Fundamental
supestrate (cover) effects on printed circuit
antennas, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., Vol.
AP-32, 1984, pp. 807-816.
[7] J. D. Joannopoulos, R. D. Meade, and J.N.
Winn, Photonic crystals: molding the flow of
light, N. J., Princeton Univ. Press, 1995.
[8] R. Gonzalo, P. Maagt, and M. Sorolla, Enhanced
patch-antenna performance by suppressing
surface waves using photonic bandgap
substrates, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech.,
Vol. 47, 1999, pp. 2131-2138.
[9] S. H. Tse, A. Karousos, P. R. Young, Broadband
photonic bandgap waveguides, Microwave
Symposium Digest, 2004 IEEE MTT-S Interna-
tional, Vol. 3 , 6-11 June 2004, pp. 2063-2066.
[10] K. Agi & J. Malloy, Integration of a Microstrip
Patch Antenna with a Two-Dimensional
Photonic Crystal Substrate, Electromagnetics,
Vol. 19, 1999, pp. 277-290.
[11] K. Agi, et. al., The Effects of an Electroma-
gnetic Crystal Substrate on a Microstrip Patch
Antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., Vol.
50, 2002, pp. 451-455.
[12] M. Thèvenot, M. Denis, A. Reineix, B. Jecko,
Design of a new photonic cover to increase

View publication stats