Chapter Six

Microstrip Antennas

By : Bekele Alemayehu

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Objectives of the chapter
Introduction to microstrip antenna
Followed by advantages and disadvantages
Feeding and analysis techniques are analysed
Design procedures and considerations are studied

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Lecture Outline
Introduction
Feeding techniques for MSA
Methods of analysis for MSA
Design procedures and specifications of MSA
Summary

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Introduction
In high performance aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, and missile
applications, where size, weight, cost, performance, ease of
installation, and aerodynamic profile are constraints, low
profile antenna is required.
Further, government and commercial applications such as: mobile
radio and wireless communications also needs the above
requirements for the antenna

To meet these requirements, microstrip antennas can be used.

✔ MSA are applicable in the GHz range (f > 1 GHz)
✔ For lower frequencies their dimensions are too large.
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• Construction and Geometry
Generally, the MSA consist of thin metallic radiating patch of
various shapes etched on dielectric substrates.

The substrate is usually grounded at the opposite side.

Patch: A metallic strip mounted on dielectric layer(substrate)

which is supported by ground plane.

✔ The patch is generally made of conducting material such as

copper or gold and can take any possible shape.

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The radiating patch and the feed lines are usually photo etched
on the dielectric substrate.

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 For rectangular path antenna
The length L of the patch are usually in the range from λ/3 to λ/2

✔ Where λ is the free space wave length

✔ The patch is selected to be very thin ( t<<λ)

✔ The height h of the dielectric substrate is usually 0.003 λ ≤ h ≤

0.05λ .
✔ The dielectric constant of the substrate is usually in the range from
2.2≤ εr ≤ 12.
✔ MSA radiates primarily because of the fringing fields between the patch
edge and the ground plane.

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 • For good antenna performance, thick dielectric substrate
having low dielectric constant is desirable since this provides
better efficiency, larger bandwidth and better radiation.
✔ However, such configuration leads to larger antenna size.
✔ For compact MSA, higher dielectric constants must be used
which are less efficient and result in narrower bandwidth.

✔ Hence a compromise must be reached between antenna

dimension and antenna performance.

✔ The choice of the substrate is limited by the microwave circuit

coupled to the antenna.

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• Possible Shape of the Patch

The shape of the patch may be variable depending on the

requirements and applications

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• Advantage and Disadvantage of MSA
Advantages of MSA :
Light weight and low volume.
Low profile planar configuration which can be easily made
conformal to host surface.
Low fabrication cost, hence can be manufactured in large
quantities.
Supports both linear as well as circular polarization.
Can be easily integrated with microwave integrated circuits (MICs).
Capable of dual and triple frequency operations.
Mechanically robust when mounted on rigid surfaces.
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• When the particular patch shape and mode are selected they are
very versatile in terms of:
✔ Resonant frequency, polarization, pattern, and
impedance.
✔ Further by adding loads between the patch and the ground
plane such as pins and varactor diodes, adaptive elements
with variable resonant frequency, impedance, polarization,
and pattern can be designed.

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Disadvantages of MSA :

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Low Gain

Extraneous radiation from feeds and junctions

Poor end fire radiator except tapered slot antennas

Low power handling capacity.
Surface wave excitation

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Feeding Techniques for MSA
Microstrip patch antennas can be fed by variety of methods.
These methods can be classified into two categories:
Contacting: the RF power is fed directly to the radiating patch using
connecting element such as microstrip line.
Non-contacting: electromagnetic field coupling is done to transfer
power between the microstrip line and the radiating patch.
The four most popular feed techniques are:
The microstrip line and coaxial probe (both contacting
schemes)
Aperture coupling and proximity coupling (both
non-contacting schemes).
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Microstrip Line Feed:
Easy to fabricate
Simple to match by controlling the inset position and relatively
simple to model.
However, as the substrate thickness increases surface waves
and spurious feed radiation increase

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• Coaxial Probe Feed
Easy to fabricate
Low spurious radiation
But difficult to model accurately
Narrow bandwidth of impedance matching.

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The feed can be placed at any desired location inside the patch in
order to match with the input impedance.
This feed method is easy to fabricate and has low spurious
radiation.
But it provides narrow bandwidth and difficult to model since
a hole has to be drilled in the substrate and the connector
protrudes outside the ground plane.
Also for thicker substrates, increased probe length makes the input
impedance more inductive, leading to matching problems.

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• Aperture Couple Feed (No Contact):
The radiating patch and the microstrip feed line are separated by
the ground plane as shown in figure.

Coupling between the patch and the feed line is made through
slot or an aperture in the ground plane.

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The amount of coupling from the feed line to the patch is
determined by the shape, size and location of the aperture.
Since the ground plane separates the patch and the feed line,
spurious radiation is minimized.
Generally, high dielectric material is used for bottom substrate
and thick, low dielectric constant material is used for the top
substrate to optimize radiation from the patch.
But it is difficult to fabricate due to multiple layers, which also
increases the antenna thickness.
This feeding scheme also provides narrow bandwidth.

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• Proximity Couple Feed (No Contact)
It is also an electromagnetic coupling scheme.
Two dielectric substrates are used such that the feed line is
between the two substrates and
The radiating patch is on top of the upper substrate.

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Due to overall increase in the thickness of the microstrip patch
antenna, it eliminates spurious feed radiation and provides
very high bandwidth
It also provides choices between two different dielectric media,
one for the patch and one for the feed line to optimize the
individual performances.
Matching can be achieved by controlling the length of the feed
line and the width-to-line ratio of the patch.
It is difficult to fabricate because of the two dielectric layers
which need proper alignment.
There is an increase in the overall thickness of the antenna.

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• Comparison of the feeding techniques

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• Equivalent circuits for the feeding techniques

• Example: See Handout

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Method of Analysis for MSA
Transmission Line Model
Simplest
Has good physical insight
Less accurate
Cavity Model
Has good physical insight
More accurate
More complex
Full wave model
Very complex but very accurate.
Very versatile
MoM, FDTD, FEM

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• MSA analysis based on the transmission line model
This model represents the microstrip antenna by two slots of width
W and height h, separated by transmission line of length L.

The microstrip is essentially nonhomogeneous line of two

dielectrics, typically the substrate and air.

Microstrip Line Electric Field Lines

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 Most of the electric field lines reside in the substrate and parts of some
lines in air.
Since the phase velocities would be different in the air and the substrate,
this transmission line cannot support pure TEM mode of transmission
Instead, the dominant mode of propagation would be the quasi-TEM
mode.
Thus, an effective dielectric constant (εreff ) must be obtained in order
to account for the fringing and the wave propagation in the line.

✔ This value is slightly less then εr , because the fringing fields around
the periphery of the patch aren’t confined in the dielectric substrate but
also spread in the air.

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Thus εreff is given by

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Let us take rectangular MSA of length L, width W resting on a
substrate of height h as shown

Because of fringing electrically the patch of the microstrip

antenna looks greater than its physical dimensions.

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The dimensions of the patch along its length have now been
extended on each end by distance ΔL as

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Since the length of the patch has been extended by ∆L on each side, the
effective length of the patch is now (L = λ/2 for dominant TM01 mode
with no fringing)

For given resonance frequency fo , the effective length is given by

For rectangular MSA, the resonance frequency for any TMmn mode is
given by

Finally, the width of the patch is given by

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Summary of Important Parameters and Associated Formulas

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Design Specification and Procedures of MSA
The three essential parameters for design of rectangular MSA are:
Frequency of operation( fo ): The resonant frequency of the
antenna must be selected appropriately.
Ex., the Personal Communication System (PCS) uses the
frequency range from 1850-1990 MHz

Hence the designed antenna must be able to operate in this

frequency range.

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Dielectric constant of the substrate (εr ): A substrate with high
dielectric constant has been selected since it reduces the
dimensions of the antenna.
Height of dielectric substrate (h ): For microstrip patch antenna
to be used in cellular phones, it is essential that the antenna is not
bulky. Hence, the height of the dielectric substrate is selected as
1.5 mm.

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Design Procedures:

For this design example, we take the following parameters

Top view of Microstrip Patch Antenna

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Step 1: Calculation of the Width (W ): The width of the
microstrip patch antenna is given by

Substituting c = 3*108 m/s, εr = 11.9 and fo=

1.9 GHz, we get:W = 0.0311 m = 31.1 mm

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Step 2: Calculation of effective dielectric constant (εreff ):
Substituting εr = 11.9, W = 31.1 mm and h = 1.5 mm
we get: εreff = 10.7871

Step 3: Calculation of the effective length (Leff ):

Substituting εreff = 10.7871, c = 3*108 m/s and fo =

1.9 GHz we get: Leff = 0.024 m = 24 mm

Step 4: Calculation of the length extension (ΔL ):

Substituting εreff = 10.7871, W = 31.1 mm and

h = 1.5 mm we get: ΔL = 6.3455 10-4 mm

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Step 5: Calculation of actual length of patch ( L ):
Substituting Leff = 24 mm and ΔL = 6.3455*10-4 mm
we get: L = 0.0228 m = 22.8 mm

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Step 6: Calculation of the ground plane dimensions ( Lg and Wg ):

The transmission line model is applicable to infinite ground

planes only.
However, for practical considerations, it is essential to have a
finite ground plane.

If the size of the ground plane is greater than the patch

dimensions by approximately six times the substrate thickness,
the ground plane dimensions are :

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 Step 7: Determination of feed point location (Xf ,Yf ):
The feed point must be located at the point on the patch, where
the input impedance is 50 ohms for the resonant frequency.
Hence trial and error method is used to locate the feed point.
For different locations of the feed point, the return loss (RL) is
compared and that feed point is selected where RL is most
negative.
For this example, there exists a point along the length of the
patch where RL is minimum.
✔ Hence in this design, Yf will be zero and only Xf will be varied
to locate the optimum feed point.

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 Exercise:
• Design rectangular microstrip antenna so that it will resonate at 2
GHz. The ideal lossless substrate (RT/Duroid 6010.2) has a
dielectric constant of 10.2 and a height of 0.127 cm.
a. Determine the physical dimensions (width and length) of the
patch.
b. Resonant input impedance, assuming no coupling between the two
radiating slots
C. Mutual conductance between the two radiating slots of the patch
d. Location( in cm from the leading radiating slot ) of coaxial feed so
that the total input impedance is 150 ohms.

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Summary
The basics of MSA are analysed
The feeding techniques for MSA are studied and compared.
The method of analysis for MSA are studied
The design specifications and considerations are discussed.

• Example: See Handout

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Assignment
Modelling, Design and Simulation of Microstrip Antenna for
GSM Phones

Parameters:

• Frequency: 900 and 1800MHz

• Feeding technique: Microstrip line feed
• Software: ADS2009
• Analysis Method : Transmission Line

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