Effects of Ground Plane on a Square Graphene Ribbon Patch

Antenna Designed on a High-Permittivity Substrate with PBG

structures
Amina BENDAOUDI (  aminabendaoudi@yahoo.fr )
Université Djillali Liabès: Universite Djillali Liabes de Sidi Bel Abbes https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1850-3998
Mohammed BERKA
Mustapha Stambouli Mascara University: Universite Mustapha Stambouli Mascara
Mohamed Debab
Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef: Universite Hassiba Benbouali de Chlef
Zoubir MAHDJOUB
Université Djillali Liabès: Universite Djillali Liabes de Sidi Bel Abbes

Research Article

Keywords: Terahertz, Graphene, Square ribbon antenna, Photonic Band Gap, Ground plane

Posted Date: October 14th, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2036767/v1

License:   This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Read Full License

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Abstract
In this paper, a wide bandwidth (20 GHz) and small sized (200×200×50 µm3) terahertz (THz) square graphene ribbon antenna using
Photonic Band Gap (PBG) substrate are investigated in the 0.6–0.8 THz band. The proposed antenna consists of graphene as radiating
patch mounted on four types of ground plane. The important aim of this work is to eliminate the second resonance frequency by utilize a
several types of ground plane and keep a single frequency by improving the performance of the proposed antenna. The effect of change
ground plane on the performance of antenna is compared, in terms of reflection coefficient, bandwidth, directivity and radiation pattern.
The antenna has achieved good gain (7.62 dB) and good directivity (6.38 dB) in comparison to work reported in the literature.

Introduction
Over the past few decades, a great interest of the research community has been attracted by the THz region of the electromagnetic
spectrum [1], from 0.1 THz to 10 THz have been undergoing rapid development in recent years [2]. This frequency range has an extension
in imaging, networking, medical field, wireless system, short distance, space science and remote systems [3]. Characteristics of the THz
band permit it to occupy a unique niche as other parts of the EM spectrum are already well-established [4]. Moreover, THz wave is
nonionizing, very safe technology as compared to the X-ray [5]. The design of radiating elements of nanoscale represents a crucial factor
for the reliable operation of networks. Metallic antennas exhibit excellentbehavioratmicrowavefrequenciesbuttheirradiation properties
degrade considerably in the far infrared region, resulting in prohibitively complex power consumptions. Pertinent to the prior requisites at a
wide frequency spectrum, including the far-infrared regime, is graphene, a planarallotrope of carbon atoms with high mechanical strength
and bonded in a 2-D honeycomb crystal grid [6-7]. The utilization of graphene as the radiating patch might be a pivotal breakthrough to the
problem. Graphene possesses splendid electrical, optical, and mechanical properties [8]. Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
(CMOS) compatible microwave graphene-based patch antennas, still at their infancy, as-sure extremely low noise and high-speed
communications [9-10]. Some techniques, include increasing the substrate thickness in [11] or using multiple substrates in [12] and the
dielectric material, were employed to increase the bandwidth and to improve the radiation characteristics of the patch antenna [13]. These
techniques always proved useful and reduce definitively surface wave losses. Other techniques are utilized to possess better performance
as the insertion of the periodic structures. The Photonic Band Gap (PBG) surface is found to have the effect of reducing the patch resonant
length, contribute to enhance the gain in TeraHertz patch antenna. The specific electro-magnetic properties of PBG materials motivate the
researchers to extensively study applying its band-gap phenomena for practical uses in microwave and sub-terahertz applications [14-15-
16-17-18]. The EBG structure is a special family of high impedance surface (HIS) structures, which prohibits the wave propagation at
certain frequencies and certain incidence angles [19-20-21]. Graphene-based PBG THz antenna is designed and simulated in [3] to improve
gain, directivity and the radiation efficiency. But the criterion does not show a good match between the patch antenna and the transmission
line (S 11 =-19dB at fr =1.04THz).

In this paper, we propose square ring patch antenna loaded with EBG’s structures to achieve a multi-pole like radiation pattern and a good
directivity but it generating two resonating frequencies. So, to recovery this problem it is proposed to load the antenna with different forms
of ground plane. Various antenna parameters such as reflexion coefficient, gain, directivity, and radiation patterns were also analyzed for
the single band antenna operation. To our knowledge, elimination of a one resonance band by changing the size of ground plane, at THz
regime has not been reported earlier.

Design Specifications Of Graphene Ribbon Patch Antenna

The geometrical configuration of radiating square ribbon patch antenna is presented in figure1. The antenna is placed on the center of the
substrate fed by a 50Ω microstrip transmission lines. The proposed antenna structure is designed to resonate in bandwidth of 0.5GHz to
0.8 THz.

TABLE I

Dimensions of square ribbon patch antenna.

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 Parameters Value

Ls (Substrate length) 500 µm

Ws (Substrate width) 500 µm

Ts (Substrate thickness) 200 µm

Lp (Patch length) 200 µm

Wp (Patch width) 200 µm

Lf (Feed line length) 250 µm

Wf (Feed line width) 50 µm

ε (Substrate Material Permittivity) 9.2

The dimensions of the antenna are summered in Table 1

Graphene behaves as a radiator in the THz range [3]. The graphene’s surface conductivity has been determined by Kubo’s formula as given
in [22-23-24-25-3]. Graphene as a patch conductor has many astonishing properties, such as carrier mobility attaining 200,000 cm2 V-1s-1
at room temperature and Young’s modulus [13]. The following table present the electrical and non-electrical properties used to model under
HFSS software the square ring patch antenna.

We investigate the effect of different dimensions of ground plane in the return loss characteristics, gain anddirectivity.

TABLE II

Electrical and non-electrical properties of graphene material [13].

Dielectric Loss Tangent 0.077

Material Density 2250 Kg/m3

Heat Capacity 2100 KJ/k/kg

Thermal Conductivity 5000 W/mk

Thermal Diffusivity 1.0582 ×10-6 m2 /s

Breaking Strength 40 N/m

Young’s Modulus 1 TPa

Poisson's Ratio 0.17

Thermal Expression Coefficient 17.7×10-6/K

Design Approach
The SI unit for magnetic field strength H is A/m. However,

after the “et” in the Latin abbreviation “et al.” (it is also italicized). The abbreviation “i.e.,” means “that is,” and the abbreviation “e.g.,” means
“for example” (these abbreviations are not italicized).

To overcome the problem of multi band as illustrated in figure 2, we apply a certain modification to it.

A. Proposed antenna (1) with the EBG structures and partial groundplane

The proposed antenna (1) consists of a graphene ribbon patch antenna and a partial ground plane as presented in figure 4, separated by a
dielectric substrate of the "Rogers TMM 10" type, with a permittivity equal to 9.2 and a thickness h=200 µm. This antenna is feed by a
microstrip line of characteristic impedance equal to 50Ω. The idea is created a PBG structure on the other half of the remaining substrate
an implantation a periodic arrangement of air cylindric square hole with a dimensions 20µm x 20µm, the distance between square cylinders
is 30µm and height is 200µm.
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B. Proposed antenna (2)with holey superstrate structure and partial ground plane

Figure 5 illustrates the modified geometry of antenna (2) which covered with one layer of holey superstrate structure. "RogersTMM
dielectric (ε=9.2)with a dimension of 500x500x200 µm3 is employed to design the superstrate layer. The superstrate layer is kept parallel to
the dielectric substrate and isolated by the air medium that formed the cavity with thickness h1. The superstrate is drilled with a square hole
with a dimensions 20µm x 20µm to form a square periodic lattice around graphene.

C. Proposed antenna (3) with the PBG structures and partially defected ground plane

In the proposed antenna, periodic arrangement of PBG structures is created on center of the graphene ring patch and crossed line gaps are
etched on one side of the ground plane creating a partially defected ground structure. Figure 6 illustrates the modified geometry of antenna
(3) with the PBG structures and partially defected ground plane.

D. Proposed antenna (4) with the PBG structures and holey ground plane

The defected ground structure (DGS) and the Electromagneticband gap structures (PBG) are the two different types of the genericstructures
mostly used for the design of compact and high-performance microwave components [26]. In the proposed antenna (4), a lattice of certain
flower shapes is etched on the ground plane. These flower shapes are employed to reject unwanted frequency. Square photonic crystals
implantation in substrate layer are used to create PBGs and the strategy preferred for layout of PBG is surrounding graphene ring patch to
further modify the antenna design.

Simulation Result And Discussion And Submission

The THz antenna plays an important role in the ultra-broadband and secured data transfer in the wireless communication systems [27].
The characteristics of the graphene ring patch is designed and investigated in the frequency range varying from 0.6 to 0.7 THz, using the
HFSS simulation tool and the performance is analyzed in term of Coefficient reflexion (S 11), Gain (dB), Directivity (dBi) and Bandwidth
(GHz).The bandwidth of a graphene based nano patch antenna using PBG substrate is higher than of a microstrip patch antenna with
conventional material and normal substrate [28].

In the present work, the performance of graphene of four types of antennas on photonics crystal substrate have been proposed and
simulated. The figure 8 present coefficient reflexion plot for the four proposed antenna with several types ground plane.

It is observed from Figure 8 that the modification of ground plane modified propagation of electromagnetic waves through dielectric
substrate and can create a stop band at desired frequency. The operating frequencies the conventional antenna without PBG substrate and
with whole ground plane vary in the range of 0.643–0.738 THz and they have the same S 11=-15dB.

According to the figure 8, we notice that the four proposed antennas (1,2,3 and 4) don't resonate at frequency at 0.738 THz and offers the
coefficient reflexion S11 ≤ −10 dB.

The electric field radiation properties of a graphene ribbon patch antenna (1) with EBG substrate are illustrated in figure 9.

For the proposed antenna (1), the partial ground plane creates a stop band in the conventional antenna which results in deletion of second
resonant frequency hence the adaptation of antenna is enhanced at S 11=-51dB at 0.659 THz.

The S 11 configuration of the second patch antenna (2) is present in figure 8. It consists of a One-Dimensional Electromagnetic Band Gap (1-
D EBG) structure with a partial PEC ground plane.

It is clear that coefficient reflexion has been decreased from -15dB to -26.27dB but the resonance frequency has shifted from 0.643THz
to 0.672 THz.

Figure 10 presents the simulated E-plane and H-plane radiation pattern of antenna (2). We observed that secondary lobes are virtually
inexistent and the beam width is around 30°.

The ground plane of the graphene ribbon patch antenna is partial so there is some back radiation and the beam peak is directional.

According to the graph of the figure 8 it can be seen that the antenna (3) -with the PBG structures and partially defected ground plane-
resonates at 0.66 THz with S 11=-41.76 dB and it covers the wide bandwidth of 10 GHz.

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In this case, along E-field in Figure 11 which correspond to the radiation direct of defected ground plane, there is little power transmitted
from the graphene ring patch antenna as comparedto the other antennas (1) and (2). The E-plane has an important role in this case
because it’s determining the point of strongest signal.

For the proposed antenna (4), the holey ground plane with the PBG structures creates a stop band in the conventional antenna.

The second resonant frequency has disappeared and we notice a good adaptation of antenna (4). The S 11 of this proposed patch antenna
improves from -15 dB to -36.25 dB.

It can be observed that the 2D radiation pattern of the co-polarization has a null at θ=60°.The beam peak is directional

TABLE III

Comparison of parameters results of proposed antennas with four types of ground plane

Particular fr S 11 Bw Gain Directivity

(THz) (dB) (GHz) (dB) (dB)

Conv. antenna 0.643-0.738 -15/ -15 9-9.5 7.77 6.24

Antenna (1) 0.659 -51.02 10 6.36 6.04

Antenna (2) 0.672 -26.27 20 6.32 6.09

Antenna (3) 0.660 -41.76 10 7.62 6.38

Antenna (4) 0.632 -36.25 11 3.53 3.99

at θ=-100°, radiating from the center ofthe patch and there is back radiation characterized by the front-to-back ratio.The main directivity
was directed at the horizontal plane, whichformed a directional signal level in the E-plane.

TABLE IV

Comparison of proposed antennas with existing graphene based patch antenna.

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 Particular fr(THz) S 11(dB) Bw(GHz) Gain(dB) Directivity(dB) Type of Patch shape PBP’s Type of
patch ground
structures plane

[29] 0.64– -35 / / 5.6 Graphene Rectangular ribbon Without Whole

0.85 patch antenna ground
PBG plane

[30] 0.690 −34.9 24 6.86 7.01 Cuivre Rectangular patch With PBG Defected
ground
plane

[31] 0.6308 -44.71 36.23 7.94 8.81 Cuivre Microstrip patch With PBG Holey
ground
plane

[32] 0.703 -47.8 26.22 4.014 6.835 Graphene Rectangular patch With PBG Defected
ground
plane

[33] 0.750 -36 / 5.09 5.71 Graphene Rectangular patch Without Whole
ground
PBG plane

Antenna 0.659 -51.02 10 6.36 6.54 Partial

(1) ground
plane

Antenna 0.672 -26.27 20 6.32 7.09 Squareribbonpatch With PBG Partial

(2) antenna ground
Graphene plane +
supertate

Antenna 0.660 -41.76 10 7.62 6.38 Defected

(3) ground
plane

Antenna 0.632 -36.25 11 3.53 3.99 Holey

(4) ground
plane
Table IV summarized the radiation performance of existing THz graphene antennas with the four proposed structure.

Analyzing the effects, the holey ground of antenna (4) causes a reduction in gain and directivity due to radiation loss. It can be observed
from designs of antenna (1), antenna (2) and antenna (3) proposed that the gain and the directivity containing partial and defected ground
plane improves. Maximum S 11 is improved up to -51.02 dB, which is a good coefficient in the THz range and better than the work reported
by [29], [30], [31] and [33].

Conclusion
A novel THz square ribbon graphene antenna using PBG structures has been presented and investigated in this paper. The antenna
radiation performance has been investigated using different type of ground plane. Moreover, performed investigation for antenna second
resonance frequency cancellation with all four ground plane types validates the simulation approach in the frequency range from 0.6 to 0.8
THz. However, frequency adjustment has been observed only in the portion of 0.63 to 0.67 THz band. Finally, the projected antenna
attained peak directivity and gain of 6.38 dB and 7.62 dB respectively. The square ribbon grapheme antenna on several ground plane also
played a crucial role in increasing the value of bandwidth, which displays above 10 GHz. The performance of the proposed THz square
ribbon graphene antenna for various parameters like antenna reflection coefficient, gain, directivity and patch shape are reported and
compared with the other work carried out in the literature.

Declarations
Acknowledgment
We express our sincere thanks to the General Directorate of Scientific Research and Technological Development
(DGRSDT)fortheirsupportinthedevelopmentofthiswork.

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Figures

Figure 1

Design of the proposed THz square ribbon patch antenna.

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Figure 2

S 11 of square ribbon patch antenna.

Figure 3

Radiation patterns at 0.643THz and 0.738THz.

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Figure 4

Schematic of graphene based square ribbon patch antenna (1) on PBG substrate and partial ground plane.

Figure 5

Schematic of graphene based square ribbon patch antenna (2)

(a) on partial ground plane (b) with holey superstate.

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Figure 6

Schematic of graphene based square ribbon patch antenna (3) on

(a) partially defected ground plane with (b) the PBG structures.

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Figure 7

Schematic of graphene based square ribbon patch antenna (4) on ground plane with holes in the form of flowers and PBG substrate.

Figure 8

Simulated S 11 of the modified ground plane with PBG substrate resonatinginbandwidthof0.5GHzto0.8 THz.

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Figure 9

Radiation patterns at 0.659THz

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Figure 10

Radiation patterns at 0.672THz.

Figure 11

Radiation patterns at 0.660THz

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Figure 12

Radiation patterns at 0.632THz

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