A Compact and Dual-Band Circularly Polarized Petal-Shaped

Antenna With Broad Beamwidth for Multiple Global Navigation

Satellite Systems
Yilong Wang, Shaoqiu Xiao, Yuping Shang and Fan Xing
Institute of Applied Physics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu
610054
Email: xiaoshaoqiu@uestc.edu.cn

Abstract — In this paper, we present a novel compact microstrip patch antenna printed on the substrate with high
broad-beamwidth dual-band circularly-polarized(CP) dielectric constant was proposed[13]. However, the 3dB
antenna, named petal-shaped antenna. The antenna is
composed of a petal-shaped patch and four loaded monopoles beamwidth is only 94° at both 1.23 GHz and 1.56 GHz.
around it. The lateral size is miniaturized by adding a In this communication, we present a novel broad-
crossed-slot on the patch. The antenna's overall dimension is beamwidth circularly-polarized antenna. Moreover, wide
optimized to be 0.37
λ 0 × 0.37 λ 0 × 0.04 λ 0 . Its half power
beamwidth(HPBW) is 170° in both the x–z and y–z planes at
beamwidth is achieved. At GPS L1 band, the proposed
antenna's HPBW is up to 170°in both XoZ and YoZ planes.
GPS L1 band. Thanks to its broad beamwidth and wide 3-
dB axial-ratio bandwidth, it can be utilized for multiple Besides, the 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth could maintain as
GNSS, including COMPASS, Galileo, GPS and GLONASS. wide as 94.5%.
Index Terms — Circular-polarization, dual-band, wide-
beamwidth, multiple GNSS.
II. ANTENNA STRUCTURE

I. INTRODUCTION The geometry of the proposed antenna is shown in Fig.1.

This antenna is composed of a petal-shaped patch and four
Currently, satellite positioning and navigation have cylinders that radiate like a monopole. The loaded
become more and more important. Global navigation monopoles are excited by coupling with the petal-shaped
satellite systems(GNSS) universally broadcast in circular patch in the center. By adjusting the distance between the
polarization in order to reduce the effect of multipath cylinder and the edge of the petal-shaped patch, the
propagations. In order to have the ability to switch to an coupling strength can be optimized. In order to optimize
alternative system necessary, antennas with wide AR the antenna's lateral dimension, a crossed-slot is applied to
(Axial Ratio) and HP (Half Power) beamwidth over a wide the center of the petal-shaped patch. As a consequence, the
frequency band are required in many applications. antenna's overall dimension is minimized to 0.37 λ × 0.37
λ 0 × 0.04 λ 0 (L × L × h1). In order to achieve two near-
0
However, the beamwidth of conventional patch antenna is
usually about 70°—100°, which is too narrow to meet the degenerate modes with equal amplitude and 90 phase shift
system requirement. for CP characteristics, the antenna is fed by two ports,
To improve the beamwidth for printed patch antennas, which are perpendicular to each other. The petal-shaped
some technologies have been reported in the literature[1– patch is printed on a FR4 substrate with thickness 3 mm,
13]. By loading four cylinders which are perpendicular to permittivity 4.4, and loss tangent 0.02 to operate in the L
the substrate of the microstrip antenna near the edge of a band (1200–1600MHz) for multiple GNSS application.
circular patch, broad beamwidth is achieved[1]. The 3dB
beamwidth of the antenna is about 156° at central
frequency, which is 110% wider than the classical
microstrip antenna. However, the low profile characteristic
is destroyed due to four long cylinders loaded near the
circular patch. Chuan Wu designed a modified antenna to
keep the low-profile characteristics[2]. The thickness of
the proposed antenna is only 45.9% of the one described in
[1]. Nevertheless, the 3-dB beamwidth of this antenna is
only 134°. In [9], the antenna is comprised of four (a)
independent radiation units that are axial symmetrical
around the center with an height of 0.12 λ . The antenna's
0
3-dB axial-ratio beamwidth was 180°, but HPBW was
limited to 120°. A dual-band double-layer U-slot

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 coupled
monopole
petal-shaped
patch

crossed-slot patch

w
ll1
L (b)
Fig. 3. Distributions of current.
FR4
substrate xx
(a) lower frequency band; (b) higher frequency band.
feed
point
B. Wide Beamwidth
y

Fig.4 shows the theory how to broaden the beamwidth.

x
The ordinary microstrip antenna radiates mainly towards
L

(b) the elevation angle of 90°. Meanwhile, the loaded

r1 monopoles radiate mainly towards the elevation angle of
h1 0°. Therefore, when the ordinary microstrip antenna is
h
r d
combined with the loaded monopoles, the two elevation
angle of highest gain of the two radiation patterns could be
(c)
mergered into one, and their radiation fields are added
Fig. 1. Configuration of the proposed antenna.
together, forming a broad radiation pattern in both the XoZ
and YoZ planes. Based on this theory and our numerical
III. ANTENNA OPERATION AND PERFORMANCE simulations, the vertical HPBW of the microstrip antenna
In this section, the operating principles of the proposed could be widened.
dual-band CP antenna are discussed.
A. Dual-band Performance
The proposed antenna is designed to operate at two
bands to meet the needs of multiple GNSS. Firstly, the
petal-shaped patch is designed for the lower frequency Fig. 4. Vertical radiation patterns for the antennas.
(a) petal-shaped patch; (b) loaded monopole;
band. By adding the loaded monopoles which are designed (c) petal-shaped patch surrounded by the loaded monopoles.
for the higher frequency band, the dual-band performance
is achieved.
The effect of the side length of the petal-shaped patch on IV. SIMULATED RESULTS
resonate frequency is shown in Fig.2. It is seen that the Based on the discussion above, the prototype of wide-
beam circularly polarized microstrip antenna is designed.
resonate frequency of the lower bands is decreased as the
The optimized parameters of the antenna are summarized
side length of the petal-shaped patch increases. While the in Table I, which are designed for multiple global
resonate frequency of the higher bands is unaffected. navigation satellite systems.
As shown in Fig.5, the proposed antenna's 3-dB axial-
ratio bandwidth is as wide as 94.5%. And it can be seen
0
from Fig.6 that good match can be achieved for both
bands(from1.203 to 1.290 GHz and 1.527 to 1.606 GHz).
-10 Designed for multiple GNSS application, the proposed
patch=26.3mm
patch=27.3mm antenna can cover the L1 and L2 bands of GPS, B1, B2
S11(dB)

patch=28.3mm
-20
patch=29.3mm and B3 bands of COMPASS, L2 band of GLONASS, E1
-30
and E2 bands of Galileo. For L1 band of GPS which is at
the higher frequency band, the axial-ratio against the theta
-40 angle is given in Fig.7. It is noted that axial ratio is less
1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
than 3dB for 157°in XoZ plane and 140°in YoZ plane.
Frequency(GHz) Figure8 presents the RHCP radiation patterns in two
orthogonal planes. For both the XoZ and YoZ planes, the
Fig. 2. Effects of the side length of the petal-shaped patch. HPBW is more than 170°.
In order to observe the dual-band characteristic more TABLE I
intuitively, current distribution is shown. Fig.3(a) and OPTIMIZED PARAMETERS OF THE ANTENNA
Fig.3(b) reveal the current distribution of lower and higher
frequency band respectively. L 80mm d 16mm

patch 28.3mm xx 20mm

Ll1 28.6mm h 3mm

w 1mm h1 9mm
a
r 1mm r1 16.8mm

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 TABLE II
OPERATIONS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA
50
B
45 Frequency band HPBW(deg) 3-dB axial-ratio Gain(dB)
40
XoZ / YoZ beamwidth(deg)
35

XoZ / YoZ
Axial Ratio(dB)

30

25

20
GPS:L1 172 / 170 157 / 140 1
15
GPS:L2 120 / 120 140 / 120 3.2
10

5 GLONASS:L2 120 / 120 118 / 141 3.3

0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 COMPASS:B1 161 / 161 156 / 150 1.5
Frequency(GHz)

COMPASS:B2 122 / 122 133 / 121 3.1

Fig. 5. 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth of the proposed antenna. COMPASS:B3 120 / 120 116 / 144 3.4

B Galileo:E1 180 / 174 134 / 156 0.7

0

-5
Galileo:E2 161 / 161 156 / 150 1.5
-10
S11(dB)

-15
V. CONCLUSION
-20

A novel circularly polarized antenna has been presented

-25

in this article. The proposed antenna not only has dual

frequency bands and a very wide 3-dB axial-ratio
-30
1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2.0
Frequency(GHz)
bandwidth of 94.5%, but also has a compact dimension of
0.37 λ × 0.37 λ × 0.04 λ (L × L × h1). Designed for
Fig. 6. Reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna. 0 0 0
multiple global navigation satellite systems(GNSS), it can
cover the L1 and L2 bands of GPS, B1, B2 and B3 bands
60

55
Phi=0(deg)
of COMPASS, L2 band of GLONASS, E1 and E2 bands
50 Phi=90(deg) of Galileo. Meanwhile, it can obtain a wide HPBW from
45

40 120°to 180°with a broad 3-dB axial-ratio beamwidth at all

of its operation frequencies.
Axial Ratio(dB)

35

30

25

20
REFERENCES
15

10 [1]. C. Wu, L. Han, F. Yang, L. Y. Wang, P. Yang, " Broad

5 beamwidth circular polarisation antenna microstrip-
0
-200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 monopole antenna," Electron. Lett., vol.48, pp. 1176-1178,
Theta(deg) Sep. 2012.
[2]. C. Wu, Y. Li, F. Yang, P. Yang, "A low-profile broad-
Fig. 7. axial-ratio against the theta angle in XoZ and YoZ beamwidth circular polarization antenna modified
microstrip-monopole antenna," taylor & francis
planes. Electromagnetics, vol. 33, pp. 598-608, Oct 2013.
0 [3]. K. J. Ding, Y. Z. Wang, X. J. Xiong, "A novel wide-beam
Phi=0(deg)
330 30 Phi=90(deg) circularly polarized antenna for SDARS applications,"
0 Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 11, pp.
811-813, Jul. 2012.
-10 300 60
[4]. P. Y. Zhou, X. H. Ye, M. He, "A dual-band U-slot
-20 microstrip antenna with dual-feed and double-layer,"
Microwave Technology & Computational Electromagnetics
-30 270 90
(ICMTCE) 2013 IEEE International Conference ,pp. 146-
148, Aug. 2013.
-20
240 120
-10
0 210 150
180

Fig. 8. RHCP radiation patterns in XoZ and YoZ planes.

The operations at other frequencies are given in Table II.
At each frequency, the antenna shows a wide angular
coverage for both HPBW and 3-dB axial ratio beamwidth.

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