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Effect of Slots in Ground Plane and Patch on Microstrip Antenna Performance

Article · December 2009

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LETTERS
International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol 2, No. 6, November 2009

Effect of Slots in Ground Plane and Patch on

Microstrip Antenna Performance
Raj Kumar1, J. P. Shinde2 and M. D. Uplane3
1
Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DU), Girinagar, Pune-410025,India
Email: [email protected]
2
E&TC Department , Sinhgad Academy of Engineering, Pune
Email: [email protected]
3
Head of Department of Electronics , Shivaji University, Kolhapur

Abstract—This paper presents the effect of the slots in

ground plane and patch on resonant frequency, impedance II. DESIGN OF RECTANGULAR MICROSTRIP
bandwidth, gain and side lobe. The microstrip antennas
PATCH
have been designed on εr = 4.3 and h = 1.53 mm. It has been
observed as the slot length increases the resonant frequency Rectangular Microstrip patch has been designed on εr =
shifted to the lower side by 19.05 % and 5.04 % of 4.3 and h = 1.53 mm. It is decided to design the
fundamental frequency of slotted patch and slotted ground
rectangular patch for 2.42 GHz. For a dielectric substrate
plane patch respectively. This indicates the size reduction of
slotted patch antenna is more than slotted ground plane of thickness 'h', relative dielectric constant εr and antenna
patch. Similarly as the slot width increases the resonant operating frequency fr. For the efficient antenna the width
frequency further shifted to lower frequency side. The shift and length of the patch can be calculated by
in the fr due to length variation is more in both case in
comparison to width variation. The impedance bandwidth, W = c/2f [(∈r + 1) /2]-1/2 and L = c / 2f √∈e − 2∆l
Gain, side lobe and radiation efficiency effect due to slots Where, ∈e ∆l can be calculated from [8]. The antenna
have also been studied. This type of study is useful to design
has also been designed using electromagnetic simulator
the compact antennas for Mobile communications.

Index Terms—Microstrip Antenna,Resonant Frequency III. SLOT IN THE GROUND PLANE OF

, slotted patch, Bandwidth and Miniaturization RECTANGULAR PATCH
In the simple rectangular microstrip patch, three slots
I. INTRODUCTION in the ground plane have been made as shown in Figure
Mobile communication systems (GSM900, GSM1800, 1. The three slots have been made along the axis of
UMTS and PCS), wireless computer links, remote resonating length. The two are in one side and third is in
controls, satellite mobile phones and wireless internet other side in the midest of two. The slot length is varied
have shown a tremendous growth in present days. Now a around the axis of the resonating length of the rectangular
days, the size of electronics needed for mobile patch. This antenna has been studied by varying slots
applications have decreased drastically, where as their length and width in the ground plane. The reference
functionality has increased. The antennas required for the antenna and its prototypes were designed and studied in
various applications should be of small size, lightweight, depth using Electromagnetic simulator.
low profile, broad bandwidth, low cost and integrable The antenna has a rectangular radiating patch of
with MIC/MMIC circuits [1-3]. The principal dimensions L x W printed on the same substrate as that
disadvantages of Microstrip antenna is narrow used for simple reference antenna. Three identical slots
bandwidth, poor efficiency and size [4]. For efficient are etched in the antennas ground plane and aligned with
radiation, the size of Microstrip antenna should be λ/2. If an equal spacing of L/4 and in parallel with the patches
radiating edges or the y-axis as shown in Figure 2. In this
the size reduces less than λ/2, the radiation efficiency of
design, the slot width are kept very narrow 2mm and
antenna decreases along with other antenna parameters.
have a slot length of (lin + lout) where lin and lout are the
The miniaturization of antenna and improvement in
slot lengths inside and outside the projection image of the
bandwidth can be achieved by etching the slot in ground
rectangular radiating patch in the ground plane. The
and patch of Microstrip antenna of proper length and
microstrip patch is fed coaxially at distance of L/4 from
width [5-7]. This paper concentrates on the effect on
the centre of the non-radiating edge for good impedance
antenna resonant frequency and other antenna parameters
matching. The antenna has been studied using
due to slots in patch and ground plane to design the
electromagnetic software.
compact antenna with improved bandwidth and
efficiency.

34

© 2009 ACADEMY PUBLISHER

LETTERS
International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol 2, No. 6, November 2009
IV. NEARLY SQUARE MICROSTRIP PATCH efficiency increases to 93.27% for rect-1, 91.55% for
ANTENNA Rect-2, 98.10% for rect3, and 92.45% for rect-4.
Table 2 shows the behavior of fundamental frequency
Nearly square microstrip Patch was designed on a FR4
as the slot width varies. As the slot width of Rect -2
substrate εr = 4.3 and h = 1.53mm with aspect Ratio = antenna increases from 1 mm to 6 mm, the resonant
0.985. The microstrip patch was coaxially fed at position frequency shifted slightly to lower side. The impedance
(- 4.5, - 5.5) mm along the diagonal as shown in Figure 3. bandwidth of Rect - 2 antennas with width 2mm exhibits
The 4 slots have been etched in patch. The effect of slot maximum bandwidth 42.9 MHz. The gain of the antenna
has been studied by varying length and width of slot. increases by 0.32dB and efficiency by 6.28%.
The effect on impedance bandwidth, half power
beamwidth, gain and efficiency has been measured as the
slot length and width varies.

Figure 1.Microstrip Rectangular Figure 2. Slotted ground plane

Patch Antenna Rectangular Microstrip Patch
Figure 4. Simulated Return loss Vs Frequency of Rectangular
Microstrip Antennas

TABLE 1
PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA
WITH DIFFERENT SLOTS LENGTH IN GROUND PLANE

εr = 4.3, h = 1.53mm, L = 29.57mm, W = 38.08mm

Ant. lin fr R. L. BW Gain %η
mm GHz (dB) MHz (dB)
Ref. 0 2.42 -22.55 36.2 7.293 88.84
Rect-1 10 2.353 -18.58 37.2 6.908 93.27
Rect-2 12 2.339 -22.23 38.8 7.389 91.55
Rect-3 14 2.313 -44.52 31.3 7.30 98.10
Figure 3. Nearly Square Microstrip Patch with Four Slots Rect-4 16 2.298 -11.91 17.7 7.251 92.45

TABLE 2
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION PERFORMANCE COMPARISON FOR RECT- 2 FOR DIFFERENT
SLOT WIDTHS IN THE GROUND PLANE
A. Slot in Ground plane
Slot fr Return Gain BW
The simple rectangular microstrip patch antenna Ref. Width (GHz) loss (dB) %η MHz
(mm) (dB)
and its four prototypes of the proposed antenna (Rect-1 to 1 2.3999 -9.018 7.035 92.40 ---
4) were designed on a FR4 substrate εr = 4.3 and h = 1.53 1.5 2.3901 -27.68 7.007 91.65 39.9
mm. The dimensions of the microstrip patch have been 2 2.377 -20.39 7.005 91.55 42.9
taken L x W = 29.57 x 38.08 mm at the fundamental 2.5 2.3493 -19.84 7.065 92.59 41.5
resonant frequency of fr = 2.42 GHz. The slot length lout 3 2.3454 -20.16 7.103 93.32 39.5
4 2.3417 -22.23 7.362 98.29 38.8
for the prototypes was fixed to be (L/4) and the slot 5 2.3381 -22.88 7.326 98.68 37.6
length lin is varied in steps of 2 mm from 10 mm to 16 6 2.3359 -23.16 - - 36.6
mm. The reference antenna is having lin = lout =0.
The feed position has been taken 5.3 mm down from TABLE 3
the centre of the antenna. The effect of embedding COMPARISON OF VARYING SLOT LENGTHS AND WIDTH OF
meandering slots length on the return loss and resonant NEARLY SQUARE MICROSTRIP PATCH
frequency is clearly visible in Figure 4. From the Figure Slot width 1.5 mm Slot length = 5mm
4, it is clear as the slot length increases, the fundamental Slot fr R.L. Gain Slot fr R. L. Gain
resonant frequency shifted to lower frequency side which L GHz (dB) (dB) Width (GHz) (dB) (dB)
mm mm
indicates the size reduction of antenna. For a fixed lout, 3 1.714 -23.29 6.106 1 1.714 -22.61 6.11
but with increasing lin it is observed that the fundamental 5 1.704 -31.94 6.109 1.5 1.704 -31.74 6.12
resonant frequency is lowered. In the case of rect-1 with 8 1.608 -30.54 5.98 2 1.694 -29.41 6.10
10 1.544 -18.72 5.865 2.5 1.686 -31.17 6.09
the slot lengths of 10 mm the resonant frequency is 12 1.465 -15.22 5.588
initially shifted to 2.353 GHz with Return loss –18.58 14 1.388 -17.19 5.570
dB, BW 37.2 MHz, directive gain of 6.908dBi and
radiation efficiency of 93.27%. The Rect-2 exhibits the
maximum bandwidth 38.8 MHz and rect-4 exhibits 17.7 B. Slot in Patch
MHz bandwidth as shown in table 1. The measured Nearly square microstrip Patch was designed on a FR4
radiation efficiency of the ref. antenna is 87.89%. The substrate εr = 4.3 and h = 1.53mm. The 4 slots have been

© 2009 ACADEMY PUBLISHER 35

 LETTERS
International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol 2, No. 6, November 2009
made by etching in the patch. The effect of slot has been frequency shifted towards lower side. The effect on
studied by varying length and width of slots. Table 3 resonant frequency shift is more pronounced for slots in
reveals as the length of slot varies from 3 mm to 14 mm patch than slots in ground plane. This indicates the more
with fix width 1.5mm, the resonant frequency of the size reduction due to slots in patch in comparison to slots
patch shifted from 1.714 GHz to 1.388 GHz i.e 19.05 % in ground plane. It has been observed that bandwidth and
down of fundamental frequency The simulated gain of gain are more affected due to slot in patch than slot in
antenna decreases drastically from 6.106 dB to 5.57 dB. ground plane. The return loss variation exhibits
With the varying length, efficiency and impedance impedance match as the function of slot length and width.
bandwidth of the patch are also decreases as shown in By proper selection of feed, slot length and width, the
Table 6. Table 3 also shows the effect of width on the antenna performance can be optimized which can be
antenna parameters. As the width of slot increases from 1 effectively and efficiently utilized for mobile
mm to 2.5 mm, the resonant frequency shifted lower side communications Applications.
from 1.7148 GHz to 1.6861 GHz. The gain, HPBW,
efficiency and impedance bandwidth remain almost same
as shown in table 3 and table 6.

TABLE 4 TABLE 5
COMP. OF RADIATION ANTENNA RECT.–2 FOR
PATTERNS OF PROPOSED FOR DIFFERENT SLOT WIDTHS
ANTENNA

V. RADIATION PATTERN MEASUREMENT

The radiation patterns of all the antennas were
simulated for the entire prototype antenna Rect-1 to Rect
Figure 5. Radiation patterns of Rect – 1 antenna.
-4. In table 4, the Gain (dB), Half Power Beam Width
(HPWB) and side lobe in dB have been tabulated. It is
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
observed as the slot length increases, the side lobe remain
same except the rect -1 antennas the side lobe level is Authors acknowledge the support of all the staff of
better around –15.4 dB in comparison to other antennas. Department of Electronics Engg., Defence Institute of
A Good broadside Radiation pattern HPBW of 89.3° is Advance Technology, Girinagar, Pune and the research
observed for rect-1and 71.1° for rect-4. Table 5 shows as scholar of Microwave and Millimeter wave Antenna Lab.
the slot width increase from 1 mm to 5mm, the HPBW
varies from 70.8 deg. to 69.7 deg. and side lobe levels REFERENCES
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VII. CONCLUSIONS Lett.17,Feb.1981, pp. 123-5.

The Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna has been

analyzed for the varying slot lengths and width in patch
and the ground plane of the antenna. It is demonstrated as
the slot length and width increases, the resonant

© 2009 ACADEMY PUBLISHER

36

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