European School of Antennas: Fundamentals on Antenna

Laboratory Session 1: Microstrip patch antenna design

Sergio Llorente-Romano Daniel Segovia Vargas

October 17, 2022

1 Introduction
CST Microwave Studio is a full-featured software package for electromagnetic analysis and design. It
allows to input the geometry of the problem by providing solid 3D modelling front end. After the
component has been modelled, an automatic meshing procedure is applied before a simulation engine is
started.
The simulation engine may be based on different numerical techniques (solvers), and the user must
decide what solvers fits better to his applications. However, the numerical technique which CST is
strongest with respect to other computational electromagnetic software is the transient solver, that
implements the numerical method called Finite Integral Technique [1, 2], which is basically FDTD [3]
with integration instead of differentiation. This technique is based on a orthogonal mesh and on a
marching-on-time scheme with following advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages:
• No matrix inversion is requiered.
• Low memory requirements that are linear with the size of the problem.
• Low computational time for big problems.
• Broadband response without frequency sweep.
Disadvantages:
• Stair-case geometry approximation.
• Poor geometry approximation to small structures not aligned with the orthogonal mesh.
• Small cells in a region of the problems increase highly the mesh size (so the computational time).
• High computational time in highly resonant structures.
• Simulation is performed on a port-by-port basis. Each port requieres run a simulation.
The aim of this tutorial is the design of a microstrip patch antenna operating at 1.7 GHz as well as
connecting and matching the antenna to the system via a microstrip transmission line. The electromag-
netic simulation is done with the transient solver.

2 Simulation workflow for an antenna problem

After starting CST Design Environment, choose to create a new CST Microwave Studio project. You
will be asked to select a template for a structure which is closest to your device of interest, but you can
also start from scratch opening an empty project. Figure 1 shows the window for an empty project, with
the different elements that allows you interact with the software:

1
 Figure 1: CST Microwave Studio window.

Navigation tree Hierarchical tree with all the definitions (geometry model, materials, excitations, etc.),
configurations (excitation signals, monitors, etc.) and simulation results of the electromagnetic
problem.
Draw area Plot of the item selected in the navigation tree.
Parameter list List of the variables defined in the project.
Message window Area where information, warning and error messages are returned by the solver and
other components of the software.
Menu bar and tools bar Graphical list of menus or buttons where various commands of the software
can be selected. You can select a command by many ways: with the menu bar, with the equivalent
button on the tools bar, or with a context menu that is opened when you click with the right
button of the mouse over an item in the navigation tree.
The following steps have to be accomplished for a successful simulation:

1. Define the Units

Choose the settings which make the dimensions, frequencies and time steps for your problem most
comfortable. The defaults for this structure type are geometrical lengths in mm and frequencies in
GHz, and you can modify them selecting Solve→units from the menu bar.
2. Define the Background Material
By default, the modelled structure will be described within a perfectly conducting world. For an
antenna problem, these settings have to be modified because the structure typically radiates in an
unbounded (open) space or half-space. In order to change these settings, you can make changes in
the corresponding dialogue box (Solve→Background Material ).
3. Model the Structure
Now the actual antenna structure has to be built. For modelling the antenna structure, a number
of different geometrical design tools for typical geometries such as plates, cylinders, spheres etc. are

2
 provided in the CAD section of CST Microwave Studio. These shapes can be added or intersected
using boolean operators to build up more complex shapes. An overview of the different methods
available in the tool-set and their properties is included in the on-line help.
4. Define the Frequency Range
The next setting for the simulation is the frequency range of interest. You can specify the frequency
by choosing Solve→Frequency from the main menu: Since you have already set the frequency units
(to GHz for example), you need to define only the absolute numbers here (i.e. without units).
The frequency settings are important because the mesh generator will adjust the mesh refinement
(spatial sampling) to the frequency range specified.

5. Define Ports
Every antenna structure needs a source of high-frequency energy for excitation of the desired
electromagnetic waves. Structures may be excited e.g. using impressed currents or voltages between
discrete points or by wave-guide ports. The latter are pre-defined surfaces in which a limited
number of eigenmodes are calculated and may be stimulated. The correct definition of ports is
very important for calculating the matching of the antenna.
6. Define Boundary and Symmetry Conditions
The simulation of this structure will only be performed within the bounding box of the structure.
You may, however, specify certain boundary conditions for each plane (Xmin , Xmax , Ymin etc.)
of the bounding box taking advantage of the symmetry in your specific problem. The boundary
conditions are specified in a dialogue box that opens by choosing Solve→Boundary Conditions
from the main menu.
7. Set Field Monitors
In addition to the port impedance and S-parameters which are calculated automatically for each
port, field quantities such as electric or magnetic currents, power flow, equivalent currents density
or radiated far-field may be calculated. To invoke the calculation of these output data, you must
set the field magnitudes must be calculated. Use the commmand Solve→Field Monitors from menu
bar.
8. Start the Simulation
After defining all necessary parameters, you are ready to start your first simulation. Start the
simulation from the transient solver control dialogue box: Solve⇒Transient Solver. In this dialogue
box, you can specify which column of the S-matrix should be calculated. Therefore, select the
Source type port for which the couplings to all other ports will then be calculated during a single
simulation run.

3 Parametrization of the model

CST Microwave Studio allows to define design parameters and use them to define the geometry. The
use of this parameters is encouraged, since it allows to modify easily the design if the results of the
simulation are not satisfactory. Additionally, CST Microwave Studio has a built-in parametric optimizer
that can help to find appropriate dimensions in your design.
To take advantage of this feature you need to declare one or more parameters in the parameter
list (bottom left part of the program window) and use the symbols in the input field of the program
(dimensions, port settings etc.) Also simple calculations using these pre-defined symbols are possible
(e.g. 4*x+y).

4 Simulation Results
After running the simulation, you will be able to access various calculation results and retrieve the
obtained output data from the problem navigation tree at the right hand side of the program window.

3
 Figure 2: Design parameters of a patch antenna with an ideal coaxial feed.

5 Guided design of a linearly polarized patch antenna

As an exercise you must design and simulate a patch antenna operating a 1.7 GHz with an ideal coaxial
feed. The selected substrate for the design is a plastic material known as polypropylene:
• Dielectric permittivity: εr = 2.2
• Thickness: H = 5 mm

5.1 Model the structure

1. Open CST Design Environment and create a new CST Microwave Studio project.
2. Select the template Antenna (Planar), that makes a reasonably selection of the parameters de-
scribed in section 2.
3. Define the dielectric substrate of the patch antenna. You can define a new material from de context
menu of the folder Materials in the navigation tree (click with the right mouse button) or from
the menu bar (Solve→Material →New material. . . ). Select New Material... and, in the new dialog
window, specify the dielectric constant of the material in the box Epsilon and the name of the new
material (polypropylene). Now, you can see the new material created in the navigation tree.
4. Define the design parameters. The typical geometry of a patch antenna is shown in fig. 2. The
following parameters may be defined:
• L: Length of the patch.
• W: Width of the patch.
• H: Thickness of the substrate.
• Feed: Distance from the feed point to the border of the path.

4
 The definitions are done directly in the parameter list window, where each definition has four
fields: name, value, description (optional) and type. The type of the four parameters listed above
is Length.
The following equations may be used to get an initial guess of parameter W and L [4]:

r
c 2
W =
2f εr + 1
c
L= √ − 2∆L
2f εr

where c is the speed of light, f is the working frequency and

(εeff + 0.3)( W
H + 0.264)
∆L =0.412H
(εeff + 0.258)( W
H + 0.8)
εr + 1 εr − 1 1
εeff = + q
2 2 1 + 12 H
W

An initial guess for Feed value is L/4.

5. Select the brick creation tool from the main menu (Objects→Basic Shapes→Brick ) in order to
create the different elements that compose the patch antenna. This tool create rectangular boxes
pointing two opposite vertex over the draw window. However, pressing ESC key, a dialog window
allow you to specify the coordinates of the box and its properties (name of the element and material
that fill the box.) The bricks that you must define are:
• Substrate:
Xmin= -44 Xmax= 44
Ymin= -44 Ymax= 44
Zmin= -H Zmax= 0
Material polypropylene
• Metalic Patch:
Xmin= -L/2 Xmax= L/2
Ymin= -W/2 Ymax= W/2
Zmin= 0 Zmax= 0.035
Material PEC
Now, both elemnts are listed in the folder Components in the navigation tree. You may adjust the
zoom in the draw window with command View →Reset view to structure, or pressing the space bar.
6. The coaxial feed of the patch may be modelled by a discrete voltage gap port from the ground
plane to a point of the patch. Select New discrete port... from the context menu of the folder Ports
in the navigation tree. In the create port dialog window define the properties of the port:
Type S-parameter
Impedance 50
Location X1=-Feed Y1=0 Z1=-H
X2=-Feed Y2=0 Z2=0
7. The geometry must be closed by boundary conditions. The selected template (Atenna) usually set
the suitable boundary condition for each type of problem, but sometimes these conditions must
be modified with the dialog window opened by command Solve→Boundary Conditions (button in
toolbar). Initially, the template Antenna set all boundary conditions to Open (add space) 1 . In
order to model the ground plane of the patch a perfect conductor boundary condition must be set
at Zmin2 , so you must modify the boundary from Open (add space) to Electric (Et=0).
1 A boundary conditions that simulates free space: waves pass this boundary with minimal reflections. The difference

with the boundary condition open is that a layer of air is added to allow the calculation of radiation patterns.
2 Actually, an infinite ground plane is modelled.

5
5.2 Setup the simulation
1. Define the frequency range from 1 GHz to 3 GHz. You can get the Frequency Range Settings window
from the main menu (Solve→Frequency...) or from the corresponding button in the tool bar. Note
that the bounding box of the geometry is now larger, to take into account the added space by the
boundary condition Open at each side of the geometry except on the ground plane.
2. The accuracy of the simulation depends on the quality of the mesh. Selecting Mesh→Global Mesh
Properties you can modify the parameters that control the meshing of the geometry. The mesh
that requires the Transient solver is an orthogonal hexahedral mesh, so the quality of the mesh
depends on the density of mesh lines. The minimal density of mesh lines is controlled by the
parameters Lines per wavelength and Lower mesh limit. The first one set the minimum mesh lines
of the mesh per wavelength at the maximum frequency. The second one sets approximately the
minimum number of mesh points at each edge of the bounding box that surround the geometry.
You can set initially a value of 20 in Lines per wavelength and a value of 15 for Lower mesh limit.
Setting this parameters at higher values should give you more accuracy results, but at the expense
of a higher (maybe unacceptable) computational time. Other mesh parameters can be set to get a
better compromise between accuracy and computational time for experienced users.
3. Define Field monitors to calculate the magnitudes of interest in the corresponding dialog box
that opens by choosing Solve→Field Monitors... from bar menu (or by right-clicking in the Field
Monitors folder in navigation tree.) The magnitudes can be calculated in time domain or in
frequency domain, in all the volume, or in a plane. Set the following field monitors:
• E-field at work frequency 1.7 GHz.
• H-field/Surface current at work frequency 1.7 GHz.
• Farfield/RCS at work frequency 1.7 GHz.

5.3 Start simulation

Select Solve→Transient solver.... A dialog window is opened where different parameters of the solver can
be tuned. Leave the default values and click Start button. The message window gives you information
about the solving process (status, warnings, errors, etc.). The simulation finish with the message Steady
state energy criterion met, solver stopped.

5.4 Results
The results of the simulation are collected in different folders in the navigation tree:

1. See the S-parameters in the folder 1D Results.

2. See the field distribution in the folder 2D/3D Results.

3. See the radiation patterns in the folder FarFields. There are different types of graphics (3D, polar
plot, rectangular plots, etc.) for plotting the radiation magnitudes (gain, directivity, axial ratio,
etc.)

You can modify the properties of the plot with command Results→Plot properties. . . (For example, you
can set tha the far fields are represented with the more conventional 2D polar plot). Also, you can create
an animation of the monochromatic fields in the time domain (the value of the field for different phases
is calculated and used as frames for the animation.) Some results are shown in figures 3, 4 and 5.
The results of the previous simulation may be not satisfactory for the defined working frequency at
1.7 Ghz.
Modify parameters L and Feed, select Edit→Update paremetric changes (or press F7 key) and run
again the solver. Repeat iteratively these steps until the S-parameters show a good matching (low S11 )
at 1.7 Ghz.

6
 Figure 3: S11 of the patch antenna.

Figure 4: Surface currents on the patch antenna.

7
 Figure 5: Radiation pattern of the patch antenna.

5.5 Save the project

Select File→Save as... and choose a name for the project.

6 Back radiation of a patch antenna

For the sake of simplicity, some idealised assumptions have been made in the previous design exercise (in-
finite and lossless substrate material with an infinite ground plane). How do the results of the simulation
change if now

a) the ground plane has a finite size?

b) the copper material is considered lossy (σ = 5.8 · 107 S/m)?

You can follow the following scheme:

1. Save the project with a different Name (File→Save as...).

2. Select the bottom face of the dielectric with the tool Objects→Pick →Pick Face.
3. Now, we generate a finite ground plane with a thickness of 2 mm with the tool Objects→Extrude.
In the dialog window of the tool Extrud you must set a name for the objecte created from the
extrusion, the thicknes of the extrusion (Height), and the material that fills the new object.
4. Modify the boundary condition at Zmin (Solve→Boundary conditions) and set it to Open (Add
space)
5. Optionally modify the properties of material polypropylene with its context-menu (Right-click on
the material in the folder Materials in the navigation tree).
6. Run the Transient solver and compare the new results with the old ones.

Figure 6 shown an example of the results obtained.

8
 Figure 6: Radiation pattern of the patch antenna with back radiation.

7 Patch Antenna with circular polarization

A circular polarization is made by the superposition of two orthogonal linear polarization with a phase
delay of 90◦ . If we use the patch antenna designed above, and set W=L, then overlay two orthogonal path
antennas is equivalent to put a second coaxial excitation at coordinates X=0, Y=Feed. Follow the next
steps to validate this assumption:
1. Save the project with a different Name (File→Save as...).
2. Set the value of parameter W equal to L.
3. Verify that the patch has a good matching at working frequency. If not, modify L and Feed
iteratively until the S-parameters are satisfactory.
4. Create a discrete voltage port between points (0,Feed,-H) and (0,Feed,0).
5. Open the Transient solver window and check the option All ports is enabled. Then start the
simulation.
6. When the simulation is completed, you can see the radiation patterns and fields distribution when
each port is excited separately in the folders Farfields and 2D/3D Results. Note that are equal
except by a rotation of 90◦ .
7. Select the command Results→Combine Results... to calculate the fields and radiation patterns
when both ports are excited simultaneously. In the new dialog window you can the amplitude and
the phase of each excitation. Set the amplitudes of both ports to value 1, the phase of port 1 to
value 0◦ , and the phase of port 2 to value 90◦ and click on button Combine.
8. See the new field distribution in the folder 2D/3D Results. An animation can help to understand
the dynamic of the new field distribution.
9. See the new radiation pattern and the axial ratio in the folder Farfields. Additionally you can see
the radiation pattern of the circular polarizations components selecting Circular Polarization in
the Axes tab of the window Results→Plot properties. . .

9
 Figure 7: Radiation pattern of the patch antenna with circular polarization.

With two orthogonal excitations, the patch antenna designed above can radiate fields with circular
polarization as is shown in fig. 7 and fig. 8. The S-parameter of the circuit are shown in fig. 10, where
we can evaluate the coupling between the ports of the antenna.

10
Figure 8: Axial ratio pattern of the patch antenna with circular polarization.

Figure 9: Surface current of the patch antenna with circular polarization.

11
Figure 10: S-parameters of the patch antenna with circular polarization.

12
8 Radiation pattern of an array of antennas
An antenna array is an assembly of radiating elements in an electrical and geometrical configuration that
works like a only one antenna with large dimensions to get more directive characteristics. Ideally, the
electromagnetic wave interference phenomena between the radiated fields of each element enhance the
radiative signal in the desired direction and diminish it in the non-desired direction [4]. If you assume
that the currents in each element are the same as that of the isolated element (neglecting coupling), then
the total field of the array is determined by the vector addition of the fields radiated by the individual
elements. If the elements of the array are identical (most cases), this vector addition can be resumed in
the multiplication of the radiation pattern of one element by a scalar function of the direction of radiation,
F (φ, θ), called array factor. The array factor determines almost totally the directivity characteristics
of the whole array, and is a function of the number of elements, the geometrical arrangement and the
amplitudes and phases that feed each element.
In practice, there exists coupling between elements, an each elements does not radiates in the array
how it radiates when isolated. The field of the closer elements induces new currents in each element, so
the array factor only approach the radiation pattern of the array.
The aim of this practice is compare the radiation of an ideal array of patch antennas and the radiation
of the array when coupling is taking into account.

8.1 Ideal array

1. Open the project of the patch antenna with linear polarization.
2. Open the Plot Properties window from the context menu of the folder Farfields.

3. Select Antenna array in the tab Array.

4. Click Properties. . . button and configure an array of 2 × 2 elements spaced λ/2 at the working
frequency of the patch and equally feed (same amplitude, same phase):
Direction X Y Z
Number 2 2 0
Spaceshift 88 88 0
Phaseshift 0 0 0
Click Update Antenna List button to see the final arrangement of array3 .
5. Click button Apply at Plot Properties window and see the radiation pattern of the configured array.
Compare the directivity of the array with the directivity of the single element.

8.2 Array with couplings between elements.

1. Open the project of the patch antenna with linear polarization.

2. Select File→Save as... and choose a name for the new project.
3. In order to copy the geometry of the patch, select the all the elements of the geometry (substrate,
patch and the ground plane if present) in the folder Components navigation tree.
4. You can copy or move elements of the geometry with the command Object→Transform. . . . In the
opened window configure a Translate operation checking the Copy option with a translation
vector X=88 Y=0 Z=0.
5. Repeat the step above but selecting the all geometry elements of both patches and with a translation
vector X=0 Y=88 Z=0.

6. In order to avoid problems with the mesh generator it would be better unite the substrates and
the ground planes. You can do that selecting all the items that you want to unite and applying
the command Objects→Boolean→Add.
3 You can edit directly the antenna list selecting Edit antenna list at the top of the window.

13
 Figure 11: 2 × 2 array of patch antennas.

7. Every patch must be excited, so you must repeat steps 4 and 5 with the element port1 in the folder
Ports of the navigation tree.
8. Simulate the model shown in fig. 11 (Solve→Boolean).
9. You can check the coupling between the four ports with the S-parameters plot found in the folder
1D Results.

10. Use the option Results→Combine Results. . . to see the radiation pattern of the whole array (all
ports with an amplitude of value 1, and a phase of 0◦ .
11. Compare the field distribution and the radiation pattern of this array with de ideal array simulated
in the previous section.

References
[1] T. Weiland, “A discretization model for the solution of maxwell’s equations for six-component fields,”
Archiv Elektronik und Uebertragungstechnik, vol. 31, pp. 116–120, 1977.
[2] M. C. T. Weiland, “Discrete electromagnetism with the finite integration technique,” Progress In
Electromagnetics Research, vol. 32, pp. 65–87, 2001.

[3] K. Yee, “Numerical solution of initial boundary value problems involving maxwell’s equations in
isotropic media,” Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 302–307,
1966.
[4] C. A. Balanis, Antenna theory: analysis and design. John Wiley & Sons, 2012.

14
 Figure 12: Radiation pattern of an ideal 2 × 2 array.

Figure 13: Radiation pattern of an 2 × 2 array with couplings between elements.

15