Broadband circular polarized field generation in

single layer microstrip patch antennas.

A. Torres-García1, F. Marante2, A. Tazón3, J. Vassal´lo4, J. Teniente1,5, M. Beruete1,5
1
Antenna Group, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Public University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
2
Department of Telecommunications and Telematics, ISPJAE, Havana, Cuba.
3
Telecommunication Engineering Department. University of Cantabria. Plaza de la Ciencia S/N. 39005-Santander, Spain.
4
CSIC. Group of Technology on Antennas of the Institute of Physics Technology and Information Leonardo Torres Quevedo
(ITEFI), Madrid, Spain.
5
Institute of Smart Cities, Public University of Navarra, 31006 Pamplona, Spain

Abstract— In this paper we present a microstrip patch The main objective of this paper is to propose antennas
excitation technique through electromagnetical coupling in a schemes to achieve CP within a wide band (4 %), while
single layer able to generate broadband circularly polarized (CP) preserving the constraints of simple design and ease of
radiation. The circular polarization operation is obtained by fabrication in a single layer. These designs are based on a variant
simply adjusting the feed system dimensions without modifying
the microstrip radiator. The proposed feed technique also has the of the feeding system through electromagnetical coupling with
advantage of being applicable to any regular polygon; in this case, asymmetric structure discussed in [12]. The proposed CP
its operation is validated experimentally for a square and an antenna is simple in structure, has no via-holes and it is printed
ellipse. From the simulation results a 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth only on the top face, so that it can be fabricated through a low-
of 100 MHz (4%) and 110MHz (4.48%) are obtained, respectively, cost Print Circuit Board (PCB) process. Moreover, this new
relative to the center frequency of 2.44 GHz, making the designed perturbation technique provides an improvement of the axial
antennas an interesting solution for applications such as RFID
ratio bandwidth, wider than that obtained by previous
readers, or communications in ISM band.
perturbation approaches using the same technology [13].
Index Terms—Circular Polarization, Microstrip Patch
Antenna,ISM band. II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION AND DESIGN
I. INTRODUCTION The proposed antenna consists of a patch fed by a modified
microstrip line both printed on a single layer, that is the feed line
The generation of circular polarization (CP) in wireless and the patch both lay on the same substrate surface. The
communications systems has attracted a lot of interest due to the feeding line is splitted into two arms with different length, which
recognized improvements it brings: it does not require surround the patch asymmetrically while keeping both arms
polarization alignment between the transmitter and the receiver, close to the patch edge separated by a constant gap. Fig. 1 shows
is more robust against multi-path effects, makes it feasible to the proposed configuration in the cases of square (a) and
receive linear polarization at any angle and shows a elliptical (b) patches. All the design parameters are shown in this
comparatively ease of penetration through obstacles [1]. figure. Note that in the elliptic case, the asymmetric enlargement
In the literature, one can find many kinds of printed CP is defined using an auxiliary angle β, as shown in Fig. 1.
antennas. CP in circular or square patch can be obtained using
two feeds with equal amplitude and 90º phase difference,
exciting two orthogonal modes [2]. Other option is to employ a
single excitation and introduce some perturbation to the
antenna, such as truncating corners, loading with extra stub,
etching slots on the patch, and modifying the geometry of the
patch as is the case of elliptic patch [3]–[6]. Another single-feed
technique for producing circular polarization wave involve a
coplanar capacitively coupled feeding method by a parallel
short-ended microstrip line [7]. However, these antennas have
narrow 3 dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidths (generally about 1%),
especially in the case of single feed designs [4].
New ways for obtaining CP, broadening at the same time the
operation bandwidth have been reported more recently [8] [9].
Multiple substrate layers have been widely applied [10][11]. Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed microstrip antenna with single feed by
electromagnetic coupling on the radiating face. (a) Square Patch. (b) Elliptic
However, these antennas present large profiles and are usually Patch.
complex structures.
 As clearly shown, the perturbation that generates the circular The simulated and measure return loss curves of those
polarization only acts in the feed (not over the radiator prototypes are plotted in Fig. 2. The simulated 10-dB return loss
structure), modifying its geometry by enlarging one of the arms. bandwidth is 4.9% (2.39–2.51 GHz) and the measured is 4.5%
This modification causes an asymmetry in the coupling (2.37–2.48 GHz) at the center operating frequency of about 2.42
capacitance between the strip and the patch. This creates an GHz for the square patch (a). In the case of the elliptic patch (b),
asymmetrical current distribution on each side of the patch, the simulated bandwidth reaches 7% (2.34-2.51 GHz) while the
which can be optimized to generate CP [10]. measured is 7.1% (2.32-2.49 GHz). As it can be seen,
Using the mentioned principles, two prototypes were measurement and simulation results show good agreement with
designed at 2.4 GHz (considering their application in the ISM some differences due to the imperfections in the fabrication
band), using a low-cost commercial substrate (FR4) with height process.
h = 1.5 mm and relative permittivity εr = 4.2 coated in both faces
with a copper layer of thickness t = 35 m and conductivity σ = A. Farfield performance.
5.8×107 S/m. The antennas were simulated using the full-wave The key design parameters for impedance matching are the
electromagnetic solver Ansoft HFSS (V.15.2), based on the separation between patch and feeding arms (s), and the width of
Finite Element method. the feed strip (Wa). The square patch dimensions are obtained
For the final design an optimization routine was launched using well-known design formulas [12]. In the elliptic case, the
with the aim of increasing the operation bandwidth of the design recommendations appearing in [5] are followed.
antenna. The final dimensions of the prototype shown in Fig. Therefore, the minor axis defines the center frequency design,
1(a) were: length of the radiator patch Lp = 28.6 mm, width of and we conclude that the major axis is defined by the impedance
the feed strip Wa = 2.3 mm, length of the larger arm LL = 19.9 of the input microstrip line.
mm and length of the shorter arm LR = 14.4 mm. For the
elliptical case shown in Fig 1(b) we obtained: minor radius a =
16.63 mm, major radius b = 17.3 mm, width of the feed strip Wa
= 2.1 mm and fee angle β = 20.5 °. In both cases the separation
of feed strip from the patch was s = 0.3 mm and the width of the
50 strip was W50 = 2.9 mm

Fig. 3. Influence of parameter LR in Axial Ratio optimization.(a) Square patch

(b) Elliptic patch. (Insets) Detail around the design frequency (2.44 GHz)
showing the operation bandwith.

Additionally, the AR is determined completely by the length

difference between the arms (LR and LL) in the square patch case
Fig. 2. Measured (black curve) and simulated (red curve) return loss vs
frequency. (a) Square patch. (b) Elliptic patch. and by β in the elliptical case. This phase difference between the
arms controls the phase shift, which causes the circular
polarization. Fig. 3 shows the curves of axial ratio vs. frequency
for different values of LR keeping constant LR = 14.5 mm, Lp = is expected. Therefore, for the square patch, the polarization is
28.6 mm, W50 = 2.9 mm, s = 0.3 mm, Wa = 2.3 mm for the square Right Handed Circular Polarization (RHCP) and for the ellipse
patch and Wa = 2.1mm for the elliptic patch. is Left Handed Circular Polarization (LHCP) (Fig. 6).
Furthermore, it can be noted that the measured radiation
As it can be observed, when the length of both arms is
patterns (in concordance with the measured Axial Ratio in
identical, the antennas show linear polarization, because the
Fig. 5) present more than 20 dB cross polarization isolation for
axial ratio is larger than 40 dB. By increasing the length LL, or
the square patch and more than 15dB for the elliptic case, hence
the β parameter in the elliptic patch, the axial ratio decreases
a good polarization isolation is achieved.
until circular polarization is achieved. The best result is
obtained with values of LL = 19.9 mm and β= 20.5º. If we
continue increasing LL or β, the axial ratio begins to deteriorate,
so that the optimal phase shift is achieved for a difference
between arms of approximately λ/11 in both cases. The axial
ratio bandwidth at 3 dB is about 3.9% and 4.1% for the square
and elliptic antenna, respectively.
The radiation patterns are obtained in a far-field antenna
measurement setup at Public University of Navarra anechoic
chamber. The feed employed has been a linearly polarized
axially corrugated horn with 15 dB gain and very low
corrspolar level in the used frequency band. The measurement
setup is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Far–Field Measurment Setup.

The measured Axial Ratio at boresight, Fig. 5, shows

certain discrepancy with the simulated results in both cases,
mostly attributed to the fabrication.
.
Fig. 6. Co-Polarized and Cross-Polarized Measuredz Radiaion Patterns at
2.5GHz in the plane Phi = 0. (a) Square patch. (b) Elliptic patch. Red curves
correspond to Right Handed Circular Polarization and black curves to Left
Handed Circular Polarization.

CONCLUSIONS
In this work, a novel structural concept to generate CP in
microstrip technology using a single feeding line has been
demonstrated. CP is generated by introducing a geometrical
perturbation in the feeding system and not in the geometry or in
the current distribution. A relatively broad axial ratio bandwidth
(about 4%) is obtained, improving by a factor of two the values
obtained with typical microstrip antenna using two inputs
Fig. 5. Measured Axial Ratio vs Frequency (Black line-Square patch and Red. (about 2%). The proposed antennas are good candidates for a
Line - Elliptic patch.) wide range of low-profile CP antenna applications and suitable
for reflectarrays applications.
The longest arm (which is the most phase delayed arm)
determines the sense of circular polarization of these designs as ACKNOWLEDGMENT
 This work was supported by TEC2014-58341-C4-1-R (with [6] L. Shen, “The elliptical microstrip antenna with circular polarization,”
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 90–94, 1981.
FEDER co-funding). In the case of CSIC, its work was
[7] K. Wei, Z. Zhang, and Z. Feng, “New coplanar capacitively coupled
internally sponsored by the Group of Technology on Antennas feeding method for circularly polarized patch antenna,” IEEE Antennas
of the ITEFI. The authors would like to thank Professor José Propag. Soc. AP-S Int. Symp., pp. 3099–3102, 2011.
Ángel García García of the University of Cantabria for his [8] G.-J. W. Jen-Yea Jan Chien-Yuan Pan, Hua-Ming Chen, “Broadband
advice and encouragement. Microstrip-Line-Fed Circularly-Polarized Circular Slot Antenna,” Proc.
iWEM2014, Sapporo, Japan.
[9] H.-G. Ma, X. Xue-Xia, and Y. Zhewang, “A Novel Microstrip-CPW Fed
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