VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

BELAGAVI - 590018

Technical Seminar report on

“MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA AND ITS APPLICATIONS”

Submitted in partial fulfilment for the award of Degree of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
In
ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Submitted by

DHANALAKSHMI M G
4GH16EC016

Under the Guidance of

Mrs. PALLAVI H V B.E , Mtech
Associative Professor
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,
Government Engineering College, Hassan

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

GOVERNMENT ENGINEERING COLLEGE
HASSAN – 573201
2019-2020
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am grateful to Dr. Paramesha, Head of the Department, ECE, for his valuable suggestions and
for helping us to complete my technical seminar.

At the outset I express my sincere thanks to our guide and technical seminar coordinator
Mrs. Pallavi H V, Department of ECE for their encouragement and support throughout my work.

Finally I express my thanks to all the teaching staff of department of ECE, fellow classmates and
my parents for their timely support and suggestion.

I am conscious of the fact that I have received co-ordination in many ways from teaching and
non-teaching staffs of dept. of ECE and grateful to their guidance in completing my work in time.

i
 ABSTRACT

The study of microstrip patch antennas has made great progress in recent years. Compared with
conventional antennas, microstrip patch antennas have more advantages and better prospects.
They are lighter in weight, low volume, low cost, low profile, smaller in dimension and ease of
fabrication and conformity. Moreover, the microstrip patch antennas can provide dual and circular
polarizations, dual-frequency operation, frequency agility, broad band-width, feedline flexibility,
beam scanning omnidirectional patterning. In this paper we discuss the microstrip antenna, types
of microstrip antenna, feeding techniques and application of microstrip patch antenna with their
advantage and disadvantages over conventional microwave antennas.

ii
 CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

LIST OF FIGURES
CHAPTER PAGE NO.

CHAPTER 1
1.1 Introduction 1

CHAPTER 2

MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA

2.1 Introduction 2

2.2 Feeding Techniques 4

2.3 Applications 7

CHAPTER 3

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

3.1 Advantages 10

3.2 Disadvantages 10
CONCLUSION 11

REFERENCES 12
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURES PAGE NO.

Fig1.1 Microstrip Antenna Configuaration 1

Fig2.1 Structure of rectangular microstrip patch antenna 2

Fig2.2 Coaxial probe feed patch antenna 4

Fig2.3 Microstrip line feed patch antenna 5

Fig2.4 Aperture coupled feed patch antenna 5

Fig2.5 Proximity coupled microstrip patch antenna 6
 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

CHAPTER 1

1.1 Introduction

Antenna is a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic waves. Microstrip antennas have
several advantages over conventional microwave antenna and therefore are widely used in many practical
applications. Microstrip antennas in its simplest configuration are shown in Fig1. It consists of a radiating
patch on one side of dielectric substrate (Єr≤10), which has a ground plane on other side.

Radiating Patch

Dielectric
Substrate Ground plane

Fig 1.1: Microstrip antenna configuration

Microstrip antennas are characterized by a larger number of physical parameters than are conventional
microwave antennas. They can be designed to have many geometrical shapes and dimensions [2]. All
microstrip antennas can be divided into four basic catagories:

Microstrip Antennas

Microstrip patch Microstrip Printed slot Microstrip travellimg

Antenna dipoles antenna wave antenna

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

CHAPTER 2

Microstrip Patch Antenna

2.1 INTRODUCTION
A microstrip patch antenna (MPA) consists of a conducting patch of any planar or nonplanar geometry on
one side of a dielectric substrate with a ground plane on other side. It is a popular printed resonant
antenna for narrow-band microwave wireless links that require semi- hemispherical coverage. Due to its
planar configuration and ease of integration with microstrip technology, the microstrip patch antenna has
been heavily studied and is often used as elements for an array. A large number of microstrip patch
antennas have been studied to date. An exhaustive list of the geometries along with their salient features
is available [1]. The rectangular and circular patches are the basic and most commonly used microstrip
antennas. These patches are used for the simplest and the most demanding applications. Rectangular
geometries are separable in nature and their analysis is also simple. The circular patch antenna has the
advantage of their radiation pattern being symmetric. A rectangular microstrip patch antenna in its
simplest form is shown in Figure 2.

L
Patch

Dielectric
Ground Plane
Substrate

Fig 2.1: Structure of rectangular microstrip patch antenna

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

The characteristics of microstrip patch antennas, microstrip slot antennas and printed dipole antennas are
compared in table below.

Sl
No. Characteristics Microstrip Patch Microstrip Slot Printed Diopole
Antenna Antenna antenna

1. Profile Thin Thin Thin

2. Fabrication Very easy Easy Easy

3. Polarization Both linear and Both linear and circular Linear

circular

4. Dual-Frequency Possible Possible Possible

operation

5. Shape Any shape Mostly rectangular Rectangular and

flexibility and circular shapes triangular

6. Spurious radiation Exists Exists Exists

7. Bandwidth 2-50% 5-30% -30%

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

2.2 Feeding Techniques

A feedline is used to excite to radiate by direct or indirect contact. There are many different techniques of
feeding and four most popular techniques are coaxial probe feed, microstrip line, aperture coupling and
proximity coupling [2].

Coaxial probe feeding is feeding method in which that the inner conductor of the coaxial is attached to the
radiation patch of the antenna while the outer conductor is connected to the ground plane. Advantages of
coaxial feeding is easy of fabrication, easy to match, low spurious radiation and its disadvantages is
narrow bandwidth, Difficult to model specially for thick substrate.

Patch antenna

h
Substrate
Ground Plane
Coaxial cable
Fig 2.2 Coaxial Probe feed Patch Antenna

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

Microstrip line feed is one of the easier methods to fabricate as it is a just conducting strip connecting to
the patch and therefore can be consider as extension of patch. It is simple to model and easy to match by
controlling the inset position. However the disadvantage of this method is that as substrate thickness
increases, surface wave and spurious feed radiation increases which limit the bandwidth.

λ/4

Microstrip Microstrip W
Antenna
line Z0 Z1

Substrate

Fig 2.3: Microstrip line feed patch antenna

Aperture coupled feed consist of two different substrate separated by a ground plane. On the bottom side
of lower substrate there is a microstrip feed line whose energy is coupled to the patch through a slot on
the ground plane separating two substrates. This arrangement allows independent optimization of the feed
mechanism and the radiating element. Normally top substrate uses a thick low dielectric constant
substrate while for the bottom substrate; it is the high dielectric substrate. The ground plane, which is in
the middle, isolates the feed from radiation element and minimizes interference of spur ious radiation for
pattern formation and polarization purity. Advantages is allows independent optimization of feed
mechanism element.
Patch Antenna

Єr2
Ground plane
with aperture Єr1

Transmission line
Fig 2.4: Aperture coupled feed patch antenna

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

Proximity coupling has the largest bandwidth, has low spurious radiation. However fabrication is
difficult. Length of feeding stub and width-to-length ratio of patch is used to control the match. Its
coupling mechanism is capacitive in nature.

Patch Microstrip
feed line

Antenna dielectric Feed substrate

Fig 2.5: Proximity coupled microstrip patch antenna

The major disadvantage of this feeding technique is that it is difficult to fabricate because of the two
dielectric layers that need proper alignment. Also there is increase in overall thickness of the antenna. In
the wide range of antenna models there are different structures of Microstrip antennas, but on the whole
we have four basic parts in the antenna.

They are:

- The patch

- Dielectric Substrate

- Ground Plane

- Feed Line

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

2.3 Applications

The Microstrip patch antennas are well known for their performance and their robust design, fabrication
and their extent usage. The advantages of this Microstrip patch antenna are to overcome their de-merits
such as easy to design, light weight etc., the applications are in the various fields such as in the medical
applications, satellites and of course even in the military systems just like in the rockets, aircrafts
missiles etc. the usage of the Microstrip antennas are spreading widely in all the fields and areas and
now they are booming in the commercial aspects due to their low cost of the substrate material and the
fabrication. It is also expected that due to the increasing usage of the patch antennas in the wide range this
could take over the usage of the conventional antennas for the maximum applications. Microstrip patch
antenna has several applications. Some of these applications are discussed as below:

 Mobile and satellite communication application: Mobile communication requires

small, low-cost, low profile antennas. Microstrip patch antenna meets all requirements and various
types of microstrip antennas have been designed for use in mobile communication systems. In
case of satellite communication circularly polarized radiation patterns are required and can be
realized using either square or circular patch with one or two feed points.

 Global Positioning System applications: Nowadays microstrip patch antennas with

substrate having high permittivity sintered material are used for global positioning system. These
antennas are circularly polarized, very compact and quite expensive due to its positioning. It is
expected that millions of GPS receivers will be used by the general population for land vehicles,
aircraft and maritime vessels to find there position accurately

 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): RFID uses in different areas like mobile
communication, logistics, manufacturing, transportation and health care [2]. RFID system
generally uses frequencies between 30 Hz and 5.8 GHz depending on its applications. Basically
RFID system is a tag or transponder and a transceiver or reader.

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax): The IEEE 802.16

standard is known as WiMax. It can reach upto 30 mile radius theoretically and data rate 70 Mbps.
MPA generates three resonant modes at 2.7, 3.3 and 5.3 GHz and can, therefore, be used in
Wimax compliant communication equipment.

 Radar Application: Radar can be used for detecting moving targets such as people and
vehicles. It demands a low profile, light weight antenna subsystem, the microstrip antennas are an
ideal choice. The fabrication technology based on photolithography enables the bulk production of
microstrip antenna with repeatable performance at a lower cost in a lesser time frame as compared
to the conventional antennas.

 Rectenna Application: Rectenna is a rectifying antenna, a special type of antenna that is used
to directly convert microwave energy into DC power. Rectenna is a combination of four
subsystems i.e. Antenna, ore rectification filter, rectifier, post rectification filter. in rectenna
application, it is necessary to design antennas with very high directive characteristics to meet the
demands of long-distance links. Since the aim is to use the rectenna to transfer DC power through
wireless links for a long distance, this can only be accomplished by increasing the electrical size of
the antenna.

 Telemedicine Application: In telemedicine application antenna is operating at 2.45 GHz.

Wearable microstrip antenna is suitable for Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). The proposed
antenna achieved a higher gain and front to back ratio compared to the other antennas, in addition
to the semi directional radiation pattern which is preferred over the omni-directional pattern to
overcome unnecessary radiation to the user's body and satisfies the requirement for on-body and
off-body applications. A antenna having gain of 6.7 dB and a F/B ratio of 11.7 dB and resonates at
2.45GHz is suitable for telemedicine applications.

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

 Medicinal applications of patch: It is found that in the treatment of malignant tumors the
microwave energy is said to be the most effective way of inducing hyperthermia. The design of
the particular radiator which is to be used for this purpose should posses light weight, easy in
handling and to be rugged. Only the patch radiator fulfils these requirements. The initial designs
for the Microstrip radiator for inducing hyperthermia was based on the printed dipoles and annular
rings which were designed on S-band. And later on the design was based on the circular
microstrip disk at L-band. There is a simple operation that goes on with the instrument; two
coupled Microstrip lines are separated with a flexible separation which is used to measure the
temperature inside the human body. A flexible patch applicator can be seen in the figure below
which operates at 430 MHz.

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

CHAPTER 3
Advantages and Disadvantages

3.1 Advantages:
 These antennas are of low weight, having low and thin profile.

 Required no cavity backing and provide linear and circular polarization.

 Capable of dual and triple frequency operation.

 Feed lines and matching network of these antennas can be fabricated simultaneously

3.2 Disadvantages:

 These antennas have low gain and efficiency and large ohmic loss in the feed structure of
arrays.

 Low power handling capacity and difficult to achieve polarization purity.

 Complex feed structures require high performance arrays.

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

Conclusion

A theoretical survey on microstrip patch antenna is presented in this paper. Some effect of disadvantages
can be minimized. Lower gain and low power handling capacity can be overcome through an array
configuration. Some factors are involved in the selection of feeding technique. Particular microstrip patch
antenna can be designed for each application and different merits are compared with conventional
microwave antenna.

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 Microstrip Patch Antenna and its Applications

References

[1] James j., and P.S. Hall (Eds), Handbook of microstrip antenna, Peter Peregrinus, London, UK,
1989.

[2] Ramesh Garg, Prakash Bartia, Inder Bahl, Apisak Ittipiboon, ‘’Microstrip Antenna Design
Handbook’’, 2001, pp 1‐68, 253‐316 Artech House Inc. Norwood, MA.

[3] Wentworth M. Stuart (2005), ‘’Fundamentals of Electromagnetic with Engineering Applications’’,

pp 442‐445, John Wiley & Sons, NJ, USA.

[4] J. D. Kraus, R. J. Marhefka, “Antenna for all applications” 3rd Ed., McGraw- Hill, 2002.

[5] Robert A. Sainati, CAD of Microstrip Antennas for Wireless Applications, Artech House Inc,
Norwood, MA, 1996.

[6] Y T Lo and S W Lee, editors, ‘’Antenna Handbook Theory, Applications & Design’’, Van
Nostrand Rein Company, NY, 1988.

[7] C.A. Balanis, Antenna theory: analysis and design, 2nd ed., John Willey and & Son, Inc., 1997.

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