1418 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO.

3, MARCH 2013

TABLE III Broadband CPW-Fed Circularly-Polarized Slot Antenna

THE SIMULATED (HFSS) VS. MEASURED (M) RESULTS FOR THE DIRECTIONS With an Open Slot
AND REALIZED GAIN OF THE FORWARD AND BACKWARD BEAMS OF THE
PROPOSED ANTENNA IN THE PLANE AT 5.3, 5.5, AND 5.8 GHz Jen-Yea Jan, Chien-Yuan Pan, Kuo-Yung Chiu, and Hua-Ming Chen

Abstract—A novel broadband CPW-fed circularly-polarized slot an-

tenna with an open slot is presented. The broadband circular polarization
can be achieved simply by opening the radiation slot at the lower left of slot.
From the experimental results, the 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth can reach
as large as 1000 MHz (27% relative to the center frequency of 3700 MHz)
which can cover the 3.3–3.8 GHz WiMAX band. In addition, the proposed
design has the VSWR impedance bandwidth of 5330 MHz (111%
relative to the center frequency of 4795 MHz) which can cover the 2–6
GHz WiMAX band. The proposed antenna also has a peak antenna gain of
about 5.3 dBic and gain variations can be less than 1 dBic for frequencies
within the CP bandwidth.
the antenna bandwidth. The maximum difference between the beams’ Index Terms—Circular polarization, coplanar waveguides (CPW), slot
maxima is a crucial criterion in multi-beam antenna design. The effi- antennas.
ciency obtained from both beams is calculated and found to be greater
than 95%. The realized gain and estimated efficiency for each beam are
similar to the single broadside beam of the conventional U-slot antenna I. INTRODUCTION
operating at the mode [10]. The CPW-fed wide slot antennas have received much attention and
have been increasingly used because the advantages of wide band-
width, low profile, uniplanar geometry and easy integration with mono-
IV. CONCLUSION lithic microwave integrated circuits. On the other hand, in order for
deploying a transmitter and a receiver without causing a polarization
A U-slot microstrip antenna operating at a higher order mode
has been proposed and investigated. The antenna has 11.3% bandwidth mismatch between them and overcoming the multipath fading problem,
(5.17–5.81 GHz) and exhibit dual radiation beams. The beams are di- circular polarization is becoming popular in wireless communications
to enhance the system performance. The operation principle of CP an-
rected around at the center frequency, and both beams’ squint
is less than 4 within the antenna bandwidth. Realized gain of the for- tennas is to excite two orthogonal modes with equal amplitude but in
ward beam is 7.92 dBi at the center frequency, whereas it is 5.94 dBi phase quadrature. It can be achieved by introducing some symmetric
or asymmetric perturbations into a wide slot antenna. These perturba-
for the backward beam. The difference between both beams’ maxima
is less than 2 dBi across the entire bandwidth. The proposed design is a tions can be implemented through from their feeding lines [1]–[4] or
desirable candidate for stationary terminals of various indoor wireless slot configurations [5]–[9]. In order to achieve a wide axial ratio (AR)
bandwidth further for the CP wide-slot antenna, a number of designs
communication networks.
[1], [2], [4], [6], [9]–[12], have been proposed. By implanting a pair of
grounded strips [2], [6], [9], [10] or three inverted-L-shaped grounded
REFERENCES strips [11], the AR bandwidth can be improved. For a sequential rota-
tion array configuration fed by an asymmetrical [1] or a symmetrical
[1] P. Driessen, “Gigabit/s indoor wireless systems with directional an- [12] CPW-fed line, the technique by arranging the antenna elements
tennas,” IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 44, no. 8, pp. 1034–1043, Aug.
can significantly increase the AR bandwidth. Also, by using a slot com-
1996.
[2] Y. M. Tao and G. Y. Delisle, “Lens-fed multiple beam array for mil- posed of multiple circular sectors [4], the CP bandwidth of a wide-slot
limeter wave indoor communications,” in Proc. IEEE AP-S Int. An- antenna can be improved. However, antenna configurations of these
tenna and Propag. Symp. Digest, Jul. 1997, pp. 2206–2209. designs are so complex that they lead to a high complexity of antenna
[3] K. Li, M. Ingram, and E. Rausch, “Multibeam antennas for indoor wire- design and fabrication.
less communications,” IEEE Trans. Comm., vol. 50, no. 2, Feb. 2002.
[4] K. Carver and J. Mink, “Microstrip antenna technology,” IEEE Trans.
In this communication, a structurally new and simpler CP slot an-
Antennas Propag., vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 2–24, 1981. tenna has been proposed. With an open slot introducing an asymmetric
[5] Y. T. Lo, D. Solomon, and W. F. Richards, “Theory and experiment perturbation at the lower left of slot, the proposed antenna fed by a
on microstrip antennas,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 27, no. wide tuning stub can provide wide circular-polarized and impedance
2, pp. 137–145, Mar. 1979. bandwidths. In this design, the 3-dB AR bandwidth can reach as large
[6] J. R. James and P. S. Hall, Handbook of Microstrip Antennas.
London, U.K.: Peter Peregrinus Ltd, 1989, p. 111. as 1000 MHz (3.2–4.2 GHz) which is about 27% (relative to the center
[7] K. F. Lee and K. M. Luk, Microstrip Patch Antennas. London, U.K.: frequency of 3700 MHz) to cover the 3.3–3.8 GHz WiMAX band. The
Imperial College Press, 2010.
[8] T. Huynh and K. F. Lee, “Single-layer single-patch wideband mi-
crostrip antenna,” Electron. Lett., vol. 31, no. 16, pp. 1310–1312, Aug. Manuscript received April 28, 2012; revised September 08, 2012; accepted
1995. November 19, 2012. Date of publication December 04, 2012; date of current
[9] K. M. Luk, C. L. Mak, Y. L. Chow, and K. F. Lee, “Broadband version February 27, 2013. This work was supported by the National Science
microstrip patch antenna,” IET Electron. Lett., vol. 34, no. 15, pp. Council, Taiwan, R.O.C., under Contract NSC100-2221-E-151-056.
1442–1443, 1998. J.-Y. Jan, C.-Y. Pan, and K.-Y. Chiu are with the Department of Electronic
[10] K. F. Lee, S. S. Yang, A. Kishk, and K. M. Luk, “The versatile U-slot Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung
patch antenna,” IEEE Antennas Propag. Mag., vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 807, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail: [email protected]).
71–88, February 2010. H.-M. Chen is with the Institute of Photonics and Communications, National
[11] C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory Analysis and Design, 2nd ed. Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley-Interscience, 2005, p. 814. Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are avail-
[12] Ansoft HFSS ver. 13, Ansoft Corporation. Canonsburg, PA, USA, able online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
2011. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2012.2231926
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO. 3, MARCH 2013 1419

Fig. 3. Effects of varying the parameter in Fig. 1(b) on the 3-dB AR as

, , and .

Fig. 1. Evolution of the proposed CPW-fed broadband circularly-polarized slot

antennas. Fig. 4. Effects of varying the parameter in Fig. 1(b) on the 3-dB AR as
, , and .

Fig. 2. Effects of varying the parameter in Fig. 1(a) on the 3-dB AR as

, and .

proposed design also has the impedance bandwidth of

5330 MHz (2.13–7.46 GHz) which is about 111% (relative to the center
frequency of 4795 MHz) to cover the 2–6 GHz WiMAX band.

II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION

Fig. 1 illustrates the evolution of the proposed CPW-fed broadband
circularly-polarized slot antennas. In Fig. 1, antennas are printed on
a square microwave substrate of FR4 with a side length of 50 mm, a
thickness of 0.8 mm and a dielectric constant of relative permittivity
. They are fed by a 50- CPW feeding line, where the signal
strip and gaps have widths of 4 and 0.35 mm, respectively. According Fig. 5. Effects of varying the parameter W and L in Fig. 1(b) on the 3-dB AR:
(a) as , , and . (b) as
to results from [13], an asymmetrical ground plane is used in Fig. 1
, , and .
for the wider impedance bandwidth operation as well as the AR band-
width. Fig. 1(a) shows an antenna with a simply straight CPW feeding
line. In order for the CP operation, an open slot having an open width exciting two orthogonal modes in x and y directions with equal ampli-
of is used at the lower left of the feeding line. This is an open slot tude but in phase quadrature. Because this open slot is a slot especially
with a configuration which is open along the ground plane in x and the along the ground plane in x direction, it is obvious that the change of the
CPW feeding line in y directions. Then the new technique of this slot ground plane would sensitively influence the performance of CP oper-
configuration can provide the perturbation with magnetic current dis- ation. In Fig. 1, parameters W, L and about the open slot would
tributions in x and y directions. This can generate the CP operation by be discussed in Section III. In order to improve the CP bandwidth of
1420 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO. 3, MARCH 2013

TABLE I
THE MEASURED CP PERFORMANCES

Fig. 6. Effects of varying the parameter in Fig. 1(b) on the 3-dB AR as

, , and .

Fig. 1(a), there is a wide tuning stub having a length of and a width
of is used instead at the top of CPW feeding line in Fig. 1(b). Pa-
rameters and are also discussed in Section III. Note that the
design shown in Fig. 1 can produce right- and left-hand circularly-po-
larized (RHCP and LHCP) waves in the and half spaces,
respectively. If an open slot is selected at the lower right of the feeding
line, CP waves of opposite sense will be produced. Fig. 7. Measured return loss and axial ratio of Antenna 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Table I.

III. PARAMETRIC STUDY AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS bandwidth can be obtained as ranges from 7 to 11 mm. From sim-
For achieving efficient excitation and good impedance matching in ulated results above, it is shown that both antennas in Fig. 1(a) and (b)
Fig. 1, parameters W, L, about the open slot and parameters, , have a good CP behavior and the 3-dB AR bandwidth of proposed an-
and about the tuning stub are carried out by the electromagnetic tenna with a wide tuning stub in Fig. 1(b) can be larger than that with
simulator Ansoft HFSS. To accurately realize the influence of these a simply straight CPW feeding line in Fig. 1(a). Thus the tuning stub
parameters, only one parameter at a time is varied while others are kept of the proposed antenna with and in
constant. Fig. 1(b) can be considered to achieve a broadband CP design.
1) Parameters About the Tuning Stub: In Fig. 1(a), the length of 2) Parameters About the Open Slot: For concise, parameters W,
straight CPW feeding line can be tuned for a good CP bandwidth. L, about the open slot would be discussed in Fig. 1(b) only be-
Fig. 2 exhibits the effect of varying the parameter as , cause the simulated results of antennas in Fig. 1(a) and (b) are similar.
and on the CP behavior. It is clear seen In Fig. 1(b), parameters W and L can influence the relative position
that the good 3-dB AR bandwidth can be obtained as ranges from 20 of this open slot in y direction. Fig. 5(a) and (b) exhibit the effect of
to 23 mm. In order for the AR bandwidth enhancement, a wide tuning varying the parameters W and L respectively. It is clear seen that they
stub is used in Fig. 1(b) instead. Fig. 3 shows the effect of varying the are all sensitive to the CP behavior. Fig. 6 shows the effect of varying
parameter as , , and the parameter , which can influence the width of this open slot in x
. It is clear seen that the good 3-dB AR bandwidth can direction. It is also seen that the parameter is sensitive to the CP be-
be obtained as ranges from 18 to 20 mm. Fig. 4 shows the effect havior. Thus from simulated results above, it is shown that the configu-
of varying the other parameter as , , ration of open slot with , and
and . It is also seen that the good 3-dB AR in Fig. 1(b) can be considered to achieve a broadband CP design.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO. 3, MARCH 2013 1421

Fig. 10. Simulated magnetic current distributions of Antenna 4 at 3700 MHz

by the simulator Ansoft HFSS.

Fig. 8. Photographs of proposed antennas: (a) Antenna 1 as ,

, and in Fig. 1(a). (b) Antenna 4
as , , , and
in Fig. 1(b).
Fig. 11. Measured radiation patterns of Antenna 4 at 3700 MHz.

Fig. 12. Measured and simulated antenna gains and simulated efficiencies of
Antenna 4.

measured results show that Antenna 1 protruded by an open slot has the
CP operation and an AR bandwidth is about 23.1%. For improving the
impedance and 3-dB AR bandwidths, a wide tuning stub at the top of
CPW feeding line is used for Antennas 2–4. When suitable dimensions
of , and are chosen as shown in Table I, the
impedance bandwidth of Antenna 4 can reach 111% which is larger
Fig. 9. Measured and simulated results of return loss and axial ratio of Antenna than that of Antenna 1 (without a wide tuning stub). Also, the 3-dB
4 in Table I.
AR bandwidth of Antenna 4 can reach 27% which is as larger as com-
pared with that of Antenna 1. As is decreased from 4.5 to 3.5 mm,
Based on the parametric study, Table I lists the structural parameters both 3-dB AR and impedance bandwidths become smaller. As is
and measured CP performances of constructed prototypes. Fig. 7 shows larger than 4.5 mm, the CP performance becomes worse. For brevity, its
their measured results of return loss and axial ratio (AR). In those con- results are not shown in Table I. Fig. 9 shows the measured and sim-
structed prototypes, Antenna 1 is a slot antenna fed by a straight CPW ulated results (return loss and CP axial ratio) of Antenna 4 that have
feeding line as shown in Fig. 1(a). Antennas 2–4 are a slot antenna fed a reasonable agreement and the best value of AR can reach about 0.5
by a wide tuning stub as shown in Fig. 1(b). The photographs of An- dB. In order to perceive that the CP operation can be generated, Fig. 10
tenna 1 and Antenna 4 are shown in Fig. 8. In Table I and Fig. 7, the shows the magnetic current distribution of Antenna 4 varying with time
1422 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 61, NO. 3, MARCH 2013

at 3700 MHz. At , the predominant magnetic current is above [10] J. Y. Sze, C. G. Hsu, Z. W. Chen, and C. C. Chang, “Broad-
the wide tuning stub and is oriented in a direction relative to the band CPW-fed circularly polarized square slot antenna with light-
ening-shaped feedline and inverted-L grounded strips,” IEEE Trans.
axis. At a later time instant with a 90 phase lagging ,
Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 973–977, Mar. 2010.
the principal magnetic current is along the open slot, whose direction [11] N. Felegari, J. Nourinia, C. Ghobadi, and J. Pourahmadazar, “Broad-
is 90 relative to the axis. At , the magnetic cur- band CPW-fed circularly polarized square slot antenna with three
rent distribution is just opposite to that at . The magnetic inverted-L-shape grounded strips,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag.
current distribution varying as a function of time in such a fashion can Lett., vol. 10, pp. 274–277, Apr. 2011.
[12] J. Pourahmadazar and V. Rafii, “Broadband circularly polarised slot
depict the behavior of predominantly right-and left-and CP radiations antenna array for L and S-band applications,” Electron. Lett., vol. 48,
in the and half spaces, respectively. no. 10, pp. 542–543, May 2012.
Fig. 11 shows the measured and simulated far-field radiation patterns [13] J. Y. Jan and C. Y. Hsiang, “Wideband CPW-fed slot antenna for
of Antenna 4 in the and planes at the center frequency of 3700 DCS, PCS, 3G and bluetooth bands,” IEE Electron. Lett., vol. 42, pp.
1377–1378, Nov. 2006.
MHz. The far-field radiation patterns have lower AR values around the
broadside directions (i.e., directions). They are mainly RHCP for
and LHCP for . From Fig. 11, it is seen that measured
and simulated results are with reasonable agreement. In 3-dB AR band
(3.2–4.2 GHz), the measured and simulated results of peak antenna
gain of Antenna 4 are shown in Fig. 12. It is found that the antenna A Topology-Based Miniaturization of Circularly Polarized
gain has a maximum value of 5.3 dBic with a variation of less than 1 Patch Antennas
dBic. Also, the simulated efficiency is shown in Fig. 12. It is seen that
the antenna efficiency is larger than 90% in the 3-dB AR band. Note Jungsuek Oh and Kamal Sarabandi
that the measured gain is slightly higher than the simulated one. This
is because of the influence from the cable of measurement system. In
Abstract—A novel approach for the miniaturization of circularly polar-
general, they are very close for each other.
ized patch antennas is presented. This enables a size reduction of as high
as 75%, compared to a conventional corner-truncated circularly polarized
patch antenna. The proposed design procedure consists of a number of in-
IV. CONCLUSION termediate steps, each of which produces antenna miniaturization as well
as the desired polarization and impedance matching properties. This is very
The novel broadband CPW-fed CP slot antenna has been demon- challenging in miniaturizing circularly polarized probe-fed patch antennas.
strated. The open slot can provide the perturbation into the wide slot It is shown that two resonant frequencies can be tuned independently to
produce a dual band antenna with two orthogonal polarizations. Finally,
antenna for the CP operation. Moreover, the use of wide tuning stub can two circularly polarized miniaturized patch antennas with different minia-
improve the impedance and 3-dB AR bandwidths. Based on the para- turization factors are fabricated, and their input impedances, radiation
metric study, many prototypes have been successfully implemented. patterns and axial ratios are discussed.
In addition to the simple uniplanar configuration, experimental results Index Terms—Anisotropic media, circularly polarized antennas, mi-
show that the proposed antenna has the impedance bandwidth of 111% crostrip antennas.
for applications to 2–6 GHz WiMAX and the 3-dB AR bandwidth of
27% for applications to 3.3–3.8 GHz WiMAX. Under the use of inex-
pensive FR4 microwave substrate, the proposed antenna has the mea- I. INTRODUCTION
sured antenna gain of around 5 dBic. Many modern satellite and terrestrial point-to-point communications
systems use circularly polarized (CP) waves in order to maximize the
polarization efficiency and thus improve the propagation link budget [3].
REFERENCES Although a CP antenna with a low profile, small size and light weight
[1] S. Fu, S. Fang, Z. Wang, and X. Li, “Broadband circularly polarized is highly desirable in many applications such as compact satellite or
slot antenna array fed by asymmetric CPW for L-band application,” mobile platforms [4], most miniaturization techniques are developed
IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 8, pp. 1014–1016, 2009. for linearly polarized antennas [5]–[7]. This is mainly due to the fact
[2] J. Y. Sze, J. C. Wang, and C. C. Chang, “Axial-ratio bandwidth
that antennas with extremely small lateral dimensions are incapable of
enhancement of asymmetric-CPW-fed circularly-polarised square slot
antenna,” Electron. Lett., vol. 44, no. 18, pp. 1048–1049, Aug. 2008. internally generating the required conditions for CP operations.
[3] T. N. Chang, “Circular polarized antenna for 2.3–2.7 GHz WiMAX Many compact CP patch antennas have been proposed and investi-
band,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 51, no. 12, pp. 2921–2923, gated [8]–[10]. These efforts have relied mainly on intuitive techniques
Dec. 2009. such as inserting several slots or slits in suitable locations on the patch
[4] S. H. Yeung, K. F. Man, and W. S. Chan, “A bandwidth improved cir-
cular polarized slot antenna using a slot composed of multiple circular
itself. In such antenna designs, the splitting of two near-degenerate or-
sectors,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 8, pp. 3065–3070, thogonal modes with equal amplitudes and a 90 phase difference is
Aug. 2011. achieved by slightly adjusting the embedded slots, such as a cross-slot
[5] J. Y. Sze, K. L. Wong, and C. C. Huang, “Coplanar waveguide-fed in a patch or slits at the boundary of the patch. Theses inserted slots
square slot antenna for broadband circularly polarized radiation,” IEEE
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[6] J. Y. Sze and C. C. Chang, “Circularly polarized square slot antenna Manuscript received September 20, 2011; revised October 25, 2012; accepted
with a pair of inverted-L grounded strips,” IEEE Antennas Wireless November 15, 2012. Date of publication December 04, 2012; date of current
Propag. Lett., vol. 7, pp. 149–151, 2008. version February 27, 2013. This work was supported by the U.S. Army Re-
[7] Q. X. Chu and S. Du, “A CPW-fed broadband circularly polarized search Laboratory under contract W911NF and prepared through collaborative
square slot antenna,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 52, no. 2, pp. participation in the Microelectronics Center of Micro Autonomous Systems and
409–412, Feb. 2010. Technology (MAST) Collaborative Technology Alliance (CTA).
[8] T. N. Chang, “Wideband circularly polarised antenna using two linked The authors are with the Radiation Laboratory, Department of Electrical
annular slots,” Electron. Lett., vol. 47, no. 13, pp. 737–739, Jun. 2011. Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Michigan at Ann
[9] J. Pourahmadazar and S. Mohammadi, “Compact circularly-polarised Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2122 USA (e-mail: [email protected];
slot antenna for UWB applications,” Electron. Lett., vol. 47, no. 15, pp. [email protected]).
837–838, Jul. 2011. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2012.2231915