Compact Antenna Research Articles

Study of the characteristics of broadband matching antennas for fifth-generation mobile communications based on new composite materials

The presented research aims to analyze in detail the characteristics of broadband matching antennas specifically designed for 5G mobile communications applications, with an emphasis on innovative composite materials. The study focuses on a compact planar loop antenna designed for use on smartphones, covering the LTE/WWAN frequency bands 824 to 960 MHz, 1,710 to 2,690 MHz, and 3,300 to 3,600 MHz for full coverage of modern 5G networks. Experimental and numerical methods are used to broadly analyze the frequency range associated with 5G networks. The features of the use of composite materials in the implementation of antenna devices in 5G technologies are noted. A broadband matching circuit (BMC) with elements with lumped parameters and a reduced sensitivity invariant has been synthesized. A 3D model of the adaptive selective surface controller (SSC) was developed using CST Studio. The study results highlight the benefits of new composite materials in improving the performance of 5G antennas. This research makes a significant contribution to the development of 5G technologies by optimizing antenna design for efficient data transmission in modern mobile networks and can be a valuable resource for engineers and designers working in this field.

425 Ghz Highly Compact On-Chip Sequential-Phased CP Antenna With 19% Overlapped Impedance-AR Bandwidth

425 Ghz Highly Compact On-Chip Sequential-Phased CP Antenna With 19% Overlapped Impedance-AR Bandwidth

An Ultra-Wideband Dual Polarization Antenna Array for the Detection and Localization of Bright Fast Radio Transients in the Milky Way

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extraordinary astrophysical phenomena characterized by short radio pulses that last only a few milliseconds, yet their power can surpass that of 500 million suns. To date, most detected FRBs originate from beyond our galaxy. However, if an FRB were to originate within the Milky Way, it could be detected using small antennas. In this paper, we propose a compact and ad-hoc antenna array designed for the efficient detection and localization of FRBs within the Milky Way. The antenna operates within the 1200–1800[Formula: see text]MHz range and consists of three sub-arrays placed in an L-shape for source localization, occupying a total volume of [Formula: see text]. Each sub-array consists of 4 miniaturized, dual-polarized, half-space radiation antenna elements, forming a one-dimensional array that allows shaping the radiation pattern to match the form of the Milky Way without exhibiting grating lobes. A prototype was constructed and characterized to validate the design. The measured results exhibit good agreement with the simulations. In addition to having a custom elongated radiation pattern, the array has attractive merits, such as low reflections at the input ports, high radiation efficiency, and a distribution that inhibits the existence of phase ambiguities, thus facilitating source localization.

Design of a novel compact low specific absorption rate multiple input multiple output antenna for 5G sub-6 GHz terminals

This investigation presents a new design and analysis of a fourteen elements massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) compact low specific absorption rate (SAR) antenna system for 5G and beyond terminals. The MIMO antennas are realized for sub-6 GHz LTE-band 46 (5.1-5.8 GHz) long-term evolution 5G wireless communication services. The proposed antenna system is designed on an FR-4 dielectric constant 4.3 substrate consisting of the main board and four sideboards. The radiating elements are developed on the sideboards consisting of a monopole antenna and two metamaterial unit cells, as well as the feed line is designed on the principal board. The overall volume of the proposed structure is 150×80×7.5 mm. Through the use of the metamaterial unit cells, the proposed antennas have been arranged in close proximity without developing a strong mutual coupling. The results obtained were very important in terms of impedance matching, isolation among the antennas, and good gain. Even, the SAR analysis at the operating frequency band of 5.5 GHz proves that the proposed MIMO antenna system satisfies safety standards set for human exposure at the international level. Therefore, the proposed massive MIMO antenna structure is a potential solution for future communication applications.

Pattern Correction From Nonideal Compact Antenna Test Range Measurement

Pattern Correction From Nonideal Compact Antenna Test Range Measurement

Design of Compact Size Tri-Band Stacked Patch Antenna for GPS and IRNSS

Abstract: This paper introduces a low-profile, compact tri-band microstrip patch antenna designed for GPS and IRNSS applications. The proposed antenna operates at frequencies of 1.57 GHz, 1.22 GHz, and 1.77 GHz. The antenna configuration consists of a patch antenna with a slip slot or manderline to generate three frequency bands while maintaining an acceptable radiation pattern. The focus of the study is to enhance the antenna's gain across all three frequency bands. This design aims to offer a versatile solution for navigation systems, leveraging the tri-band capability to accommodate different satellite signals and improve overall performance in GPS and IRNSS applications.

Compact-size Lightweight Beam-reconfigurable ESPAR Antenna with Parasitic Elements for UAV Applications

This paper presents a compact lightweight beam-reconfigurable antenna system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The antenna system consists of a central active monopole element surrounded by eight parasitic elements, which can be controlled using PIN diodes to switch the beam across four elevation angles and eight azimuth beams. This beam-reconfigurable antenna system has several advantages over traditional UAV antennas, including light weight, efficiency, and compactness. The antenna system operates at 5.09 GHz and achieves a measured peak gain of 4.55 dBi, with a remarkably low weight of 9 g and a size of 1.00λ0×1.00λ0×0.22λ0.

Design of Compact Size Tri-Band Stacked Patch Antenna for GPS and IRNSS

Design of Compact Size Tri-Band Stacked Patch Antenna for GPS and IRNSS

Design of a Compact Log Periodic Dipole Array Antenna for Broadband and High-Power Beam Synthesis Using Superposition

This paper investigates various array beam shapes for high-power electronic warfare applications using an actual broadband array antenna. For use in a limited mounting space, a compact printed log periodic dipole array (LPDA) operating over a wide bandwidth is designed. The LPDA is then extended to an 8 × 1 array, with active element patterns (AEPs) obtained through simulation and measurement. Beam synthesis is performed by the superposition of several array patterns, which involves adjusting the weight of each AEP. To derive a synthesized array beam shape that is similar to the guided mask, the Taylor window weighting method is applied to each array pattern. Finally, beam synthesis for the flat-top beam, cosecant-squared beam, and iso-flux beam is performed using Taylor window-weighted AEPs, and the results are compared with those of beam shapes using ideal isotropic patterns. The results demonstrate that various beam shapes can be achieved for high-power electronic warfare applications using the AEPs of an actual array antenna.

Compact unidirectional waveguide grating emitter with enhanced wavelength sensitivity based on the hybrid plasmonic mode

Waveguide grating antennas are widely adopted in beam-steering devices, typically enabling the beam steering in longitudinal direction within a two-dimensional scanning optical array by changing the input wavelength. However, traditional waveguide grating antennas suffer from limited tuning range due to low dispersion of the gratings. In this paper, a compact silicon grating waveguide antenna array is proposed with enhanced wavelength sensitivity by introducing a periodically modulated hybrid plasmonic mode. The hybrid plasmonic mode is supported by the hybrid plasmonic waveguides (HPWs) composed of silicon waveguides and periodic subwavelength silver strips. In order to convert the guided waves to the radiated waves, a series of silicon emitting segments are deposited above the HPWs. Additionally, the horizontally arranged array of HPWs also acts as a reflector of the downward radiation, resulting in an effective unidirectional emission. Through the optimization of physical parameters, the proposed antenna array achieves a wavelength-length tuning efficiency up to 0.3°/nm within the wavelength range of 1500∼1600 nm, exhibiting a significant improvement compared with traditional ones. Moreover, an average upward emissivity exceeding 80% with a maximum value of 89% within the 100 nm bandwidth is demonstrated through the numerical simulations. The proposed compact antenna array provides an alternative solution in realizing large-scale integrated high-tuning-efficiency optical beam-steering devices.

A Compact MIMO Antenna Based on Modal Analysis for 5G Wireless Applications.

This article presents a planar, non-angular, series-fed, dual-element dipole array MIMO antenna operating at 28 GHz with the metasurface-based isolation improvement technique. The initial design is a single-element antenna with a dual dipole array which is series-fed. These dipole elements are non-uniform in shape and distance. This dipole antenna results in end-fire radiation. The dipole antenna excites the J1 mode for its operation. Further, with the view to improve channel capacity, the dipole array expands the antenna to a three-element MIMO antenna. In the MIMO antenna structure, the sum of the J1, J2, and J3 modes is excited, causing resonance at 28 GHz. This article also proposes a metasurface structure with wide stopband characteristics at 28 GHz for isolation improvement. The metasurface is composed of rectangle-shaped structures. The defected ground and metasurface structure combination suppresses the surface wave coupling among the MIMO elements. The proposed antenna results in a bandwidth ranging from 26.7 to 29.6 GHz with isolation improvement greater than 21 dB and a gain of 6.3 dBi. The antenna is validated with the diversity parameters of envelope correlation coefficient, diversity gain, and channel capacity loss.

Metamaterial-Inspired Electrically Compact Triangular Antennas Loaded with CSRR

In this paper, simulation of two distinct kinds of metamaterial (MTM) antennas are proposed for fifth generation (5G) indoor distributed antenna systems (IDAS). Both antennas operate in the sub-6 GHz 5G band, i.e., 3.5 GHz and to analyze various factors like gain, directivity, return loss, radiation intensity for the frequency of 3.5 GHz. The simulation of this metamaterial antenna is carried out in ANSYS HFSS v2021. Results like return loss, radiation pattern, 3D polar plot, side lobe level, beamwidth, radiated power, accepted power have been obtained using HFSS v2021. This research on metamaterial gives a great view on how it can be designed and used at 3.5GHz frequency has a measured gain/bandwidth characteristic of 100 MHz/2.6 dBi and 700 MHz/2.3 dBi, respectively. The main advantage of this antenna is it can be used as both transmitting and receiving antenna. Key Words: Metamaterial, CSRR, return loss, triangular CSRR

Parasitic Loaded Shorting Pin Based Compact Multi-slot LoRa Antenna for Military Application

In this paper, work on a compact multi-slot patch antenna with a parasitic load and shorting-pin has been presented for its use in long range (LoRa) defense applications. Initially the antenna is designed and simulated using HFSS and a parametric study has been carried out for achieving an optimized antenna configuration. This is followed by the fabrication of antenna prototype based on the optimal performances obtained from the simulated results. Further, the return loss along with free space co-polar and cross-polar radiation pattern measurements has been carried out for the fabricated antenna. The experimental results show a good comparison with that of the simulated one. The proposed antenna resonates at an operating frequency of 866 MHz, providing a -10 dB bandwidth from 856 MHz-877 MHz, which covers the wireless standard used for LoRa technology. Finally, a comparative analysis of the proposed antenna with the recently reported works is presented.

A non-invasive blood glucose detection using a slotted microstrip antenna sensor

A novel highly sensitive and compact slotted microstrip antenna sensor consisting of slots with defected ground structure is designed. The substrate used in the design of antenna is FR-4 of concise dimensions 30 × 30 × 1.6 mm3 and the developed antenna resonates at 3 GHz. The human finger consisting of several layers namely bone, blood, fat and skin is modelled in the electromagnetic simulation (Computer Simulation Technology) environment resulting in finger phantom. The finger phantom is situated at different locations on proposed antenna for evaluating the concentrations of glucose from 0 to 1000 (mg/dL) and the corresponding shift in frequencies are estimated. For detection of glucose concentration in human blood, the obtained frequency shifts in the proposed work are used. In this proposed work, at the top side of proposed antenna, the finger phantom is situated, an uttermost shift in frequency of 48 MHz, sensitivity of 48 KHz/(mg/dL) and a least possible shift in frequency of 24 MHz, sensitivity of 24 KHz/(mg/dL) are obtained.

A Compact Slot-Loaded Quarter-Wave Patch with Resonance Frequency Formulation for Wi-Fi and Wi-Max Applications

A single layer and compact dual band antenna is presented for the Wi-Fi and Wi-MAX applications. A shorted quarter-wave patch is used to reduce the size. Further, a slot is cut in the non-radiating edge to create additional resonance. The impedance matching at this second resonance is enhanced by cutting a slot in the radiating edge. An equivalent circuit is suggested to explain the behavior of the proposed dual-band antenna. It is confirmed from the numerical calculation that the resonance frequency depends on the lengths l3 and l9 of the structure. The derived formulas provide the value of lengths l3 and l9 according to the user's desired frequency. The dimensions of the antenna are optimized using a commercial full-wave simulator. The concept is verified through measurements. The final design exhibits resonances at 2.44 and 3.33 GHz with a gain of 3.1 and 5.3 dBi, respectively. The cross-pol radiation levels are below 20 dB along the broadside direction.

A compact tri-notched flexible UWB antenna based on an inkjet-printable and plasma-activated silver nano ink

The rapid development of ultrawideband (UWB) communication systems has resulted in increasing performance requirements for the antenna system. In addition to a wide bandwidth, fast propagation rates and compact dimensions, flexibility, wearability or portability are also desirable for UWB antennas, as are excellent notch characteristics. Although progress has been made in the development of flexible/wearable antennas desired notch properties are still rather limited. Moreover, most presently available flexible UWB antennas are fabricated using environmentally not attractive subtractive etching-based processes. The usage of facile additive sustainably inkjet printing processes also utilizing low temperature plasma-activated conductive inks is rarely reported. In addition, the currently used tri-notched flexible UWB antenna designs have a relatively large footprint, which poses difficulties when integrated into miniaturized and compact communication devices. In this work, a silver nano ink is used to fabricate the antenna via inkjet printing and an efficient plasma sintering procedure. For the targeted UWB applications miniaturized tri-notched flexible antenna is realized on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate with a compact size of 17.6 mm × 16 mm × 0.12 mm. The antenna operates in the UWB frequency band (2.9–10.61 GHz), and can shield interferences from WiMAX (3.3–3.6 GHz), WLAN (5.150–5.825 GHz) and X-uplink (7.9–8.4 GHz) bands, as well as exhibits a certain of bendability. Three nested "C" slots of different sizes were adopted to achieve notch features. The simulation and test results demonstrate that the proposed antenna can generate signal radiation in the desired UWB frequency band while retaining the desired notch properties and having acceptable SAR values on-body, making it a viable candidate for usage in flexible or wearable communication transmission devices. The research provides a facile and highly efficient method for fabricating flexible/wearable UWB antennas, that is, the effective combination of inkjet printing processing, flexible substrates, low temperature-activated conductive ink and antenna structure design.

A dual ultra-wideband rectenna with a compact conical antenna for RF energy harvesting from S and C bands

The current research introduces a novel dual ultra-wideband rectenna that has been specifically devised for the S and C bands. The rectenna configuration being presented demonstrates the potential to efficiently capture energy from 1.5 GHz to 4.65 GHz, and 5.55 GHz–7.85 GHz. It is noteworthy to mention that the bandwidths (BW) corresponding to these frequency ranges are 3.15 GHz and 2.3 GHz, correspondingly. The envisioned rectenna is designed to cater to a selection of five distinct commercial bands. The frequencies under consideration include 1.8 GHz, UTMS 2.1 GHz, 5G 3.5 GHz, 4.5 GHz, and 5.8 GHz, which fall within the mid band range for 5G technology. Notably, the extended S-band and C band are also included within this range, catering specifically to 5G applications. For the purpose of rectification, a solitary HSMS 2850 Schottky diode has been selected. The maximum recorded Conversion Efficiency (CE) achieved at 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 3.5 GHz, 4.5 GHz, and 5.8 GHz corresponds to CE values of 67 %, 65 %, 77 %, 71 %, and 71 %, respectively. These CE measurements were obtained under varying input power levels (IPL) of −6 dBm, 4 dBm, 4 dBm, 2 dBm, and 9 dBm, respectively. The rectenna under consideration is designed to operate across five distinct frequency bands. Notably, the CE exceeds 65 % across all of these frequency bands. Consequently, the rectenna exhibits a higher output power. As a result, this modification makes it appropriate for supplying energy to low-power electronic equipment.

Investigation and measurement of square strip line antenna design and characteristic mode analysis for 5G/WiFi/WLAN applications

Two novel compact low-profile dual-band plasmonic antennas designed using Characteristic Mode Analysis (CMA) and parametric analysis are presented in this study. The plasmonic antennas contain microstrip line-fed strip-loaded patches and partial ground planes. The final proposed antennas cover the two bands ranging from 2.4–2.5 GHz and 5–6 GHz. Plasmonic antennas offer nearly omnidirectional patterns at the desired frequency ranges. Additionally, a detailed parametric study of almost all the design parameters is performed to display the effect of varying those parameters on the resonance frequency at both bands. The parametric study for both antennas has been carried out to optimize the antenna and get better-enhanced results. Then the fabricated antenna is analyzed for the same. The comparison results of fabrication show nearly similarity results to the simulated results. The designed antenna can be applicable for 5G/ Wi-Fi/WLAN applications.

Slots and stubs incorporated annular ring-shaped compact microstrip antenna with circular polarization characteristics for wireless UWB communication systems

A circularly polarized (CP) antenna with ultra-wideband resonance and a broad axial ratio bandwidth is designed for UWB communication systems. The prescribed design comprises of a modified annular ring-shaped radiator and a modified step-graded slots loaded partial ground plane. The projected antenna is prototyped on FR4 substrate of 35 × 30 × 1.6 mm3. To achieve wide axial ratio bandwidth, a rectangular vertical slot is inserted into the radiating patch and two stubs are embedded into the monopole ground plane, which is configured with step graded rectangular slots. The simulation results are verified by testing the fabricated protype. The proposed design operates at UWB spectrum with an ultra-wide impedance bandwidth (IBW) of 134.57%, centered at 10.7 GHz, covering 3.5 GHz to 17.9 GHz frequency spectrum. Furthermore, it demonstrates circular polarization characteristics with a broad axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) of 96.29% expanding from 3.5–10 GHz (6500 MHz). Its peak gain reaches to 8.7 dBi and a maximum radiation efficiency of 95% is achieved within the operating band. The results (measured and simulated) obtained in terms of S11, axial ratio, gain and efficiency and radiation patterns exhibit high agreement. The presented antenna could be a suitable choice for 5.5 GHz Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wi-Max), 5.2/5.8 GHz Wireless local area network (WLAN), X-band satellite communication (downlink: 7.25–7.745 GHz, uplink: 7.9–8.4 GHz), UWB communication systems, and other applications in microwave C, X, Ku bands due to its superior characteristics.

A low-profile ultra-wideband hexagonal-patch antenna for UAV-based applications

ABSTRACT A compact, low-profile, and ultra-wideband antenna is always desirable for airborne Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) applications. In this paper, an ultra-wideband monopole antenna is presented with the benefit of a compact and low-profile design structure. The antenna design enables efficient communication without interfering with the UAV’s other components. The antenna is designed using a slotted-hexagonal-patch fed from a co-planar microstrip feed. The bow-tie-shaped slot along with a few other rectangular-shaped parasitic slots are loaded in the hexagonal patch for bandwidth enhancement. The coplanar feed with top ground offers minimum interference with the UAV structure. The non-conducting bottom plane allows seamless integration without causing any interference to the antenna. An equivalent circuit model (ECM) of the proposed antenna is also developed. The antenna structure is fabricated and the measured results are validated. A good agreement between the measured and simulated results is observed. The antenna covers an ultra-wideband ranging from 3 GHz to 13.5 GHz with a maximum gain of 4.0dBi. The size of the antenna is 0.24λ0 ×0.29λ0 ×0.01λ0. The developed antenna, therefore, demonstrates that it is a strong contender for ultra-wideband UAV-based applications.