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2008 IEEE INTERNATIONAL RF AND MICROWAVE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

December 2 2-4, 2008, Kuala Lumpur,MALAYSIA

R F M
08

Reconfigurable Beam Shaping Antenna with Wilkinson Power Divider at 5.8GHz


M.T. Ali, M.R. Kamarudin, M. N. Md Tan and T. A. Rahman
Wireless Communication Centre (WCC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,Johor, Malaysia. mizi732002@yahoo.com, ramlee@fke.utm.my, mnor1408@yahoo.com, tharek@fke.utm.my.

Abstract -This paper presents a reconfigurable of multiple element microstrip rectangular linear array antenna integrated with radio frequency (RF) switches. The corporate feed design concept is used to excite the linear array antenna that consists of 8 elements of rectangular patches at 5.8GHz. Two PIN diode switches were deployed at the feeding line to activate the two arrays of patches that is located on the left and right side of the antenna structure. The behavior of the reconfigurable multiple element linear antenna array system has been investigated with respect to beam shaping characteristic. The comparisons of the performance between two structures, with Wilkinson Power Divider (WPD) and without WPD are discussed in this paper. Two different beam patterns were achieved through the reconfigurable antenna at different number of elements design that incorporates with PIN diode switches and modified WPD concept. The simulations and the measurement results for 4 and 8 elements array antenna structure are presented.
Keywords Corporate feed design, radio frequency, Wilkinson power divider and reconfigurable antenna

their operating frequencies. The antenna presented in [3], described a dual band dipole antenna integrated with MEMS switches. However, this method typically used a dual operating frequency to reconfigure a beam pattern. The antennas suggested in [5-6], were worked at dual operating frequencies with a reconfigurable radiation pattern. Works done presented in this paper describe and analyze the reconfigurable corporate feed microstrip patch antenna incorporated with PIN diode as an RF switch. The switching mechanism is controlled by the external dc voltage. Two switches are utilized to realize the antenna with switchable beam shaping at constant frequency 5.8GHz. The antenna performances such as input return loss, bandwidth, half power beamwidth (HPBW), and radiation patterns were obtained by using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Studio Suite 2008.

2. Antenna Design
The configuration of the proposed reconfigurable antenna structures is shown in Figure 4. There are two structures of reconfigurable microstrip patch antenna proposed in this design, without WPD as in structure 1 and added with modified WPD as in structure 2. The antenna structure was constructed on FR-4 glass epoxy substrate with a relative permittivity ( r ) of 4.6, loss tangent ( ) of 0.03 and the thickness of the substrate is 1.6 mm.

1. Introduction
The reconfigurable antennas had drawn lots of attention in the wireless communication systems recently. The demand for reconfigurable antenna has increased drastically since a decade. Reconfigurable beam shaping is ideal for the detection of small and large targets at both short and long ranges, including where the antenna is mounted on a high tower or hillside [1-2]. Reconfigurable antennas are gorgeous for many military and mobile communication applications where it is required to have a single antenna that can be dynamically reconfigured to transmit or receive on same or multiple frequency bands [3]. It is advantageous to integrate beam shaping functionality into the systems so one can vigorously vary the beam shapes in many applications such as airplane radar, protection from smart weapons and point to point communication. In [4], Rainee N. et al, presented reconfigurable antennas, which were radiated at different beam patterns by adjusting the apertures and maintaining

2.1 RF Switching Circuit


Philips PIN diodes, BAP51-02 [7] have been selected in this design. Figure 1 shows the schematic diagram of the switching circuit inserted in between two transmission lines. Each switching circuit consists of a PIN diode, two DC block capacitors, two inductors and one resistor. The capacitors, (C1-C2) are used as DC blocking and the inductors (L1-L2) are used as RF chokes which provides low impedance for dc. The biasing voltage (6V) has been connected to

978-1-4244-2867-0/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE

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100 resistor to limit the current flow to the switch. The simulation results using the PIN diodes equivalent circuits for the OFF and ON-state are presented in Figure 2. The return loss is less than -40dB for the ON state and an approximate of 0dB for the OFF state at 5.8GHz. The selected capacitance and inductance values were chosen to be 6.8pF and 22nH, respectively.

2.2 Power Divider Concept


The power divider is one of the most commonly used components in RF and microwave systems for power division and/or combination ratio as n-port network. The ideal design parameters are given in reference [8]. There are two common types of power dividers used in this antenna design; they are Wilkinson power divider and T-junction power divider. Figure 3 shows the structures of a power divider.

(a)
Figure 1: Schematic representation of the switching circuit components inserted in active feeding network.

(b)

5.8GHz = -0.701dB 0

-10

-20

dB

(c)
Figure 3: (a) Conventional WPD (b) T-junction power divider and(c) the modified Wilkinson geometry
5.8GHz = -49.23dB S11 Switch On S21 Switch ON 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

-30

-40

-50

-60

Frequency (GHz)

Wilkinson power dividers with an arbitrary power ratio was expressed as follows in,[8] .The modified Wilkinson geometry is shown in Figure 3c. A

(a)

4
length of 100 transmission line is connected

between the
5.8GHz = -1.002dB

lengths of 50 transmission line.

-5

-10

5.8GHz = -18.54dB

-15

-20

Another type of power divider used in this paper is Tjunction design [8], shown in Figure 3b, has 50 (Zo) line input impedances at each port, and a quarter-wave matching transformer with an impedance of 35.36 (Z1).

dB
-25

S11 Switch OFF S21 Switch OFF 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

-30

2.3 Corporate Feed Patch Array Structure


The PIN diode switches are represented as dotted black rectangles at S1 and S2 in two locations as shown in Figure 4. As the size of the switch is 2.5 x 1.4 mm, the gap (g) between the transmission lines is designated as 0.5 mm. In this advance, a dc bias

Frequency (GHz)

(b)
Figure 2: Calculated return loss (S11) for ON and OFF states (a) switch ON mode and (b) switch OFF mode.

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circuit is used to control the on/off mode of PIN diode switches. The beam width can be varied by altering the number of array elements. When all diodes are on mode, this antenna basically operates at a concave pattern of 5.8GHz. In contrast, all diodes are turned OFF, the antenna element is reduced to four elements with a convex pattern at a same frequency. The comparison between the simulations results of the reflection coefficient of both structures are demonstrated in Figure 5. Since the return loss for the structure 2 shown in Figure 5 is much better compared to structure 1, structure 2 is selected for the simulation and fabrication purpose.

-5

Return Loss ,S11(dB)

-10

-15

-16.56

-20

-23.56
-25 5.6 5.8 6.0

Structure 1 Structure 2 (WPD) 6.2 6.4

Frequency (GHz)

(b) Figure 5: Comparison of return loss S11(dB) between antenna structure 1 and 2 (a) 4 elements radiated (b) 8 elements radiated

3. Experimental Result
The antenna described above is fabricated and tested through simulation and measurement. According to the simulation results, the radiation pattern characteristic of the antenna forming has been tuned efficiently, since its structure is symmetrical by the center. The pattern obtained is directed to 0. The radiation patterns of the 4 and 8 elements structure are shown in Figure 6 and Figure 7 with 3 dB half power beamwidth (HPBW) of 22 degrees and 12.6 degrees respectively. Meanwhile the return losses for both structures are -29.43 dB and -23.56 dB respectively as shown in Figure 8. Referring to Figure 6(a) and Figure 7(a), it shows clearly that when the numbers of elements are increased, the beamwidth becomes narrow with lower sidelobe and high magnitude. Measurements of reconfigurable beam shaping antenna was conducted. The measured return loss compared with the simulation results for both senses configuration, are shown in Figure 8. The antenna shows good impedance matching for both cases which is lower than -20dB where the return loss is observed. Figure 9, shows the measurement of return loss when the switches were turned to ON and OFF-state. The result shows that a good impedance matching for both cases with 20.57dB, the return loss is observed at 5.8GHz. The measured radiation patterns, in Figure 10, show a very good agreement with the simulation. The results show that two different beam patterns at -3dB, is about 29o and 21o at the same frequency. To tune the frequency from the previous results of return losses for a good matching, a single open stub is necessary. Therefore, a single quarter-wavelength open stub, which operates at 5.8GHz, is added to microstrip feeding line as shown in Figure 11. Table 1 is the summary of simulation and measurement results obtained for the reconfigurable linear array antenna.

S1

S2

(a)

S1

S2

(b)
Figure 4: Configuration two structure of corporate fed reconfigurable antenna array (a) Structure 1 (without WPD) (b) Structure 2 (with modified WPD).

-5

Return Loss S11 (dB)

-10

-15

-20

-24.49 dB
-25

-30

-29.61

Structure 1 Structure 2 (WPD) 5.8 6.0 6.2 6.4

-35 5.6

Frequency (GHz)

(a)

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TABLE 1 : SELECTABLE PERFORMANCE FOR THE


RECONFIGURABLE MICROSTRIP PATCH ARRAY ANTENNA WITH ANTENNA CASE FOR STRUCTURE 2.

Ant 1 2

Element 4 8

Return Loss S11(dB) Sim. -29.66 -23.56 Meas. -20.57 -20.57

HPBW(0) Sim. 22 12.6 Meas 29 21

(b) Figure 7: Measured radiation pattern in (a) E-phil and (b) E-Theta for 8 elements structure.
0

-5

(a)

Return Loss S11(dB)

-10

-15

-20

20.57 dB

-25

-30

Measured 4 elements Simulation 4 elements 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8

29.66 dB

-35 5.9 6.0 6.1

Frequency (GHz)

(a)
0

(b)
Return Loss S11(dB)

-5

Figure 6: Measured radiation pattern in (a) E-phil and (b) E-Theta for 4 elements structure.

-10

-15

-20

- 20.57dB
-25

-23.56dB
Simulation for 8 elements Measured for 8 elements

-30

-35 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0 6.2

Frequency (GHz)

(b) Figure 8: Measured return loss S11(dB) for structure 2 (a) 4 elements radiated (b) 8 elements radiated structure. (a)

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At 5.8 GHz
-10

-20

8 patches antenna 4 patches antenna


-30

Switch 1 and 2 OFF - 4 patches Switch 1 and 2 ON - 8 Patches -40 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0

In this paper, experimental data demonstrated the concepts of reconfigurable number of elements that produced broad beam and narrow beam radiating pattern characteristics. By using modified WPD in the antenna structure, it produced a better performance in terms of return loss characteristic. This research has taken advantage of the flexibility of the number of elements technique by applying it to the problem of reconfigurable multiple beam array combination. The reconfigurable dual-beam antenna pattern at fixed frequencies across the entire 5.7-5.9 GHz band is presented in this paper with excellent radiation patterns.

R eturn Loss S 11 (dB)

Frequency (Ghz)

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank University of Technology Malaysia (UTM) for their financial support to this project. Also our great appreciation to Wireless Communication Centre (WCC) for providing all the facilities.

Figure 9:

Measured results return loss S11 when switch on/off state.

-10

-20

A m plitude

References
-30

-40

-50 Measured switches off - 4 patches Measured switches on - 8 patches -60 -100 -50 0 50 100

Degree

Figure 10: Measured results of normalized radiation pattern for 4 and 8 patches.

Figure 11: Photo of the fabricated reconfigurable linear array antenna with single stub matching and PIN diodes.

[1] Chia-Chan, Chang,Cheng, Liang, Bihe, Deng, Domier, C.Luhmann, N., C., Jr. A beam-shaping phased antenna array based on true-time delay technologies Infrared and Millimeter Waves, pp. 99-100, (2002). [2] Madany, Y. M. The analysis of wideband conformal microstrip array antenna with cosecant-squared beam shaping, Radar, 2006 IEEE Conference on, pp. 208214,(2006). [3] Kiriazi, J., Ghali, H., Ragaie, H., Haddara, H.Reconfigurable dual-band dipole antenna on silicon using series MEMS switches Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, Volume 1, pp. 403-406, (2003). [4] Rainee N. Simons, Novel On-Wafer Radiation Pattern Measurement Technique for MEMS Actuator Based Reconfigurable Patch Antennas Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio [5] Yang, F., Xue-Xia, Zhang, Xiaoning, Ye, RahmatSamii, Y. Wide-band E-shaped patch antennas for wireless communications, Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on, Volume 49, pp. 1094-1100, (2001). [6] Peroulis, D., Sarabandi, K., Katehi, L. P. B., Design of reconfigurable slot antennas. Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on, Volume 53, pp. 645-654, (2005). [7] BAP51-02_2, Surface Mount RF PIN Switch Diodes, PhillipsTechnologies [8] J.R. James, P.S. Hall, Handbook of Microstrip Antennas Vol. 2, Peter Peregrinus Ltd., London United Kingdom, 1989

4. Conclusion

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