Dual-polarization and dual-frequency microstrip

array antenna with high isolation

1

Xiao-Bo Xuan1, Min Guo1,2, Zuo-Xing Dai1,

Science and Technology on Electromagnetic Scattering
Laboratory
Shanghai 200438, China
minguol@163.com

Xiao-QingTian1, Ji-JunYan1,Shun-Shi Zhong2

School of Communication and Information Engineering
Shanghai University
Shanghai 200072, China
shshzhong@163.com

AbstractA new type of dual-polarization and dual-frequency

multilayer-stacked microstrip array antenna is introduced. The
feeding mechanism of the element is the aperture coupling for
one polarization and the direct feeding for the orthogonal
polarization. The microstrip element exhibits a wideband of
operation. A slot etched on driven patch is used to improve
isolation performance of the proposed antenna element, and the
better impedance characteristic is obtained as well. Measured
results agree well with the simulation, exhibiting a |S11|10dB
bandwidth of 16.6% in V-port and 14.28% in H-port. The
measured isolation is better than 30dB. Good radiation patterns
and low cross-polarization level are also confirmed.

I. INTRODUCTION
The dual-band dual-polarization microstrip array is the
most promising way for future synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
systems and wireless communication system applications, since
it can minimize the aperture size without decreasing the
antenna gain [1]. In these applications, the high isolation
between two orthogonal ports, low cross polarization and wide
frequency bandwidth for both polarizations are required. A
simple microstrip patch antenna element has a relatively
narrow frequency bandwidth, while parasitic patches on top or
aside the driving patch [2] are a possible solution to this
deficiency. The parasitic patches load reactively the driving
patch in a way that widens the frequency bandwidth of the
element. In order to improve the port isolation and crosspolarization performances, there are numerous ways to feed the
microstrip patch, including probe-feed [3], aperture-coupling
[4], proximity-coupling, [5], L-shape feed [6], etc. Furthermore,
balanced-feed [7] and hybrid-feed [8] are also proposed. A onelayer direct feeding for dual-polarization array application
encounters feeding network topology difficulties, so that the
multilayer feeding network structure is used. And a slot is
etched on the driven patch to cut off some current components
on the driven patch so as to improve the port isolation.
This letter proposes a new dual-polarization and dualfrequency microstrip antenna geometry that provides two
independent ports with orthogonal polarization. Corresponding
to its two ports, the new structure resonates at two different
frequencies with large impedance bandwidth. The feeding
element mechanism is based on the aperture coupling for one
polarization and the direct feeding for orthogonal polarization.
Based on the particular feeding element mechanism, and
especially by the use of a slot etched on the driven patch, the
proposed antenna can obtain high isolation performance and

978-1-4799-3540-6/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

better return loss characteristics. Finally experimental results

are presented to verify the design.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
Fig.1 shows the basic structure of the proposed element.
The driving square patch is printed on layer 3, which is driven
directly by a microstrip line at H-port and is aperture-coupled
at V-port with orthogonal polarization. The parasitic patch is
printed on Layer 1 and is separated from the driven patch by
Layer 2, a foam layer. The H-shaped coupling aperture and
microstrip feed line are etched on the both side of the feed
substrate, Layer 4. The slot is electromagnetically excited by
microstrip line. A ground reflector plane is located at the back
of the feed line to reduce the back radiation and improve the
radiation efficiency. To decreased coupling behavior between
orthogonal ports, a slot is etched on the driven patch to cut off
some current components (contributing to S12). The length and
width of the slot are optimized for better isolation. In the
wireless communication systems, the antenna needs to have a
high gain and a narrow beamwidth, for which the array antenna
is required. A broadband dual-band array antenna of 256
antenna units is designed. The feed networks of both bands are
consisted of 255 elementary two-way splitters. The two-way
splitter is constructed based on the quarter-wave matched Tjunction with the 100transmission line and a 70.7quarterwave impedance-transforming section.

1 Port1(V-port) feed line 2 Port2(H-port) feed line 3/5/6

substrate (Taconic TLY-5)
4/7 Foam 8 Backed ground

1085

AP-S 2014

9 Coupling aperture 10 Isolation slot on driven patch 11

driven patch 12 Parasitic patch
Fig.1 Top and side views of stacked patch element with slot
etched
. RESULTS
A prototype of the proposed antenna was built with five
microwave substrate layers and adhesive tape layers. The size
of the multilayer structure is 808012mm. Fig.2 shows the
measured results of the return loss at both ports and the
isolation between the two ports. From Fig.2, the measured
array impedance bandwidth is 16.6% at V-port and 14.28% at
H-port. The measured isolation is better than 30dB at upper
frequencies and is better than 40dB at lower frequencies. The
measured copolar and crosspolar radiation patterns of the
vertical and horizontal polarization at the frequencies of
12.5GHz and 14GHz, are plotted in Figs.3 a~b, respectively. It
is seen that the array cross polarization level within 3dB beamwidth is -23dB for vertical polarization and is -27dB for
horizontal polarization.

(b) Horizontal port

Fig.3 Measured radiation patterns of the array antenna
IV. CONCLUSION
The new dual-polarization and dual-frequency multilayerstacked microstrip antenna element and array have been
introduced. By using slot perturbation, the isolation of the
proposed element has been improved, and the wideband
impedance characteristic has been acquired as well. A
prototype array was successfully fabricated and measured to
validate the approach. This prototype array achieves
satisfactory measured results: bandwidth of 14.28%16.6%,
array isolation of better than 30dB, cross-polarization of lower
than -23dB within the main lobe. The agreement between the
measured and simulated results is fairly good. This design
approach is promising for its application in SAR or some
wireless systems.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under Grant No. 61171031, and in part
by the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology
Commission under Grant 11DZ2260800.
REFERENCES
[1] D.M.Pozar, et al, A dual-band dual-polarized array for spaceborne SAR,
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Int. Symp., Atlanta, GA, USA,
Vol.4, pp.21122115, 1998.
[2]F.Croq and D.M.Pozar, Millimeter-wave design of wide-band aperturecoupled stacked microstrip antennas, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat.,
vol.12, pp.17701776, Dec.1991.
[3]R.B.Waterhouse, Design of probe-fed stacked patches, IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propag., vol.47, no.12, pp.17801784, Dec.1999.
[4]J.Lu, Z.Q.Kuai, X.W.Zhu, and N.Z.Zhang, A high-isolation dualpolarization microstrip patch antenna with quasi-cross-shaped coupling slot,
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol.59, no.7, pp.27132717, Jul.2011.
[5]S.C.Gao and A.Sambell, Dual-polarized broad-band microstrip antennas
fed by proximity coupling, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol.53, no.1,
pp.526530, Jan.2005.
[6]H.Wong, K.L.Lau, and K.M.Luk, Design of dual-polarized L-probe
patch antenna arrays with high isolation, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag.,
vol.52, no.1, pp.4552, Jan.2004.
[7]K.L.Wong, H.C.Tung, and T.W.Chiou, Broadband dual-polarized
aperture -coupled patch antennas with modified H-shaped coupling slots,
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol.50, no.2, pp.188191, Feb.2002.
[8]Z.Sun, S.S.Zhong, and X.R.Tang, C-Band dual-polarized stacked patch
antenna with low cross-polarization and high isolation, 3rd Eur. Conf.
Antennas Propagation (EuCAP2009), Berlin, Germany, Mar.2009.

Fig.2 Measured return loss and isolation

(a) Vertical port

1086