Design of Microstrip Antenna for GPS Application

Muhammad Fadhli Bukhori1, Norbahiah Misran1,2, Mohammad Tariqul Islam2

Mawarni Mohamed Yunus1,2 and Mohammed Nazmus Shakib 1,2
1

Department of Electrical, Electronic and System Engineering

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor
2
Institute of Space Science (ANGKASA),
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor
fadhli_bukhori@yahoo.com.my, bahiah@vlsi.eng.ukm.my, titareq@yahoo.com, mawar_mmy@yahoo.com, engmdns@yahoo.com.

Abstract This paper presents the design of

pentagonal microstrip antenna for dual resonant
frequencies at L1 (1.575 GHz) and L2 (1.227 GHz)
with right hand circular polarization (RHCP).
Designing and optimization processes took place in
Zeland IE3D simulation software before the design
was printed on RO4003C laminated board. Result of
the simulation shows at 1.575 GHz and 1.227 GHz, the
antenna has return loss at -18.07 dB and -19.44 dB
respectively.

Designing a circular polarization antenna is

generally much harder than linear polarization antenna
as the bandwidth where antenna is circularly polarized
is so narrow. In this paper, right hand circular
polarized pentagonal microstrip antenna for GPS
technology with the resonance frequencies at 1.55
GHz and 1.227 GHz is presented.

Keywords: dual frequencies, Right Hand Circular

Polarization (RHCP).

The geometry on the proposed antenna is shown

in Figure 1. The design of the antenna is started with
determination of important parameters which directly
influenced the antenna performance. Pentagonal
geometry is chosen as the basic configuration which
can make the antenna circularly polarized.
Two pentagonal microstrip antennas is developed
separately before both of the structure is joined by feed
line. Each of the pentagons carries one resonant
frequency to give the combined system a dual resonant
frequency antenna.

1. Introduction
Global positioning System (GPS) technology has been
widely used as a navigation system to determine the
locations, mapping, tracking devices and surveying. In
terms of public used, GPS receiver requires compact,
lightweight, low power, low cost high reliability and
with mobility capability. Furthermore, in order to
satisfy the demanded precision and reliability, a high
performance GPS antenna must be capable to operate
at the two GPS frequencies (L1: 1.575 GHz, L2: 1.227
GHz).This demand has prompted increased
investigation on microstrip radiators, with particular
attention paid to improving performance and
miniaturization. Microstrip antennas have enjoyed
proliferate use in many circularly polarized
applications due to their low-prole light weight and
useful radiation characteristics [1]. A circularly
polarized EM-wave is generated when an antenna
radiates two orthogonal field components having equal
amplitude with a quadrature phase difference between
them [2],[3]. In practice, circular polarization can be
done with certain methods on the radiating patch or
specialized geometry.
There are several methods to connect the radiating
patch to feeder. The radiating patch can be connected
by microstrip line, coaxial cable, or mutual coupling.
Impedance matching is usually needed between feed
line and radiating patch as the input impedance may
differ from characteristics impedance 50 .
978-1-4244-2867-0/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE
464

2. Antenna Design

Pentagon patch

27mm

49mm

64mm

Feed line
Figure 1: Geometry of proposed antenna.

Combining the pentagonal structures also made

by using the optimization method, this left three
constants to be determined by the simulation software.
The three constants are; the width of microstrip line
which reflect input impedance, and the length of
microstrip line from both pentagon to the coaxial feed

which depend on electrical length of both frequencies.

The whole design process took place on laminated
board model RO4003C which has dielectric constant r
3.38, loss tan 0.0021, and height 1.524 mm. The
photograph of proposed printed antenna on lamination
board is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 4: Simulated VSWR.

Figure 2: Photograph of printed antenna on lamination
board.

3.

Results

Figure 3 illustrate the simulated results of return loss

of proposed antenna. The simulation is done by using
the IE3D, which is a full-wave simulation tool, based
on the method of moments [4]. At resonant frequencies
of 1.575 GHz and 1.227 GHz, the antenna had return
loss at -18.07 dB and -19.44 dB respectively. The
simulated impedance bandwidths (10dB return loss)
are 10 MHz at 1.575 GHz and 8.3 MHz at 1.227 GHz.
Figure 4 shows VSWR for the antenna, which shows
that the antenna has a good impedance matching and
feed location at both frequencies. Figure 5 shows the
radiation pattern for RHCP and LHCP of the antenna.
It is shown that the antenna has good right hand
circular polarization at frequencies of 1.575 GHz and
1.227 GHz.

(a)

(b)
Figure 5: Simulated radiation pattern. (a) 1.575 GHz,
(b) 1.227 GHz

Figure 3: Simulated return loss.

465

4. Conclusion

2.

The design of combined pentagonal antenna produces

a dual band, right hand circular polarization antenna.
Structure designing and combining process used
optimization in Zeland IE3D. Simulation results shows
at L1 and L2, the antenna has return loss at -18.07 dB
and -19.44 dB respectively.

3.

References
1.

X. L. Bao and M. J. Ammann, DualFrequency

Circularly-Polarized
Patch
Antenna With Compact Size and Small
Frequency Ratio, IEEE Transaction on
Antennas and Propagation, vol. 55, pp. 21042107, July 2007.

466

4.

J. Bahl, P. Bahrtia, Microstrip Antenna, pp. 24, 1982.

B. S. Sullivan, Design of Circularly
Polarized
Omnidirectional
Microstrip
Sounding Rocket Antennas for Telemetry and
GPS Applications, University of Alaska
Fairbanks, pp. 7-10, 2001.
Zeland Software. Inc, IE3D FastEM Design
Kit for Real-Time Full-Wave EM Tuning
Optimization and Synthesis, Zeland Software
Inc, 2004.