Leccture--2

5.3 Exccitation tecchniques:

p antennas haave radiating elements on one side of a dielectric suubstrate, and thus the RF ppower
Microstrip
t radiating patch using a connecting eelement such as microstripp line or
may be feed directly to the

coaxial prrobe. Matchinng is usuallyy required bettween the fedd line and thee antenna, beecause the anntenna
input imppedance diffeers from the customary 50 ohm line impedance. M Matching maay be achieveed by
properly selecting
s the location
l of the feed line.

In an anoother approachh the microsttrip antenna can be exciteed by couplinng the electroomagnetic waave to
transfer power
p betweeen the micrrostrip line annd the radiatting patch, wwithout actuaally contactinng the
radiator. Such
S techniqu
ues are the ap
perture coupliing and proxiimity couplingg techniques.

5.3.1 Miicrostrip Line

L Feed
In this typpe of feeding g technique, a conducting strip is connnected directlly to the edgee of the micrrostrip
patch as shown
s in Figu
ure 5.5. The conducting
c sttrip is smallerr in width as compared too the patch annd this
kind of feeed arrangemeent has the addvantage that the feed can be etched on the same subbstrate to provvide a
planar struucture.

Fig 5.5 Microstrip

M Linee Feed

For impeddance matchiing between the t antenna input

i point an
and feeding liine, sometimees a cut is maade at
the feedin
ng edge of thee antenna (see Fig. 5.9 a). The purposee of the inset cut in the patch is to matcch the
impedancce of the feed d line to the patch
p withouut the need foor any additioonal matchinng element. TThis is
achieved by properly controlling the inset possition. Hencee this is an easy feedingg scheme, sinnce it
provides ease
e of fabriccation and sim
mplicity in modelling as wwell as impedance matchinng. However as the
thickness of the dielectric substrate being used, increases, surrface waves aand spurious feed radiationn also
increases,, which hamp width of the antenna. Thee feed radiatioon also leads to undesired cross
pers the bandw
polarized radiation.

5.3.2 Co
oaxial Feed
d
The Coaxxial feed or prrobe feed is a very common technique used for feeding microstrrip patch anteennas.
As shownn in Figure 5.6
6, the inner co
onductor of thhe coaxial coonnector extennds through thhe dielectric aand is
soldered to
t the radiatin
ng patch, whille the outer co
onductor is coonnected to thhe ground plaane.

Fig 5.6 Co
oaxial Fee Probe fed Rectaangular Micro
ostrip Patch A
Antenna

The main advantage of this type off feeding scheeme is that thhe feed can bee placed at anny desired loccation
on the pattch in order to
o match with its input impedance. This feed method is easy to fabbricate and haas low
spurious radiation.
r However, its maajor disadvan ntage is that itt provides naarrow bandwidth and is diffficult
to model since a hole has to be drrilled in the substrate
s and the connectoor protrudes ooutside the ground
us not making
plane, thu g it completely
y planar for th
hick substratees ( h > 0.020 ).

5.3.3 Ap
perture Coupled Feed
d
In this typ
pe of feeding t radiating patch and thhe microstrip feed line aree separated bby the
g technique, the
ground pllane as shown n in Figure 5.7
7. Coupling between
b the ppatch and the feed line is m
made through a slot
or an aperrture in the grround plane.
Fig 5.7: Aperture-coup
A pled Feed

The coup pling aperturee is usually centred

c under the patch, leading to loower cross ppolarization ddue to
symmetry y of the configuration. Thee amount of coupling
c from
m the feed linne to the patchh is determinned by
the shape, size and loccation of the aperture.
a Sincce the groundd plane separaates the patchh and the feedd line,
spurious radiation
r is minimimum.
m Generally, a high dielectrric material iss used for the bottom subbstrate
and a thicck, low dielecctric constantt material is used
u for the ttop substrate to optimize radiation from the
patch. Thhe major disaadvantage of this feed tech hnique is thaat it is difficuult to fabricaate due to muultiple
layers, wh
hich also increeases the anteenna thicknesss. This feedinng scheme alsso provides narrow bandw width.

5.3.4 Prroximity Co
oupled Feeed
This type of feed techhnique is alsoo called as thee electromagnnetic couplinng scheme. AAs shown in F Figure
5.8, two dielectric sub bstrates are used
u such th
hat the feed lline is betweeen the two substrates annd the
radiating patch is on top of the up pper substrate. The main advantage oof this feed teechnique is tthat it
a provides very high ban
eliminatess spurious feeed radiation and andwidth (as hhigh as 13%)), due to an ooverall
increase in
n the thickness of the micrrostrip patch antenna. Thiss scheme alsoo provides chhoices betweeen two
different dielectric media, one for the patch and one forr the feed liine to optim mize the indivvidual
performannces.

Fig 5.8: Proximity-cou

P upled Feed

Matching can be achieeved by conttrolling the leength of the feed line andd the width-tto-line ratio oof the
patch. Thhe major disad
dvantage of this
t feed scheeme is that itt is difficult tto fabricate bbecause of thhe two
dielectric layers which
h need properr alignment. Also,
A there iss an increasee in the overaall thickness oof the
antenna.

5.4 Critteria for Substrate

S Selection:
S
While ch bricating miccrostrip antennnas, followiing characterristics have to be
hoosing substtrates for fab
focussed on:
o

1) Surfacee-wave excitaation

2) Disperssion of the dieelectric consttant and loss tangent

t of thee substrate
3) Copper loss

4) Anisotropy in the substrate

5) Effects of temperature, humidity, and aging

6) Mechanical requirements: conformability, machinability, solderability, weight, elasticity, etc.

7) Cost

The first 3 factors are of special concern in the millimeter-wave range (f> 30 GHz).

ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF COMMONLY USED SUBSTRATE MATERIALS FOR

MICROSTRIP ANTENNAS

Material Dielectric Loss

Constant Tangent
Unreinforced PTFE, Cuflon 2.1 0.0004
Reinforced PTFE, RT Duroid 5880 2.20 (1.5%) 0.0009
Fused Quartz 3.78 0.0001
96% Alumina 9.40 (5%) 0.0010
99.5% Alumina 9.80 (5%) 0.0001
Sapphire 9.4, 1.6 0.0001
Semi-Insulating GaAs 12.9 0.0020

5.5 Radiation mechanism of microstrip antenna:

Radiation from microstrip antenna can be understood by considering the simple case of a rectangular
microstrip patch spaced a small fraction of a wavelength above the ground plane as shown in the
fig.5.9(a). Assuming no variation of the electric field along the width and the thickness of the microstrip
structure, the electric field configuration of the radiator can be represented as shown in the fig 5.9(b). The
field varies along the patch length which is about half a wavelength. Radiation may be ascribed mostly to
the fringing fields at the open circuited edge of the patch. The field at the end can be resolved into the
normal and tangential component with respect to the ground plane. The normal components are out of
phase because the patch line is /2 long. Therefore the far field produced by them cancel in the broadside
direction. The tangential components which are parallel to the ground plane are in phase and the resulting
fields combine to give maximum radiated field normal to the surface of the structure. Therefore the patch
may be represented by two slots /2 apart excited in phase and radiating in half space above the ground
plane.
Fig.5.9(a)) Rectangular microstrip paatch antenna

Fig.5.9(b)) Side view