IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation

Research Article

Modified easy to fabricate E-shaped compact ISSN 1751-8725

Received on 25th February 2017
Revised 18th August 2017
patch antenna with wideband and multiband Accepted on 26th October 2017
E-First on 19th January 2018
functionality doi: 10.1049/iet-map.2017.0153
www.ietdl.org

Anastasios G. Koutinos1, Dimitris E. Anagnostou2 , Rahil Joshi2, Symon K. Podilchak2, George A.

Kyriacou1, Michael T. Chryssomallis1
1Electricaland Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi 67100, Greece
2Instituteof Signals, Sensors and Systems, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK
E-mail: danagn@ieee.org

Abstract: A flexible E-shaped patch antenna that is particularly easy to fabricate is presented. E-shaped patch antennas
traditionally act as wideband microstrips. Here, first a novel folded L-shaped feed is used for improved wideband operation.
Then, multiband operation is enabled through scaling and tight packing with low mutual coupling. The antenna equivalent circuit
is presented, and the principles of operation at the two modes of the antenna are discussed. The traditional design undergoes a
clever modification to allow it for particularly easy fabrication, which minimises the need for complex tools and enables a low
budget manufacturing, and the methodology for this modification is presented. The fabricated prototype exhibits fractional
bandwidth larger than 20% with extremely small total antenna dimensions 18 mm × 19 mm (about λ0/4 × λ0/4 at the centre
frequency). The proposed design can be particularly useful in multiband array configurations through the demonstrated scaling
and tight packing, as well as for wearable applications.

1 Introduction and overview
The increase in the bandwidth of the reliable and easily
manufacturable microstrip antennas has been an important area of
research during the past decade, and is also the main focus of this
work. Various methods to increase the bandwidth have been
proposed [1–4]; however, these methods often increase the
geometry complexity and the difficulty of fabrication.
In this paper, additional capabilities of the E-shaped patch
antenna [5–9] are explored. An E-shaped patch antenna with centre
frequency 5 GHz (for applications at the IEEE 802.11a/n/ac/ax
standards) is proposed. The proposed antenna is fabricated on just
one surface of a metal sheet via printing, etching or milling and
folded appropriately afterwards. In this way, the use of conductive
glue for assembling the geometry is avoided and thus the parasitic
phenomena due to the use of the glue are also avoided. The antenna
is significantly smaller in length, width and height than others in
present literature [1, 3, 6, 8]. The E-shaped patch antenna has
adjacent resonances which result to wider bandwidth compared to
the rectangular patch. By means of comparison, the simulated
bandwidth is >20% (versus 16.5% in [5], 9% in [7], 9% in [8])
while the efficiency is over 80%. Compared to [9] and [10] the
shorting wall offers proper support which is necessary due to the
use of the air dielectric substrate. The size of the ground plane is
smaller as well, while it will be shown that by using the same area
as [5], dual band operation can be supported through geometry
parameterisation in conjunction with frequency scaling, which
allows tighter packing. A slight increase in height [11, 12], to
facilitate the placement of the L-shaped feeding probe [13], which
acts as an equivalent resonant circuit between the patch and the
feed and alters the quality factor of the structure, further enhances
the bandwidth. This is because the structure has one resonance due
to the patch (i.e. parallel RLC resonant circuit), and a second
resonance due to the series combination of the inductance (L) and
resistance (R) offered by L-shaped probe, along with the
capacitance (C) which is due to the energy stored between the
probe ground and the probe patch. The broadband operation of the
antenna is also due to this double resonance [14]. Other methods
can also be used to increase the fractional bandwidth (such as the
use of slots [2–4], lower permittivity dielectric [8], or different
feeding methods [12, 15–17]); however, they also increase antenna
complexity, which in this work is kept at minimum. More
interesting and recent works have focused on wearable textile
antennas [18], circular polarisation [19, 20], its application for LTE
communications [21], the design using transmission line mode
theory [9], and an omnidirectional implementation on a cylinder
[22].
2 Preliminary design and simulated results
The simulation of each antenna has been carried out with the
Zeland IE3D™ simulator which utilises the method of moments.
All measurements were carried out with the Hewlett Packard
8510C vector network analyser. The design of the E-shaped
antenna (Fig. 1) requires several steps. First a rectangular patch is
designed using the empirical microstrip antenna design equations
and methodology [15]. Then, the patch width dimension W is
divided into three equal strips. The middle strip is made slightly
wider, which is important to ensure that in the far field the
magnetic field will not vanish as the current distribution on the
middle strip will be greater than the current distribution on the
other strips.
A resonance is created due to the current flowing from strip #1
to strip #2. If the strips had the same width, a portion of the
absorbed power from the source would not be radiated and would
thus be lost. Through the three different resonances of the structure
[5], the electric field of the antenna can be controlled by the width
of the gap between the strips (W12, W23) and by the length of their
interconnecting lines (L12, L23). In particular, increasing any of
these parameters (L12, L23, W12 or W23) causes the third resonance
to vanish. On the other hand decreasing L12, L23, W12 or W23 shifts
the third resonance towards the centre resonance.
Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the preliminary E-shaped antenna.
The antenna, however, has a major difference from others [5] as it
has a significantly smaller (18 mm × 19 mm) ground plane. The
thickness of the substrate (air) is 3 mm. The three edge-shorted
parallel copper strips (denoted with 1, 2 and 3 in Fig. 1) are
electrically coupled (i.e. connected) to each other using two metal
sections L12 and L23. The patch has dimensions Wp × Lp (15.5 mm 
× 11.8 mm) and is located at the edge of the ground plane. All
dimensions are listed in Table 1.

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Fig. 1  Traditional E-shaped patch antenna
(a) Top view, (b) Side view

Table 1 Dimensions of preliminary antenna

Parameter Length, λ0 Parameter Length, λ0
mm mm
ground WG 18 0.312 LG 19 0.329
E-shaped patch WP 15.5 0.268 Ladd 0.3 0.005
LP 11.5 0.199 H 3 0.051
E-patch position Le 1.5 0.026 — — —
— — — — — —
L-shaped probe Loffset 2.25 0.039 Wf 5.75 0.099
Lf 6.25 0.108 H 1.65 0.028
W1, W3 3 0.051 L12 1.5 0.025
strips W2 3.5 0.06 L23 1 0.017
W12,W23 3 0.051 19

Fig. 2  Equivalent of L-shaped probe feed

(a) Grounded monopole, (b) RLC circuit (adopted from [14])

The patch is fed using the folded L-shaped probe method,
which is an important part of the presented design. The feed
consists of an L-shaped wire whose tip is along and underneath the
axis of strip #2. The remaining wire section outside the patch is
folded by 90° (see Fig. 1). The dot (•) at the centre of strip #2
indicates the location of the folded L-shaped probe. The L-shaped
probe increases the bandwidth because it acts as a resonant circuit
(folded monopole) as seen in Fig. 2a between the antenna and the
feed, as shown from its equivalent circuit in Fig. 2b. This resonant
circuit alters the quality factor Q of the structure because the
coupled feeding offers lower Q factor [15] and, as seen also from
(1), the bandwidth increases
VSWR − 1
BW = (1)
Q VSWR
Lf + W f ≃ λ/4 (2)
The extraction of the equivalent circuit is comprised of four
parts: (i) the L-probe section (RL in series), (ii) the TL equivalent
of the horizontal L-probe section outside the patch (distributed
vertical RLs), (iii) the TL equivalent of the horizontal L-probe
section inside the patch (distributed horizontal RLs), and the
equivalent circuit of the patch placed at the feed at distance y0
(RLC) [14]. The resonant antenna structure is represented by a
parallel RLC resonator.
For the wire to feed the antenna, it is key that the total
horizontal section of the L-shaped feeding probe centre conductor
in (2) is about λ/4 long. Practically, the current on the wire excites a
magnetic field, which in turn excites current on the antenna. The
vertical part of the wire stimulates a magnetic field which is
parallel to the antenna plane and therefore does not induce current
on the antenna. Even though the height of the probe does not affect
the resonances, it affects the bandwidth. Through optimisation, it
was determined that the height of the probe results to the widest
bandwidth when it is at 55% of the patch height. Also, it is
important that the L-shaped probe does not function like a
transmission line, which means that two wires with a total length of
λ/4 and λ + λ/4 will not produce the same results. Actually, the L-
shaped probe resembles a grounded λ/4 monopole antenna. Finally,

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Fig. 3  Simulated return loss for finite and infinite ground plane size. The
small ground plane size does not reduce the bandwidth (19.3% for infinite
ground and 20.2% for finite)
Table 2 Important (simulated) antenna frequencies
Infinite ground Finite ground
fL (lower cutoff), GHz 4.64 4.53
f1 (first resonance), GHz 4.81 4.68
f2 (second resonance), GHz 5.37 5.42
f3 (third resonance), GHz 5.54 —
fU (upper cutoff), GHz 5.64 5.55
fC (central), GHz 5.14 5.04
ΔfBW, % 19.37 20.22
Fig. 4  Top view current distribution at (left) 4.7 GHz, (right) 5.45 GHz
for the radius of the probe the realistic value of 0.5 mm was used,
and this value can vary slightly if necessary. Simulations for the L-
shaped probe were made by designing a 3D metallic octagonal
pipelined structure.
A comparison of infinite versus finite ground shows 19.3%
bandwidth for the infinite ground and 20.2% for the finite (Fig. 3).
The lower and upper cutoff frequencies fL, fU, the three resonant
frequencies f1, f2, f3, and the central frequency fC are all listed in
Table 2. For the finite ground design, the middle resonance is
overcoupled and absorbed by the adjacent ones while the central
frequency shifts by only 2% and a slight increase in the fractional
bandwidth is observed. These results validate the minimal effect of
the miniaturisation of the ground plane.
Fig. 4 shows the current distribution on the surface of the upper
side of the patch. There are two resonances on the patch: (i) the
lowest frequency resonance is that of a typical λ/4 patch with the
respective current observed (Fig. 4a). (ii) The second (middle)
resonance is one where strips #1 and #2 act as a single strip and
their total current flows into strip #3. In this resonance, the slot
between strips #1 and #2 is not seen by the RF current, and a λ/2 E-
field distribution is formed under strip #3. (iii) The third (highest
frequency) resonance would be the result of a λ/2 resonance with
current flowing from strip #2 to strip #1; however, in this structure
this resonance is absorbed by the adjacent ones. Table 2 shows
other values of interest.
328
Fig. 5  Simulated parameters of the proposed antenna with a finite ground
plane, illustrating a highly efficient radiation with low losses
(a) Gain, (b) Efficiency
The simulated gain of the antenna (shown in Fig. 5a) is >2.47 
dBi with a maximum of 3.24 dBi. The antenna efficiency (Fig. 5b)
indicates the radiated power the antenna draws from the source and
is higher than the average broadband microstrip antenna (which is
about 80% [23]), and that is an advantage of the air substrate that
has negligible loss and does not store power. The simulated and the
measured co and cross polar radiation pattern of the antenna for
each resonance in E- and H-plane (Fig. 6) is stable throughout the
entire bandwidth.
3 Modified geometry without background for
ease of fabrication
The presented antenna has a major drawback: Its ground plane and
patch must be fabricated separately and then welded together. This
increases the capacitance of the antenna which in turn shifts the
resonant frequency in a way that is not easy to specify without a
simulation.
To resolve this drawback, the antenna of Fig. 7a is proposed.
The proposed modified antenna can be fabricated by using a single
copper sheet. The patch is moved to the edge of the ground plane
so that its lower left corner coincides with the lower left corner of
the ground. Then, Le = 0, and the antenna and ground plane now
consists of a single, continuous metal layer. In this model, the
antenna can also be printed in a single metal sheet and afterwards
folded appropriately. In Fig. 7b, the fabricated prototype is shown.
For the prototype, a copper foil of 0.2 mm thickness was used.
The return loss of the modified antenna that has no
‘background’ (a term that will be used to refer to the part of the
ground plane behind the shorting wall, which would increase the
difficulty of fabrication due to the need for conducting glue, solder,
or welding) is shown in Fig. 8. Results show small differences
from the preliminary design that has a ‘background’, and most
importantly exhibit a centre frequency shift of only 1%. This shift
is practically negligible when one considers the ease of fabrication
and absence of conductive glue, soldering, or welding, thanks to
the folding of the copper sheet layer. The frequency shift is also
expected as the total length of the structure slightly increases, as
explained through the inset schematic of Fig 8a. The measured
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Fig. 6  Simulated and measured radiation patterns of the proposed
antenna. The patterns have similar shape throughout the bandwidth
(a) E-plane at f1 = 4.67 GHz, (b) E-plane at f2 = 5.42 GHz, (c) H-plane at f1 = 4.67 
GHz, (d) H-plane at f2 = 5.42 GHz
Fig. 7  Proposed modified E-shaped patch antenna. The antenna is
positioned on the edge of the patch
(a) Simulated layout, (b) Fabricated prototype compared with the one Euro coin that
has a diameter of 23.25 mm
return loss of the antenna is shown in Fig. 8b, and is in good
agreement with the simulated. Table 3 shows details of the
important frequencies of the antenna.
4 Confirmation of scaling to another frequency
In Table 1, all dimensions are given as functions of λ0. Since the
presented antenna uses free-space as its substrate, it is expected
that its linear scaling will be feasible and will exhibit good
radiation characteristics at other frequencies. Herein, a scaling
factor K was used as: K = finitial/fdesired was used, with finitial = fc =  and in order to obtain an overall compact size of the two-antenna
5.14 GHz. Having the K factor, any new antenna can be designed
by multiplying each dimension with K. The general shape of an
antenna that will operate at half the frequency of the proposed will
Table 3 Important frequencies of proposed antenna
Simulated Measured
fL 4.43 GHz 4.32 GHz
f1 4.62 GHz 4.58 GHz
f2 5.35 GHz 5.45 GHz
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Fig. 8  Return loss results of proposed antenna
(a) Comparison of simulated return loss of the antenna (without background) for easy
folding and fabrication, with the preliminary design (with background)). The similar
S11 plots justify the proposed geometry. Insets show the side view of the two
antennas: (top design) with background and (bottom design) proposed design without
background, (b) Simulated and measured return loss of the proposed antenna,
achieving a larger than 20% bandwidth with low losses
then be the same as in Fig. 7b. Such a scaled antenna will have the
same fractional bandwidth and similar |S11| response. On Table 4,
the dimensions of the scaled antenna are shown, and Fig. 9 shows
the two fabricated prototypes (original and scaled). The return loss
along with simulated and measured radiation patterns are depicted
in Fig. 10. In Table 5, its significant frequencies are given. What is
important is revealed by directly comparing the electrical
dimensions (λ0) with those from Table 1, which justifies and
validates the use of frequency scaling: i.e. every length of the
scaled design has the exact same relation to λ0 as the original.
5 Combining antennas for multiband operation
The two antennas are placed side by side to characterise their
behaviour and coupling for multiband operation. The key to this
combination is the prevention of an electrical connection between
the two ground planes since both are parts of the radiating
structures. The lack of electrical connection is preferred as then
each antenna has an independent ground plane that does not need
further alterations. This gives us the ability to combine different
antennas of the same kind in order to obtain multiband behaviour.
The antennas are used simultaneously in order to achieve a
multiband character and measure their coupling. The antennas are
placed as shown in Fig. 9 and the distance between their ground
planes is more than λ0/10. This distance was selected after testing
structure while maintaining performance requirements. The total
size of the new antenna system is 60.5 mm × 36 mm, which is
smaller than the area occupied by earlier designs [5] where the 2.4 
Simulated Measured
fU 5.51 GHz 5.61 GHz
fC 4.97 GHz 4.96 GHz
ΔfBW 21.7% 26.06%
329
Fig. 9  Photo of the two fabricated prototypes for 5 GHz (left) and 2.5 GHz (right) operation. The antennas are placed on separate ground for increased
isolation

Fig. 10  Scaled antenna simulated and measured results

(a) Return loss, Radiation patterns: (b) E-plane at f1 = 2.31 GHz, (c) E-plane at f2 = 2.71 GHz, (d) H-plane at f1 = 2.31 GHz, (e) H-plane at f2 = 5.42 GHz

Table 4 Dimensions of scaled antenna

Parameter Length, λ0 Parameter Length, λ0
mm mm
ground WG 36 0.312 LG 38 0.329
E-shaped patch WP 31 0.268 Ladd 0.6 0.005
LP 23 0.199 H 6 0.051
E-patch position Le 3 0.026 — — —
— — — — — —
L-shaped probe Loffset 4.5 0.039 Wf 11.5 0.099
Lf 12.5 0.108 H 3.3 0.028
W1,W3 6 0.051 — — —
strips W2 7 0.06 L12 3 0.025
W12,W23 6 0.051 L23 2 0.017

Table 5 Important frequencies of scaled antenna

Simulated Measured Simulated Measured
fL′, GHz 2.24 2.20 fU′, GHz 2.74 2.80
f1′, GHz 2.32 2.31 fC′, GHz 2.49 2.50
f2′, GHz 2.66 2.71 ΔfBW, % 20.25 24.25

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Fig. 11  Measured |S21| indicating a very strong isolation between the two
antennas
Fig. 12  |S11| and |S22|of the dual-band system of Fig. 10, radiating at 2.4
and 5 GHz. The coupling is insignificant and did not cause frequency shifts
GHz antenna required 100 mm × 62.5 mm. Figs. 10–12 show
simulated and measured results of the structure. The antennas can
be fed by two different ports, or through a coupler if only one port
is used.
The simulated |S21| that is used to characterise the mutual
coupling between the two antennas is below −30 dB, which
indicates insignificant coupling and high isolation between the two
antennas (|S12| is omitted by reciprocity). The measured coupling is
even lower, with values around −50 dB. Although the simulated
and measured values differ by about 15 dB, the percentage of
coupled power is <0.1% and is therefore very small. The fact that
the two antennas do not radiate at the same frequencies facilitates
the placement of both antennas in a tightly packed antenna array.
From the |S11| and |S22|, we see the dual-band operation.
6 Conclusion
In this paper, the geometry of an E-shaped patch antenna has been
proposed that, compared to existing state of the art, has wider
fractional bandwidth and significantly reduced dimensions. Also, it
was demonstrated that the antenna design is easily manufacturable,
even manually, and it has the ability to be scaled at other
frequencies, as well as to maintain its pattern shape throughout its
bandwidth. This ability is a merit originating from the utilisation of
air as a substrate, which is achievable by implementing the
proposed design that is easy to fabricate, on only one side of a
sheet of copper, and which is foldable. In addition, coupling was
characterised and the dual-band performance was demonstrated.
Multiple antennas of this kind can be used simultaneously in order
to operate at different bands to achieve multiband behaviour, or
broaden the bandwidth of a single band. The proposed design can
be particularly useful in multiband array configurations through the
demonstrated scaling and tight packing, as well as for wearable
applications.
IET Microw. Antennas Propag., 2018, Vol. 12 Iss. 3, pp. 326-331
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2017
7 Acknowledgments
This project has received funding from the European Union's
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie
Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 709372. Also, the authors
would like to indicate that the work is only the authors' views, and
that the Horizon 2020 Agency is not responsible for any
information contained in the paper.
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