Design and Analysis of Directive Microstrip Patch Array Antennas with Series, Corporate and Series-Corporate Feed Network

Abstract

In the recent years the development in communication systems requires the development of low cost, minimal weight and low profile antenna that is capable of maintaining high performance over a wide spectrum of frequencies. This technological trend has focused much effort into the design of a microstrip patch antenna. The aim of this paper is to design and simulate a rectangular microstrip patch array antenna using HFSS software "Ansoft-High Frequency Structure Simulator" and compare the performance of 2 elements, 4 elements, 8 elements, and 16 elements patch arrays with that of a single patch for the same operating frequency. Also comparisons are made between the performance of series, corporate and series-corporate feed network in terms of return loss, gain, directivity and radiation pattern. Details of simulated results are presented and discussed. Enhancement in gain, directivity and better return loss performance can be obtained by the use of RT-DURROID substrate because Low dielectric constant substrates are generally preferred for maximum radiation. Quarter wave transformer and power divider are used to feed the elements. These arrays are designed to operate at a frequency of 10 GHz. Our goal is to obtain a high directivity with better gain and reduced losses, to be especially used for X band applications such as satellite communication, radar, medical applications, and other wireless systems.

Antenna Array Design using Hybrid Feed for High Frequency Application

“…Where P,Q are integers and in the design the value of P=1 and Q=0, λ∘ and λ are free space wavelength and operating wavelength, and eff are relative dielectric constant and effective dielectric constant calculated using equation (3) [8] and △L is the extension in patch length due to fringing field calculated using equation (4) [11].…”

“…Inter separation, transmission line length, width between the elements in an array is calculate using following equation (7), (8), (9) and (10) [2].…”

Radiation Characteristics Enhancement of Microstrip Triangular Patch Antenna using Several Array Structures

“…Main limitation of microstrip is that it radiate efficiently only over a narrow band of frequencies and they can't operate at the high power levels of waveguide, coaxial line, or even strip-line [5]. This can be minimized with the help of various array configurations [8], feeding methods [4], dielectric materials [9, 10, and 11] and ground planes. Antenna arrays are used to scan the beam of an antenna system, to increase the directivity, gain and enhance various other functions which would be difficult with single element antenna.…”

A Novel Omnidirectional Triangular Patch Antenna Array Using Dolph Chebyshev Current Distribution for C-Band Applications

“…The effects of feed network are also very important in a high gain microstrip antenna array. There are different types of feeding techniques to improve the gain as well as directivity such as series, corporate and series-corporate, among which series-corporate feed has a higher directive gain than series and corporate feeding technique [6]. Now for an omnidirectional antenna we need to suppress side lobes.…”