A Novel Non-Foster Broadband Patch Antenna

Stavros Koulouridis, Spyros Stefanopoulos

Microwave Communication Group, Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept University of Patras Patras, Greece koulouridis@ece.upatras.gr
Abstract We propose a novel antenna matched with non-Foster circuit. A simple narrow resonant patch is transformed into a extremely broadband antenna (with impedance bandwidth less than -10dB) starting from an aperture size /30x/30 up to /13x/13. Patch is supported by a Rogers 6010 dielectric substrate. non-Foster circuits are added at a two-step procedure. First, an additional port is introduced inside the antenna and a series negative network is applied at that port. The topology and values of the elements are obtained from simple graphical formulas. As a result the real part of input impedance is greatly enhanced reaching values close to those of feeding network. At the second step negative matching is added at the input of the antenna to match the imaginary part of input impedance. Keywords- Negative circuitry; minimization; broadband; novel design technique

and increase stability are some options. We can also design and implement lossless matching networks for the tuning of the transistors [12] or we may need to alter the internal design of used amplifiers [13]. In this paper we propose a novel non-Foster design that has been produced from a technique that can tune a large number of different antenna types [14], [15] A port is appropriately added inside the antenna. Then negative circuits are appropriately introduced (negative capacitance and inductance) that, as shown, can greatly alter input impedance. Applied negative circuits permit to increase the very low radiation resistance values and significantly decrease the large antenna reactance that demonstrate at the low frequency regions (i.e. we put our focus on small antennas) Proposed approach can make non-Foster implementation straightforward for several antennas. Using the above technique we transform a simple narrow resonant patch into a very broadband antenna (with impedance bandwidth less than -10dB) starting from an aperture size /30x/30 up to /13x/13. Patch is supported by a Rogers 6010 dielectric substrate. II. REALIZED ANTENNA

I.

INTRODUCTION

Non-Foster matching has gained interest lately. It is true that there are several efforts to design and realize non-Foster networks [1]-[17]. Since the research efforts are continuously targeting antenna minimization it is natural that traditional techniques have reached their limits. Further transistor technology has advanced and many transistors have been proposed that present some stability at a relevant extended bandwidth. Since negative impedance realization is based on active elements transistor technology amelioration has given attractiveness to negative circuits. Negative circuits can very simply produce antennas that they are extremely broadband with low power consumption In order to realize negative networks one has to overcome a number of issues, the simpler of which being the active network topology. Biasing is sometimes needed as common ground between matched device and matching network can generate unwanted loop signals inside the systems and destroy the applied matching. Even if this is overcome, network stability is big issue. In other words one cannot stop at obtaining the topology but he/she should study the circuit from noise and stability point of view. While numerous non-Foster circuit realization have been proposed very few have been actually tested. Further, it is equally important to implement design techniques that will allow improvements in active elements characteristics [7]. Use of FET cascading to decrease the unwanted paracitics of the active elements [11] or transistor biasing [9] to decrease noise

A common patch antenna (see Fig. 1 and [14]) is employed. It has 3.25x3.25cm2 aperture and is printed on Rogers 6010 (r=10.2) substrate. Its thickness is 5mm. Antenna calculated input impedance is given at Fig 2. As can be seen antenna has a narrow resonance at f=1.59GHz with 30 MHz -10dB impedance bandwidth. This is commonly expected. Naturally optimizing feeding positions, bandwidth could be somewhat enhanced, nevertheless this would not lead to significant changes to the general antenna performance. Further, if we tried to apply matching (either passive or negative) at the input we would not achieve much since radiation resistance is nearly zero away from the resonance. We can now select a second port inside the antenna to apply our technique. Position of second port can be seen in Fig. 1. As seen, port is placed at a symmetric point to the feeding in relation with the antenna center. According to discussed method [14], [15] we can calculate a load ZL that, when applied at the second port, could alter input impedance at will. In practice needed load is not realizable at a wide frequency band [14], [15]. However, restricting the frequency region of interest, for example below 1GHz, certain characteristics of ideal load can be reproduced to our benefit. Then a second

negative network can be introduced at the input to finally match the antenna. In Fig. 3 the designed non-Foster network topology is given. As seen, at the antenna second port (on the right) we introduce a grounded series RLC circuit. Resistor R has a low value of R=1 so losses should be low, still it is very important for the antenna matching network. At a second design phase we add the non-Foster LC network at the antenna input (left of antenna in Fig. 3). In Fig. 4 the input impedance (Z1, see Fig. 3) before applying the second matching network is shown. Input resistance has been greatly ameliorated slightly varying around 50Ohm at a frequency from 100MHz up to 1GHz. Input reactance can be now negated by applying a series non-Foster LC at the antenna input. Indeed as seen in Fig. 5 ideal final matched input impedance is demonstrating a wide 50 Ohm bandwidth from around 300MHz up to 1GHz. III. REALIZED NETWORKS AND STABILITY

topology. While a number of Negative Impedance Converters (NIC) based on transistors have been proposed, stability of the final network is not assured. To that end, we test several topologies that are evaluated against Nyquist stability criterion. Final antenna presents an impressive impedance bandwidth for an aperture of /30 x /30 up to /13 x /13.
Substrate: r =10.2

Introduced Port

Feeding

Figure 1. A second port is introduced at a 3.25x3.25cm2 patch antenna with r= 10.2. This will allow us to match the antenna with negative elements and increase its bandwidth relatively easily.
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Designing an ideal non-Foster network is certainly not trivial. Still it can provide us with impressive results. Difficulty however emerges from non-Foster network realization. A collection of non-Foster topologies can be found in [16]. Negative networks are realized with transistors and they are mainly divided into grounded and floating topologies. Any of the topologies in [16] can be theoretically used and implemented. However, their implementation can lead to instabilities that need to be addressed. Therefore, the difficulty of negative networks implementation lies in the design and fabrication of a stable active network. While there are multiple theorems to define stability criteria (that sometimes can be contradictory [17]) it is not easy to define a common route for designing stable non-Foster networks. Usually one will implement non-Foster active topology and then obtained circuit will be validated against stability theorems. For our case we will follow the open loop gain stability Nyquist criterion [17], [18]. According to Nyquist criterion a closed loop system with negative feedback will be stable if the Nyquist plot of the open loop gain does not encircle the 1-j0 point (see Fig. 6). Open loop gain is formed based on the analysis in [18]. Outcome of the stability tests defines the type and topology of negative inverters implemented. In Fig. 7 we present the final input impedance after applying the actual network topology that passed the stability test. As seen, there is a deviation from the ideally expected results. Input resistance have slight differences. Reactance though is increasing after 700MHz and considerably deviates. Therefore impedance bandwidth is now restricted to 300MHz to 700MHz. Still, results are impressive. IV. CONCLUSION

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Figure 2. Initial input impedance of the antenna (see also [14])

Figure 3. Non-Foster network with a series RLC (R=1, C=-17pF, L= -4nH connected at the new port (see Fig. 1) and a series LC (L=-8nH, C=-2.5pF) at the input.
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In present work, a broadband patch antenna is introduced with the utilization of non-Foster matching. The antenna, being initially narrow resonant, is loaded with non-Foster matching at an imaginary port inside its structure. In that way we control input impedance and match the antenna at frequency of interest. Apart from applying ideal lumped negative elements though, of equal importance is the realization of non-Foster

Figure 4. Input Impedance Z1 (see Fig. 3) after adding the RLC (see Fig 4) combination at the antenna additional port and before introducing the LC combination at the antenna input.

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REFERENCES
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[5] Figure 5. Final expected input impedance Zin (see Fig. 3) after introducing the additional LC circuit at the antenna input. [6]

[7]

[8]

[9] Figure 6. Stability criterion for Nyquist diagram of open loop gain for transistor network of the Negative Impedance Converters
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[11] [12]

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[16] Figure 7. Final input impedance (simulated) after implementing the actual active network topology. [17]

[18]