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Dual-frequency folded dipole antenna with PBG structure

B. You, B. Lin, J. Zhou and W. Xu


For wideband RFID systems, a dual-frequency printed folded dipole antenna is designed with a photonic bandgap (PBG) structure carved in the antennas arms. Simulated results show that this antenna has good return loss characteristic and hemisphere direction radiation characteristic, at two working centre frequencies of 0.90 and 2.24 GHz. Compared to other improved structures, the new PBG structure has special advantages in simplifying the antenna structure. Considering engineering processes, the inuences of antenna arm width, dielectric loss, the PBG structure bore size and substrate on the performance of an antenna are particularly studied.

frequency in the higher frequency section is 2.24 GHz, at which S11 is 228.21 dB with the bandwidth up 1.002 GHz (1.841 2.843 GHz) and 44.73% relatively for VSWR less than 2. It is obvious that the return loss characteristic is improved and the bandwidth can satisfy the basic request. Also, the H- and E- patterns of the antenna show hemisphere direction radiation characteristic.
5 0 return loss antenna, dB 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 frequency, GHz dielectric bores in antennas metal arms no PBG structure

Introduction: For printed dipole antennae applied widely in radio frequency identication (RFID) systems, there are some shortcomings regarding strong radiation ability, whole direction radiation characteristic, simple process and low cost [1 3]. To broaden the working bandwidth of an antenna, some photonic bandgap (PBG) structures are designed in the antennas metal arms. By introducing a mirror compensation structure for the printed dipole antenna, the radiation characteristics obviously can be improved but with the size having to be expanded nearly twice [4]. By carving a rectangle PBG structure array in the grounded plane of the antenna, working bandwidth can be broaden but with a two-plane structure [5]. Here a dual-frequency printed folded dipole antenna with a PBG structure is designed to meet all the key requirements for modern RFID systems. Antenna structure: Using an FR4 dielectric board of thickness h 2 mm and dielectric constant 1r 4.6, we designed a dual-frequency printed folded dipole antenna with a PBG structure. The whole prole size is only 42 32 mm and the size of the PBG bores is 1 1 mm, with the structure scheme as shown in Fig. 1. The horizontal arms L1, L2, L3 and longitudinal arms W1, W2 constitute an antenna covering 868 870 MHz and 902 928 MHz frequency sections; the horizontal arms L1, L4, L5 and longitudinal arms W3, W4 constitute another antenna covering 2.4 2.4835 GHz frequency sections.
42 mm L2 = 14 mm 3 mm L3 = 14 mm

a
5 0 5 10 15 10 5 0 5 210 180 150 210 180 150 240 120 240 120 270 90 270 90 300 60 300 60 0 330 30 330 0 30

Fig. 2 Return loss and patterns of dual-frequency folded dipole antennae with PBG and without PBG
a Return loss value S11 b H-plane pattern c E-plane pattern
lower frequency section higher frequency section

S11 value of centre frequency dB

15

20

25

2 mm

W1 = 7 mm

W2 = 17 mm

2 mm

30

35 2 3 4 5 6 dielectric constant of substrate 7

32 mm

work bandwidth of antenna, GHz

1 1 mm

a
0.26 0.25 0.24 0.23 0.22 0.21 0.20 2 3 4 5 6 dielectric constant of substrate 7 0.90 2 3 4 5 6 dielectric constant of substrate 7 0.95 1.00 1.05

L1 = 10 mm

W3 = 7 mm L4 = 4 mm 2 mm

W4 = 7 mm L5 = 4 mm

Fig. 1 Scheme of dual-frequency printed folded dipole antenna with PBG structure

Fig. 3 Inuence of dielectric constant on antenna performance

Simulation results: By nite-difference time-domain method (FDTDM), the simulated return loss and directional characteristic of the designed antenna, with h 2 mm and 1r 4.6, are given in Figs. 2a c. In Fig. 2a, the solid line and the dashed line partly present the return loss of the antenna with and without the PBG structure. It is obvious that the new PBG structure can improve the radiation feature of the antenna greatly owing to a periodic structure, broadening the working bandwidth effectively. From Fig. 2a, the working centre frequency of the antenna with the PBG in the lower frequency section is 0.90 GHz, at which the return loss value S11 is 223.73 dB. For VSWR less than 2, the bandwidth is up 0.247 GHz (0.804 1.051 GHz) absolutely and 27.44% relatively. The working centre

a Return loss value S11 b Working bandwidth in lower frequency section c Working bandwidth in higher frequency section

To make better use of this antenna in real process, the inuences of the arm width, dielectric loss angle tangent tgd and the PBG bore size on antenna performance have been discussed. According to the simulated results, arm width of 2.5 or 3 mm, tgd less than 0.02 and adequate bore size would be of benet for the bandwidth and the radiation characteristic. For the deviation of dielectric constant and thickness of the board during the making process of antennae, some simulations of their inuence have been carried out, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. While changing

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 4th June 2009 Vol. 45 No. 12

the dielectric constant or thickness, we keep h 2 mm or 1r 4.6, respectively. It seems necessary to choose suitably adequate dielectric constant and substrate thickness to ensure the performance of the antenna.
lower frequency section higher frequency section

PBG. For improving antenna performance further, we suggest using the dielectric board with gradual dielectric constant. Acknowledgments: This work is supported by the Fujian Provincial Key Project (2007H0036) and Guangdong Provincial Education Ministry Key Project (2007B090400059) of China. We thank staff members of the Microwave Library and Electronic Engineering Library for helpful support. # The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2009 21 March 2009 doi: 10.1049/el.2009.0764

S11 value of center frequency, dB

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55

0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 thickness of substrate h, mm

a
work bandwidth of antenna, GHz 0.30 0.25 1.0 0.20 0.15 0.10 0.8 0.05 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 thickness of substrate h, mm 0.7 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 thickness of substrate h, mm 0.9 1.1

B. You, B. Lin, J. Zhou and W. Xu (Department of Electronic Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Peoples Republic of China) E-mail: eezhoujh@xmu.edu.cn References
1 Stupf, M., Mittra, R., and Yeo, J., et al.: Some novel design for RFID antennas and their performance enhancement with metamaterials. IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Int. Symp., Albuquerque, NM, USA, July 2006, pp. 10231026 2 Tseng, J.-D., Ko, R.-J., and Wang, W.-D.: Switched beam antenna array for UHF band RFID system. IEEE Int. Workshop on Anticounterfeiting, Security, Identication, 2007, pp. 92 95 3 Xu, L., Hu, B.J., and Wang, J.: UHF RFID tag antenna with broadband characteristic, Electron. Lett., 2008, 44, (2), pp. 7980 4 Lin, B., Zhou, J., and You, B.: A novel printed folded dipole antenna used for modern RFID system. 3rd Int. Conf. on Communications and Networking in China (CHINACOM 2008), Hangzhou, China, August 2008, pp. 773 777 5 Lin, B., Zhou, J., You, B., and Xu, W.: A dual-frequency ceramic spiral antenna with rectangle PBG structure array used for modern RFID system. 2nd IET Int. Conf. on Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks (ICWMMN 2008), Beijing, China, October 2008, pp. 9497

Fig. 4 Inuence of thickness of substrate on antenna performance


a Return loss value S11 b Working bandwidth in lower frequency section c Working bandwidth in higher frequency section

Conclusion: The structure design method of a dual-frequency printed folded dipole antenna with a PBG structure is introduced. Simulation results show that the return loss value S11 is 223.73 dB at 0.90 GHz and 228.21 dB at 2.24 GHz. The excellent function of the two-plane antenna is carried out on the one-plane antenna by using the new

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 4th June 2009 Vol. 45 No. 12

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