International Journal of Latest Research in Science and Technology

Vol.1,Issue 4 :Page No.403-407 ,November-December (2012)

http://www.mnkjournals.com/ijlrst.htm

ISSN (Online):2278-5299

DESIGN OF 4X4 RECTANGULAR MICROSTRIP

PHASED ARRAY ANTENNA FOR GSM APPLICATION
1
Roshni.S.Babu, 2P.Sampath
PG Scholar roshcute89@gmail.com
2
Associate Professor sampathpalenyswamy@gmail.com
Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu
1

Abstract : In this paper, 4x4 rectangular microstrip patch transmitter/receiver antenna for GSM application is presented. Design
simulation and optimization processes are carried out with the aid of the Advanced Design System (ADS) electromagnetic simulator. The
proposed antenna is fabricated on a 3.175 mm thick RT Duroid substrate with a relative permittivity of 2.3. The antenna offers excellent
performance for GSM systems ranging from 890-915MHz for receiver and 935-960MHz for transmitter antenna. The gain of these
antennas are simulated and found adequate which is about 13.8 and 14.4dBi. Measured and simulated results of the resonant frequency,
return loss, radiation patterns are presented.
Keywords: Microstrip Antenna, GSM, ADS, Return Loss, Radiation Pattern

INTRODUCTION
Wireless communication has become an integral part
for modern world .the most popular standard for mobile
phones in todays world is GSM. The wireless providers use
individual radio frequencies multiple times by dividing a
service area into separate geographical zones, or cells, each
cell requires its own radio transmitter/receiver antenna. GSM
networks operate in different frequency ranges in different
countries around the world. Most GSM networks operate in
the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz bands in Asia and Europe.
Microstrip antennas are perfect choice for GSM
application due to following features, low profile, small size
and conformability. But microstrip antennas suffer from
bandwidth limitations. The bandwidth can be increased by
adding lossy elements but it affects efficiency of the antenna.
So the better method is to use array antenna.
In this design of rectangular microstrip array
antenna for GSM applications, the transmitter antenna array
is expected to operate within 935MHZ-960MHz with center
frequency 947.5 MHz, bandwidth 25MHz and receiver array
antenna within 890 MHZ-915MHz with center frequency
902.5 MHz, bandwidth 25 MHz This antenna array is
fabricated in RT Duroid 5870 substrate with thickness
3.175mm and permittivity 2.3.
4X4 ARRAYANTENNA DESIGN
First, a single microstrip transmitter and receiver
antenna is designed for GSM application. Consider figure 1
below, which shows a rectangular microstrip patch antenna
of length l, width W on a dielectric substrate of height h. the
length and width of antenna can be calculated by
transmission line method , as given below,

Width of antenna is given by

(2.1)
The effective dielectric constant
(2.2)
The extension length is given by

(2.3)
The actual L, in meters is calculated using

(2.4)
To find the feed position, consider

(2.5)
Where,

Fig.1 Rectangular microstrip patch antenna

ISSN: 2278-5299

for

(2.6)

403

Roshni.S.Babu et.al, International Journal of Latest Research in Science and Technology.

for

(2.7)
<<

and so we can ignore

(2.8)
Where,

= position of feed,
L= length of patch,
= radiating conductance.
The designed dimensions of the proposed rectangular single
patch transmitter antenna are L=216.17mm, W=151.23mm,
L1=120.51mm, W1=5.645mm and for receiver antenna L =
205.85 mm, W=155.2 mm, L1 = 8.6656mm, W1 = 121 mm.
The proposed antenna is fabricated on an RT Duroid 5870
substrate with a thickness of 3.175 mm and a relative
permittivity ( ) 2.33. To design a 4x4 microstrip patch
antenna array, Co-corporate feed network is used. Figure 2
shows the configuration of the 4 x 4 microstrip patch array
antenna design for GSM application. Here 16 patch elements
are used and each element has same dimensions as mentioned
above in order to increase the antenna performance. In this
design, the patch elements are connected using quarter
wavelength impedance transformer method.

Fig. 3 S-parameter plot for return loss v/s frequency for

receiver antenna

Fig. 4 S-parameter plot for return loss v/s frequency for

transmitter antenna
Fig. 2 4x4 microstrip patch array antenna

SIMULATION AND RESULTS

A. S-parameter plot for return loss v/s frequency
S parameter calculation has been performed for
rectangular microstrip 4x4 transmitter and receiver array
antenna. The center frequency is selected as the one at which
the return loss is minimum. Fig. 3 shows the receiver antenna
operates at a frequency range of 890-915MHz, with
bandwidth 25MHz and centre frequency of 902.5 MHz Fig.4
shows the transmitter antenna operates at a frequency range
of 935-960MHz, with bandwidth 25MHz and a center
frequency 947.5MHz.

ISSN: 2278-5299

B. Antenna parameters
Some of antenna parameters, such as the gain,
directivity, antenna efficiency and 3 dB beam width for single
patch and 4x4 array transmitter/ receiver antenna are
tabulated below. From the table, it is clear that gain and
directivity of 4x4 phased array antenna is almost double
than that of single patch antenna. The gain and directivity for
single patch transmitter/receiver antenna is 6.96/6.84
and7.97/7.87dBi respectively. And that of 4x4 phased array
transmitter/receiver antenna is about 13.8/12.8 dBi and
15.4/14.5 dBi respectively.

404

Roshni.S.Babu et.al, International Journal of Latest Research in Science and Technology.

TABLE 1 ANTENNA PARAMETERS FOR SINGLE

PATCH TRANSMITTER/ RECEIVER ANTENNA
Parameters Single
patch Single
patch
transmitter
receiver antenna
antenna
Power
radiated
3.14 mW
2.65mW
Effective
Angle
2.00316 steradians 2.0509 steradians
Directivity

7.97 dBi

7.87 dBi

Gain
Maximum
Intensity

6.96 dBi
1.572
mW/steradian

6.84 dBi
1.296
mW/steradian

Angle
Umax

54(theta)

53(theta)

Fig.5 Radiation pattern of 4x4 transmitter array antenna

of

91(phi)

90(phi)

TABLE 2 ANTENNA PARAMETERS FOR 4X4

TRANSMITTER/ RECEIVER ARRAY ANTENNA
Parameters 4x4 transmitter 4x4 receiver array
array antenna
antenna
Power
radiated
Effective
Angle

Fig. 6 Radiation pattern of 4x4 receiver array antenna

1.99 mW

4.65mW

0.99steradians

0.46 steradians

Directivity

12.8dBi

15.4 dBi

Gain
Maximum
Intensity
Angle
of
Umax

13.8dBi
2.33
mW/steradian

14.4 dBi
9.89
mW/steradian

41(theta)

38(theta)

96(phi)

270(phi)

C. Radiation Pattern of Designed Antennas

The radiation pattern is defined as a mathematical
function or a graphical representation of the radiation
properties of the antenna as a function of space coordinates.
The 3D representation of radiation pattern of transmitter and
receiver antenna is shown in figure.

Fig.7 Gain and directivity graph of 4x4 transmitter

array antenna

3. Gain and Directivity Graph

The graph given below shows the gain
and directivity of designed antenna. The gain of an
antenna in a given direction is the amount of
energy radiated in that direction compared to the
energy of an isotropic antenna would radiate in the
same direction when driven with the same input
power. The directivity of the antenna is the
maximum gain of the antenna compared with its
gain averaged in all directions.

Fig. 8 Gain and directivity graph of 4x4 receiver

array antenna

ISSN: 2278-5299

405

Roshni.S.Babu et.al, International Journal of Latest Research in Science and Technology.

From the above graphs, the gain and directivity

obtained for transmitter array antenna are 13.8dBi and 12.8dBi
respectively. And for receiver array antenna corresponding
values are 14.4dBi and 15.4dBi respectively.
D. Linear polarization
The above figure shows the linear polarization of the
antenna which radiates wholly in one plane containing the
direction of propagation E_co and E_cross are the normalized
E field strength of co and cross polarized far-field
component.

Fig. 11 Circular polarization of 4x4 transmitter

array antenna

Fig. 9 Linear polarization of 4x4 transmitter array

antenna

Fig. 12 Circular polarization of 4x4 receiver array

antenna
CONCLUSION

Fig. 10 Linear polarization of 4x4 receiver array

antenna
E. Circular Polarization
The figure shows below the circular polarization of
antenna which can be defined as the polarization in which the
electric field of the passing wave does not change strength
but only changes direction in a rotary manner.

A 4x4 rectangular microstrip phased transmitter/

receiver array antenna has been successfully designed. Here
microstrip feed technique is used to feed single patch antenna.
And corporate feed technique is used for 4x4 array antenna. S
parameter calculation has been performed for the designed
antenna. From the graph, it is clear that the designed antenna
has been radiated in the prescribed range of frequencies
defined for GSM application. Next gain, directivity, effective
area, power radiated absolute field etc. are calculated for
designed antenna.
The future work is to design 8x8 antenna array and
square shaped conformal microstrip phased array antenna for
GSM application.
REFERENCES
1.

2.

3.

ISSN: 2278-5299

Ali Alaeldine, Mohamed Latrach, Hedi Raggad and Zaher

Sayegh ,Design and Optimization of a GSM Printed Dipole Antenna
for Energy Harvesting Applications, IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propagation 2011.
Azhari Bin Asrokin, Anas Bin Abas, and Rizal Helmy Bin Basri,
Design of X-Polarized GSM 900 Base Station Antenna with Field
Test Measurement, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagation 2010.
Behzad Biglarbegian, Mohammad Fakharzadeh, Dan Busuioc,
Mohammad-Reza
Nezhad-Ahmadi,
and
Safieddin

406

Roshni.S.Babu et.al, International Journal of Latest Research in Science and Technology.

Safavi-Naeini , Optimized Microstrip Antenna Arrays for Emerging

Millimeter-Wave Wireless Applications, IEEE Transactions On
Antennas And Propagation, VOL. 59, NO. 5, MAY 2011.
4.

Chen W.-S. and B.-Y. Lee.,A Meander PDA Antenna For

GSM/DCS/PCS/UMTS/WLAN
Applications
,Progress
In
Electromagnetics Research Letters, Vol. 14, 101-109, 2010.
5.
Gary C.-Y. Chen, K. K.-M. Chan, and K. Rambabu, Miniaturized
Yagi Class of Antennas for GSM, WLAN, and WiMax Applications,
IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 56, No. 3, August
2010.
6. Bialkowski, M. E. and K. H. Sayidmarie, Bandwidth consideration for
microstrip reectarrays," Progress In Electromagnetic Research B, Vol.
3, 173{187, 2008.
7. Behera, S. and K. J. Vinoy, Microstrip square ring antenna for
dual-band operation," Progress In Electromagnetics Research,Vol. 93,
41{56, 2009.
8. Muhammad Mahfuzul Alam, Md. Mustafizur Rahman Sonchoy, and
Md. Osman Goni, Design and Performance Analysis of Microstrip
Array Antenna, Progress In Electromagnetic Research Symposium
Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18-21, 2009.
9. K. Shambavi, C. Z. Alex , T. N. P. Krishna, Design and Analysis of
High Gain Milimeter Wave Microstrip Antenna Array for Analysis of
High Gain Millimeter Wave Microstrip Anteanna Array for Wireless
Application, Journal of Applied Theoretical and Information
Technology(JATIT), 2009.
10. Balanis, C.A. (1997). "Antenna Theory: Analysis andDesign." 2nd
ed.New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

ISSN: 2278-5299

407