Performance Annalysis of a Hexagonal Microstrip

Antenna for S-band

S Spectrum Usingg HFSS
Muhammad Rasheduzzaman1, Md Hafiz
H Al Asad2, Md Muhtasim Billah3 and Moham
mmed Hossam-E-Haider4
Department of Electrical Electronic annd Communication Engineering, Military Institute of Science
S and Technology,
Miirpur Cantonment, Dhaka-1216, Bangladesh
1
zaman7009@gmail.com, 2hafizsiignals@gmail.com, 3muhtasim7106@gmail.com, 4haidder8400@yahoo.com

AbstractThis paper presents a hexagonaal shaped microstrip and square shaped patches cann be obtained using hexagonal
patch antenna for S-band application. The antenna
a is designed patch [3].
using cheap FR-4 substrate with a thickneess of 1.6 mm. The
resonance frequency of the antenna is centrred at 3 GHz. The B. Comparison with Circular Shape
S
proposed antenna depicts a maximum gain n of 2.3 dBi at the The shape and area of a hexxagonal microstrip antenna can
centre frequency. The radiation and current distribution pattern
of the antenna are also discussed. A compactt size of 60x60 mm2
be closely approximated to that t of a circular microstrip
is achieved using hexagonal shape. Conveentional microstrip antenna. A circle is a polygon with infinite number of edges
feeding technique is used to achieve impedannce matching at the and highest surface area. Circuular shaped microstrip antennas
desired frequency. do not allow parasitic couplingg due to the curved edge, but
hexagonal microstrip antennas allow parasitic coupling with
Index Terms Microstrip, hexagonal, FR--4, S-band, partial other similar patches due to thhe presence of straight edges.
ground plane. This facilitates the improvem ment of bandwidth. Again, in
contrast to the circular shaped microstrip
m antennas, hexagonal
I. INTRODUCTION microstrip antenna is not symm metrically the same along the
Microstrip patch antennas have a signnificant role in the two major axes, which makkes it possible to have two
world of wireless communication syystems. Presently configurations depending on the t feed positions [2]. Fig. 1
microstrip antennas are widely used inn the microwave shows the two feed positions off hexagonal shape.
frequency region because of their simplicityy and compatibility
with printed circuit technology. Microstrip patch antennas are
low profile and if the substrate is thin enouugh, they may also
be conformable. Most commonly used microstrip patch
antenna shapes are rectangular and circular . These two shapes
has been thoroughly analysed and used beccause of the ease of
calculation of the regularity of shape [1]. Recently
R due to the
advancement in the field of computer aidded antenna design
and simulation, microstrip antenna of other shapes, are
analysed. Hexagonal shape of microstrip anntenna is one of the
promising shapes to be used because of variious reasons [2]. In
many satellite based communication system s hexagonal
antenna is used now a days due to improvedd performance over
rectangular and circular patch. In this paper a regular
hexagonal microstrip antenna for S-band operation
o has been
designed and analysed. Fig. 1 (a) Feed of circular shape, (b) Feed of hexagonal shape along a corner
and (c) Feed of hexagonal shape along centre
c of an edge.
II. REASONS FOR SELECTING HEXAGO ONAL SHAPE
III. ANTENNA DESIGN AND SPECIFICATIONS
Following reasons has been considereed while selecting
hexagonal shape for the antenna design: Fig. 2 shows the design flow
w chart that has been followed
for the antenna design. A verry thin layer of Copper (Cu)
A. Comparison with Rectangular and Squaare Shape conductor has been used as the radiating
r element and feed line.
The important parameters that were
w considered for the design
Detailed comparison of performance characteristics of
of the Hexagonal microstrip patcch antenna are:
rectangular, square and hexagonal microsttrip patch antennas
has shown that rectangular and square antenna
a has some A. Frequency of Operation (fc)
limitations amongst which bandwidth is thee main concern [3]. The resonant frequency of thhe antenna is depending on the
Therefore they are not suitable for most of the
t communication application. The presented anttenna is designed for S-band
system requirements. Having almost sim milar lobe pattern applications. The frequency rannge of S band is approximately
hexagonal antenna has increased bandwidtth limit than those 2 to 4 GHz. The resonant frequuency selected for this design is
two. Again, applying a better substrate betwween the patch and 3 GHz.
ground plane, much higher values with respect to rectangular

978-1-4673-8688-3/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

B. Dielectric Constant of the Substrate ( )
Dielectric constant ( ) of the substtrate used has an
important role in the design of a patcch antenna. While
choosing the substrate, the tangent loss (tan ) has to be
considered. Dimensions of the antenna can c be reduced by
using a substrate with a high dielectric connstant, but it affects
the antenna performance. Giving more importance
i to the
performance and tangent loss rather thhan the size, the
dielectric material chosen for this antenna iss FR-4 epoxy, with
a dielectric constant of 4.6.
C. Height of Dielectric Substrate (h)
For the microstrip patch antenna to be used in
communication devices that are mobile, it is i essential that the
antenna is not bulky. Hence, the heightt of the dielectric
substrate has to be as little as possible. Fig. 3 shows the height
of the substrate of the antenna is 1.6mm whichw is a common
commercial height for the FR-4 epoxy subbstrate. This height
follows Eq. (1).
Fig. 2 Design flow chart.
D. Dimension of the Antenna
The hexagonal element is a regular hexxagon, so, the side
lengths of all sides are of the same length. To determine
dimensions of the hexagon, the procedure mentioned
m in [4] and
[5] has been used. In [4] the resonance frequuency of Equilateral
triangular, Circular, Semi-circular and righht angled triangular
shaped microstrip antennas has been calcculated. In [5] the
resonance frequency of hexagonal andd half hexagonal
microstrip antenna of a given dimension has h been calculated
comparing the hexagonal and half hexagonnal shapes with the
rectangular shape of the same side length and
a then comparing
the area of the rectangular shape with the circular and semi-
circular shapes to use the method of [4]. TheT calculation has
been done considering a coaxial feeding scheme. Initially a
hexagonal antenna has been designed by reversing the
calculations of [4] and [5] to deetermine the dimensions of the
hexagonal antenna for a giveen resonant frequency. After
performing several trial and erroor methods in HFSS simulation,
the dimension of the antenna foor the resonance frequency of 3
GHz and having a microstrip linne feeding has been determined.
The dimension of the optimizedd simulated antenna is shown in
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. Following eqquations have been used for the
calculation of the dimension:
Eq. (2) determines the centtre frequency of the equivalent
circular microstrip antenna of o effective radius and
effective dielectric constant in Tmn mode. and
parameters has been determinedd by equation (3) and (4). The
effective length and width
w of the equivalent
rectangular microstrip antennaa has been determined using
equation (5) and (6). The valuess of increase in length ( ) has
been determined using equationn (7). At last the side length (S)
of the hexagonal microstrip anteenna has been determined using
equation (8).
E. Antenna Feeding Method
Microstrip patch antenna feeeding methods can be classified
into two main categories: conttacting and non-contacting. In
contacting method, the RF poweer is directly fed to the radiating
patch by a connecting elemennt such as microstrip line and
coaxial probe feed. In non-contaacting method, electromagnetic
field coupling such as aperturee coupled feed and proximity
coupled feed is used to transferr power between the microstrip
line and the radiating patch. Chhoice of feeding has impact on
some of the parameters of antennna like bandwidth, impedance
matching and radiation pattern. Fig. 4 shows microstrip line
feed method chosen for the anttenna. In this feed technique, a
conducting strip of the same connductor is connected directly to
the edge of the patch. This meethod of feeding is the easiest,
since it provides ease of fabricattion and simplicity in modeling
as well as impedance matchingg. The main drawback of this
type of feeding is, as the thickkness of the dielectric substrate
increases, surface waves and spurious feed radiation also
increases, which reduces the bandwidth
b of the antenna [1].
This problem has been solvedd using a very small substrate
height in comparison to the lenggth and width of the patch. Fig.
4 also shows the length of the t feed line which has been
selected after several trials connducted in HFSS simulator for
the near optimum result.
F. Ground Plane and Excitatioon Port
The ground plane has beenn modeled as a finite plane. In
this antenna the ground plane dooesnt cover the bottom portion
of the hexagonal patch. It onnly covers the bottom of the
microstrip feed line. This particular confiiguration helps the
antenna to form a near omnidirectional raddiation pattern. The
excitation port is given in the rectangular port
p connecting the
ground plane and the microstrip feed linee vertically. Fig. 3
shows the simulated design of the ground plaane and feed line.

Fig. 5 S-parameter plot forr return loss v/s frequency.

TABLE I
RETURN LOSS OF SIGNIFICANT POIN
NTS AND BANDWIDTH INDICATION

Freq [GHz] dB(S(1,,1)) Comments

Maximum return loss at
3.00 -26.75177
resonant frequency
Fig. 3 Antenna dimensions (Orthogonal-boottom view). 2.3939 -10 1360 MHz bandwidth at
3.7573 -10 -10 dB return loss
2.6041 -14.96722 890 MHz bandwidth at -
3.494 -14.96722 15 dB return loss
2.768 -20.02199 535 MHz bandwidth at -
3.3047 -19.95622 20 dB return loss
2.9162 -25.03533 205 MHz bandwidth at -
3.1211 -24.94533 25 dB return loss

B. Realized Gain
Fig. 6 shows realized gain foor different frequency. Table II
shows the maximum gain achieeved for the resonant frequency
and the maximum bandwidth coonsidering sufficient gain.

Fig. 4 Antenna dimensions (Top viiew).

IV. SIMULATION RESULT

The simulation of the antenna has beeen conducted using
HFSS (High Frequency Structural Simuulator) 15.0. This
simulator analyzes 3D and multilayer struuctures of varying
shapes and different materials. It has been widely used in the
design of patch antennas, wire antennas, andd other RF/wireless
antennas. It can be used to calculate annd plot the S(1,1)
parameters, VSWR, current distributions, radiation patterns,
etc. HFSS computes the electromagnetic structures, antenna Fig. 6 Realized gain foor different frequency.
designs and other RF electronics circuit elem
ments such as filters
and transmission lines by finite element methhod (FEM). TABLLE II
MAXIMUM GAIN AND MAXIMUM BANDWIDTH
A. Return Loss (S(1,1))
Freq (GHz) Gain (d
dB) Comments
The dimension and other design parrameters has been
modified randomly until a specific return looss values S(1,1) < Maximum gain at
3 2.3077
resonant frequency
-10dB has been achieved. Fig. 5 and Table I shows the return
loss values of different frequencies. Returnn loss of -25.7517 2.1007 0.0001 1470 MHz bandwidth at
dB at 3 GHz is the minimum which is the resonance 3.5709 0.0030 0 dB gain
frequency for the designed antenna.
C. Radiation Pattern
Fig. 7 shows 2D polar plotted radiation pattern for varying
angles of phi and theta. Fig. 8 shows ovverall 3D radiation
pattern is shown. Fig. 9 shows 2D rectangular plotted
radiation pattern for different antenna alignm
ment.

Fig. 10 Axial ratio of radiattion for different frequency.

E. Radiation Efficiency
Fig. 11 shows radiation efficciency of the designed antenna
for different frequency.

Fig. 7 2D polar plotted radiation pattern for diffeerent phi and theta.

Fig. 11 Radiation efficienccy for different frequency.

F. Current Distribution
Fig. 8 Overall 3D radiation patterrn.
Fig. 12 shows current distribbution in the hexagonal patch,
feed line and ground plane for the
t resonant frequency (3 GHz).

Fig. 9 Rectangular plotted radiation pattern for differrent antenna alignment.

D. Axial Ratio
Fig. 10 shows axial ratio of radiattion for different Fig. 12 Current distribution in the heexagonal patch, feed line and ground
frequency. plane at resonant frequency (3GHz).
 V. DISCUSSION ON SIMULATION RESULT
From the simulation results it is seen that the antenna does
not have optimum performance in the full S-band spectrum
(2-4 GHz), rather it operates quite satisfactorily from 2.4 GHz
to 3.8 GHz. The best performance of the antenna is at its
resonant frequency (3 GHz). The antenna has a considerate
gain from 2.1 GHz to 3.6 GHz and a gain of 2.31 dB at the
resonant frequency. The antenna is omnidirectional in the YZ
plane, which is expected for the ground to satellite
communication in S-band, considering the antenna is
horizontally aligned with the ground. The axial ratio of the
antenna at and near the resonant frequency is less than 2
which indicates its omnidirectional pattern around 3 GHz
frequency. The antenna has almost 95% radiation efficiency
within 2.4 GHz to 3.8 GHz frequency.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
The scope of hexagonal microstrip patch antenna for S-
band has been analysed. The reason for selecting a hexagonal
shaped antenna has been discussed. A hexagonal microstrip
antenna with microstrip line feed on FR 4 substrate has been
designed and simulated using HFSS 15.0. Some important
parameters such as return loss, gain, radiation pattern, axial
ratio, radiation efficiency and current distribution were
observed to measure the performance of the antenna in the
given band. The resonant frequency selected for the antenna is
3 GHz. The antenna was found to be operable with moderate
performance within 2.4 GHz to 3.8 GHz frequency with an
omnidirectional radiation pattern in YZ plane.

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