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Design and analysis of novel microstrip patch antenna on photonic crystal in

THz

Article in Physica B Condensed Matter · May 2018

DOI: 10.1016/j.physb.2018.05.045

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 Physica B: Condensed Matter 545 (2018) 107–112

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Physica B: Condensed Matter

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/physb

Design and analysis of novel microstrip patch antenna on photonic crystal in T

THz
Ritesh Kumar Kushwahaa,∗, P. Karuppanana, L.D. Malviyab
a
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, 211004, India
b
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, SGSITS, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, 452003, India

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Recent advancement of communication system requires low cost, minimal weight, low profile and high-per-
Microstrip patch antenna formance antenna to execute the demand of the future realization. A high gain novel microstrip patch antenna
CST design is proposed, based on the photonic crystal for terahertz (THz) spectral band applications. This antenna is
PBG mounted on polyimide substrate that employs Photonic Band Gap (PBG) crystal and the Gain of 7.934 dB,
Polyimide
Directivity 8.612 dBi and VSWR close to unity at resonant frequency of 0.6308 THz. The proposed antenna
THz band
model is compared with homogeneous polyimide substrate structure based microstrip patch antenna and ana-
Radiation characteristic
lyzed the radiation characteristics. Moreover, the performance of designed antenna is investigated with different
PBG cylindrical distance, PBG hole radius, curvature radius of patch and substrate heights. The projected design
antenna has a bandwidth of 36.25 GHz and −10 dB impedance with operating frequency range varying from
0.6152 THz to 0.6514 THz, hence it can be utilized for detection of explosive and material characterization
applications.

1. Introduction overcome those challenges, the planar antenna is most suitable among
the existing designs for frequency tuning and creating reconfigurable
During the last decade, significant advancement in the commu- structure.
nication system at terahertz spectrum and emerged into an active area Subsequently, Sharma et al. [18] designed rectangular Microstrip
of research. The THz is defined as a part of electromagnetic spectrum Patch Antenna on the multilayered substrate and showed promising
between microwave and infrared regions, which ranges in the fre- results, where 10.59 dB gain and 90.69% efficiency were observed at
quency varying from 0.1 to 10 THz. This frequency band promises a 875 GHz. Similarly, 4 x 4 planar array antenna for terahertz band was
remarkable application in high-speed communications up to 10 Giga proposed in Ref. [19] and obtained directive gain of 11.7 dBi at
bits per second (Gbps) [1], spectroscopic imagine [2], materials char- 300 GHz. Remarkably, in contrast of the above discussion, to achieve
acterization [3], agriculture and medical industry [4,5], due to its high high-performance of microstrip antenna, thicker dielectric substrate
resolution, non-ionic, high frequency region as miniaturized in size, and large ground plane considered one of the alternate, but it suffers
spatial directivity, high speed communication and wider bandwidth. surface wave losses. The performance of antenna deteriorates in terms
Nevertheless, it would be worth noting that the Terahertz frequency of bandwidth, efficiency, and gain of the antenna due to these losses.
regime suffers high attenuation path loss owing to the presence of low Therefore, considering these factors into account, the PBG structures
attenuation windows [6]. Therefore, the desire of high Gain antennas are utilized now-a-days to overcome this problem.
for the detection of explosives via spectroscopic techniques is a primary Thus, novel substrate structures and materials have been studied to
aspect from the technology point of view. So far, various antennas have design the patch antenna, which prevents the electromagnetic waves
been reported in THz region, some of the common structures are: Yagi- propagating through the substrate by creating a barrier at particular
Uda [7], log-periodic [8], bow tie [9], on-chip antenna [10], MEMS THz frequencies [20]. Photonics Band Gap (PBG) structure was de-
antenna [11],Meta-material based antennas [12,13] Substrate In- signed and suggested elsewhere [21–23]. Moreover, Zhang et al.
tegrated Wave Guide antennas [14], Leaky wave antenna [15], Lens [24–26] investigated the properties of PBG for two-dimensional
antenna [16], and wideband horn antenna [17], however the compli- plasma-dielectric crystals by introducing the transverse magnetic wave
cations in structure design and size is the major concern. Therefore, to (TM) and concluded that tuning frequency can be achieved by choosing

∗
Corresponding author. +91 9893005242 (mobile).
E-mail addresses: riteshkushwaha04@gmail.com (R.K. Kushwaha), pkaru@mnnit.ac.in (P. Karuppanan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2018.05.045
Received 28 February 2018; Received in revised form 23 May 2018; Accepted 30 May 2018
Available online 31 May 2018
0921-4526/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
R.K. Kushwaha et al. Physica B: Condensed Matter 545 (2018) 107–112

the different structures of PBGs. These PBG structures are a periodic

arrangement of a hollow air cylinder having circular, hexagonal, tri-
angular and elliptical in shape which is implanted in the dielectric
substrate material. PBG has been successfully applied for developing
high-performance microstrip patch antennas. Subsequently, many ar-
ticles have been promulgated to demonstrate the performance of patch
antenna depending on the regular arrangement of the cylindrical hole
of PBG material [27]. However, they showed an inherent low directive
gain [28–31] in the terahertz region. Consequently, to improve the
performance of patch antenna, still, there being a possibility of
choosing a suitable dielectric material and substrate height.
In this paper, the design of an effective THz, novel micro-strip patch
antenna has been proposed and presented. The performance of the
suggested antenna on PBG substrate is compared with the same patch
antenna mounted on the homogeneous substrate. In addition to this, the
effect on radiation characteristics has been analyzed by changing the
curvature radius of the patch, and substrate height. The paper is or-
ganized as follows: in section 2, microstrip patch antenna design and
the PBG substrate structure mathematical modeling is explained. In
section 3, patch antenna has been simulated and analysis has been
done. Finally, the conclusion of this article is given in section 4.

2. Patch antenna design

A microstrip patch antenna is a low profile antenna, mounted over

the ground plane and separated by dielectric substrate material.
Basically, the patch has different shapes and sizes like rectangular,
circular, elliptical, triangular etc. Fig. 1 shows the proposed prototype
antenna design. Fig. 1(a) represents the microstrip patch antenna with
microstrip line feed, Fig. 1(b) denotes the substrate layer after im-
plantation of photonic band gaps, and Fig. 1(c) demonstrates the ver-
tical cross-section view of proposed antenna design. The dimensions of
rectangular patch antenna are calculated according to the following
expressions [32]:
(2M + 1) λ
Wp = × 0
εr 2 (1)

Lp =
(2N + 1)
εeff
× ( ) − 2 × ΔL
λ
2
(2)

where Wp is the width of a patch;

Lp is the length of patch;

M and N are non-negative integers (In the present work,
M = N = 1);
λ0 and λ are the free-space and operating wavelengths;
εr is the relative dielectric constant;
εeff is the effective dielectric constants;
and, ΔL is the patch length extension due to Fringing field effect.

The feeding line (FL) width (Wf) is computed based on the total
input impedance (Za ) of the antenna and is given by:
11.96λ 0
Za =
Wf (3)

Finally, Za is matched with the standard 50Ω impedance through

feeding line length Lf with the characteristic impedance as Z0 = 50xZa.
Therefore, Wf is figured as,
7.475h
Wf = − 1.25t
exp(x ) (4)
Z ε +1
where, x = o 87r , and h, t are the height of substrate and thickness of
the patch respectively.
The dimensions of substrate and ground are calculated from the Fig. 1. Model of proposed antenna (a) Top view (b) Front view (c) 3D view.
following expression:

108
R.K. Kushwaha et al. Physica B: Condensed Matter 545 (2018) 107–112

Ws = Wg = Wp + 2 × Lf (5)

Ls = Lg = Lp + 2 × Lf (6)

where, Ws , Wg are the width and Ls , Lg are the length of substrate and
ground plane respectively.
In the present work, proposed designed is having an elementary
structure, which is obtained by cutting a rectangular patch in curvature
from both the sides. The idea behind adopting such geometry is to
manage certain amount of size reduction. PBG structure is created on
the substrate by implanting the periodic arrangement of air cylinder
circular hole with a diameter (D) and the distance between cylinders is
“S”. The main aim of creating the photonic band gaps is to suppress the
surface waves and enhance the performance of the proposed design.
The material preferred for dielectric layer is Polyimide having the di-
electric constant of 3.5 and loss tangent of 0.0025. The substrate of a
dimension of 800 μm × 600 μm and height is 191.29 μm, radius of the
cylinder is 11.95 μm, and separation between cylinders is 100 μm can
be used to obtain PBG structure.
The radiating patch is having the width of 460 μm , a curvature Fig. 3. VSWR performance in homogeneous and PBG substrate structure.
radius of 75 μm is mounted over the rectangular ground plane. The
augmented dimension of the microstrip feed line is 156 μm × 168 μm to antenna with homogeneous substrate structure can be observed in black
achieved 50 Ω impedance. The thickness of patch, feeding line and solid line. Moreover, implementing the photonic crystal in the substrate
ground plane is 7 μm which is made-up by the copper conductor. The layer of the proposed curvature shaped patch antenna is analyzed fur-
optimized dimensions of patch antenna are finally obtained by using ther. It could be clearly observed that the PBG antenna offers resonant
the CST microwave studio tool. frequencies of 0.6308 THz with return loss values (S11≤ −10 dB) of
−44.71 dB. The effect of periodic PBG is clarified from the red solid
3. Simulated results and discussion line. The bandwidths offered by the proposed antenna with periodic
PBG are 36.23 GHz for the frequency band of 0.615–0.651 THz.
The THz antenna plays an important role in the ultra-broadband Fig. 3 shows the impact of PBG in 2:1 Voltage Standing Wave Ratio
and secured data transfer in the wireless communication systems. The (VSWR) shown in red solid curve. The value of VSWR slightly improves
radiation characteristics of the proposed antenna is designed and in- by 0.153 from 1.2054 to 1.0115 for the proposed antenna as compared
vestigated in the frequency range varying from 0.615 to 0.651 THz, to homogeneous substrate structure. The value of observed VSWR re-
using the CST microwave studio 2015 simulation tool and the perfor- veals signal reflected back to the source owing to the mismatch between
mance is analyzed in term of Gain (dB), Directivity (dBi), Return loss the impedance of source and antenna. In an ideal case the value of
(S11), Bandwidth (GHz), VSWR, and Radiation efficiency (%). VSWR must be equal to 1 which suggests zero reflection from the an-
tenna impedance, but practically it can be tolerable to 2.
3.1. Comparison of proposed antenna with homogeneous substrate So far, we have clearly discussed about performance parameters of
the antenna that plays a vital role in the analysis of antenna. Therefore,
In the present work, two types of antennas have been proposed for the gain of the proposed antenna design must be taken into account for
comparison and analyzing the significance of PBG structure. It is ob- the further analysis. Fig. 4 shows the PBG in gain and efficiency of the
served from Fig. 2, the return loss plot in the initial prototype antenna proposed patch antenna. It is observed that PBG antenna has yield a
with homogeneous substrate resonate at a frequency of 0.6289 THz and peak gain of 7.934 dB and efficiency of 85.93% which is basically an
offers the return loss (S11 ≤ −10 dB) of −20.745 dB, and absolute encouraging result as compared to homogeneous patch antenna gain
bandwidth of 34.92 GHz approximately. The design of proposed

Fig. 4. Gain and Radiation Efficiency performance in homogeneous and PBG

Fig. 2. Return Loss performance in homogeneous and PBG substrate structure. substrate structure.

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R.K. Kushwaha et al. Physica B: Condensed Matter 545 (2018) 107–112

Table 1
Comparison of proposed antenna with existing design.
Particular fr (THz) S11 (dB) BW (GHz) Gain (dB) Directivity (dBi) VSWR Radiation Efficiency (%)

[28] 0.670 −24 – 7.3 – – –

[29] 0.96 −13.05 310 3.8 – 1.3 –
[30] 0.676 – – 5.22 5 1 –
[31] 0.750 −35 50 5.09 5.71 – 86.58
Present work Homogeneous Substrate 0.6289 −20.745 34.92 6.59 7.419 1.2054 82.46
PBG Substrate 0.6308 −44.71 36.23 7.94 8.612 1.0115 85.71

Fig. 5. (a) Effect of separation distance of photonic crystal on Return Loss, (b)
Effect of separation distance of photonic crystal on Gain.
Fig. 6. (a) Effect of radii of photonic crystal on return loss, (b) Effect of radii of
(6.59 dB) and radiation efficiency of 82.46%. photonic crystal on Gain.
The comparison of the radiation characteristics of the proposed
design with the earlier existing antennas [25–28] is illustrated in 3.2.1. Effect of separation distance between the photonic crystals
Table 1. On comparison, we can clearly observe that the performance of For the PBG substrate structure, the effect of separation distance on
the proposed antenna is better at the resonance frequency of return loss and observed gain is analyzed. From Fig. 5(a), it was clearly
0.6308 THz. envisaged that the values obtained in return loss factor with the re-
sonant frequency shifts towards the higher side on decreasing the dis-
3.2. Effect of photonic crystal on patch antenna tance between the photonic crystals and vice-versa. Moreover, it clearly
suggests that the best performance of the return loss is obtained at a
In this section, the effect of photonic crystals parameter of PBG hole distance of 100 μm and represented in black solid line.
radii (d) and separation distance (S) are analyzed on performance of Similarly, Fig. 5(b) show that the effects on the gain with different
proposed antenna. values of separation distance of the photonic crystal. The performance

110
R.K. Kushwaha et al. Physica B: Condensed Matter 545 (2018) 107–112

Fig. 8. (a) Effect of different substrate heights on return Loss, (b) Effect of
Fig. 7. (a) Effect of different Curvature radius on Return Loss, (b) Effect of different substrate heights on gain.
different Curvature radius on Gain.
3.3. Effect of curvature radius on the proposed antenna
of achieve gain at a 100 μm is found to be promising at resonance
frequency and is represented in black solid line. Fig. 7(a) shows the effect of different curvature radius (r) in return
loss. It is observed that return loss slightly varying with the change in
curvature radius. Similarly, Fig. 7(b) shows the radius in gain and ef-
3.2.2. Effect of hole radii of photonic crystal ficiency and found that very slight or nominal change is observed.
Due to the structure of PBG, effective permittivity is reduced in Hence, it could be suggested that the patch antenna having the curva-
antenna when the hole radius (d) is increased. The changes of hole ture radius of 75 μm has better performance at the resonance frequency
radius as shown in Fig. 6 is investigated in the range 7.95 μm–23.95 μm of 0.6308 THz. Moreover, the performance of the proposed antenna
for uniform structure. For the PBG substrate structure, the effect of hole does not represent much variation with the curvature radius; except the
radii on return loss and observed gain is analyzed. It is obvious that return loss factor.
along with increase in hole radius, the resonance frequency of design is
shifted from low frequencies to higher frequencies as shown in
3.4. Effect of different substrate height in radiation performance of proposed
Fig. 6(a). It was clearly observed that the value obtained in return loss
antenna
factor with the optimum resonant frequency is obtained at radii of
11.95 μm which is shown by red solid line.
Fig. 8(a) shows the effect of substrate height (h) in the return loss. It
Similarly, Fig. 6(b) shows that the effect on gain with different
is observed that the value of return loss is tuned at a different level on
values of hole radii of photonic crystal, however, performance of
changing the height of the substrate, because the surface movement of
achieving gain is found to be promising at resonance frequency and is
waves changes the return loss value. Also, Fig. 8(b) shows the effect of
represented in red solid line.
substrate height in achieving the gain. Interestingly, it can be seen that
gain is increasing with the increase in height along with the slight

111
R.K. Kushwaha et al. Physica B: Condensed Matter 545 (2018) 107–112

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