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Microstripline-fed Circularly-polarized Aperture Antenna The Nan Chang ,and Chung -Pei Wu E.

E Department Tatung Institute of Technology No.40, Sec.3, Chungshan North Road. Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract:
A technique to generate circularly polarized aperture antenna is presented in this paper. This antenna uses a microstrip line to feed a truncated square aperture. A tuning metal strip is placed across the diagonal line of the aperture. Experiment shows that the metal strip will improve both input V.S.W.R. and axial ratio of this antenna. It is found that 20% bandwidth for lOdR return loss and 5% bandwidth for less than 3dB bore sight axial ratio can easily be achieved. Intmduction: Circularly polarized antennas have been found many applications in areas of communication. Meanwhile, many techniques have also been developed to generate circular polarization using microstrip patch antenna. A truncated square patch fed by a microstrip or coaxial line is one of the candidates1 I]. However. the resulting polarization and input impedance bandwidth are generally narrow. On the other hand, microstrip slot antenna using a W d e slot has been reported to have bandwidth greater than lOC(21. The above statement is only made for linear polarization. In fact, how to generate circularly polarized microstrip slot antenna is still missing in the open literature. In this paper, we present a novel technique to generate CP wave with a wide bandwidth. The antenna uses a truncated square aperture in the ground plane fed by a microstrip. A metal strip should also be attached along one diagonal line of the aperture. This metal strip is used to decompose field into two orthogonal directions. At first glance, one may argue that the metal strip is not necessary as compared to a truncated square patch antenna. However, our experiment reveals that the metal strip will improve both input V3.W.R and axial ratio of this antenna. Operating Mechanism: Fig. I shows the antenna structure. A truncated square aperture with a metal strip across its diagonal line is cut in the ground line. The strip conductor of the microstrip is on the opposite side of a substrate with E , = 2.7. Parameter, t, is used to control the feed point. The metal strip placed across the diagonal line of the aperture is needed to efficiently excite both horizontal and vertical electric field components on the aperture plane. To generate circular polarized wave, it is necessary to have 90 phase differences between them. l o achieve this purpose, two corners of the square aperture are modified as shown. It is expected that relative phase of the vertical and 0-7803-4478-2/98/$10.M) 0 1998 IEEE
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horizontal field components can be adjusted. The feed point is chosen close to the center of the aperture. We choose t = 10.25cm.

Experimental results: The experiment is proceeded in a 6m x 8m x 6n1 shielded anechoic chamber. The prototype rnicrostripline fed "wide slot" antenna is used for receiving and the linear polarized log-periodic antenna with gain Cr = 6 dBi is for transmitting. The two antennas at height 1.5m are separated by a distance R = 3.9m. The reference received to transmitted power ratio ( WRI WT)RI( of -30 dB is recorded by inserting a 30 dB attenuator between the two antenna temunals. This procedure will cancel out the possible cable loss. The actual received to transmitted power ratio is denoted by ( WRI WT )An. Gain, GR,of the receiving antenna is calculated by:

GR =IO lw,o{( %/w, LA w r y - )Rt,("PR/kPJ-C;-jmB


Due to the configuration of this structure. the vertical polarized signal ( y-polarized) is easily received when used as a receiving antenna. For horizontal polarized signal, Fig2 shows the gain of the antenna with metal , , of 0 (with no strip), 3, and 5cm respectively. It is seen that strip length. L more horizontal power can be received with a longer tuning strip. Therefore, there is a possibility to receive circular polarized wave. For horizontal polarized signal. Fig.3 shows the gain of the antenna with different cut length, a, around the corner of the square aperture. In this example, it is found that more horizontal power can be received when a = lcm. Fig.4 shows the receiving power of the vertical polarized (y-polarized) and horizontal polarized (x-polarized) signals. In this experiment, the metal strip is 5cm and the cut length of square aperture is a = Icm. We also measured that the bandwidth for less than 3dB axial ratio at bore sight is about 5%. Fig3 shows the measured horizontal (@ = 0") and vertical (@ = 90") plane radiation pattern. It is shown that less than 3dB axial ratio at bore sight can be achieved. It is noted that this antenna can radiate in both forward and rear directions. Only forward pattern is shown here. Fig.6 shows the measured reflection coefiicient with different metal strip length. Apparently, bandwidth of this antenna is wider than that of the patch antenna. Conclusion: In summary, we have presented a circularly polarized aperture antenna with a single feed. This antenna has a wider bandwidth than microstrip patch antenna. It is shown that various parameters like the metal strip length, the feed point can be adjusted for better performance. However. optimum design needs more extensive study.

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Hefemnces: [ I ] W. F. Richards, Y. T. Lo. and D. D.Harrison, An Improved Theory for Microstrip Antennas and Applications, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-29. pp. 38-46. January 1981. [2] Collier, M., Microstrip Antenna Array for 12 GHz TV, Microwave J., Vol. 20. Sept. 1977, pp, 67-71.

Figl. The structure of a p r o p 4 circularly-polarized aperture antenna.

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Wg5. Mawrod pallem olhcrirrxilal and vmical plow r. 2.1. I 1O.ZJcm. w = lcm, L. = 6.5cm. Lm Jon. Wm
.l.~nI..*lm.

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