A Dual-layer Frequency Selective Surface Reflector

for Wideband Gain Enhancement of a Slot Antenna

Ayan Chatterjee#1, Bappaditya Mandal#2, Susanta Kumar Parui#3
#

Department of Electronics and Tele-Communication Engineering

Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal, India
1
ayanmrinal26@gmail.com, 2bappaditya.kgec@gmail.com, 3arkapv@yahoo.com

Keywords-Wideband; slot antenna; frequency selective

surface (FSS); gain; dual-layer; reflector.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Slot antennas offering large bandwidth gained importance

due to its applications in ground penetrating radar (GPR),
hand held devices like cellular phones, laptops and remotesensing devices [1]. Slot antennas are bi-directional
radiators, whereas applications involving line-of-sight
(LOS) communication and high signal to noise ratio (SNR)
require directional radiation patterns [2-3]. Directional
radiation from the slot antenna also enhances its gain in the
broadside direction along with reduced side lobe levels
(SLL) [4-5]. Wideband gain enhancement of these antennas
in a specific direction is a bit difficult. In the recent years,
periodic metallic structures such as Frequency Selective
Surfaces (FSS) are being used in the form of substrate or
superstrate [6-7] for the enhancement of antenna
performance like gain, directivity, and bandwidth.
II.

DESCRITION OF THE ANTENNA AND FSS

A. Wide- Slot Antenna

A pentagon shaped slot is chosen in the ground plane
(75mm 75mm) with dissimilar side lengths and angles to
achieve optimal matching and excite two close resonant
modes leading to a wide bandwidth. The antenna is
designed in the frequency band (3-6 GHz) with two
resonances near 3.4GHz and 5.2GHz respectively. For the
first resonance, length of slot has been chosen by:

Slot length =   




/

(1)

Where C0 is the speed of light in free space (3108 m/s), fr is

the desired resonating frequency (3.4GHz) and r (=4.4) is

the relative permittivity of the dielectric (FR4) of thickness

1.6mm. Length of the resonating slot is chosen near 27mm
and width of the feed line as 3mm for 50 input impedance.
The antenna dimensions are shown in the Fig. 1(b) below.
B. Design Principle of the FSS Layers
A dual-layer FSS has been designed to offer a wide
reflection bandwidth over 3-6GHz in which the antenna
operates. FSS layers are coupled directly with the dielectric.
Unit cells of the top and bottom FSS layers are shown in the
Fig. 1(c) and (d) respectively. Miniaturization of the top
layer FSS unit cell dimensions is achieved by introducing a
split ring shaped slot in the square patch. The top FSS unit
cell dimensions have been optimized to operate near
5.5GHz covering 4.5-6GHz whereas a square loop is used in
bottom layer to resonate near 4GHz covering 3-4.5GHz.
Unit cell dimensions of the FSS layers as shown in the
Fig.1 are as follows: x=y=10.6mm, a=9mm, b=7.2mm,
g=1mm, d=9.2mm, w=0.4mm. FR4 (glass-epoxy) has been
chosen as the dielectric material with 2mm thickness.

Fig. 1 (a) 3D view of Antenna with the FSS layers. (b) Slot antenna (All
dimensions are in mm). Unit cells of (c) top FSS and (d) bottom FSS Layer
0

Transmission Coefficient (dB)

Abstract A method of gain enhancement of a slot antenna

over a wide bandwidth using a dual layer reflective frequency
selective surface (FSS) has been discussed in this paper. The
FSS exhibits transmission below -10dB in the frequency band
3-6 GHz in which the antenna operates, and enhances its gain
in the broadside direction when used as substrate below the
antenna. Theoretical analysis of the antenna-FSS composite
structure is performed using Ansoft HFSS that shows an
improvement of upto 4dB gain over the whole frequency range.
The structure gives a peak theoretical gain of 9dB and varies
mostly between 6-8dB in the frequency band. Overall
dimension of the structure is 75mm75mm18.6mm.

-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
2

Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 2 Transmission coefficient and Surface current of the FSS structure

CHARACTERISTICS OF ANTENNA WITH FSS

A 3-D schematic of the antenna with the FSS reflector of

77 cells is given in the Fig. 1(a). Simulated transmission
coefficient (S21) for the FSS is shown in Fig. 2. The second
order FSS exhibits a 72% bandwidth (-10dB) with respect to
4.2GHz, covering 3-6GHz. Surface current distribution
(A/m) for the unit cells of the FSS layers at the resonating
frequencies are also shown which indicates that the square
loop FSS resonates near 4.2GHz whereas the other FSS near
5.5GHz. The FSS reflector when placed below the antenna
reflects all the signals in phase towards the broadside
direction of radiation leading to enhancement in gain in the
same direction. The reflector is placed at a height H below
the antenna and is maintained at 15mm that is 0.20 (0 is the
free space wavelength for the centre frequency 4.5GHz). The
simulated reflection coefficients of the antenna without and
with FSS at different H are shown in the Fig. 3.

-5

Reflection Coefficient (dB)

8
7
6
5
4
3
2

Antenna
Ant+FSS (H 15mm)
Ant+FSS (H 20mm)

2.8 3.2 3.6 4.0 4.4 4.8 5.2 5.6 6.0 6.4

Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 5 Simulated Gain (dB) of the antenna with and without FSS reflector

The variation of gain (dB) of the antenna with frequency in

the broadside direction of radiation without and with the FSS
at different height H is shown in the Fig. 5. The gain is
enhanced by 1-4dB with FSS within 3-6GHz and a peak gain
9dB is achieved for H 20mm.

0
-10
-15
-20

IV.

-25
-30
-35

Antenna
Ant+FSS (H 15mm)
Ant+FSS (H 20mm)

-40
-45
2

Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 3 Reflection coefficient of the antenna with and without FSS reflector

Gain (dB)

Gain (dB)

III.

10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-180 -135 -90

CONCLUSION

A pentagon shaped wide-slot antenna with a dual-layer,

directly coupled FSS reflector has been studied. The overall
size of the composite structure is 75mm75mm18.6mm
which is low profile. With the use of FSS, the antenna offers
an impedance bandwidth of 73% with upto 4dB
enhancement in gain leading to an average gain of around
7.5dB over 3-6GHz. With the increment in gap between the
antenna and reflector, gain enhances over a wider bandwidth.
With the FSS; the antenna can be used in certain applications
(portable devices) where electromagnetic interference from
conducting surfaces is to be avoided.
REFERENCES
[1]

[2]
co-pol(E plane)
x-pol (E plane)
co-pol(H plane)
x-pol (H plane)

-45

45

[3]

90

135 180

[4]

Angle (deg)
[5]
Fig. 4 Simulated radiation patterns of the antenna with FSS for H=15mm at
resonating frequency 3.6GHz (a) E plane ( = 900) and (b) H plane ( = 00)

With the introduction of FSS, the antenna offers an

impedance bandwidth of 73% (for H=15mm). It is also
observed that, reflection coefficient of the antenna with the
reflector does not change significantly with H (mm).
Simulated radiation patterns in both E and H planes for the
antenna with FSS placed at H=15mm and at the first
resonating frequency 3.6 GHz are shown in the Fig. 4.

[6]

[7]

Satish Kumar Sharma, Lotfollah Shafai and N. Jacob, Investigation

of Wide-Band Microstrip Slot Antenna, IEEE Transactions on
Antennas and Propagation, VOL. 52(3), pp. 865-872, March 2004.
W.-S. Chen and F.-M. Hsieh, A broadband design for a printed
isosceles triangular slot antenna for wireless communications,
Micro. J., vol. 48, no. 7, pp. 98112, Jul. 2007.
Y. Sung, A Printed Wide-Slot Antenna With a Modified L-Shaped
Microstrip Line for Wideband Applications, IEEE Transactions on
Antennas and Propagation, VOL. 59, NO. 10, pp. OCTOBER 2011.
Xueyi Gao, Yihong Qi, and Yong-Chang Jiao, Design of Multiplate
Back Reflector for a Wideband Slot Antenna, IEEE Antennas and
Wireless Propagation Letters, VOL. 12, pp. 773-776, 2013.
Reza Bayderkhani and Hamid Reza Hassani, Wideband and Low
Sidelobe Slot Antenna Fed by Series-Fed Printed Array, IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, VOL. 58, NO. 12, pp.
3898-3904, December 2010.
Abbas Pirhadi, Hadi Bahrami, and Javad Nasri, Wideband High
Directive Aperture Coupled Microstrip Antenna Design by Using a
FSS Superstrate Layer, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and
Propagation, Vol. 60, No. 4, pp. 2101-2106, April 2012.
Hsing-Yi Chen and Yu Tao, Performance Improvement of a U-Slot
Patch Antenna Using a Dual-Band Frequency Selective Surface With
Modified Jerusalem Cross Elements, IEEE Transactions on
Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 59, No. 9, pp. 3482 3486, Sep. 2011.