2. H. Mosallaei and K.

Sarabanki, Design and modeling of patch

antenna printed on magneto-dielectric embedded-circuit metasubstrate, IEEE Trans Antennas Propag 55 (2007), 4552.
3. P.B. Ikonen, S.I. Maslovski, C.R. Simovski, and S.A. Tretyakov, On
artificial magnetodielectric loading for improviing the impedance
bandwidth properties of microstrip antennas, IEEE Trans Antennas
Propag 54 (2006), 16541662.
4. J.K. Ji, W.K. Ahn, S.H. Park, G.H. Kim, and W.M. Seong, Miniaturized T-DMB antenna with a low-loss Ni-Mn-Co ferrite for mobile
handset applications, IEEE Magn Lett 1 (2010), 5000104.
5. CST Microwave Studio: Workflow & Solver Overview, CST Studio
Suite 2009, CST-GmbH (2011).
6. D. Kim and J.I. Choi, Novel planar metamaterial with a negative refractive index, ETRI J 31 (2009), 225227.
7. D. Kim, W.L. Lee, and J.I. Choi, A simple design method of negative refractive index metamaterials, Appl Phys A: Mater Sci Process
97 (2009), 461467.
8. D.R. Smith, D.C. Vier, Th. Koschny, and C.M. Soukoulis, Electromagnetic parameter retrieval from inhomogeneous metamaterials,
Phys Rev (E) 71 (2005), 036617.
C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
V

FULL WAVE AND ASYMPTOTIC

COMPUTATION OF COUPLING LOSS
BETWEEN ANTENNAS ON AIRCRAFT

luzeau
Jean-Francois Legendre and C. Bre

, Bruz 35170,
DGA Information Superiority, TEC, route de Laille
France; Corresponding author: jeff.legendre@free.fr
Received 21 March 2012

Figure 6 Comparison in measured and predicted radiation patterns of

the antenna shown in Figure 1 at 2.5 GHz (a) an E-plane and (b) an Hplane. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available
at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

the validity of our analysis based on the effective medium modeling. Consequently, to sum up, all measurement data agree well
with the two different predictions from the computer simulation
of an entire fabricated antenna structure and from the effective
homogeneous medium approach, which has proven the accuracy
and validity of our analysis and design.
3. CONCLUSIONS

We have presented a useful method to decrease overall antenna

size using the proposed artificial magneto-dielectric metasubstrate. We have shown that high effective permittivity and permeability are definitely helpful to miniaturize the antenna more
than 50% based on effective medium theory. To confirm the
effective medium approach, we have substituted the real metasubstrate with the fictitious homogeneous material consisting of
the effective permittivity and permeability that are retrieved
from the real metasubstrate. By demonstrating that the same
patch antenna with the fictitious substrate shows very similar
properties to that with the real metasubstrate, we can successfully prove the usefulness of our effective medium analysis. Furthermore, the good agreement between the prediction and the
experiment also confirms validity of our design approach.

ABSTRACT: This article presents how to compute the coupling loss

between a transmitter and a receiver with full-wave electromagnetic
software. An analytical method based on asymptotic spherical
diffraction is proposed, and results of coupling loss between antennas
on an un-named aerial vehicle are compared. Extension to other aircraft
C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt
sizes is discussed. V
Technol Lett 54:28742878, 2012; View this article online at
wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27171
Key words: coupling loss; electromagnetic interference; diffraction
1. INTRODUCTION

One of the missions of electromagnetic interference (EMI) and

spectrum department of DGA Information Superiority is to deal
with functional EMI compatibility that must be accurately taken
into account to obtain the expected system performance and establish the risk of interference between equipments or systems. Generally, EMI can travel by radiation from its source to a receptor that
receives the EMI. The RF power of receiver can be deduced from
source characteristics (power, spectrum, etc.), receiver characteristics
(frequency band, sensitivity, etc.), and the coupling loss between
both the antennas. SPC department is using CST Microwave Studio
software to carry out such coupling loss simulation studies on terrestrial vehicles and on aircrafts. We present here an example where
coupling loss on an un-named aerial vehicle (UAV) is investigated.
A tool based on asymptotic diffraction between two monopoles on
a cylinder has been developed by SPC to evaluate such coupling
loss without computer aided design (CAD) model.
2. FULL WAVE COMPUTATION METHOD OF COUPLING LOSS

REFERENCES
1. J.L. Volakis, C.C. Chen, and K. Fujimoto, Small antennas: miniaturization techniques & applications, McGraw Hill, 2010, pp. 107208.

2874

The process to compute coupling loss with finite-difference

time-domain (FDTD) electromagnetic full wave software can be
divided into several steps.

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 54, No. 12, December 2012

DOI 10.1002/mop

Figure 1 Creating UAV 3D model from plans and antennas integration. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

2.1. Structure Generation

The structure generation is performed starting from paper plans
of the UAV, which have been digitalized thanks to a CAD software (red lines in Fig. 1). The different shapes of the UAV
model are created using 3D primitives (sphere, brick, elliptical
cylinder, etc.) and more advanced operations such as lofting
(creating new shapes between profiles). Each shape of this
model is assigned to a material that is by default an electrically
perfect conductive (PEC) material. In reality, only the load, the
batteries, and the engines of the UAV can be considered as
PEC. A second model is created by assigning dielectric material,
namely, Plexiglass (relative permittivity 3.6 and electrical
conductivity 0.02 S/m). The dielectric parts of the UAV are
illustrated in yellow color in Figure 1.
2.2. Antennas Integration
Two k/4-monopole antennas working at 4.5 GHz are integrated
on the main cylinder that represents the UAV load. They are
modeled by two short PEC cylinders that are separated by an
axial distance of 28.4 cm. A discrete edge port is used as feeding point source for each antenna. This port realizes an input
power of 1 W under 50 X and enables the calculation of correspondent S-parameter, based on the incoming and outgoing time
signals. The S12 parameter between both ports will give the coupling loss between both the monopoles.
2.3. Mesh Settings and Solver Setup
The electromagnetic software is based on a transient (time domain) solver that calculates the development of fields through
time at discrete locations and at discrete time samples by the
Leap Frog updating scheme. The whole 3D structure needs to
be rendered to a discrete geometric form, by creating a suitable
mesh system made of many small grid cells. One has to specify
spatial sampling rate connected to the wavelength of the highest
frequency set for the simulation (here 4.5 GHz). A good compromise between calculation time and the achievable accuracy is
the default value of 8, which means a spacing distance less than
k/8  8 mm. This leads to 73 millions of grid cells, because

DOI 10.1002/mop

automatic meshing performs refinement of small shapes of the

structure. Using the subgridding option with topologically irregular grids, the amount of grid cells can be reduced by a factor
of 10. This improves the computation speed, and less RAM
memory is needed. Another factor that has a strong influence on
the calculation time is the accuracy of the frequency domain
signals that are calculated by Fourier transformation of the time
signals. The amplitudes of the time signals as well as the total
energy inside the calculation domain are computed during the
simulation. The simulation stops when the defined accuracy
level is reached. This accuracy factor is set to
30 dB.
2.4. Postprocessing: Exploitation of [S] Parameter
The transient solver allows the simulation of a structures behavior in a wide frequency range in just a single computation run.
The S-parameters are defined as the quotient between the output

Figure 2 Coupling loss computed by FDTD. [Color figure can be

viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 54, No. 12, December 2012

2875

we apply by default the value 4.8 dBi obtained on a flat PEC

surface. Ct and Cr are the voltage reflection coefficients at the
input terminals of the transmitting and receiving antennas,
respectively. The factor (1
C2) represents the reflection mismatch efficiency of the antenna. Reflection coefficient C can be
computed knowing the characteristics impedance of the transmission line Zo and the antenna input impedance Zin. If the feeding line connecting to the monopole has a real impedance Zo
(typically 50 W), reflection coefficient is given by:

 s

2
2
Zin
Zo 
Z


Z

Z
in
r
o
in
i

C 
Zin Zo 
Zin r Zo 2 Zin i 2

Figure 3 Description of the geometry and definition of the parameters. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available
at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

signal spectrum and the input signal spectrum, deduced from

time signals using discrete Fourier transform. Considering port
no. 1 for the first antenna and port no. 2 for the second one, S12
parameter corresponds to the coupling loss between both antennas placed on the UAV structure.
Figure 2 gives the simulation results of the coupling loss for
three 3D structures up to 4.5 GHz. PEC curve is obtained with
the full UAV in full PEC material, PEC Plexiglass is
obtained with the full UAV in PEC and plexiglass material as
shown in Figure 1. The trend of the coupling loss is similar for
the three case studies. Maximum value is about
43 dB at 4
GHz. When dielectric material is taken into account, one can
notice much more interferences in the S12 result. This may be
due to the fact that interactions with the engines and batteries are
not masked anymore by dielectric wings. Computation time rises
up to 15 h on a DELL T7400 workstation with 8 Go RAM. A
third curve is presented when we consider only PEC load shape
of the UAV. The main effect is the grazing diffraction that happens between both antennas around the PEC cylinder. There is
still a good agreement with the simulations found on the complex
structures, even if the effects on wings and engines are neglected.
As shown by this third full-wave simulation, coupling loss
on the UAV (and by extension on an aircraft) can be approximated by considering two monopole antennas placed on a PEC
cylinder. The load of the UAV is modeled by a cylinder with a
radius R (6.5 cm).

(2)

This impedance for a monopole on a flat ground can be computed analytically according to Ref. 1 knowing the length (l
1.7 cm) and the radius (r 1 mm) of the monopole.
Zin Zin r jZin i  20

 2

 

2p
l
2p
l
j120 ln
1 cot
l
k
r
k
(3)

Figure 4 compares the coefficient reflection of each antenna

obtained by full-wave simulation on the UAV and by this analytical formula. Good agreement is achieved and enables to get
reliable reflection efficiency. At 4.5 GHz, efficiency (1
C2)
equals to 0 dB, because k/4-monopole shows perfectly matched
impedance. But below this frequency, the reflection mismatch
leads to large losses, about
30 dB at 1 GHz.
Factor A represents the free-space loss factor along the total
geodesic path d(h) around the cylinder between both antennas.
Let define the angle t and the axial distance dst between the
monopoles, the traveling distance along cylinder can be easily
approximated. If we consider the second grazing wave, we just
have to change h by p
h.
k
4pdh
q
dh  Rh2 dst2
A

(4)
(5)

Factor Q is the attenuation due to grazing diffraction ray along

the cylinder. The book [2] discusses the wave diffraction around
the terrestrial sphere, which is one of the oldest studied

3. ASYMPTOTIC COMPUTATION OF COUPLING LOSS ON A

CYLINDER

Considering the geometry of Figure 3, the coupling loss CL is

defined by the ratio of the receiver power Pr to the input power
Pt. The following equation is obtained from Friis transmission
equation [1], assuming matched vertical polarization and adding
the correction factor Q for diffraction loss of one ray around the
cylinder. One has to take into account two existing grazing rays
(one on the left side and the other on the right side of the cylinder), whose amplitudes have to be added (phase is neglected).
This leads to this general formula:
CL

Pr
1
Ct 2  Dt  A  Qleft A  Qright 2  Dr  1
Cr 2
Pt

(1)
where Dt and Dr are the directivity gains of the transmitting and
receiving antennas, respectively. As we consider k/4-monopoles,

2876

Figure 4 Reflection coefficient and efficiency. [Color figure can be

viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 54, No. 12, December 2012

DOI 10.1002/mop

Figure 5 Analytical coupling loss on the UAV. [Color figure can be

viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

diffraction problems. We apply the analytical diffraction formula

[2], which comes from simplification the general expression giving the field in the form of development series, sometimes
called serial residues. Q is the ratio between diffraction field E
(on a sphere of radius R) and free-space field Eo. Q equals to 1
when both antennas are installed on the same side (h 0) of
the cylinder and tends to minimum value when they are on the
opposite side (h p). If we consider vertical polarization and
PEC cylinder, asymptotic formula of Q can be reduced to a
compact form.
Q

1
E
1 2bf 2pbf3 2  e
1:607bf
Eo

with b 0:5555
(6)


fh

2p
kR2

1=3
R  h

(7)

If we consider the second grazing wave, we just have to change

h by p
h in the former formula.
4. RESULTS OF COUPLING LOSS ON THE UAV

Figure 4 compares the coupling loss obtained by simulation and

the coupling loss deduced from the proposed analytical model. A
very good agreement is observed. The different contributions that

Figure 7 Effect of radius R on coupling loss. [Color figure can be

viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

are taken into account in formula (1) are also shown: the diffraction
loss Q, the free-space loss A, and the reflection mismatch loss (1

C2), which is the same for transmitting and receiving antennas.
When the antennas are on opposite sides, the factor AQ is same
for both the rays. This leads to 6 dB gain in the coupling loss.
At 4.5 GHz, the analytical coupling loss is about
42 dB,
compared to
49 dB simulated with the full PEC model of the
UAV. If we use only the free-space model and antennas gain,
this gives only
26.6 dB, which is far from simulated value.
The difference is mainly due to diffraction loss Q that gives

21.3 dB for each grazing rays around the UAV load cylinder.
Reflection mismatch loss is near to 0. Below this frequency, factors Q and A become lower, because frequency is decreasing.
The main contribution is due to the mismatch reflection loss; for
example, at 1 GHz, this effect gives 80% (
60 dB, twice the
value of one monopole antenna) of the coupling loss. Above
this frequency, the main contributors of coupling loss
63 dB
are diffraction Q and free-space loss A; at 7 GHz, there are
26
dB and
40 dB. The mismatch reflection loss is about
6 dB
that tends to cancel antenna directivity gain (4.8 dB).
5. EXTENSION OF OTHER AIRCRAFT SIZES

The analytical model results are compared to simulation with

different aircraft sizes approximated by a cylinder of radius R:
UAV, missile (R  10 cm), fighter aircraft (R < 1 m), and airliner aircraft (R  23 m). The next figure shows the 3D model
used for simulation, where two k/4-monopoles (length l 6.2
cm, radius 4 mm) with a resonance frequency of 1.2 GHz.
The comparison with CST results shows that our analytical
model is quite accurate (standard deviation < 3 dB) around the
resonance frequency antenna (at 1 GHz). The coupling takes its
maximum value, because both antennas are perfectly matched.
At 1.7 GHz above the frequency resonance, the model is still
good. At 100 MHz (k 3 m), the error may exceed 20 dB if
the radius of the cylinder is much lower than wavelength k; for
example, when radius is 10 cm, the ratio R/k is only 0.03. The
hypothesis of two grazing waves is not suitable anymore, and
the diffraction formula becomes less accurate. In this case, simulation can be achieved quickly with full-wave method.
6. CONCLUSIONS

Figure 6 3D model used with different radius R. [Color figure can be

viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

DOI 10.1002/mop

The main drawback of the transient solver is long computation

time, when the size of the aircraft is high compared to

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 54, No. 12, December 2012

2877

wavelength. For example, simulation on airliner aircraft implies

also big RAM amount and time. The proposed analytical model
based on asymptotic diffraction loss can give a first approximation of coupling loss on aircraft (drone, fighter, and airliner),
which is better than the free-space assumption. Accuracy is satisfactory during the process to carry out EMI studies, when
CAD is not available. This has been verified with full wave 3D
software and is easy to implement.
REFERENCES
1. C.A. Balanis: Antenna theoryAnalysis and design, 2nd edition,
Wiley, New York, NY, 1997.
2. L. Boithias, Propagation des ondes radio
electriques dans lenvironnement terrestre, 2nd ed., Dunod, 1984.
C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
V

AN ULTRA-WIDEBAND CPW-FED
MONOPOLE ANTENNA WITH FANSHAPED STRUCTURE
Chen Wang,1 Ze-Hong Yan,1 Bo Li,1 and Sheng Li2
1
National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Antennas
and Microwaves, Xidian University, Xian, Peoples Republic of
China; Corresponding author: wangchen@mail.xidian.edu.cn
2
Shaanxi Broadcast & TV Network Intermediary (Group) Co., Ltd.
Hanzhong Branch, Hanzhong, Peoples Republic of China
Received 27 March 2012
ABSTRACT: In this article, we present a novel ultrawideband (UWB)
coplanar waveguide fed printed monopole antenna with fan-shaped
structure. Its UWB-related performances are simulated and
experimentally verified. The fabricated antenna occupies a small area,
exhibits omnidirectional radiation pattern and good gains within the
operating band, which illuminates the fan-shaped structure is also a
C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
good candidate for UWB antenna design. V
Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:28782880, 2012; View this article
online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27218

Figure 1
view

Geometry of the proposed antenna. (a) Top view. (b) Side

2. ANTENNA DESIGN

The configuration of the proposed antenna is shown in Figure 1.

The proposed antenna is etched on an inexpensive FR4 substrate
of dielectric constant er 4.4 and substrate thickness H 2
mm, with the dimension of 35  30 mm2 (L  W) and fed by a
CPW transmission-line with a fixed strip thickness W2 and a gap
distance g between the signal strip and the coplanar ground
plane.

Key words: monopole antenna; ultrawideband; coplanar waveguidefed; fan-shaped structure

1. INTRODUCTION

Wireless communications have evolved at an astonishing rate

recently. The future development of the personal communication
device will lay emphasis on the production of image, speech,
and data communications at any time, and anywhere around the
world. Ultrawideband (UWB) technology owing to its attractive
performances, such as low complexity, low cost, and extremely
high data rates, has been largely used in communication systems. In 2002, the Federal Communication Commission put out
an unlicensed 3.110.6 GHz frequency band with an effective
isotropic radiated power level of less than 241.3 dBm/MHz for
UWB applications, where UWB is defined as the occupied fraction bandwidth >20% or larger than 500 MHz of the absolute
bandwidth. UWB technique has opened a promising door to
future wireless communication, radar applications, and other
military applications [15].
In this article, a novel coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed
printed monopole antenna with fan-shaped structure is proposed
for UWB operation. It is simulated, fabricated, and measured.
Its characteristics, including the VSWR, radiation pattern, gain,
and so on, are presented and discussed.

2878

Figure 2 Photograph of the proposed antenna. [Color figure can be

viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 54, No. 12, December 2012

DOI 10.1002/mop