2012 International Symposium on Communications and Information Technologies (ISCIT)
TRx Stacked Microstrip Patch Antenna with High
Isolation
Ariunzaya Batgerel1, Myung Sun Song2, Jae Ick Choi2, Soon Young Eom2
1: University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea
2: Radio Technology Research Department, ETRI, Daejeon, South Korea
AbstractThis paper presents the use of a double spur-line band
rejection filter (DSL-BRF) to improve port-to-port isolation of a
TRx stacked microstrip patch antenna. The simple DSL-BRF has
two different sideband suppression characteristics by tuning the
separation between the end points of two spur-lines. A simple
TRx stacked microstrip patch antenna designed to operate at Ku-
band with downlink frequency band of 12.25 ~ 12.75 GHz and
uplink frequency band of 14.0 ~ 14.5 GHz had inherent isolation
of 17 dB within TRx-band. Isolation performance of the antenna
was improved by more than 13 dB for Rx-band and 16 dB for
Tx-band after introducing DSL-BRFs into Tx- and Rx-feed
networks, respectively. Because the DSL-BRFs are compatible to
be embedded in 50-Ohm transmission lines, the TRx antenna
with filters are remained as in same size as the antenna without
filters.
Keywords - High isolation; band rejection filter; TRx stacked
microstrip patch antenna
I. INTRODUCTION
Antennas for bi-directional communication have gradually
been becoming smaller and lighter to meet the varied
requirements arising from diversification of the communication
environment [1]. Rectangular microstrip patch antennas have
not only low profile, light weight, easy and inexpensive
manufacturability, but also they can provide inherent isolation
of more than 30 dB (but in narrowband) between orthogonal
edges; therefore rectangular microstrip patch antennas can be
used as TRx antennas with dual frequency and dual
polarization. For wideband application, parasitic patches are
often stacked over the exciter, but stacking parasitic patches
dramatically decreases its isolation performance. Inadequate
isolation would cause failure for the sensitive Rx channel since
Tx signal in a transceiver is usually very strong due to a high
power amplifier (HPA) [2]. Therefore, poor isolation of a
stacked microstrip patch antenna prohibits the direct integration
with active microwave components to form low-cost
transceivers without embedded filters.
To improve the TRx port-to-port isolation of patch
antennas, defected grounded structures (DGSs) and
electromagnetic band-gap structures (EBGs) have been
proposed in [3] and [4], respectively. However, DGSs suffer
from increase in back radiation, and EBGs have complicated
design and fabrication due to the multilayer structure. In [5], a
978-1-4673-1157-1/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE
spur-line resonator called spiral defected microstrip structure
(DMS) was introduced into the feeding lines of a dual-
operation single microstrip patch antenna to improve the port-
to-port isolation. The authors achieved significant isolation
improvement in narrowband.
In this paper, we introduced a TRx stacked microstrip patch
antenna with improved isolation using simple DSL-BRFs.
Unlike the similar design in [5] where they achieved isolation
improvement in narrow bandwidth, we obtained high isolation
performance in wider bandwidth. The filter structure and its
integration into the antenna structure are given in section II.
The simulation results followed by conclusion are discussed in
the later sections.
II. ISOLATION PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT WITH
DSL-BRFS
The isolation performance of a rectangular patch antenna is
inherently decreases as parasitic patches are attached. Fig. 1 (b)
shows the isolation performance between two ports at
orthogonal edges of a microstrip patch antenna (Fig. 1(a)) for
single patch and stacked patch cases.
(a) (b)
Fig 1. Isolation performance between two ports. (a) TRx microstrip patch
antenna (b) simulated isolation performance
In order to improve the isolation performance of a TRx
stacked microstrip patch antenna, we introduce a dual spur-line
band rejection filter (DSL-BRF) into the TRx feed networks of
the antenna. The DSL-BRF consists of two spur-lines
embedded in a microstrip line in an opposite direction, and this
filter structure was proposed in our previous work, [6]. The
simple DSL-BRF has two different sideband suppression
characteristics by changing the distance between the end points
of two spur-lines. Fig 2 (a) shows the DSL-BRF with left
sideband rejection characteristic while Fig 2 (b) shows the
DSL-BRF with right sideband rejection.
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 III. SIMULATION RESULTS
Simulated S-parameter performances of the DSL Rx- and
Tx- band rejection filters are shown in Fig 4(a) and (b),
respectively.
(a) (b)
Fig 2. Geometry of the DSL-BRFs. (a) Left sideband rejection, and (b) Right
sideband rejection

The slot length (L1) of each spur-line determines a rejection

band and the distance (L2) between the end points of each spur-
line determines the position of a pass band, which is at the left
or right side of a rejection band. That is, if L2 is longer than L1
as shown in Fig 2 (a), the left side of a pass band can be
properly suppressed; otherwise if L2 is shorter than L1 as shown Fig 4. Simulation result of the BRFs: (a) Tx-band rejection, and (b) Rx-band
in Fig 2 (b), the right side of a pass band can be suppressed [6]. rejection
These two filters are designed at Ku-band with downlink From the simulated results in Fig. 4, it is seen that the DSL-
frequency band of 12.25 ~ 12.75 GHz and uplink frequency BRFs afford high rejection characteristic at the rejection band
band of 14.0 ~ 14.5 GHz. The optimized parameters of the and good matching characteristic at the pass band.
filters are given in Table I.
Simulated S-parameter performances of the microstrip
antenna without and with BRFs are given in Fig 5(a) and (b),
TABLE I. PARAMETER VALUES FOR DSL-BRFS respectively. Please note that Rx-feed port is indicated as port1
Parameter value [mm] while Tx-feed port is indicated as port2; therefore S11
Parameters Tx-band rejection Rx-band rejection illustrates matching performance of Rx-port and S22 illustrates
L1 3.68 4.25 matching performance of Tx-port, while S21 (S12) illustrates
L2 2.16 5.93 isolation between TRx ports.
W1* 1.56
W2 0.76
W3 0.15
S1 0.25
* is equal to the width of 50-ohm transmission line at Ku-band

Then, we embed the DSL-BRF in Fig 2 (a) into the 50-

Ohm transmission line of the Tx-feed network and similarly
the filter in Fig 2 (b) into the Rx-feed network of the stacked
microstrip patch antenna, which was also designed at Ku-band,
as shown in Fig 3 (b). (a) (b)
Fig 5. Simulated S-parameter: (a) without the BRFs and (b) with the BRFs

From Fig 5 (a), it is seen that the TRx stacked microstrip

(a) (b)
Fig 3. Stacked microstrip patch antenna (a) without and (b) with DSL-BRFs
Because of the compactness of the filter, its integration into
the antenna does not require any additional space.
patch antenna has wide bandwidth matching characteristic with
port-to-port isolation performances of 19.36 dB at Rx-band and
17.1 dB at Tx-band. After introducing the DSL-BRFs into the
antenna structure, the isolation performance was improved as
more than 32.33 dB at Rx-band and 32.96 dB at Tx-band with
good matching characteristics as observed from Fig 5 (b).
Therefore, it can be concluded that the addition of DSL-BRFs
improved port-to-port isolation performances by at least 12.97
dB at Rx-band and 15.86 dB at Tx-band.
Simulated E-/H-plane radiation patterns of the TRx stacked
microstrip antenna at Rx center frequency of 12.5 GHz and Tx
center frequency of 14.25 GHz are shown in Fig 6 (a) and (b),
respectively.

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 REFERENCES
[1] Noh, H.-S.; Park, U.-H.; , "Three-stacked microstrip patch array antenna
for both transmitting and receiving," Microwaves, Antennas and
Propagation, IEE Proceedings - , vol.153, no.4, pp. 385- 388, August
2006
[2] Y. Tao, Z. Shen, and G. Liu, "Dual-band Ortho-mode Transducer with
Irregularly Shaped Diaphragm," Progress In Electromagnetics Research
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[3] Younkyu Chung; Seong-Sik Jeon; Ahn, D.; Jae-Ick Choi; Itoh, T.; ,
(a) (b) "High Isolation Dual-polarized Patch Antenna using Integrated Defected
Ground Structure," Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE
, vol.14, no.1, pp. 4- 6, Jan. 2004
[4] Inclan-Sanchez, L.; Vazquez-Roy, J.-L.; Rajo-Iglesias, E.; , "High
Isolation Proximity Coupled Multilayer Patch Antenna for Dual-
Frequency Operation," Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions
on , vol.56, no.4, pp.1180-1183, April 2008
[5] Fallahzadeh, S.; Bahrami, H.; Akbarzadeh, A.; Tayarani, M.; , "High-
Isolation Dual-Frequency Operation Patch Antenna Using Spiral
Defected Microstrip Structure," Antennas and Wireless Propagation
Letters, IEEE , vol.9, no., pp.122-124, 2010
[6] Eom, S. Y. and Hong, I. P., A Novel Band Rejection Filter of
(c) (d) Transmission Line Type using Double Spur-lines Microwave and
Fig 6. Simulated radiation patterns: (a) E-plane at 12.5 GHz, (b) H-plane at Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 52, Issue 8, pp. 18801883, Aug 2010
12.5 GHz, (c) E-plane at 14.25 GHz, and (d) H-plane at 14.25 GHz

Without the DSL-BRFs, the stacked microstrip patch

antenna obtained directivity of 8.2 dBi at 12.5 GHz and 8.7 dBi
at 14.25 GHz. After introducing the BRFs, directivities of the
antenna became 7.8 dBi and 8.9 dBi at 12.5 GHz and 14.25
GHz, respectively. Moreover, there was some change in the
shapes of the beam patterns, especially Cx-pol patterns at 12.25
GHz. These directivity increment and decrement and beam
shape changes are the result of unwanted radiation from the
filter networks. We can overcome these phenomena by
shielding the filter parts with metal boxes, or placing the filter
networks below the ground. In the latter case, feeding can be
completed by using via-hole or coupling feeding techniques.

IV. CONCLUSION
Enhancement of the port-to-port isolation of a TRx stacked
microstrip patch antenna using simple DSL-BRFs was
presented in this paper. The DSL-BRFs with the Rx- and Tx-
band rejection characteristics were embedded into 50-Ohm
transmission lines of Tx- and Rx-feed networks, respectively.
With the usage of DSL-BRFs, the stacked microstrip patch
antenna obtained isolation improvements of at least 13 dB and
16 dB at Rx- and Tx-bands, respectively. Depending on the
link budget of a TRx system, the antenna structure with the
simple DSL-BRFs can be used for short-range communication
without the use of expensive and bulky front-end filters.
Moreover, the DSL-BRFs are more promising in a planar array
antenna.
As a future work, we will fabricate the prototype antenna
with and without the filters in order to verify the simulation
results given in this paper.

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