Chrlstos Chrlstodoulou

Naftall (Tuli) Herscovicl Department of Electrical and

AnTeg Computer Engineerlng
52 Agnes Drive Unlversity of New Mexico
Framlngham, MA 01901 USA Albuquerque, NM 87131-1356 USA
t 1 (508) 788-5152 t 1 (505) 277-6580
t 1 (508) 788-6226(Fax) +1 (505) 277-1439 (Fax)
tuil@leee.org(e-mail) christos@eece.unm.edu(e-mall)

Wideband Rectangular Slot Antenna For

Personal Wireless Communication Systems
Abdelnasser A. Eldek, Atef Z. Elsherbeni, Charles E. Smith, and Kai-Fong Lee
Electrical Engineering Department, The University of Mississippi
University, MS 38677-1848 USA
(662) 915-5382; Fax: + I (662) 915-7231; E-mail: elsherbeni@ieee.org
Tel: +I

Abstract
Antenna designs were achieved for wideband operation by the use of a coplanar patch-slot antenna, fed by a coplanar
waveguide. This design is easily tuned to operate at 2.45 and 5.75 GHz, with wide bandwidth for wireless systems. The oper-
ating frequency is controlled by modifying the patch dimensions. The return loss, input impedance, radiation pattern, directiv-
ity, gain, and efficiency of the proposed designs are computed and presented. A parametric study of the antenna is also intro-
duced.

Keywords: Wideband antennas; coplanar waveguides; slot antennas; microstrip antennas; wireless LAN

1. Introduction frequencies, for radar applications. Moreover, other researchers

I n present-day personal-communication devices, the need for
antennas of small size and high efficiency has generated much
attention to the study of compact microstrip antennas. These
antennas exhibit low-profile and lightweight properties, as well as
low cross-polarization radiation in some designs. However, micro-
strip antennas inherently have narrow bandwidths and, in general,
are half-wavelength structures, operating at the TM,, or TM,, fun-
damental resonant mode [ 11. In this study, coplanar-patch antennas
(CPAs) have been designed with improved bandwidth and size
reduction for communication systems.
Researchers have made efforts to overcome the problem of
narrow bandwidth in coplanar-patch antennas, and various con-
figurations have been presented to extend the bandwidth (BW).
Adding a short on the upper slot of the coplanar-patch antenna and
varying its length achieved 30% to 40% bandwidth [2] at higher
investigated the design of a dual-frequency slot antenna, fed by
coplanar waveguide (CPW), as reported in [3]. In this paper, a
simple design of a coplanar-patch antenna is introduced that
achieves high efficiency and reasonable bandwidth, and can easily
be tuned to work at different frequency bands. The second-
resonance frequencies for these antennas are also presented, to
show their ability to work at two frequencies.
2. Antenna Analysis and Results
The geometry of the coplanar-patch antenna and its parame-
ters are shown in Figure 1. The antenna consists of a rectangular
patch, surrounded by a non-uniform-width slot. As shown in Fig-
ure 1, W represents the patch width, L is the patch length, and SI,
S2, and S3 are the widths of the upper slot, the left-right slot, and
the lower slot, respectively. S4 and S5 are the gap width and feed-

146 /€€€ Antenna’s and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 5, October 2002
 Figure 5a. The radiation pattern in the xz plane of Design 1 at 5.75 GHz.

180 270
Figure 5b. The radiation pattern in the yz plane of Design 1 at Figure 5c. The radiation pattern in the xy plane of Design 1 at
5.75 GHz. 5.75 GHz.

Figure 5d. The three-dimensional radiation pattern of Design 1 at 5.75 GHz.

/€€€Antenna’s and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 5, October 2002 147
 line width of the coplanar waveguide, and Lcpw represents the
length of the coplanar waveguide. In addition to these parameters,
h is the height of the substrate, and E, is the substrate dielectric
constant. The dielectric material is RT/duriod 5880, with E, = 2.2 .

Two antennas were designed for each band of the wireless

local-area networks (WLANs): 2.4-2.48 GHz and 5.7-5.85 GHz
[4]. Designs 1 and 2 operate at a center frequency (f,) of
5.75 GHz, while Designs 3 and 4 operate at f, = 2.4GHz. A
dielectric superstrate of the same thickness as the substrate is
included in the antennas labeled Dcsigns 2 and 4. The dimensions
of these antennas are listed in Table 1 .

The analysis was performed using the commercial computer

Figure 1. The geometry and parameters for a coplanar-patch software package Momentum from Agilent Technologies'
antenna. advanced design system (ADS), which is based on the Method of
Moments (MOM)technique for layered media. The ADS simulator,
Momentum, solves mixed-potential integral equations (MPIE),
using full-wave Green's functions. A verification of our simulation
procedure was confirmed by comparing the numerical results of a
coplanar-patch antenna's return loss from an FDTD computation
with that of ADS Momentum. This comparison revealed good
agreement, as shown in Figure2 for a simulated antenna with
W=23mm, L = 4 m m , Lcpw=3Smm, S l = l m m , S 2 = I m m ,
S3 = I mm,S4 = 0.5 mm, S 5 = 3.5mm, h = 1.6002mm, and
&. = 2.2.

The first parameter under study was Lcpw. For the designs in
Table 1 , Lcpw was set at 3.5 mm. By increasing Lcpw, it was
found that the resonance frequency decreases, but returns back at
certain lengths for all designs presented. It is known that the input
impedance for a coplanar waveguide structure is given by

II-ADS
I
I I I
2, =z,ZZ, ++j Z'ZLO tanpl
-40 tanpl
5 10 15 20
f(G HZ) At 1 = /2,/2, Z, = Z, , From that numerical experiment Ag can
Figure 2. A comparison between the return-loss results of ADS be defined, and then E,., can be calculated from
Momentum and the FDTD method.

Ag =- 4
G
Table 1. The dimensions of the
coplanar-patch antennas in mm. Table 2 shows 4, ,Ig,and for all of the coplanar-patch
antenna designs listed in Table 1 . As shown in Table 2, increasing
the substrate height increases slightly, as seen by comparing
Designs 1 and 3, and Designs 2 and 4. Although the superstrate
increases and decreases the overall size of the antenna, as
I Design4 I 44.0 I 9 I 3 I 1.5 I 2 I 1.0 1 1.0 I 3.17 I shown in Tables 2 and 1, it decreases the bandwidth and the radia-
tion efficiency ( 7 ) . Table 3 shows the center frequency (f,), the

Table 2. 4, /2,, and ES.~ for the coplanar-patch antenna Table 3. f,, bandwidth (BW), D, and 7 for the coplanar-patch
designs. antenna designs.

' ~ g I Crg I Erefkr I

70.0% Design 1 5.75 22.2% 2.8 88%
95.6% Design 2 5.75 18.2% 2.8 79%
71.0% Design 3 2.45 20.0% 2.6 91%
Design 4 2.45 15.5% 2.7 81%

148 /€€E Antenna's and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 5, October 2002
 X-Z

I80 180
Figure 8a. The radiation pattern in the xz plane of Design 2 at Figure 8b. The radiation pattern in the yz plane of Design 2 at
5.75GHz. 5.75 GHz.

Figure 8c. The three-dimensional radiation pattern of Design 2

at 5.75 GHz.

Figure 9. The return loss of Design 3.

/€€€Antenna’s and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 5, October 2002 149
 Table 4. The dimensions of the coplanar-patch antennas bandwidth, the directivity (D),
and 7 for all of the coplanar-patch
in terms of Ag . antenna designs.

By observing the influence of various parameters on the

antenna performance, it was found that the dominant factors in
coplanar-patch antenna design for WLAN applications are the
patch width in terms of Ag and the total length of the slot (Ltotul).
Design 3 1 98.0 I 0.54 I 0.092 I 1.40 Ltotal is the total centerline length of the slot, defined as
Design 4 1 82.5 I 0.53 I 0.110 I 1.47
Dotal= 2 ( w + L + Lcpw + s 2 ) + s1+$3 - S 4 -s5. (3)
Table 5. The second-resonance frequency ( f c 2 )and bandwidth
By studying the given designs, it was clear that F' was about
r
(BW), D, and at these frequencies. 0.5Ag, and that the total length was about 1 X g . At the same time,
the patch length in all designs was about O.lAg, as shown in
Table 4. In general, Ltotal controls the resonant frequency, while
the patch dimensions and slot widths control the level of the return
loss and bandwidth.

Further study revealed that the resonant frequency decreases

when increasing h, E,,, W, L, S1, S 2 , and S 4 , and by decreasing
S3 and S5. Increasing S1 decreases the return loss, especially at
Table 6. The properties of Designs 3 and 4 and the antenna of
[3] at the first and second resonance frequencies. the center of the band, such that S1 may have variable width with
a maximum at the center. Increasing h causes to increase and
Ag to decrease, thus increasing Ltotal in terms of Ag and decreas-
ing f,. Similar observations were noted while increasing E,, All
other parameters decrease f , , due to the increase of Ltotul, except
for S3, which may contribute with Lcpw to matching the source
impedance. Although the effect of all of these parameters is clear
on fc, it is not clear which one parameter can primarily increase
Table 7. The properties of the coplanar-patch antennas at the bandwidth.
selected frequencies covering the entire band.
Table 5 shows the second-resonance frequencies ( f c 2 ) , and
I Design 1 I the bandwidth, D, and 77 at these frequencies. The second-
Frequency D G 7 resonance frequency is about 2f,. The efficiency is less than that
(GHz) (dB) (dB) (%) at f, by about 20%, and the antennas are more directive at fc2
5.17 2.72 2.22 89.13
than at f,.

In [3], an antenna with a rectangular slot and a rectangular

slot loop-fed with a coplanar waveguide were designed to work at

3 [ \/ I
1
02-0
'
- ................. ......,. ................. .-i.-....................

9
v -30 ........................
7 l\/i
i....................,......................

(GHz) I %)
2.26 I 2.64 I 1.81 82.68
2.40 2.69 1.82 81.85 5.5 6 6.5
2.48 2.72 1.82 8 1.28 ~
f(GHZ)
2.69 2.75 1.81 80.54 Figure 3. The return loss of Design 1.

150 /€€€Antenna's and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 5, October 2002
 x-z

180

Figure l l a . The radiation pattern in the xz plane of Design 3 at

2.45 GHz.

X-Y

180 270

Figure l l b . The radiation pattern in the yz plane of Design 3 at Figure l l c . The radiation pattern in the xy plane of Design 3 at
2.45 GHz. 2.45 GHz.

Figure l l d . The three-dimensional radiation pattern of Design

3 at 2.45 GHz.

/€€€Antenna’s and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 5,October 2002 151
 100 Ioc
- real Zin
--- imag Zin --- imag Zin
50 50

.........................
-50 ....................___r________________.....

-100,
5.5 6 6.5 9 . 2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7
f(GHz) f(GHz)
Figure 4. The input impedance of Design 1. Figure 10. The input impedance of Design 3.

- If I I

2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7

f(G HZI
Figure 6. The return loss of Design 2. Figure 12. The return loss of Design 4.

- real Zin
--- imag Zin
... ...............
1
/*-

- :,*/- /-+

6-0 -....................... i ...........*.?K

+-*+
.....;-...............
S ; c.aa

i;j
/*-
,*+ I

;
*/-

-50 .................. 1...................... -1 ..................... .-

-1oo5 I I I I I I

5'5 f(GHz) 6 6.5 2.3 2.6 2.7

2.?(GHzf5
Figure 7. The input impedance of Design 2. Figure 13. The input impedance of Design 4.
152 /€€€Antenna's and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 5, October 2002
 X-Z

The radiation pattern in the xz plane of Design 4 at

I c

180

Figure 14b. The radiation pattern in theyz plane of Design 4 at

2.45 GHz.

Figure 14c. The three-dimensional radiation pattern of

4 at 2.45 GHz.

/€€E Antenna’s and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 5, October 2002 153
 two frequencies. Table 6 gives a comparison between this antenna 3. Jin-Sen Chen, “Dual-Frequency Slot Antennas fed by
and the third and fourth designs. It can be seen that the antenna of Capacitively Coplanar Waveguide,” Microwave and Optical Tech-
[3] has lower bandwidth and higher gain at f,, and higher band- nology Letters, 32, 6, March 20, 2002, pp. 452-453.
width and lower gain at fez, The efficiency of this antenna is not
4. D. M. Pozar, Microwave and RF Design of Wireless Systems,
given. New York, N Y , John Wiley and Sons, 2001, p. 4.
The coplanar-patch antennas with the dimensions in Table 1
were designed to operate at f, = 5.75 GHz and 2.45 GHz. The
return loss of Design 1 is shown in Figure 3, while Figure 4 shows Introducing the Authors
the corresponding input impedance as real and imaginary parts.
Figure 5 shows the radiation patterns at f, = 5.75 GHz in the xz,
yz, and xy planes, along with the corresponding three-dimensional
pattern of the total field. The return loss of Design 2 is shown in
Figure 6, while Figure 7 shows the corresponding input impedance
as real and imaginary parts. Figure 8 shows the radiation patterns
at f, = 5.75 GHz in the xz and yz planes, and the three-dimensional
pattern. There is no radiation in the xy plane. The return loss of
Design 3 is shown in Figure 9, while Figure 10 shows the corre-
sponding input impedance as real and imaginary parts.

Figure 11 shows the radiation patterns at f, = 2.45 GHz in
the xz,yz, and xy planes, in addition to the three-dimensional pat-
tern. The return loss of Design 4 is shown in Figure 12, while Fig-
ure 13 shows the corresponding input impedance as real and
imaginary parts. Figure 14 shows the radiation patterns at
f, = 2.45 GHz in the xz and yz planes, and the three-dimensional
pattern. There is no radiation in the xy plane. Table 6 shows the
stability of each design over the entire band by showing its prop-
erties at four different frequencies. It is clear that all designs have
similar properties in the entire band. They achieve good 7 , with
bandwidth ranges from 15.5% to 22.2%, and low directivity, which
is required in wireless local-area communication applications. The
designs with superstrate material, simulating a practical imple-
mentation, decrease the antenna size, and slightly reduce the
bandwidth and 7 . These designs have symmetric radiation patterns
in the xz and yz planes, and zero fields in the xy plane.
Abdelnasser Eldek received an honor BSC degree in Elec-
tronics and Communications Engineering from Zagazig Univer-
sity, Zagazig, Egypt, in 1993, and an MS degree in Electrical
Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindho-
ven, the Netherlands, in 1999. He was a Research Assistant with
the Electronic Research Institute, in Cairo, Egypt, from 1995 to
1997. From 1997 to 1999, he was a masters student at Eindhoven
University of Technology, with the cooperation of the Philips
Center for Technology and Fontys University for Professional
Education, Eindhoven. From 1999 to 2000, he was Assistant
Teacher in the Industrial Education College, Beni Suif, Egypt. He
is currently working towards his PhD degree and is a Research
Assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Uni-
versity of Mississippi.

3. Conclusion
Four designs of coplanar-patch antennas were presented, for
operation at 2.45 GHz and 5.75 GHz. These antennas show high
efficiency, low directivity, reasonable bandwidth, and almost con-
stant radiation properties over the entire operating band. The
effects of the geometrical and electrical parameters have been
studied and reported, to aid the design of these types of antennas.
The antennas can work at a frequency equal to twice the intended
frequency of operation, but with lower bandwidth and efficiency.
4. References
I. K-L Wong, Compact and Broadband Microstrip Antennas, New
York, NY, John Wiley and Sons, 2002.
2. A. Z. Elsherbeni, Abdelnasser A. Eldek, B. N. Baker, C. E.
Smith, and K-F Lee, “Wideband Coplanar Patch-Slot Antennas for
Radar Applications,” 2002 IEEE International Symposium on
Antennas and Propagation Digest, San Antonio, TX, June 2002,
pp. 436-439.
Atef Z. Elsherbeni received an honor BSc degree in
Electronics and Communications, an honor BSc degree in Applied
Physics, and an MEng degree in Electrical Engineering, all from
Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, in 1976, 1979, and 1982, respec-
tively. He received a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from
Manitoba University, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in 1987. He
was a Research Assistant with the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo
University from 1976 to 1982, and from 1983 to 1986 at the Elec-
trical Engineering Department, Manitoba University. He was a
part-time Software and System Design Engineer from March,
1980, to December, 1982, at the Automated Data System Center,
Cairo, Egypt. From January to August, 1987, he was a Post-Doc-
toral Fellow at Manitoba University. Dr. Elsherbeni joined the fac-
ulty at the University of Mississippi in August, 1987, as an Assis-
tant Professor of Electrical Engineering. He advanced to the rank
of Associate Professor in July, 1991, and to the rank of Professor

154 /€€E Antenna’s and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 44,No. 5, October 2002
 in July, 1997. He spent his first sabbatical term in 1996 at the
Electrical Engineering Department, University of California at Los
Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Elsherbeni received the 2002 IEEE Region 3
Outstanding Engineering Educator Award; the 2002 School of
Engineering Outstanding Engineering Faculty Member of the Year
Award; the 2001 Applied Computational Electromagnetic Society
(ACES) Exemplary Service Award for leadership and contribu-
tions as Electronic Publishing Managing Editor 1999-2001; the
2001 ResearcheriScholar of the Year award in the Department of
Electrical Engineering, the University of Mississippi; and the 1996
Outstanding Engineering Educator of the IEEE Memphis Section.
His professional interests include scattering and diffraction of
electromagnetic waves, numerical techniques, antennas, remote
sensing, and computer applications for electromagnetic education.
He has published 58 technical journal articles and 12 book chap-
ters on applied electromagnetics, antenna design, and microwave
subjects, and presented over 193 papers at professional confer-
ences. Dr. Elsherbeni is a Senior Member of the Institute of Elec-
trical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is the Editor-in-Chief
for the Applied Computational Electromagnetic Society (ACES)
Journal and the Electronic Publishing Managing Editor of ACES.
His honorary memberships include the Electromagnetics Academy
and the Scientific Sigma Xi Society. He serves on the editorial
board of the book series on Progress in Electromagnetic Research,
the Electromagnetic Waves and Applications Journal, and the
Computer Applications in Engineering Education Journal. He was
the Chair of the Educational Activity Committee for the IEEE
Region 3 Section from 2000 to 2001.
Charles E. Smith was born in Clayton, Alabama, on June 8,
1934. He received the BEE, MS, and PhD degrees from Auburn
University, Auburn, Alabama, in 1959, 1963, and 1968, respec-
tively. While pursuing his advanced degrees from 1959 to 1968, he
was employed as a Research Assistant with Auburn University
Research Foundation. In late 1968, he accepted the position of
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering with the University
of Mississippi, University, MS, and he advanced to the rank of
Associate Professor in 1969. He was appointed Chair of the
Department of Electrical Engineering in 1975, and he is currently
Professor and Chair of this department. He has directed and is
heavily involved in the development of the university’s current
circuits, electronics, HF and microwave, computer-aided-design,
and digital systems courses and laboratories. His main areas of
interest are related to the application of electromagnetic theory to
microwave circuits, antennas, measurements, RF and wireless
/€E€ Antenna’s and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 5, October 2002
systems, radar, digital and analog electronics, and computer-aided
design. His recent research has been on the application of numeri-
cal techniques to microstrip transmission lines, antenna measure-
ments in lossy media, measurement of electrical properties of
materials, CAD in microwave circuits, radar design, and data
acquisition using network analyzers. Dr. Smith has published
widely in these areas, and has over 200 total publications including
journal papers, technical reports, book chapters, and paper presen-
tations. He has advised or co-advised 46 MS thesis and PhD dis-
sertations, and has received six awards for outstanding teaching
and scholarship at the University of Mississippi. He is a Life Sen-
ior Member of the IEEE, and is a member of the IEEE Antennas
and Propagation Society, IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques
Society, IEEE Education Society, American Society of Engineer-
ing Education, Phi Kappa Phi, Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, and
Sigma Xi.
Kai-Pong Lee received his BSc and MSc degrees from
Queen’s University, Canada, in 1961 and 1963, respectively, and
his PhD degree from Come11 University in 1966, all in Electrical
Engineering. He held research appointments at the University of
California, San Diego (1966-67), the National Center for Atmos-
pheric Research (1968-69), National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (1972-73), UCLA (summer 1975), and NASA
(summers 1986, 1987). He was AssistantiAssociate Professor at
the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC (1967-72),
LectureriSenior LectureriReader at the Chinese University of
Hong Kong (1973-84), and Professor at the University of Akron,
Ohio (1985-88). He was the founding head of the Department of
Electronic Engineering at the City University of Hong Kong
(1 984-85). He served as Professor and Chair of the Department of
Electrical Engineering at the University of Toledo from 1988 to
1995, and Chair and Lapierre Professor of the Department of
Electrical Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia
from January, 1996, to December, 2000. He joined the University
of Mississippi as Dean of Engineering in January, 2001, Professor
Lee worked on plasma waves and instabilities from 1965-1980,
and on antennas since 1981. His publications include a textbook
(Principles of Antenna Theory, Wiley, 1984), an edited book
(Advances in Microstrip and Printed Antennas, Wiley-Inter-
science, 1997), several invited book chapters on microstrip anten-
nas, 149journal articles, and 121 conference papers.
155