Analysis Design and Modeling of Crescent Antenna

for UWB Applications

Khalil H. Sayidmarie Likaa S. Yahya

College of Electronic Engineering Dept. of Electronic Techniques
University ofNinavah, Iraq Institute of Technology
[email protected] Mosul, Iraq

Abstract-A crescent-shaped planar monopole antenna for operation band. An approximate estimation of this frequency
UWB applications is proposed. The design parameters were can be found by equating the area of the planner printed
investigated using CST software package. Modeling of the UWB antenna to the area of an equivalent cylindrical monopole
monopole antennas is investigated using two methods. The input having the same height (L), as explained in Fig. 1 [12].
impedance is represented by the first Foster canonical form,
where the equivalent circuit components at resonance are derived
from either the reflection coefficient or the input impedance
responses of the investigated antenna. In the second method, a
SPICE-compatible equivalent circuit is used to model the input
admittance of the antenna utilizing the vector fitting technique.
The CST Microwave Studio is used to obtain the reflection
coefficient and input impedance of the investigated antenna, and
these results are used to extract values of the components of the
equivalent circuit. The performances of the investigated methods
are compared, and validity of the modeling methods is verified
using MATLAB and ADS softwares.

Fig. 6.1. Geometry of the crescent monopole antenna.

Keywords-crescent-shaped antenna; antenna modeling; UWB
antennas; SPICE equivalent circuit.
The area the arc-shaped monopole can be found as:
I. INTRODUCTION Area of arc=area of outer sector - area of inner sector;
UWB technology has received much attention by Area of arc=0.5n (rJ2-ri) .......................(1)
researchers, scientists and industrialists due to its attractive
features of faster data transmission rate, low spectral power According to the idea of equivalence [12], the surface area
density, inexpensiveness and simple configuration [1]. The of cylindrical monopole is made equal to the area of the arc.
antenna is an important component in theUWB system since it For a cylindrical monopole antenna, the length L is usually
affects the transmit and receive performance of the system. The chosen as quarter of the resonant wavelength /'AL. Therefore;
UWB antennas must offer; bandwidth requirement, constant the band lower edge frequency fL is given by[12]:
gain, omni-directional radiation pattern, high radiation
efficiency, constant group delay, while low profile and easy fL=C/'AL=7.2/(L+a) GHz ..........(2)
manufacturing influences cost issues [2]. The literature shows where L is the length in centimeters, a is the effective
numerous publications on the design ofUWB antennas [3-11]. radius of the equivalent cylindrical monopole antenna in
centimeters, and c is speed of light. The monopole is fabricated
In this paper, a compact crescent-shaped monopole antenna on substrate, and if one includes the effect of feeder length p
is proposed forUWB applications. Estimation of the monopole then Eq. 2 is modified to [12]:
length and lower frequency of the operation band, as well as
the design parameters, were investigated. The proposed UWB fL=C/'AL=7.2/[(L+a+P)*k] GHz ..........(3)
antenna is then modeled by three methods, and the where k is a correction factor. This factor (k) may be
performances were compared. The impedance and reflection considered as the estimated value (k=-.iseft), or it is sometimes
coefficient at antenna input port is obtained using CST empirically taken as k=1.15 [12]. Another moderate value of k
Microwave Studio while the equivalent circuits are verified has been considered as (k=4-.iseft) [7].
using MATLAB and ADS.
To investigate the performance of the above-suggested
formulations; effect of L on the value of fL in Eq.3, six
II. DESIGN ANALYSIS & SIMULAnONS antennas were designed and analyzed using the CST software.
The designed crescent monopole antenna is shown in Fig. In the simulations of the antennas, an FR4 substrate of 1.6 rum
1. The lower edge frequency, is an important parameter of the thickness, Sf of 4.3, and dielectric loss tangent of 0.025 was
planar monopole antenna since it controls the start of the assumed. The parameters of the designed antennas are listed in

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Table 1. In the analysis, three methods for finding the length L The other value of the constant (k=1.15) is then used, and a
of the equivalent monopole are investigated. These three table similar to Table2 was constructed. Comparing the results
methods are described in Fig. 2 and as the following: for (K=1.15) with the lower edge frequency ofUWB, which is
equal to 3.1GHz, it can be concluded that method2, and
Methodl: L=L,=r, (outer radius of the arc),
method3 have given slightly better estimations as compared to
Mehode2: L2= length of the outer 90 arc S; i.e. that of method1.

L=L2= S=nrI/2, The same procedure was then repeated for (k=4-Vceff =l.275
for the used substrate). The obtained results show that,
Methode3: L3=average length of the arc Say; i.e., method3 has given much better estimation (average
L=L3= Sav=rc(ft+r2)/4 error=6.77%). Comparing the percentage errors obtained from
the above investigations, it can be concluded that using the
value of k= 1.15 has resulted in lowest overall error for the
three methods.
The performance of the proposed UWB antennas2 was
investigated to explore the effect of, inner (r2) and outer radius
(rl) of semi-annular ring. The reflection coefficient of antenna2
for various inner radii (r2) is shown in Fig. 3, where it can be
seen that decreasing the inner radius r2 from 9mm to 7mm
enhances the matching performance of the antenna.
Figure 2 The three methods to find the length L of the monopole.

For of each of the values (LI, L2, L3) Eq. 3 was used to find
the frequency fL of the lower-edge. The antenna characteristics
were obtained from the CST simulations. Table 2 shows the
antenna characteristics for each of the assumed equivalent
lengths; LI, L2, and L3, and assuming (k=-VSoff =l.627 for the
used substrate). In Table 2, a wide range of r, for various fixed
values of w were considered in the CST simulations, but the
shown values in are those which result in fulfilling UWB
characteristics. The Table shows that, for method1 (LI=rl), the
lower edge frequencies (fLl) for all antennas have an average
value of 3.05 GHz and an estimation error of 1.624%. Method2
(L2=S) gave an average value of 2.l4GHz with percentage
error of 30% while method3 (L3=Sav) gave an average of
2.26GHz and percentage error of 27.1%. Therefore, the relation
Fig. 3 Simulated S11versus frequency for various inner radii (r2).
considered in methodl gives the best estimate to the lower
edge frequency (fLl).
Figure 4 shows the reflection coefficient responses obtained
from the simulations for the six investigated antennas. The
TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF THE DESIGNED ANTENNAS. DIMENSIONS ARE IN MM
figure shows that all antennas comply with the upper UWB
frequency, while antennal, antenna2 and antenna3, have
rl r, W Wf If Wg Ig I P
slightly higher fL values. Comparing results of the -lOdB
Antennal II 6.5 4.5 3.2 17.75 25 17 30 0.75
Antenna2 11.5 7 4.5 3.2 17.7 25 17 30 0.7 bandwidth, it is concluded that antenna2 has the best
Antenna3 12.5 8 4.5 3.2 17.2 30 17 32 0.2 performance followed by antenna1, while antenna4 has the
Antenna4 13.5 9 4.5 3.2 17.2 30 17 32 0.2 worst performance. Considering the overall performance,
AntennaS 11.5 5.5 6 3.2 18 25 17 35 1 antenna5 can be considered to have the best compromised
Antenna6 12.5 6 6.5 3.2 17.5 27 17 32 0.5 performance.

TABLE 2. FREQUENCY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ANTENNAS FOR (K='-'EEFF Table 3 shows a comparison of the obtained frequency
=1.627). , FOR THE METHODS WHEN; LI=RI, L2=S, AND L3=SAV. characteristics of the designed antennas. It can be seen from
Fig. 4 and Table 3 that, when keeping the width of the arc
LI fLi L2 fL2 LJ fu
(mm) (GHz) (mm) (GHz) (mm) (GHz)
constant (w=4.5mm), and increasing the value of r, from 11 to
Antennal II 3.27 17.27 2.31 13.74 2.43 13.5 (in antennas 1,2,3 and 4) the bandwidth decreased from
Antenna2 11.5 3.16 18.06 2.22 14.52 2.34 14.15 to 10.374 GHz.
Antenna3 12.5 3.04 19.63 2.11 16.1 2.22
Antenna4 13.5 2.84 21.2 1.96 17.67 2.05 III. EQUTVALENT CIRCUITS AND MODELING FOR THE
AntennaS 11.5 3 18.06 2.16 13.35 2.29
ANTENNA
Antenna6 12.5 2.87 19.63 2.04 14.52 2.17
Av. values 3.049 2.14 2.26 The input impedance of an UWB antenna can be modelled
% Error 1.624 30.96 27.1 by the first Foster canonical form [13]. In other

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Fig. 4 Reflection coefficient curves for the six designed antennas.
(a)
TABLE 3. COMPARISON OF BANDWIDTH CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
INVESTIGATED ANTENNAS

I f;n;n(GHz) I f;naxCGHz) I B.W.(GHz) I f.na:/fnin I

Antennal 3.25 17.4 14.15 5.35
Antenna2 3.16 17.338 14.173 5.478
Antenna3 3.146 14.04 10.89 4.46
Antenna4 3.1 13.474 10.374 4.346
Antenna5 3 14.82 11.82 4.94
Antenna6 3.035 14.29 11.255 4.7

words, an UWB antenna achieves a wide band because of the

several adjacent resonating modes. Each mode can be
represented by a parallel-RLC resonator [14]. The following
three approaches are used.
A. Models derivedfrom the reflection coefficient (b)

The equivalent circuit modeling here utilizes the reflection Fig. 5 Results obtained from CST software for antenna2. (a) Reflection
coefficient response. Figure 5a shows the CST simulated coefficient response, (b) Real and imaginary parts of (Zin) versus frequency.
reflection coefficient curve of antenna2. Each dip (below the -
lOdB margin) in the response can be represented by a resonant
circuit. According to the figure, five anti-resonance modes are
observed in the shown investigated band (2-18) GHz. In this
case, the equivalent circuit model of Antenna-2 is proposed, as
shown in Fig. 6. Figure 5b, shows the input impedance
responses for antenna2, where the marked points from 1 to 10
show the real and imaginary parts of the impedance at the five
points indicated in Fig.5a. Figure 5b shows that, the values of
the real parts at the above points are close to 50n, while the
values of imaginary parts oscillate around zero. This result
means that these matching points represent resonances.
Figure. 6 shows the equivalent circuit for antenna2 that is
derived from the data shown in Figs. 5a and 5b. Table 4 shows
the values of the equivalent circuit element for antenna2. The
values of resistors, inductors and capacitors are extracted from
simulation results. These values are adjusted to obtain the
Fig. 6 Equivalent circuit in ADS derived from data of Fig. 5.
proper response (response in MATLAB is similar to that in
CST simulation). The impedance is represented by five
Figure 7 shows the variation of the real and imaginary parts
parallel-RLC cells that are connected in series and resonate at
of the input impedance (Zin) with frequency. The figure shows
3.74, 5.6, 9.024, 12.16 and 16.6GHz.
that, there is a good agreement between the results obtained
from; CST, ADS and MATLAB at the five indicated
frequencies. However, some values at other frequencies are
different; for example at the frequency of 2.768GHz. This

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deviation is caused by the equivalent circuit model based on bandwidths ranges from 3.16 to 17.36 GHz in CST ,from
the values which are approximately matched to son. 2.973 to 17.78 GHz in MATLAB and from 2.973 to 18.1S GHz
in ADS.
TABLE 4. VALUES OF THE EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT ELEMENTS FOR ANTENNA2

l In MATLAB and ADS II In CST I

Rn Cn Ln f" Cn Ln fn
Zn
Zo
(0) (pf)
124
(nH)
0.123
(OHz) I) I (pf)
123.8
I (nH)
0.123
I (OHz) I
Z, 52 1.92 1.059 3.53 54 2.94 0.611 3.74
Z2 42 3.68 0.234 5.4 50 8.02 0.1 5.6
Z3 52 1.09 0.32 8.94 46.74 17.94 0.017 9.024
Z4 45 1.53 0.106 12.5 57.71 2.434 0.071 12.16
Zs 70 0.84 0.099 17.4 42.79 0.741 0.124 16.6

Figure 8 compares the reflection coefficient responses that

were obtained from; CST simulation, ADS and MATLAB
(a)
where there is a good agreement between the results especially
at the matching points. However, there is a slight shift in the
upper frequency of the bands

B. Models derivedfrom the input impedance response

Figure 9a shows the CST simulated input impedance curves
of antenna2. The shown response shows six specific points that
are characterised by; an imaginary part nearly crossing the zero
and having a negative derivative, while the real part has local
maxima. These points are marked by the numbers 1 to 6. The
proposed equivalent circuit model of antenna-2, as obtained
from the results of Fig. 9, is represented by six parallel RLC
cells connected in series as shown in Fig 10.
Figure 9b, shows the CST simulated reflection coefficient
response of antenna2. The points from 1 to 6 show values of
the reflection coefficient at the coreseponding points indicated (b)
in Fig. 9a. The two figures show that, the value of the Fig 7. Variation of the Zin versus frequency.(a) the real parts, (b) the imaginary
impedance parts at point number 7 are (l97+j38) n, while the parts
reflection coefficient is equal to -4.8dB. This point does not
represent a matching point (since ISlll>-lOdB) but it is
considered here because it has a maximum real part, and
sometimes this point affects the start of the band. Comparing
the values of point number 8 with those of point numbers 9,
and 12 one can observe that the three points have reflection
coefficient values less than -10dB. However, point number 8
has the lowest reflection coefficient (SII= -2S.7dB), while point
number 12 has highest reflection coefficient of -10.S4dB.
As shown from Fig. 10 and Table S, the input impedance is
represented by seven parallel RLC cells connected in series
which resonate at 3.08GHz, S.03GHz, 6.9GHz, 9.1GHz,
11.77GHz,IS.66GHz and 18.4GHz.
Figure 11 shows the variation of real and imaginary parts of Fig. 8. Comparison of the reflection coefficient responses that are obtained
the input impedance Zin with frequency. As indicated in these from CST, ADS, and MATLAB.
figures there is a small shift between the results obtained from
CST simulation, MATLAB and ADS. This shift can be
attributed to the capacitors, inductors and resistors used in
MATLAB and ADS were adjusted to satisfy the proper
response which causes a shift in resonance frequencies from
the CST simulation results. Figure 12 compares the reflection
coefficient responses obtained from CST, ADS, and
MA TLAB. It can also be observed from Fig. 12 that the

44S
 (a)
(a)

(b)
(b)
Fig. 9 (a) Variation of the real and imaginary parts of the impedance (Zin) with
frequency. (b) Reflection coefficient response for the antenna. Fig. 11.(a) Variation of the real part of the impedance (Zin) with frequency.(b)
Variation of the imaginary part of (Zin) with frequency

Fig. 10. Equivalent circuit in ADS derived from data of Fig. 9.

TABLE 5. ELEMENT VALUES OF THE EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT MODEL FOR Fig. 12. Comparison of the reflection coefficient responses obtained from
ANTENNA2 CST, ADS, and MATLAB.

I Tn MATLAB and ADS II Tn CST I C. Models derived from the rational transfer function
Ln fn Cn Ln fn
I ) I I I I ) I I I I
c..
Zn (pt) (nH) (GHz) (pt) (nH) (GHz) The modeling method based on the rational transfer
Zo 123.8 0.1233 123.8 0.123 function is applied here to obtain the equivalent circuit models
Z, 110 1.718 1.967 3.08 197 1.618 2.067 2.75 of the input admittance of antenna2. The simulated input
Z2 50.4 1.757 0.5095 5.03 50.41 6.08 0.136 5.54 admittance of the investigated antenna was estimated fIrst, then
Z3 60 2.752 0.1932 6.9 86.76 2.852 0.173 7.16
the calculated input admittance was fItted using the Vector
Z4 44.8 2.722 0.1207 9.1 46 63.22 0.005 8.72
Z; 45 1.6046 0.1139 11.77 67 5.905 0.032 11.52
Fitting (VF) technique. Twenty linearly spaced poles were
Z6 68.5 0.892 0.116 15.66 98 0.891 0.115 15.728 chosen initialy in the VF procedure, and the number of
Z7 106 0.807 0.0927 18.4 120 0.577 0.128 18.436 iterations was 3. The fItting procedure provided (10) complex

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pairs. The input admittance, and the root-mean-square error length and lower frequency of the operation band were
(rms-error) in the magnitude was found less than (-29dB). examined. The influences of the design parameters were
investigated. The proposed UWB antenna is then modeled by
Figures 13(a) and (b) show the responses of the admittance
using two approaches. Firstly, the input impedance is
Yin (real and imaginary parts ) that were obtained from; CST represented by a series of resonant circuits. A parallel RLC
simulation, fitting the same input admittance, and those
circuit, derived either from the reflection coefficient response
obtained by means of spice equivalent circuit. The proposed
or the input impedance, is used to represent each resonance.
synthesis is clearly seen to allow a satisfactory approximation
The obtained results showed that the equivalent circuit devised
of the antenna input admittance. Agreement between them IS
from the input impedance gives good details about the whole
very good.
studied band (from 2 to 18GHz). In the SPICE-compatible
equivalent circuit and vector fitting technique approach, each
RLC circuit is suggested to represent a complex pole pair. The
model responses using MATLAB and ADS showed good
agreement with those obtained from the CST simulation.

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A compact crescent-shaped monopole antenna is proposed
for UWE applications. Accuracies of estimating the monopole

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