Vol. 131 (2017) ACTA PHYSICA POLONICA A No.

Special Issue of the 6th International Congress & Exhibition (APMAS2016), Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey, June 1–3, 2016

Design and Analysis of a Microstrip Antenna Based on

Superconducting Material for Millimeter Wave Applications
S. Djidel, M. Bouamar and D. Khedrouche∗
LASS (Laboratoire d’Analyse des Signaux et Systèmes), Department of Electronics, University of M’sila,
B.P. 166, Route Ichebilia, M’sila, 28000, Algeria
In this paper, we present a design and analysis of microstrip antenna based on superconducting material
for millimeter wave applications. The proposed antenna is simulated using electromagnetic microwave studio
computer simulator CST. The structure is made by two materials: the yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) thin
film superconductor material as the patch and silicon Si as substrate with permittivity of 11.9. The superconductor
material is characterized by a conductivity of 1.62 × 107 S/m and critical high temperature of 89 K. The simulated
results concerning the return loss show that our structure has ultra wide band over 27 to 70 GHz. Low return loss
of the superconductor antenna compared with his perfect conductor counterpart is achieved. In addition, good
radiation pattern characteristics are obtained in the frequency band of operation. The proposed antenna has also
overall size of 3 × 3 mm2 , which facilitate its integration in architecture of communications systems.
DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.131.109
PACS/topics: 74.78.–w, 74.72.–h, 84.40.Ba, 84.40.Ua, 84.40.Gf

1. Introduction software studio computer CST. The superconductor ma-

terial used is YBCO with conductivity 1.62×107 S/m and
Nowadays, the need for higher data transmission rate HTc of 89 K. The simulation results concerning some cha-
(Gb/s) of wireless communication systems motivates the racteristics such as the reflection coefficient (return loss)
usage of millimeter wave frequency bands (e.g., 57– and the radiation pattern are discussed. In addition, a
64 GHz in USA, 59–66 GHz in Japan) [1]. Microstrip comparative study is presented to show the effect of su-
antennas of various shapes have recently received much perconducting material in these characteristics compared
attention and have been widely used in the range of with a conventional microstrip antenna with a perfect
millimeter-wave frequencies [2]. conductor as a radiating patch.
The discovery of new superconducting materials facili-
tates the development of microwave and millimeter-wave 2. Antenna design
devices with better performance than conventional devi-
ces [3, 4]. Advantages of using the superconducting mate- The steps sequences of design antenna based on super-
rials at high frequencies are: very small losses which me- conducting thin film material are shown in Fig. 1. The
ans low attenuation and low noise, smaller devices due to original antenna is depicted in Fig. 1a,b, it consists of a
the lower losses, which leads to larger integration density, classical rectangular patch of dimensions Wp = 1.5 mm
and the propagation time can be greatly reduced because and Lp = 1.5 mm. The patch is fed by a micros-
of the smaller size and the shorter interconnects [5]. trip line, with width of Wf = 0.24 mm and length of
Superconducting materials have a great effect on the Lf = 0.8 mm, to achieve input impedance of 50 Ω as
performance of microstrip antennas, due to the much shown in Fig. 1a. In Fig. 1b, we show a partial ground
lower surface resistance compared with normal conduc- plane with length of Lg = 0.75 mm and the same width
tor and high transition temperature over the boiling of the substrate Ws = 3 mm. All these elements: the
point of liquid nitrogen [4, 6]. High Tc (HTc ) super- patch, the feeder, and the ground plane are made by
conducting microstrip patch antennas have higher gain YBCO superconducting thin film material with conducti-
than their normal counterparts, but they suffer from the vity 1.62 × 107 S/m and critical temperature Tc = 89 K.
extremely narrow bandwidth, which severely limits their The dielectric is made by silicon (Si) with permittivity
application [7]. εr = 11.9, length of Ls = 3 mm and having thickness of
In this paper, we design and analyse a new microstrip Hs = 0.154 mm.
antenna structure based on superconducting material for The proposed antenna, obtained by modifying the ori-
millimeter wave application. The proposed antenna is ginal antenna, is shown in Fig. 1c,d. The V-shaped patch
simulated and performed using the microwave simulator has parametric dimensions of Wt , Wt1 , Lt and Lt1 as de-
picted in Fig. 1c. The dimensions Wt , Lt and Lt1 are set
to 0.4 mm and Wt1 to 0.3 mm. For the purpose of im-
pedance matching, a small rectangle is etched from the
∗ corresponding
author; e-mail: partial ground plane. The dimensions of this rectangle
[email protected] are Wc and Lc as indicated in Fig. 1d and are set to
0.3 mm and 0.2 mm, respectively.

(109)
110 S. Djidel, M. Bouamar, D. Khedrouche

Fig. 3. Return loss of superconductor and perfect con-

ductor patches.
Fig. 1. Design sequences of proposed antenna: (a) top
view, (b) bottom view, (c) top view, (d) bottom view. In order to study the effect of superconductivity on
the microstrip antenna performances, we plotted in Fig. 3
3. Results and discussion the reflection coefficient for a perfect conductor patch an-
tenna (black line) and a superconducting patch antenna
The simulated results are concerning the return loss (red line), respectively. It can be seen that the return loss
coefficient (S11 ) and the radiation pattern, of the mi- curves merge in the frequency band of interest. However,
crostrip structure of Fig. 1, and are performed by CST a more matching behavior is observed when we use the
commercial simulator. Figure 2 shows the comparison material YBCO compared with his copper counterpart,
between the original and the proposed antenna in term at the resonance frequency of 30.5 GHz, where we recor-
of return loss. From the figure, we can observe that ded a –45 dB of return loss for superconductor material
the original antenna had a discontinuity in the impe- versus –27 dB for the patch made by copper. This diffe-
dance bandwidth in the frequency band of interest for rence is due to the characteristic of the superconductor
(S11 < −10 dB) and have two bands (dual band). These material which has much lower surface resistance com-
bands are from 30 to 42 GHz and from 72 to 77 GHz. pared with the perfect conductor. Thus, a better band-
To improve the bandwidth of this antenna, a modifica- width matching is achieved using the thin film YBCO
tion on the patch is made to obtain the V-shaped patch material.
depicted in Fig. 1c. The corresponding return loss for
The radiation pattern is a very important parameter
this case is illustrated in Fig. 2. The curve (red line) de-
in defining the performance of an antenna, because the
monstrate that our structure have an impedance band-
role of an antenna is to radiate. The radiation pattern of
width stretched from 27 GHz to 70 GHz for return loss
the proposed antenna based on superconducting material
S11 < −10 dB. In addition, it can be seen that the pro-
is depicted in Figs. 4 and 5 at high resonance frequen-
posed antenna has two essential resonance frequencies.
cies 30.5 GHz and 65.78 GHz, respectively. The plots
These frequencies are 30.5 GHz and 65.78 GHz. The pro-
are performed in the E-plane for Φ = 0◦ and H-plane
posed antenna is well matched at these frequencies and
for Θ = 90◦ . From these figures, we can see that the
shows a return loss of –45 dB at 30.5 GHz and –40 dB
radiation pattern of the antenna have an omnidirectional
at 65.78 GHz.
behavior in the E-plane and a nearly omnidirectional

Fig. 4. Radiation pattern at f = 30.5 GHz: (a) E-

plane, (b) H-plane.
Fig. 2. Return loss of original and proposed antenna.
 Design and Analysis of a Microstrip Antenna. . . 111

that the performances of the proposed antenna using

the superconductor material (YBCO) such as the return
loss is enhanced compared with perfect conductor pa-
tch, especially at the resonance frequencies 30.5 GHz
and 65.78 GHz. The proposed antenna provides good
monopole-like radiation patterns and it is miniature with
a small size of 3×3 mm2 , which make it compatible with
the integration technology of components in architecture
of communications systems.

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