Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, Vol.

16, 119–129, 2010

DUAL-BAND YAGI-UDA ANTENNA FOR WIRELESS

COMMUNICATIONS

Q. Xin, F. -S. Zhang, B.-H. Sun, Y.-L. Zou, and Q.-Z. Liu
National Key Laboratory of Antenna and Microwave Technology
Xidian University
No. 2 South Taibai Road, Xi’an 710071, China

Abstract—A novel Yagi-Uda antenna with dual-band (915–935 MHz

and 1760–1805 MHz) is presented. Branch structures are used to
realize dual-band performance. The geometrical parameters for the
branch structures are optimized to explore the antenna to operate
satisfactorily in the two bands. Prototype is manufactured and
measured, and the results are in good agreement with the simulated
ones. In the two operating bands, the proposed antenna achieves
directional radiation and the performances that VSWR < 2, gain 5–
6.6 dBi and front-to-back ratio 6–9.1 dB, making it suitable for the
non-fixed base station backhaul in wireless communications.

1. INTRODUCTION

GSM communication is used more and more widely. In GSM

communication system, which is a cellular communication system, the
base station is fixed, and the users are mobile. In some special cases,
when there are many more people gathered than usual (such as World
Expo and Olympics) the channel capacity may be inadequate that
leads to the problem of communication congestion and influences the
normal communication. Under such circumstances, the non-fixed base
station will be a useful means that play an important role to solve the
above problem. The backhaul from the non-fixed base station to the
fixed one is a point-to-point communication, so a directional antenna
is needed to keep correspondence between them. In this paper, we
utilize the guard bands of GSM communication, by which the channel
capacity is improved, to design a dual-band antenna on the guard
Received 16 May 2010, Accepted 12 June 2010, Scheduled 3 August 2010
Corresponding author: Q. Xin (xinqi [email protected]).
120 Xin et al.

bands for the backhaul communication from the non-fixed base station
to the fixed one. The guard bands of GSM are 915–935 MHz for
GSM900 and 1760–1805 MHz for GSM1800.
As a classic antenna, due to its high directivity, simple structure,
easy to feed and low cost, Yagi-Uda antenna is widely used in
wireless communications, but the bandwidth of the antenna is narrow.
Throughout the last several years, there have been many contributions
in the design and optimization of Yagi-Uda antenna for specific
applications [1–17]. For example, a small and slim printed Yagi-Uda
antenna was designed for vehicle GPRS system application [15]. Also,
a successful attempt to improve the gain of a single Yagi-Uda array
using a periodic band gap (PBG) structure was proposed in [16], which
is used for wireless computer networking. Additionally, a broad-band
quasi-Yagi antenna achieving a measured 48% bandwidth is presented
for radar systems and millimeter-wave imaging arrays in [17].
In this paper, for the backhaul from the non-fixed base station to
the fixed one in the wireless communication, a novel dual-band Yagi-
Uda antenna is proposed. Simple branch structures are used to achieve
the dual-band performance. The proposed antenna is characterized by
its simple structure, easy to fulfil and thus low cost. It can realize
directional radiation in bands 915–935 MHz and 1760–1805 MHz with
VSWR < 2, gain 5–6.6 dBi and front-to-back ratio 6–9.1 dB, which can
satisfy the application requirements excellently.
The organization of this paper is as follows. In Section 2, we
present the geometry and design concept of the proposed antenna.
In Section 3, design and optimization of important parameters are
presented. The simulated and measured results are given in Section 4.
Finally, we draw the conclusions in Section 5.

2. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION AND DESIGN

THEORY

Figure 1 shows the configuration of the proposed antenna. The

dual-band Yagi-Uda antenna is composed of the director, driver and
reflector. In order to operate in the two application bands, the antenna
is designed with simple and easy fulfilled branch structures that are
made up of some short and long elements.
The driver and reflector have a similar branch structure. To
alleviate the interaction between short and long elements, we place
the short element of the driver and reflector next to each other, as
shown in Figure 2(a). For the director, if the same structure as the
driver and reflector was selected, the long element would be equivalent
to a reflector in the high-frequency band, and then it would cause the
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, Vol. 16, 2010 121

L d1

Dd
Ld
director
Ld2 d5 d4

L
L o1 d0
d3
feed d7
driver Do
Lo
L o2 d2
d1
L r2
d6
reflector Dr
Lr
L r1
y
x

Figure 1. Configuration of the proposed antenna.

current distribution current distribution

at high frequency at low frequency
long element feed
short element long element
branch
short element short element
long element
(a) reflector and driver (b) director

Figure 2. Explanation for each part of the proposed antenna, (a) for
the reflector and driver, and (b) for the director.

radiation direction reversed. Therefore, we adopt the structure that

the long and short elements are connected by a branch as shown in
Figure 2(b), in which the branch length should be around one fourth
of the wavelength of the center frequency for the high-frequency band.
When the antenna operates in the low-frequency band, the branch
122 Xin et al.

is in the short-circuit state, so the long element works as a reflector

at this time. On the other hand, when the antenna operates in the
high-frequency band, the branch is in the open-circuit state, that is
to say, the long element equals to two short elements that can be
regarded as two directors [18, 19]. Because the two equivalent directors
deviate from the antenna center, their director effect may be weak, and
the radiation direction may be influenced, and thus another director
element is placed in front of the branch structure to enhance the
director effect in the high-frequency band. The current distributions
at high and low frequencies are shown in Figure 2(b). The proposed
structure with a proper parameter design and optimization may meet
the requirement of the dual-band performance.

3. DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF STRUCTURE

PARAMETERS

It is not difficult to discern that the short elements of the branches

are mainly used for the high-frequency band, while the long elements
are mainly for the low-frequency band. But in fact, because of the
influences between the structure parameters, it is difficult for the short
and long elements to operate in their own individual band as we expect.
The performances vary greatly with structure parameters. If improper
structure parameters are designed, the radiation directions at some
frequencies may reverse to the reflector, or the antenna cannot achieve
good performances in the two bands simultaneously. In short, it is
difficult and crucial to determine the structure parameters in the design
process. The design of the antenna includes the determination of
initial structure parameters and optimization of the initial structure
according to the dual-band performance requirement.
The center frequencies of the two designed bands are f0L =
925 MHz and f0H = 1782 MHz, and the relevant wave lengths are
represented by λL and λH . Assuming λ0 = (λL + λH )/2, Lo1 , Lr1 ,
Ld1 , d2 and d4 , as shown in Figure 1, are designed initially on the
basis of the three-element Yagi-Uda antenna with 2Lo1 = 0.453λL ,
2Ld1 = 0.451λL , 2Lr1 = 0.479λL , and d2 = d4 = 0.25λ0 , while Lr2 ,
Lo2 , Ldo , Ld2 , d1 , d3 and d5 are designed initially on the basis of the
four-element Yagi-Uda antenna with 2Lo2 = 0.463λH , 2Lr2 = 0.486λH ,
2Ldo = 2Ld2 = 0.461λH and d1 = d3 = d5 = 0.25λH . The parameters
Dd , Do and Dr are critical factors that determine the dual-band
radiation directions. If the values of them are too large, the radiation
may be bidirectional, while if too small, the radiation direction in the
high-frequency band may be reversed to the reflector. In addition, the
inadequate Ld value will also lead to the radiation direction reverse.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, Vol. 16, 2010 123

Therefore, proper initial values should be designed to guarantee the

dual-band directivity basically. The initial values of Dd , Do , Dr and
Ld are designed individually as 3.5 cm, 2 cm, 2 cm and 1 cm. Then set
Lr = Lr2 /2, Lo = Lo2 /2, d6 = Dr /2, and d7 = Do /2. With the above
initial parameters determined, the initial structure is obtained.
Generally speaking, the reflector affects the input impedance
and front-to-back ratio greatly, but the gain not obviously, and the
driver is the key factor that influences the input impedance, while
the director produces obvious effect on the front-to-back ratio, gain
and input impedance all together [19]. The interlaced effect of the
performance parameters makes the design very complicated, for which
the differential evolution (DE) algorithm [20–23] is used to optimize
the structure parameters of the proposed antenna and make a tradeoff
between the concerned performances.
It is a multi-objective optimization problem. The design
objectives of the proposed antenna are to maximize the front-to-back
ratio F BR(x, f ) and gain G(x, f ), and achieve an input impedance
Z(x, f ) of approximately 50 ohm in the two bands. We take the
method that weighs multi-frequency and multi-objective functions and
combines them linearly to form a single objective function to be solved.
The objective function is expressed as follows,
M
X
F (x, f ) = [a × G(x, fi )+b × F BR(x, fi )−c × |50−Re(Z(x, fi ))|
i=1
−d × |Im(Z(x, fi ))|] (1)
where vector x represents the structure parameters of the antenna.
Parameter f represents the frequency. M represents the number of
the interested frequency points. The positive constants a, b, c and d
are weights that control the contribution from each term to the overall
objective function. The guiding principles for determining their values
are to increase a when priority is given to the gain, increase b when
priority is given to the front-to-back ratio and increase c and d when
priority is given to the impedance matching. Thus, by adjusting a,
b, c and d, we make a tradeoff between the performance parameters.
The proposed antenna is optimized to determine x that maximizes the
objective function. Variable ranges are as follows: the range of 2Lr1 is
0.45λL ∼ 0.5λL , and 2Lr2 is 0.45λH ∼ 0.5λH . 2Lo1 is 0.43λL ∼ 0.5λL ,
and 2Lo2 is 0.43λH ∼ 0.5λH . 2Ld1 is 0.42λL ∼ 0.5λL , and 2Ld2 is
0.42λH ∼ 0.5λH . d1 , d3 and d5 are all 0.15λH ∼ 0.4λH , and d2 and d4
are both 0.15λ0 ∼ 0.4λ0 . During the optimization process, a method of
moments code (NEC2) [24] performs the task of analyzing the antenna.
The optimized structure parameters of the proposed antenna are given
in Table 1.
124 Xin et al.

Table 1. Structure parameters of the proposed antenna (unit: cm).

Parameter Dimension Parameter Dimension
Lr1 8.15 Dr 1
Lr2 4.05 Do 2.19
Lr 2.03 Dd 3.2
Lo1 8.12 d1 4.17
Lo2 3.86 d2 7.35
Lo 2.32 d3 3.67
Ld1 7.69 d4 8.52
Ld2 3.76 d5 3.83
Ld 0.5 d6 0.8
Ldo 4 d7 0.51

(a) front view of the antenna (b) rear view of the antenna
Figure 3. Fabricated dual-band Yagi antenna, (a) is the front of the
antenna and (b) is the back of the antenna.

4. SIMULATED AND MEASURED RESULTS

A prototype of the dual-band Yagi-Uda antenna with the dimensions

optimized above is manufactured. The photograph of the fabricated
antenna is shown in Figure 3. The elements are constructed of brass
wires with radius of 1.1 mm, and an epoxy resin plate is attached to the
antenna to provide mechanical supporting and fixing. There are many
types of balun as described in [25], and a method of choke magnetic
ring is taken here, as shown in Figure 3(b). For the balun design is
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, Vol. 16, 2010 125

not the emphasis in this paper, we do not make a further study on it

here. The measurement of the prototype is carried out by a HP8753D
network analyzer in a microwave anechoic chamber, and the measured
results are shown in Figures 4 and 5.
In Figure 4, the antenna VSWR with respect to a 50 Ohm
impedance transmission line is illustrated. As seen, there are two
operating bandwidths with VSWR < 2 which cover the bands 915–
935 MHz and 1760–1805 MHz, and the simulated and measured results
are in agreement on the whole. The measured bandwidth is a little
wider than the simulated one, which is mainly caused by the choke
magnetic ring on the feed line that is used for decreasing the current
on the cable sheath.
Radiation patterns of the fabricated prototype are measured at
920 MHz and 1780 MHz in the H-plane (yz-plane) and E-plane (xy-
plane). The measured results, along with the simulated ones, are
shown in Figure 5. There is a good agreement between the measured
results and simulated data. It is clearly observed that the prototype
realizes the directional radiation at the two frequencies. The simulated
patterns of other frequencies are not provided here, but they keep
a high consistency in the bands 915–935 MHz and 1760–1805 MHz,
respectively. The data of the gain and the front-to-back ratio of the
prototype in the two bands are given in Table 2, from which we can
see the front-to-back ratio values are 6–9.1 dB, and the gain values
are 5–6.6 dBi. To achieve good performances of VSWR and front-
to-back ratio, a reasonable tradeoff is made between the performance
parameters during the design process, which makes the gain of the
antenna is not very high, but still acceptable for the above-mentioned
application.

measured
simulated
10

8
VSWR

0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2
Frequency (GHz)

Figure 4. Simulated and measured VSWR of the proposed antenna.

126 Xin et al.

simulated simulated
90 measured 90
0 60 0 measured
120 H-plane 120 60
-5 -5 E-plane

-10 150 30 -10 150 30

-15 -15
-20 180 0 -20 180 0
-15 -15
-10 210 330 -10
210 330
-5 -5
0 240 300 0 240 300
270 270
(a) patterns at 920MHz
simulated simulated
90 measured 90 measured
0 120 60 H-plane 0 120 60 E-plane
-5 -5
150 30 150 30
-10 -10
-15 -15
180 0 -20 180 0
-20
-15 -15
-10 210 330 -10 210 330
-5 -5
240 300 240 300
0 270 0 270
(b) patterns at 1780MHz

Figure 5. Simulated and measured radiation patterns in E-plane and

H-plane at the frequencies 920 MHz and 1780 MHz, (a) for 920 MHz,
and (b) for 1780 MHz.

Table 2. Values of gain and front-to-back ratio.

Band Gain Front-to-Back ratio
915–935 MHz 5–6 (dBi) 6.85–7.09 (dB)
1760–1805 MHz 5–6.6 (dBi) 6–9.1 (dB)

All the above results demonstrate that the proposed antenna

performs excellently to meet the requirements of the application.

5. CONCLUSION

In this paper, a novel dual-band (915–935 MHz and 1760–1805 MHz)

Yagi-Uda antenna has been proposed for the non-fixed base station
backhaul in wireless communications. To achieve the dual-band
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, Vol. 16, 2010 127

performance, branch structures that are simple and easy to fulfil were
used. The antenna configuration design and optimization methodology
have been described. The qualitative discussions of the important
parameters provide brief guidelines for the antenna designer. A
prototype of the dual-band Yagi-Uda antenna was fabricated and
measured with the results reaching the excepted values. In the two
operating bands, the proposed antenna achieves directional radiation
and performances that VSWR < 2, acceptable absolute gain 5–6.6 dBi
and front-to-back ratio 6–9.1 dB.
The dual-band Yagi-Uda antenna features simple structure, easy
to fulfil and thus low cost. We fabricated the prototype in the wire
form. In actual engineering the antenna can also be realized in other
forms. Based on the proposed design concept, it is expected to develop
antennas for wider applications in modern wireless communications.

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