IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 17, NO.

2, FEBRUARY 2018 303

An Electrically Small Planar Quasi-Isotropic Antenna

J. Ouyang, Y. M. Pan , Senior Member, IEEE, S. Y. Zheng , Senior Member, IEEE, and P. F. Hu

Abstract—A singly fed, electrically small, planar antenna that radiation with gain deviation less than 6 dB, but they are not
generates a quasi-isotropic radiation pattern is investigated. The planar.
antenna consists of a folded dipole, a pair of capacitively loaded A planar quasi-isotropic antenna is favorable due to its ad-
loops (CLLs), and a coplanar stripline (CPS), which are printed on vantages such as low profile, low cost, and ease of fabrication
the top and bottom surfaces of a single-layer printed circuit board. [5]–[7]. A planar structure consisting of four sequentially ro-
Through near-field coupling with the driven CPS, the folded dipole
and CLLs are both effectively excited and behave like an electric
tated L-shaped monopoles was proposed in [5]. The monopoles
dipole and a magnetic dipole, respectively. A quasi-isotropic ra- are fed by four-way signals with equal amplitudes and incre-
diation pattern can therefore be obtained by combining the two mental 90° phase delays that are provided by a sequential-phase
orthogonal dipoles with the same radiation intensities and quadra- feeding network, which undesirably enlarges the footprint of the
ture phases. To verify the idea, a prototype operating at 2.4 GHz antenna. Combining a small printed dipole and a small printed
is designed, fabricated, and measured. It has been shown that this loop [6], or combining a bent dipole and two slots [7], can suc-
electrically small antenna (0.165 × 0.164 × 0.006 λ3 , ka = 0.73) cessfully obtain a quasi-isotropic radiation pattern with electri-
has a −10 dB impedance bandwidth of 0.99%, a total efficiency cally small dimensions. However, this type of antenna cannot
of ∼90%, and a nearly isotropic pattern with the difference be- radiate efficiently owing to the severe ohmic loss. The design
tween the maximum and minimum radiated power densities given of a high-efficient, electrically small, planar, quasi-isotropic an-
by ∼3 dB over the entire spherical radiating surface.
tenna is still a challenge.
Index Terms—Electric dipole, electrically small antennas Recently, using near-field resonant parasitic (NFRP) elements
(ESAs), isotropic antennas, magnetic dipole, planar antennas. to design electrically small antennas has gained much atten-
tion [8]–[11]. For example, a metamaterial-inspired, electri-
cally small, broadside antenna was studied in [8]. It consists
I. INTRODUCTION of a modified Egyptian axe dipole NFRP element and a capac-
UE to its uniform and full coverage of signal, an isotropic itively loaded loop (CLL) NFRP element, which function as
D antenna is increasingly popular in certain applications,
such as radio frequency identification, radio frequency energy
an electric dipole and a magnetic dipole, respectively. The two
dipoles are perpendicularly arranged, tuned to have the same
radiation intensities and 180° phase differences [2], thereby
harvesting, and wireless access points. However, it was found
impossible to design an ideal isotropic antenna having consistent providing broadside radiation patterns with large front-to-back
polarization in every direction [1]. As a substitute, various types ratios. Similar electrically small, unidirectional antennas have
of quasi-isotropic antennas were investigated [2]–[7]. A com- also been reported in [9]–[11].
mon technique to realize quasi-isotropic radiation is based on In this letter, NFRP elements, a folded dipole and a pair
the complementary concept, i.e., combining orthogonal electric of CLLs, are first utilized to design an efficient, electrically
and magnetic dipoles. For instance, a compact quasi-isotropic small, planar quasi-isotropic antenna. By elaborately arranging
dielectric resonator (DR) antenna, which combines a pair of the two elements with a driven coplanar stripline (CPS), or-
equivalent magnetic and electric dipoles that are generated by a thogonal electric and magnetic dipoles with the same radiation
rectangular DR and its small ground plane, was proposed in [2]. intensities but 90° phase differences are obtained, and a quasi-
The complementary concept has also been utilized to realize isotropic pattern results [2]. A prototype operating at 2.4 GHz
a quasi-isotropic shorted patch antenna [3], and a folded split- has been designed by ANSYS HFSS and measured by Satimo
ring antenna [4]. These designs provide approximately uniform Starlab System. Reasonable agreement between the simulated
and measured results is obtained.

Manuscript received September 6, 2017; revised October 31, 2017 and De- II. ANTENNA DESIGN
cember 7, 2017; accepted December 23, 2017. Date of publication December
27, 2017; date of current version February 5, 2018. This work was supported in A. Antenna Configuration
part by the Guangdong Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Schol-
ars under Grant 2016A030306007, in part by the Natural Science Foundation of Fig. 1 shows the configuration of the proposed isotropic an-
Guangdong Province under Grant 2014A030313250, and in part by Tianjin Re- tenna, which is designed on the Rogers Duroid 5880 substrate
search Program of Application Foundation and Advanced Technology, China, with thickness h = 0.787 mm, relative permittivity εr = 2.2,
under Grant 14JCQNJC0110. (Corresponding author: Y. M. Pan.)
J. Ouyang, Y. M. Pan, and P. F. Hu are with the School of Elec- and loss tangent tan δ = 0.0009. The antenna consists of a
tronic and Information Engineering, South China University of Technol- folded dipole, a pair of CLLs, and a short CPS. With refer-
ogy, Guangzhou 510641, China (e-mail: [email protected]; ence to Fig. 1(a), the folded dipole working as an electric dipole
[email protected]; [email protected]). is fabricated on the top surface of the substrate, whereas the
S. Y. Zheng is with the Department of Electronics and Communication
Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China (e-mail:
CLLs working as a magnetic dipole and the CPS working as
[email protected]). a driven element are on the bottom surface. A coaxial cable is
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2017.2787720 used to feed the antenna, with its inner and outer conductors

1536-1225 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
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304 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 17, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2018

Fig. 2. Reference folded dipole antenna.

Fig. 1. Configuration of the proposed quasi-isotropic antenna. (a) Perspective

view. (b) Upper layer electric folded dipole. (c) Bottom layer magnetic CLLs
and driven CPS.
Fig. 3. Simulated reflection coefficient of the folded dipole antenna.
TABLE I
OPTIMIZED PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA

Parameter Value (mm) Parameter Value (mm)

εr 2.2 h 0.787
L1 20.6 L2 20.4
h1 5 h2 3.6
w0 0.375 w1 1
w2 1 w3 1
wp 1.2 d1 1.05
d2 6.7 s1 1
s2 1.5 l 3.95
lm 4.95 Fig. 4. (a) Simulated current density distribution on the folded dipole antenna
at 2.65 GHz. (b) Equivalent model of the folded dipole.

connected to the driven CPS. Fig. 1(b) shows the details of the CPS by its two extension lines. Fig. 3 shows the simulated re-
folded electric dipole, which is an open rectangular loop with flection coefficient of the folded dipole antenna. It is found that
two outward extension lines. The open loop has a length of L2 , the dipole resonates at 2.65 GHz, close to the theoretical reso-
width of h2 , and line-width of w3 , whereas the two extension nance frequency of 2.67 GHz (λg = 4L2 ). The current density
lines have a length of l, line-width of wp , and gap of s2 . Fig. distribution of the antenna at this resonance frequency is shown
1(c) shows the details of the CLL magnetic elements and the in Fig. 4(a). Considerable current density can be observed on the
driven CPS. It can be seen that the CLL elements are composed folded dipole, demonstrating that it has been effectively excited.
by a pair of open rectangular loops, with their gaps being face- The current flows along the dipole in a clockwise direction, but
to-face. The rectangular loops have a length of L1 , width of h1 , its intensity is not uniform. The current on the left arm is rela-
and line-width of w2 , whereas the CPS of length lm and line- tively stronger than that on the other arms. Therefore, the folded
width w1 is parallel with the two extension lines of the folded dipole can be approximately regarded as a combination of a
dipole and laid between the CLLs. In this case, it can excite both short dipole (electric dipole) and a rectangular loop (magnetic
the folded dipole and CLLs by the near-field strong coupling. dipole), as depicted in Fig. 4(b). Since the currents on the short
It will be shown in Section II-B that this meticulous design dipole and rectangular loop are in phase, there will be a 90°
can generate orthogonal electric and magnetic dipoles with 90° phase difference between the radiated fields of the two equiv-
phase differences to realize quasi-isotropic radiation, quite dif- alent dipoles [12]. As for the intensity, the radiation caused by
ferent from the previous broadside designs that use anti-phase the electric dipole should be dominant. To verify this, Fig. 5
complementary dipoles. The optimized parameters are listed in shows the radiation patterns at 2.65 GHz. With reference to the
Table I. figure, the E-plane (yz plane) and H-plane (xz plane) patterns are
of figures “8” and “O” shapes, respectively, indicating that the
folded dipole element is mainly equivalent to an electric dipole
B. Antenna Mechanism oriented along the y-axis. It is noted that the cross-polarization
To investigate the operating principle of the proposed an- level in the yz plane is considerably strong. This is caused by
tenna, the folded dipole element is studied first. As shown in the additional weaker magnetic dipole, which generates an or-
Fig. 2, the folded dipole is electrically coupled to the driven thogonal polarization in this plane.
OUYANG et al.: ELECTRICALLY SMALL PLANAR QUASI-ISOTROPIC ANTENNA 305

Fig. 5. Simulated radiation patterns of the folded dipole antenna at 2.65 GHz.
(a) yz plane (E-plane). (b) xz plane (H-plane).

Fig. 7. Prototype of the proposed isotropic antenna. (a) Top view. (b) Bottom
view. (c) Prospective view after soldered with a cable.

Fig. 6 Simulated current density distributions of the proposed antenna at Fig. 8. Simulated and measured reflection coefficients of the prototype.
different time points. (a) t = 0. (b) t = T /4. (c) t = T /2. (d) t = 3T /4.

and width of h2 = 0.05 λg to operate at the desired frequency.

Based on the complementary concept, a three-dimensional Second, add a pair of CLLs on the two sides of the driven CPS.
quasi-isotropic pattern can only be realized when the two dipoles The initial length and width of the CLLs can be chosen as same
have the same radiation intensities and quadrature phases [2]. as those of the folded dipole. Third, adjust the lengths (L2 , L1 ),
Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the amplitude of the mag- widths (h2 , h1 ), and relative positions (d2 ) of the folded dipole
netic dipole. Obviously, adding an additional magnetic dipole and CLLs to tune the resonance frequency and radiation pat-
element is an effective way to fulfill this requirement. A pair terns, whereas adjust the length (lm ) of the driven CPS to obtain
of CLLs is therefore introduced into this design. As discussed a good impedance matching. Finally, refine each parameter to
in [8], the two face-to-face CLLs behave like a loop, creating optimize the design until satisfying performance is achieved.
magnetic dipole behavior. To keep a simple planar structure,
the CLLs are meticulously arranged on the bottom layer of the
substrate. They are placed on the two sides of the driven CPS to III. SIMULATED AND MEASURED RESULTS
get strongly coupled. In this case, an equivalent magnetic dipole For demonstration, a prototype of the proposed quasi-
oriented along the z-axis is obtained. Fig. 6 shows the current isotropic antenna operating at 2.4 GHz was fabricated and
density distributions of the proposed antenna at different time tested. Fig. 7 shows three photographs of the prototype, which
points (phases). It can be seen that the currents on both the is electrically small with the entire size given by 20.6 × 20.4 ×
folded dipole and CLLs reach maximum at t = 0 and t = T /2, 0.787 mm3 (0.165 × 0.164 × 0.006 λ3 , ka = 0.73). As shown
while minimum at t = T /4 and t = 3 T /4. It means that the in Fig. 7(c), a λ/4 choke was added to the outer conductor of the
magnetic dipole modes generated by them are in-phase. Corre- cable to suppress its stray radiation.
spondingly, adding the CLL elements can effectively enhance Fig. 8 shows the simulated and measured reflection coeffi-
the amplitude of the equivalent magnetic dipole, make its radia- cients of the prototype. Reasonable agreement between the sim-
tion intensity equal to that of the aforementioned electric dipole, ulation and measurement can be observed, and the small discrep-
and also maintain the 90° phase difference between the radiated ancy is mainly caused by the fabrication errors and experimental
fields of the electric dipole and magnetic dipole. As a result, a imperfections. Due to the introduction of the CLL elements, both
pair of orthogonal electric and magnetic dipoles with the same the simulated (2.43 GHz) and measured (2.42 GHz) resonance
radiation intensities and quadrature phases is developed, and an frequencies are a bit lower than that (2.65 GHz) of the afore-
electrically small, planar, isotropic antenna is achieved. mentioned folded dipole antenna. As shown in Fig. 8, the sim-
A simple design guideline of the proposed quasi-isotropic ulated and measured −10 dB impedance bandwidths are given
antenna has been summarized to facilitate its design. First, de- by 0.78% (2.423–2.442 GHz) and 0.99% (2.408–2.432 GHz),
sign a folded dipole antenna with initial length of L2 = 0.25 λg respectively, comparable to or even wider than those electrically
306 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 17, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2018

Fig. 11. Contour pattern of the measured normalized total realized gain at
2.42 GHz.
Fig. 9. Simulated and measured realized gains at θ = 90◦ , φ= 0◦ , and total
efficiencies of the prototype.
result of 2.3 dB has also been obtained in the simulated contour
pattern.

IV. CONCLUSION
A quasi-isotropic antenna that combines a folded dipole and a
pair of CLLs is investigated in this letter. It has been shown that
the folded dipole can generate a stronger electric dipole mode
and a weaker magnetic dipole mode, and adding a pair of CLL
elements can efficiently enhance the amplitude of the magnetic
dipole mode to obtain a quasi-isotropic radiation pattern. The
antenna is singly fed, meticulously designed on a single-layer
printed circuit board, and its electrical size is as small as 0.165 ×
0.164 × 0.006 λ3 . Also, the antenna shows satisfying radiation
performance, having a gain difference of 3.14 dB and a total
efficiency of ∼90%.

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