volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

A wideband, compact and flexible conformal circularly polarized antenna (CCPA) with ground plane is proposed in this letter. It consists of a polygonal patch, two V-shaped coupling feed lines, a phase-shift transmission line and two layers of metallic ground planes. Two resonant modes are generated by cutting one vertex of the octagonal patch to broaden the operational bandwidth. An L-shaped ground plane is designed on the back of the top substrate. This configuration can obtain a relatively compact phase shifter on the one hand and make the coupling branches and octagonal patch share one ground plane on the bottom, improving the thickness of the antenna which yields wide bandwidth on the other hand. The CCPA can own good performances both in the planar and cylindrical carriers. Under the cylindrical conformal circumstance, the measured |S₁₁| and axial ratio (AR) bandwidth reach 12.05% (5.5 GHz-6.205 GHz) and 8.93% (5.67 GHz-6.2 GHz), respectively. The measured gain is 8.5 dBic with 3 dB gain bandwidth covering the whole operational band.

1. Santosa, C. E. and J. T. S. Sumantyo, "Conformal subarray antenna for circularly polarized synthetic aperture radar onboard UAV," 2020 International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP), 5-6, 2021.
doi:10.23919/ISAP47053.2021.9391362

2. Mingo, J., C. Roncal, and P. L. Carro, "3-D conformal spiral antenna on elliptical cylinder surfaces for automotive applications," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 11, 148-151, 2021.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2012.2184254

3. Zhao, Y., Z. Shen, and W. Wu, "Conformal SIW H-plane horn antenna on a conducting cylinder," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 14, 1271-1274, 2015.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2015.2401734

4. Ogurtsov, S. and S. Koziel, "A conformal circularly polarized series-fed microstrip antenna array design," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 68, No. 2, 873-881, 2020.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2019.2943326

5. Castro, A. T. and S. K. Sharma, "Inkjet-printed wideband circularly polarized microstrip patch array antenna on a PET film flexible substrate material," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 17, No. 1, 176-179, 2018.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2017.2779440

6. Yinusa, K. A., "A dual-band conformal antenna for gnss applications in small cylindrical structures," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 17, No. 6, 1056-1059, 2018.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2018.2830969

7. Zhong, J., A. Kiourti, T. Sebastian, Y. Bayram, and J. L. Volakis, "Conformal load-bearing spiral antenna on conductive textile threads," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 16, 230-233, 2017.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2016.2570807

8. Jilani, S. F., M. O. Munoz, Q. H. Abbasi, and A. Alomainy, "Millimeter-wave liquid crystal polymer based conformal antenna array for 5G applications," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 18, No. 1, 84-88, 2019.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2018.2881303

9. Yang, Z. K., N. Kou, S. X. Yu, Z. Ding, and Z. P. Zhang, "A coplanar waveguide-fed broadband circularly polarized microstrip antenna for conformal applications," International Journal of RF and Microwave Computer-Aided Engineering, Vol. 31, e22545, 2021.
doi:10.1002/mmce.22545

10. Yang, H., Y. Fan, and X. Liu, "A compact dual-band stacked patch antenna with dual circular polarizations for beidou navigation satellite systems," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 18, No. 7, 1472-1476, 2019.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2019.2920265

11. Wu, Q., X. Zhang, and L. Zhu, "Co-design of a wideband circularly polarized filtering patch antenna with three minima in axial ratio response," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 66, No. 10, 5022-5030, 2018.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2018.2856104

12. Wu, Q., X. Zhang, and L. Zhu, "A feeding technique for wideband CP patch antenna based on 90^◦ phase difference between tapped line and parallel coupled line," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 18, No. 7, 1468-1471, 2019.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2019.2920256

Dr. Zhengkun Yang

Dr. Na Kou

Dr. Shixing Yu

Dr. Jubo Guo