Recently, metamaterials (MTMs) engineered to have negative values of permittivity and permeability, resulting in a left-handed system, have provided a new frontier for microwave circuits and antennas with possibilities to overcome limitations of the right-handed system. Microwave circuit components such as waveguides, couplers, power dividers and filters, constructed on left-handed materials, have demonstrated properties of backward coupling, phase compensation, reduced sizes, and propagation of evanescent modes. However, there is very limited work to date, on the microstrip antennas with metamaterials. Microstrip antenna is widely used for its low-profile, simplicity of feed and compatibility with planar microstrip circuitry. As the trend towards miniaturization of electronic circuitry continues, antennas remain as the bulkiest part of wireless devices. There are three primary objectives to the present work: 1. Explore the possibility of miniaturizing microstrip patch antennas using left-handed materials through phase-compensation 2. Achieve negative permittivity using Complementary Split-Ring Resonators (CSRR) 3. Implement CSRR in the ground plane of a rectangular patch antenna, and validate through simulation and measurement A rectangular patch antenna with a combined DPS-DNG substrate has been analyzed with the cavity model, from which the condition for mode propagation has been derived. Criteria for ‘electrically small’ patch, using phase-compensation have been developed and propagating modes that satisfy these criteria have been obtained. With an objective to design practically realizable antennas, amongst several available LHM structures, the Complementary Split Ring Resonators (CSRR) has been chosen, primarily for the ease of implementation in the ground plane. CSRRs are periodic structures which alter the bulk effective permittivity of a host medium in which they are embedded. The effective permittivity becomes negative in a certain frequency band defined as a ‘stop-band’. In the present work the frequency response of the CSRR and the ‘stop-band’ has been determined using a full wave solver, from which, effective permittivity of the composite with CSRRs has been obtained by parameter extraction. Finally, several combinations of patch and CSRR in the ground plane have been designed and constructed in the X-band frequency range. Measurements of input characteristics and directivity have been validated through simulation by Ansoft Designer and HFSS. It has been observed that the best designs are achieved when the ‘stop-band’ of the CSRR corresponds to the desired resonant frequency of the antenna. Under these conditions, a size reduction of up to fifty percent has been achieved and it is noted that the back lobe is negligible and the directivity is comparable to that of a right-handed microstrip antenna.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Microstrip antennas--Design and construction; Resonators
Department, Program, or Center
Electrical Engineering (KGCOE)
Venkataraman, Jayanti - Chair
Limaye, Aparna, "Size reduction of microstrip antennas using left-handed materials realized by complementary split-ring resonators" (2006). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from
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