Compact, Broadband and High Gain Uniplanar Quasi-Yagi Microstrip Antenna for End-Fire Radiation

Abstract

This paper describes a uniplanar, compact, broadband, and high gain quasi-Yagi microstrip antenna to achieve radiation in the end-fire direction. The major elements of the proposed antenna include one element of each: reflector, ground plane (acts as another reflector), driven, and director. The concept of microstrip and Yagi-Uda antennas are coupled to lower the inter-element spacing, thus reducing the antenna dimensions along the boom length significantly. U-shaped reflector elements are used to reduce the lateral dimension of the antenna. The antenna's directivity is enhanced in the lower and upper-frequency bands with the help of reflectors and directors, respectively. A compact size of (0.52 × 0.22 × 0.009) ${\lambda }_0^3$ has been achieved along with an impedance bandwidth of 46.5% for |S₁₁| < −10 dB and a peak gain of 6 dBi (with 1 dB variations) over the entire bandwidth. The novelty of the proposed uniplanar quasi-yagi MSA is proved by comparing the Figure of Merit (FoM) with the reported work. The proposed antenna is fabricated, and the measured results are in good agreement with the simulated results. The proposed uniplanar quasi-Yagi antenna is ideal for wireless applications that required end-fire radiation in 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi frequency bands, and portable direction-finding devices.

KEYWORDS:

• Broadband
• Compact
• End-fire
• Microstrip antenna
• Quasi-yagi
• Uniplanar

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors also would like to thank Ms. Rajbala and Dr. Shivraj Rathod for their help during the fabrication and measurement process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli under grant NITT/R&C/SEEDGRANT/2021-22/Proj.No.22/ECE/HK.

Notes on contributors

Manan Gupta

Manan Gupta is currently pursuing the master's degree from School of Electrical and Computer Science Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. His main research interests include antennas for 5G applications, MIMO antennas, broadband antennas, and electrically compact antennas. He has published several articles in conferences hosted by IEEE and Springer.

Hemant Kumar

Hemant Kumar (M'20, IETE; S'16, M'18, SM'21, IEEE) received the BTech (with honors) degree in electronics and communication Engineering from Kurukshetra University and PhD in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay). Currently, He is working as an assistant professor at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, TN. His research interests include broadband antennas, microstrip antennas and arrays, passive microwave circuits, monopulse tracking, microwave imaging, and machine learning in antennas and microwave. He is also serving as a reviewer in a number of national/international journals including IEEE Access, IET Microwave Antennas & Propagation, IETE Journal of Research, etc. He has published research articles in refereed journals and refereed conference proceedings, and also filed one patent. Email: [email protected]