DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL GRAPHICAL INTERFACES FOR

RADIATION AND PROPAGATION OF RECTANGULAR PATCH ANTENNA

TAN YONG MENG

A project report submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for the award of the degree of

Master of Engineering (Electrical – Electronics and Telecommunication)

Faculty of Electrical Engineering

University Teknologi Malaysia

NOVEMBER 2009

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To my beloved father, mother and sister.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere appreciation and thankfulness to my final year

project supervisor, Dr. You Kok Yeow, regarding his guidance, support and willingness

to help throughout my final year project progress. He has provided me with his valuable

advice and suggestion so that I can follow the right track in performing all necessary

tasks and complete the project as well. Besides, he also acts as language supervisor to

check on my documentation. I believe that without his assistance, my project will not be

able to operate smoothly and complete on time.

I am also indebted to librarians for their assistance in supplying the relevant

literatures. My sincere appreciation also extends to my friends who have provided

assistance at various occasions. Their views and tips are useful indeed. Finally, I would

like to thank my parents and sister for their encouragement and support who had helped

me go through all the difficulties that I faced throughout my project.

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this project is to design an education program for radiation and

propagation of rectangular patch antenna. There are many available commercial

softwares to design patch antenna but besides costly and time consuming, equations

involved are not clearly stated although method used is known. This developed

education software is cheap, simple to use and time-savvy. This education program is

generated by using MATLAB coding to deal with real situations while the graphical user

interface (GUI) is designed by using Hewlett-Packard Visual Engineering Environment

(HP VEE). Available electromagnetic analytical equations will be used to predict the

performance of rectangular patch antenna where the results will be compared with

literature data and commercial simulator results, which are expected agree with available

published data. The results obtained has almost the same shape and polarization

properties compares to the one simulated by using AWR Design Environment 2006. An

educational software tool for microwave study is created upon the completion of this

project. The existence of this software tool will ease the difficulties of designing

rectangular patch antenna as it is economical, user friendly and time-saving.

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ABSTRAK

Tujuan kajian ini adalah merekakan satu atucara pendidikan bagi radiasi dan

propagasi antena tampalan segiempat. Terdapat banyak perisian komers untuk

merekabentuk antena tampalan, tetapi masa simulasinya panjang, malahnya mahal.

Tambahan pula, persamaan-persamaan dan kaedah-kaedah yang digunakan dalam

perisian komers tersebut tidak diberitahu. Dalam kajian ini, perisian yang murah,

menjimatkan masa dan guna mesra telah dibangunkan. Perisian pendidikan ini dijanakan

dengan menggunakan pengkodan “MATLAB” untuk berinteraksi dengan situasi sebenar.

Grafik antara muka pengguna telah direkakan dengan menggunakan “Hewlett-Packard

Visual Engineering Environment (HP VEE)”. Persamaan analisisan elektromagnet yang

sedia ada telah digunakan untuk meramalkan prestasi antena tampalan segiempat dan

keputusannya telah dibandingkan dengan data kajian literatur dan keputusan pensimulasi

komers. Keputusan yang diperolehi mempunyai bentuk dan pengutuban yang seakan

sama berbanding dengan keputusan yang dipeolehi daripada “AWR Design

Environment 2006”. Satu alat perisian pendidikan bagi pengkajian mikrogelombang

berjaya dicipta dengan sesiapnya kajian ini. Dengan alat perisian ini akan memudahkan

kerumitan merekabentuk antena tampalan segiempat kerana murah, menjimatkan masa

dan guna mesra.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS viii

LIST OF TABLES x

LIST OF FIGURES xi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xiii

LIST OF SYMBOLS xiv

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Project Background 1

1.2 Objectives 2

1.3 Problem Statements 3

1.4 Thesis Outline 3

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Electromagnetic Theory Overview 5

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2.2 Computational Electromagnetic (CEM) 7

2.2.1 Analytical Method 7

2.2.2 Numerical Technique 8

2.3 Microstrip Rectangular Patch Radiator 9

3 Methodology 11

3.1 Graphical Programming 11

3.1.1 Main Window of GUI 12

3.1.1.1 Simulation of Dimension for

Rectangular Patch Antenna 13

3.1.1.2 Simulation of Effective Relative

Permittivity for

Rectangular Patch Antenna 18

3.1.1.3 Simulation of Wavelength for

Rectangular Patch Antenna 19

3.1.1.4 Simulation of Impedance for

Rectangular Patch Antenna 21

3.1.1.5 Simulation of Return Loss for

Rectangular Patch Antenna 27

3.1.1.6 Simulation of Radiation Pattern for

Rectangular Patch Antenna 29

3.2 Typical Design Procedure 31

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 33

4.1 Main Window of GUI 33

4.1.1 Picture 34

4.1.2 Dimension 35

4.1.3 Effective Relative Permittivity 37

4.1.4 Wavelength 38

4.1.5 Impedance 39

4.1.6 Return Loss (dB) 41

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4.1.7 Radiation Pattern 53

5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 56

5.1 Conclusion 56

5.2 Recommendations 57

REFERENCES 58

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

4.1 Dimensions of simulated rectangular patch antenna 42

4.2 Results of magnitude and phase for return loss 43

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO. TITLE PAGE

2.1 Rectangular patch antenna 10

3.1 Graphical user interface of education software tool developed 12

3.2(a) Coding to calculate dimensions 17

3.2(b) GUI to calculate dimensions 17

3.3(a) Coding to calculate effective relative permittivity 18

3.3(b) GUI to calculate effective relative permittivity 19

3.4(a) Coding to calculate wavelength 20

3.4(b) GUI to calculate wavelength 21

3.5(a) Coding to calculate the impedance 26

3.5(b) Graphical user interface for impedance 26

3.6(a) Coding to simulate return loss 28

3.6(b) GUI to simulate return loss 28

3.7(a) Coding to simulate radiation pattern 30

3.7(b) GUI to simulate radiation pattern 30

3.8 Flow chart of designing procedure for rectangular patch antenna 32

4.1 Main window of GUI 34

4.2 Configuration of rectangular patch antenna 35

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4.3 Graphical user interface for dimension simulation 36

4.4 Graphical user interface for substrate’s permittivity simulation 37

4.5 Graphical user interface for wavelength simulation 39

4.6 Graphical user interface for impedance simulation 40

4.7 Return loss magnitude (dB) for 9TMmn modes 44

4.8 Return loss magnitude (dB) for 15TMmn modes 45

4.9 Return loss phase, Ø for 9TMmn modes 46

4.10 Return loss phase, Ø for 15TMmn modes 46

4.11 Return loss magnitude (dB) for 9TMmn modes

for RT Duroid 5880 47

4.12 Return loss magnitude (dB) for 15TMmn modes

for RT Duroid 5880 48

4.13 Return loss phase, Ø for 9TMmn modes for RT Duroid 5880 49

4.14 Return loss phase, Ø for 15TMmn modes for T Duroid 5880 49

4.15 Return loss magnitude (dB) for 9TMmn modes for FR-4 50

4.16 Return loss magnitude (dB) for 15TMmn modes for FR-4 51

4.17 Return loss phase, Ø for 9TMmn modes for FR-4 52

4.18 Return loss phase, Ø for 15TMmn modes for FR-4 52

4.19 Radiation pattern of rectangular patch antenna 54

4.20 Radiation pattern simulated using AWR Design

Environment 2006. 55

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AWR - Microwave Office

CAD - Computer Aided Design

CEM - Computational Electromagnetic

ERBFG - Epoxy Resin Bonded Glass Fabric

FDTD - Finite Difference Time-Domain

FEM - Finite Element Method

GUI - Graphical User Interface

HP VEE - Hewlett-Packard Visual Engineering Environment

MOM - Method of Moments

NEC-2 - Numerical Electromagnetic Code

R & D - Research and Development

PCB - Printed Circuit Board

PDE - Partial Differential Equation

RAM - Random Access Memory

RF - Radio Frequency

UTM - Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

TM - Transverse Magnetic

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LISTS OF SYMBOLS

Eθ - Radiation pattern

Ji(x) - ith-order Bessel function of the first kind

L - Length

- Actual length

W - Width

0 - Static effective width

- Actual width

Yi(x) - ith-order Bessel function of the second kind

- Mutual-admittance between the radiating slot

- Characteristic admittance

- Self-admittance of the radiating slot

Z - Impedance

- Magnetic flux density

- Electric flux density

- Electric field intensity

- Magnetic field intensity

- Current density

- Input admittance

- Speed of light in free space

d - Diameter probe

f - Frequency

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h - Substrate thickness

0 - Static effective relative permittivity

- Frequency-dependent effective relative permittivity

- Attenuation constant

- Phase constant

- Euler’s constant

xf - X feed position

yf - Y feed position

tan - Loss tangent of the dielectric

- Dielectric constant

λ0 - Wavelength

εr - Relative permittivity

εeff - Effective permittivity of substrate

- Conductance of the patch

- Conductance of the ground plane

∆ - Rms surface roughness of the patch

∆ - Rms surface roughness of the ground plane o - Degree

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Education software is a student oriented program and acts as an aid in the

process of learning and it plays a vital part to lecturers in delivering lectures. Students

will have an enthusiasm towards the process of learning if they make use with the

education software. In the same time, it will become easier for lecturers when preparing

lecturing material with the implementing of this educational software. Education

software is developed to help the users in reducing the effort and time in getting the

knowledge.

1.1 Project Background

In general, the term of microwave refers to alternate current signals with

frequencies ranging from 300 MHz to 300 GHz with electrical wavelength of 1mm to

1m respectively (Pozar, 2005).

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Trends of moving towards Computer Aided Design (CAD) are not happening

recently. It has been exist for quite some times in many fields such as education,

Research and Development (R & D), testing, manufacturing and so on. CAD itself has

become a compulsory subject in most of the universities in Malaysia to equip the

students with such knowledge in order to face the outside world.

This project is to design an education program for radiation and propagation of

rectangular patch antenna by using MATLAB coding to deal with the real situation in

the outside world. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of this education program is

designed by using Hewlett-Packard Visual Engineering Environment (HP VEE).

Available electromagnetic analytical equations will be used to predict the performance

of rectangular patch antenna where the result of rectangular patch antenna will be

compared with literature data and commercial simulator results, which are expected

agree with the available published data.

1.2 Objectives

Below are the objectives of the project:

a) To create and develop a graphical user interface (GUI) of microwave

educational tool for undergraduate study.

b) To develop a graphical user interface (GUI) tool for rectangular patch

antenna practical design.

c) To practice the designing procedure for rectangular patch antenna without

actual building it.

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1.3 Problem Statements

There are lots of commercial softwares to calculate the parameters required to

design an antenna and simulate the radiation pattern and propagation of antennas. Users

do not know what exact equations are used in commercial software because all equations

involved are not clearly stated although method used is known. Besides, they are not

user friendly because commercial software is complicated to use. Worse still, those of

the commercial simulators are expensive and time consuming. However, this education

software is cheap and simple. In addition, it is user friendly and rapid in simulating the

radiation pattern and propagation of antennas.

This education software tool developed is less accurate compare to some

commercialized softwares. This education software is only capable to simulate

rectangular patch antenna as it is using analytical equations. Besides, the graphics

produced in this software is not that attractive.

1.4 Thesis Outline

This thesis contains five chapters. The first chapter is about the introduction of

the project. This chapter includes overview, project background, project objectives and

problem statements. Chapter 2 focuses on the literature review of the project. It is

mainly about the overview of Hewlett Packard Visual Engineering Environment (HP

VEE), various antennas which include microstrip line antenna and rectangular patch

antenna. In addition, this chapter will also show the theory of each aspect of the projects.

4  

Chapter 3 of this thesis explains the project methodology. Here, the entire steps of study

work are shown and explained in details. Chapter 4 analyses and discusses the result

simulations which are in visual engineering environment interface. In this thesis,

chapter 5 summaries this work of project. Besides, this chapter also describes the future

work and suggestions for the project.

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