Simulation and experimental study on coplanar patch and array antennas

In this paper, we introduced a new concept of coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed coplanar patch antenna and presented simulation and experimental results for the antenna. The coplanar patch antenna consists of a patch surrounded by a closely spaced ground conductor and a CPW feed line, which has a similar geometric configuration as the loop slot antenna. The simulation and experiment results clearly demonstrated that the coplanar patch antenna behaves, particularly the resonant property, more similarly to the microstrip patch antenna rather than a loop slot antenna. Simulation have been carried out by using a method of moments based commercial package, IE3D. Prototypes of the coplanar patch and array antennas were designed and fabricated at a center frequency of 10 GHz on a conductor backed dielectric substrate with a relative dielectric constant of 2.17. Return loss, radiation pattern and gain were measured. Good agreement between the simulation and measurement has been obtained. The similarity of microstrip patch and array antennas and coplanar patch antennas, and some design rules for the patch, have been discussed.