Design of a Circularly Polarized High-Gain Patch Antenna Using a Higher-Order Mode With a Heterogeneous Substrate Layer for GPS Applications

Abstract

This paper proposes a circularly polarized (CP) high-gain low-profile patch antenna using a higher-order mode with a heterogeneous layer for global positioning system (GPS) applications. To obtain theoretical insights, we analyze a CP patch using the cavity model, which has two feeding points. Radiated electric fields (E-fields) are derived from the sum of the $\textrm {TM}_{030}^{x}$ and $\textrm {TM}_{003}^{x}$ modes with a 90° phase difference at each port using a hybrid chip coupler. To verify the performance of the proposed antenna, it is fabricated and measured in a full anechoic chamber to obtain the antenna characteristics. The measured and simulated reflection coefficients of the proposed antenna are −33.1 dB and −28.3 dB at 1.575 GHz, respectively. The measured and simulated maximum gains are 9.1 dBic and 9.4 dBic at 1.575 GHz, respectively.

Keywords

• High-gain antenna
• circular polarization (CP)
• higher-order mode antenna
• heterogeneous layer
• global positioning system (GPS)