T. ALAM et al.: BIO-PLASTIC COMPOSITE SUBSTRATE MATERIAL BASED MICROSTRIP-FED PRINTED ANTENNA ...
101–104
BIO-PLASTIC COMPOSITE SUBSTRATE MATERIAL BASED
MICROSTRIP-FED PRINTED ANTENNA FOR WIRELESS
COMMUNICATIONS
TISKANA ANTENA ZA BREZ@I^NO KOMUNIKACIJO IZ
BIOPLASTI^NEGA KOMPOZITA Z MIKROTRAKOM ZA
NAPAJANJE
Touhidul Alam2,3, Mohammad Rashed Iqbal Faruque1, Mohammed Shamsul Alam3,
Md. Moinul Islam1, Md. Zulfiker Mahmud2, Mohammad Tariqul Islam2
1Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Space Science Center (ANGKASA), 43600UKM, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
2Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia, Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, 43600UKM, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
3International Islamic University Chittagong, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chittagong, Bangladesh
touhid13@siswa.ukm.edu.my, tariqul@ukm.edu.my
Prejem rokopisa – received: 2015-09-02; sprejem za objavo – accepted for publication: 2015-01-06
doi:10.17222/mit.2015.271
This paper presents a printed bio-plastic wireless antenna to ensure biological compatibility between humans and wireless
devices. The antenna has multiband characteristics, which can cover the GSM 1800, UMTS (1.92-2.17 GHz), LTE 40 frequency
bands. The proposed antenna is incorporated with a circular slotted hexagonal radiator with a microstrip feed line and a
rectangular slotted ground plane. The wireless mobile antenna has been designed and simulated using the commercially
available electromagnetic (EM) simulation software CST Microwave Studio. The EM absorption rate of the proposed antenna
has also been analysed with a human head phantom.
Keywords: antenna, bio-plastic material, electromagnetic absorption, wireless communication
^lanek predstavlja brez`i~no anteno, tiskano iz bioplastike, za zagotavljanje biolo{ke kompatibilnosti med ~lovekom in
brez`i~nimi napravami. Antena dosega ve~pasovne karakteristike, ki lahko pokrijejo GSM 1800, UMTS (1.92-2.17 GHz) in
LTE 40 frekven~ni pas. Predlagana antena je sestavljena iz {estoglatega sevalnika s kro`no odprtino in z napajalnim trakom
povezano {tirioglato ozemljitveno plo{~o. Brez`i~na antena je bila skonstruirana in simulirana s pomo~jo komercialne
elektromagnetne (EM) programske opreme za simulacijo CST Microwave Studio. EM absorpcijska hitrost predlagane antene je
bila analizirana s pomo~jo umetne ~love{ke glave.
Klju~ne besede: antena, bioplasti~en material, elektromagnetna absorpcija, brez`i~na komunikacija
1 INTRODUCTION
With the rapid development of science and techno-
logy, the mobile wireless industry has expanded very
quickly over the last decades. Thereby, health concern
regarding the use of mobile wireless devices near human
body has been growing and given special consideration
by researchers. Moreover, the development of an envi-
ronment-friendly composite material technology has
been promulgated around the world.
Several antennas have been developed for mobile
wireless communication by conventional fossil petro-
leum-based material.1–3 The electromagnetic absorption
reduction of the wireless handset antenna has been
analysed in many studies. C. Picher et al.4 proposed a
slotted ground PIFA antenna for specific absorption
analysis. A. Cabedo et al.5 proposed a handset antenna
combining PIFA, slot and ground plane and analysed EM
absorption value. A multi-standard wireless application
has been made in 6.
The analysis of printed antenna on an organic multi-
layers substrate has been developed in recent years. The
conventional fossil petroleum-based material is replaced
by a bio-based composite substrate. M. H. Ullah and M.
Islam7 proposed bio-based material for patch antenna
design. He achieved 55.6 % of the impedance bandwidth
at a lower frequency and 24 % of impedance bandwidth
at the upper frequency band. However, the electromag-
netic absorption analysis did not perform. A dual arm
structured wireless antenna has been developed for
mobile wireless applications, which covers the DCS,
PCS, UMTS and WLAN (2.4GHz) frequency bands with
an antenna size of 119×50 mm2.8 Q. Rao and T. A.
Denidni9 proposed an inverted L shaped antenna for
DCS, PCS, and IMT tri-bands applications. S.-B. Chen
et al.10 developed planar antennas for DCS 1800, PCS
1900, UMTS and WLAN applications. Here, the antenna
dimensions are 65 mm2 × 40 mm2.
In this paper, an organic or bio plastic-based substrate
antenna is proposed for mobile wireless communications
and the electromagnetic absorption behaviour has been
explored. Moreover, the proposed antenna paraded multi-
band, which covers GSM 1800, UMTS 2100, WLAN
2400, WiMAX 2500, WiMAX 3600 and WLAN 5GHz.
MATERIALI IN TEHNOLOGIJE/MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY (1967-2017) – 50 LET/50 YEARS
Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 51 (2017) 1, 101–104 101
UDK 621.3.029:621.396.67:66.017 ISSN 1580-2949
Original scientific article/Izvirni znanstveni ~lanek MTAEC9, 51(1)101(2017)
2 PROPOSED ANTENNA CONFIGURATION
The geometric layout of the proposed antenna is
illustrated in Figure 1. It is seen from Figure 1 that the
antenna consists of a circular slotted hexagonal patch,
which is connected with a 50  microstrip feed line. A
rectangular slot was etched from the ground plane. The
antenna design parameters are tabulated in Table 1. The
proposed antenna is designed on a bio-plastic material
(relative permittivity 12) substrate with dimensions of
48×48×1.95 mm3.
Table 1: Antenna parameters
Tabela 1: Parametri antene
Parameter Value (mm) Parameter Value (mm)
L 48 R 8.5
L1 10 d1 3
L2 15.55 d2 2.5
Lf 15.5 d3 5.83
Wf 3.10 d4 13.08
3 ANTENNA SUBSTRATE
The processing steps flowchart of the bio-plastic
substrate material is presented in Figure 2. Habib et al.
proposed and analysed the antenna characteristics using
bio-plastic substrate material. He also described the
bio-plastics manufacturing procedures. The procedure
begins with moulding ceramic powder and then mixing
with polymeric binder preforming substances, such as
cellulose. For sintering the ceramic powder the poly-
meric sponge method was used. Besides this, bio-plastic
sheet is prepared from a biomass organic source, such as
palm, corn starch, or vegetable oil. A three-layered sand-
wich structure of 59-ml (1.5-mm) thick ceramic, both
surfaces covered by a 0.25-mm bio plastic, is pressed
using a multi-press machine (RMP 210, Bungard Elek-
tronik GmbH & Co).
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The proposed antenna was fabricated using bio-plas-
tic material. The fabricated prototype of the proposed
antenna is illustrated in Figure 3. The antenna perfor-
mances were measured using a fabricated prototype. The
reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna was
measured using an Agilent N5227A performance net-
work analyser. The measured and simulated reflection
coefficient is presented in Figure 4. It is observed from
Figure 4 that the proposed antenna shows a measured
-10dB impedance bandwidth of 620 MHz (1.6–2.22
GHz), 830 HMz (3.43–4.26GHz) and 1.17 GHz (4.8–
5.97 GHz). It is seen from Figure 4 that the measured
resonance frequencies are nearly identical to the simulate
one. Though there is a mismatch between the measured
and simulated reflection coefficient, which is possibly
attributed due to manufacturing tolerances and the
imperfect soldering effect of the SMA connector. More-
over, surface current distribution at 1.8 GHz and 5.2 GHz
T. ALAM et al.: BIO-PLASTIC COMPOSITE SUBSTRATE MATERIAL BASED MICROSTRIP-FED PRINTED ANTENNA ...
102 Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 51 (2017) 1, 101–104
MATERIALI IN TEHNOLOGIJE/MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY (1967-2017) – 50 LET/50 YEARS
Figure 2: Flowchart of the manufacturing of bio-plastic substrate
material
Slika 2: Potek izdelave podlage iz bio-plastike
Figure1: Geometry of the proposed antenna: a) top view, b) bottom
view
Slika 1: Geometrija predlagane antene: a) pogled od zgoraj, b) pogled
od spodaj
is shown in Figure 5 for the radiating behaviour of the
antenna.
The radiation pattern of the proposed antenna was
measured using the satimo near-field measurement
system. Figure 6 demonstrates the measured radiation
pattern at (1.8, 2.0, 3.6, and 5.2) GHz. It is observed
from Figure 6 that the antenna sshows a nearly omni-
directional radiation pattern, though cross polarization is
high at higher frequency. Moreover, 3D radiation attern
is also presented for more visualization of the radiation
phenomena, shown in Figure 7. The measured peak gain
and radiation efficiency of the proposed antenna is pre-
sented in Figure 8. Figure 8 shows that the maximum
radiation efficiency of 86 % was obtained at 3.73 GHz.
In addition, the maximum peak gain achieved at the
lower band is 1.86 dB, at the middle band it is 4.38 dB
and at the upper band it is 4.31 dB.
T. ALAM et al.: BIO-PLASTIC COMPOSITE SUBSTRATE MATERIAL BASED MICROSTRIP-FED PRINTED ANTENNA ...
Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 51 (2017) 1, 101–104 103
MATERIALI IN TEHNOLOGIJE/MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY (1967-2017) – 50 LET/50 YEARS
Figure 6: E-plane radiation pattern of the proposed antenna for
frequency of: a) 1.8 GHz, b) 2.0 GHz, c) 3.6 GHz and d) 5.2 GHz
Slika 6: Sledi sevanja v E-ravnini pri predlagani anteni, pri
frekvencah: a) 1,8 GHz, b) 2,0 GHz, c) 3,6 GHz in d) 5,2 GHz
Figure 5: Surface current distribution of the proposed antenna:
a) 1.8 GHz and b) 5.2 GHz
Slika 5: Razporeditev toka na povr{ini predlagane antene:
1,8 GHz in b) 5,2 GHz
Figure 3: Fabricated antenna prototype
Slika 3: Izdelan prototip antene
Figure 4: Simulated and measured reflection coefficient of the
proposed antenna
Slika 4: Simuliran in izmerjen koeficient sevanja predlagane antene
Figure 7: 3D radiation pattern of the proposed antenna for frequency
of: a) 1.8 GHz, b) 2.0 GHz, c) 3.6 GHz and d) 5.2 GHz
Slika 7: 3D-sledi sevanja predlagane antene pri frekvencah:
a) 1,8 GHz, b) 2,0 GHz c) 3,6 GHz in d) 5,2 GHz
5 EM ABSORPTION ANALYSIS
The specific absorption rate is defined by the power
absorbed per mass of biological tissues and has units of
watts per kilogram (W/kg). Currently, two international
organizations have developed guidelines for limiting the
exposure of electromagnetic radiation on human health.
The EM absorption limit specified in IEEE C95.1:2005
is 1.6 W/kg in a 1 g averaging mass and 2 W/kg in a 10 g
averaging mass of tissue, which is similar to the limit
stated in the International Commission on Non-Ionizing
Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guideline.11 To comply
with the guidelines, the EM absorption values of the pro-
posed antenna were analysed, and are listed in Table 2.
Table 2: SAR values of the proposed antenna
Tabela 2: SAR-vrednosti pri predlagani anteni
Frequency (GHz) SAR 1 g (W/kg) SAR 10 g (W/kg)
1.8 1.45 1.20
2.0 1.38 1.06
6 CONCLUSION
A new bio-plastic material based printed planar
antenna is presented for GSM, UMTS, LTE band 40,
WiMAX and WLAN wireless applications with accept-
able specific absorption rates and antenna performance,
like impedance bandwidth, antenna gain, radiation
pattern and radiation efficiency. The experimental results
validate the simulated results. Therefore, the overall
performances of the proposed antenna make it suitable
for a wireless mobile application.
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T. ALAM et al.: BIO-PLASTIC COMPOSITE SUBSTRATE MATERIAL BASED MICROSTRIP-FED PRINTED ANTENNA ...
104 Materiali in tehnologije / Materials and technology 51 (2017) 1, 101–104
MATERIALI IN TEHNOLOGIJE/MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY (1967-2017) – 50 LET/50 YEARS
Figure 8: Radiation efficiency and gain of the proposed antenna
Slika 8: U~inkovitost sevanja in izkoristek pri predlagani anteni