Design of aperture-coupled annular-ring microstrip antennas for circular polarization

The design of an aperture-coupled annular-ring microstrip antenna for circular polarization (CP) is presented. The CP radiation of the annular-ring microstrip antenna is achieved by a series microstrip-line-feed configuration through the coupling of a ring slot in the ground plane. The key parameters of the proposed design are investigated using a commercial simulation software based on the Method of Moments to show how to obtain the 50 Ω input impedance and optimum axial ratio. The proposed design can be applied to the annular-ring microstrip antennas with different inner radii and substrate thickness, and several antenna prototypes are constructed and measured. Details of the experimental results of the CP performance are presented and discussed.