A compact circularly-polarized GPS antenna using LTCC technology

A circularly-polarized GPS antenna for L1 (1575 MHz) is designed and fabricated using low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) technology. A parallel patch and high dielectric constant composite ceramic with LTCC fabrication method are employed to design a compact structure. The electrical connected parallel patch interval and size are the main parameters for achieving resonance frequency at L1-band to support modern GPS coding schemes. The proposed electrically connected upper and lower patches are connected together with vertical via pins and therefore did not have any connection with the ground plane. By embedding a truncated corner patch and rectangular slots to this design, the right-hand circularly-polarized (RHCP) field property is achieved. By using these features, a compact simple CP-GPS antenna with 2.32 dBic gain at 1575 MHz is designed and fabricated. The proposed antenna has a total compact size of 15 x 15x 4 mm(3)and operates over the frequency band from 1570 to 1585 MHz for VSWR < 2. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:2926-2930, 2016