Broad-band Circularly Polarized Patch Antenna for Multi-Mode Navigation Application

A broad-band circularly polarized, patch antenna is developed for GPS/ GLONASS/ BEIDOU/ GALILEO systems. The antenna includes four L-probes, a circular patch with four edges trimming and a feed network. The four L-probes are excited by a feed network in equal magnitude and successive 90 phase difference. The edge cutting method is used to improve the axial ratio, impedance bandwidth and reduced the size of the antenna. The measured gains at 1227 and 1575 MHz are about 8 and 10 dB respectively. The 10 dB return loss bandwidth of the antenna is 42.9% from 1.1 to 1.7 GHz; the 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth of the antenna is 30% from 1.19 to 1.61 GHz. Low multipath effects have been observed of the antenna.