A detailed experimental study on the benefits of electrically grounding glass mounted global positioning system antennas to the vehicle roof

The placement of global positioning system (GPS) patch antennas on vehicles is important as its location directly affects navigation system performance. GPS antennas mounted on the front glass window has been adopted by several vehicle manufacturers around the world. In this work, we present a detailed experimental study on the effect of antenna mounting parameters as well as shorting it to the roof of the vehicle on its performance characteristics. Specifically, we investigate the effect of the glass tilt angle, the distance of the antenna from the rooftop of the vehicle in addition to grounding it to the rooftop versus not-grounding to the rooftop of a vehicular platform.