Bow-tie-shaped wideband conformal antenna with wide-slot for GPS application

Abstract

In this article, a novel wideband cylindrical conformal antenna using a wide slot in the ground plane is proposed. A bow-tie-shaped patch antenna is designed for Global Positioning System applications. The bandwidth of the antenna is improved by using a similar bow-tie-shaped slot in the ground plane with a larger dimension. The bandwidth is further enhanced by introducing a dumbbell-shaped slit in the patch. The antenna is fed by a 50-Ω microstrip line. The proposed planar antenna is printed on a ground plane of size 0.5λ mm× 0.5λ mm, where λ is the operating wavelength, and then it is transformed into a cylindrical conformal antenna with the desired radius of curvature. The proposed planar antenna is simulated, fabricated, and measured for conformal geometry with good agreement between measurements and simulation results. It is observed that the conformal antenna exhibits a fractional bandwidth of 81.4% operating from 0.75 to 1.78 GHz, which is useful for all GPS and Galileo frequencies. The radiation pattern exhibits an omnidirectional pattern and gain of the proposed antenna is 3.5 to 4.78 dBi within the operating frequency range.