Bandwidth extension of ultra-wideband microstrip antenna using metamaterial double-side planar periodic geometry

Abstract

A compact extended bandwidth UWB microstrip antenna is designed utilizing metamaterial (MTM) doubleside planar periodic structures. The proposed antenna comprises two MTM unit cells made by etching X-shaped slots on the main radiating patch, and four slots at the vertices of a square periodically repeated in two-dimensions on the ground plane. The proposed antenna fabricated on 1.6 mm low-cost FR4 substrate is compact, measuring 27.6 × 32 mm2, with relative permittivity of 4.5 and loss tangent of 0.02. It has a broad bandwidth covering 3.2 to 23.9 GHz, with a peak gain of 6.2 dB at 8.7 GHz. The antenna has good radiation characteristics for UWB applications. The measured return loss (S11) of the test antenna fabricated for this study was in good agreement with the simulated results.