Bandwidth improvement in bow-tie microstrip antennas: The effect of substrate type and design dimensions

Abstract

In this work, the impact of substrate type and design dimensions on bow-tie microstrip antenna performance and bandwidth improvement is presented both numerically and experimentally at 4-8 GHz. The finite integration technique (FIT)-based high-frequency electromagnetic solver, CST Microwave Studio, was used for the simulation analysis. For this purpose, four bow-tie microstrip antennas were designed, fabricated, and measured upon using different materials and substrate thicknesses. Precise results were achieved and the simulated and experimental results showed a good agreement. The performance of each antenna was analyzed and the impact of changing material permittivity, antenna dimensions and substrate thicknesses on antenna performance were investigated and discussed. The measured results indicated that the slot bow-tie antenna, which is one of the novel aspects of this study, is well matched and a 2-GHz bandwidth [5-7 GHz] is obtained, which is about 50% bandwidth in comparison with the wideband applications [4-8 GHz]. The proposed structure is useful in ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. This study provides guidance in selecting material types and thicknesses for microstrip antennas based on desired applications.