Development and Characterization of Ultra Wideband Patch Antenna for Wireless Communication

Abstract

Wireless communication is the most rapidly growing technologies which need wide bandwidth for exchanging media information with required data rates. It is very much necessary to design wideband antennas to cover most of the ultra wideband frequency. Microstrip patch antennas have numerous advantages like light weight, low profile, low cost, easy fabrication and modeling. But some of the drawbacks are narrow bandwidth (because of small size), low gain and hence low efficiency. A small slotted ultra wideband microstrip patch antenna with partial ground and slotted ground is proposed for wireless applications. Three antennas are designed to maximize ultra wideband characteristics. These proposed antennas are denoted as plus shaped keyhole slotted ultra wideband patch antenna, modified plus shaped circular slotted ultra wideband patch antenna and slotted T shaped ultra wideband patch antenna. The range of the bandwidth enhancement is increased progressively from the first design to the third design. First antenna is evolved from a basic rectangular patch antenna of size 21 x 15 x 1.6 mm3 through seven iterations. The partial ground of the antenna with dimension 28 x 15 mm is on the other side of the patch. The frequency range of this antenna is from 3.1 GHz to 8.2 GHz having the return loss maintained below -10 dB. Bandwidth of 68% (5.1 GHz) is achieved with optimizing the dimensions of the antenna. The resonance overlapping is achieved by properly optimizing the dimensions of the slots on patch and ground sides. The measured average gain is around 8.1 dBi. This antenna exhibits good return loss and radiation patterns. The second antenna is also evolved from rectangular patch antenna of size 21 x 15 x 1.6 mm3 through five iterations. Size of all the slots is varied step by step to achieve the optimal result. The partial ground of the antenna with dimension 28 x 15 mm is on the other side of the patch. This antenna covers most of the ultra wideband ranging from 3.05 GHz to 10.5 GHz. About 99% (7.45 GHz) of the bandwidth is obtained with optimizing the dimensions of the antenna. The measured average gain is around 8 dBi. A rectangular patch antenna of size 17 x 15 x 1.6 mm3 with resonant frequency 4.5 GHz is taken as the basic design to achieve and optimize third antenna. The split ground of dimension 15 x 10.6 mm is on the other side of the patch. This antenna covers enhanced ultra wideband from 2.77 GHz to 10.6 GHz. About 104.4% (7.83 GHz) of the bandwidth is obtained with optimizing the dimensions of the antenna. The obtained results are very much optimal than first and second antenna which gives a close approximation of the wideband from 2.77 GHz to 10.6 GHz. newline