Flexible microstrip patch antenna designs for Bluetooth, IMT, WLAN and WiMAX applications

This paper demonstrates the performance analysis of four flexible Microstrip patch antenna designs. The antennas cover the frequency ranges from 2.4 GHz-2.5 GHz, 2.3 GHz-2.4 GHz, 2.4 GHz-2.484 GHz, 2.5 GHz-2.69 GHz suitable to be employed for Bluetooth, IMT, WLAN and WiMAX applications, respectively. The Flame Retardant (FR4) material has been employed as the substrate having dielectric constant of ε
_r
= 4.4 and loss tangent of 0.002. The flexible FR4 material as substrate has been sandwiched between a radiating copper patch and ground for different antenna designs to design a microstrip patch antennas. The proffered antennas performance has been analyzed in the terms of directivity (dBi), gain (dB), return loss (dB), half power beam width(degrees), input impedance (ohms) and VSWR. The ground planes of the antennas have been defected in order to enhance the return loss and cover the desired frequency range of antennas. The antenna has input impedance of 50 ohms to achieve the maximum power transfer and ensuring minimum reflection losses. The antennas have been simulated and designed using CST Microwave Studio 2016. The antennas have been fabricated and tested using E-5071C Network Analyzer and Anechoic Chamber. It has been observed that the practical results closely match with the simulated results.