Design of an L-Band Microstrip Patch Antenna using Dual-superstrate Layers for Microwave Imaging System

The development for a microwave imaging system, better resolution and good penetration depth are the most prominent constraints. To achieve these requirements, high gain antenna operating at low frequency ranges with considerable bandwidth is needed. As, wider bandwidth improves the range resolution and high gain improves the range. Therefore, the L-band antenna is a suitable choice for further investigation and research. While designing the antenna, it is observed that antenna size is one of the important constraints for the development of imaging system. Therefore, this research article examines the effect of gain improvement for a dielectric superstrate and slot in the microstrip patch antenna that can be efficiently used for microwave imaging applications. The proposed design of antenna consists of simple geometry. However, lower gain, low radiation efficiency, and narrow bandwidth are the key digression factors associated with microstrip patch antenna. To overcome these limitations, the use of superstrate with slot in patch antenna are studied here. A dual layer superstrate approach is utilized to achieve improved gain along with high F/B ratio in this paper. The development stages of the proposed antenna are discussed and evaluated. Furthermore, parametric analysis is also conducted and reported for better observations.