A compact modified star shape microstrip patch antenna for wideband application

Design and radiation performance of a compact modified star shaped microstrip patch antenna is presented in this paper. The proposed antenna is printed on both sides of a single substrate. On one side of substrate, first a square patch is printed and then one star shaped slot and six circular slots are etched. On the other side of the substrate, a rectangular microstrip line is printed to feed the antenna. The antenna is simulated using high frequency structure simulation (HFSS) software. The proposed antenna has a wideband characterstics from 2.166 GHz to 4.245 GHz with impedance bandwidth of 64.9%. The simulated and measured results are compared and these are in good agreement. The antenna can be used for wideband applications in frequency range from 2.166 GHz to 4.245 GHz.

I. Introduction

Small volume, light in weight and convertible into conformal to the host surface are some of the advantages of microstrip antennas. In addition, mass production of these antennas can be achieved at a lower cost as printed-circuit technology is used in the manufacturing. The main limitation is that microstrip antennas have a narrow bandwidth and for practical applications, bandwidth enhancement is usually needed [1]–[2]. Moreover, in today's mobile communication systems smaller antenna size is required to meet miniaturization requirements of mobile units. Thus, two major design issues to be addressed for practical applications of microstrip antennas are bandwidth enhancement and size reduction [3].