Investigation of a planar antenna with bandwidth enhancement for X-band applications

Abstract

Planar antennas play an important role in wireless communications systems and they continue to face shifting demands for a new generation of antenna technologies. One of the widely used antennas is the microstrip patch, as it offers a low profile, conformal design, ease of manufacture and integration, and it is low cost and lightweight. Its main disadvantages, however, are narrow bandwidth and low efficiency, so increasing its bandwidth is the main focus of many research projects. Work on the design of this type antennas continues, and various techniques are being used, including increased substrate thickness, changing the patch by cutting rectangular slots and the ground plane. The geometry of the proposed microstrip antenna was designed using equations from the transmission line model (TEM) approximation.