Analysis Of Microstrip Antenna Using Arbitrarily Shaped Patches Having Similar Surface Area

ABSTRACT

Microstrip patch antenna(MSA) has become very vital in communication system due to its attractive features such as its light weight, small size, low cost, low profile, ease of installation and its conformability to planar and non planar surfaces, when a particular mode and shape is selected. MSA are versatile in terms of resonant frequency, impedance, polarization and electromagnetic wave pattern. However, MSA have been found to suffer from relatively narrow bandwidths. The consumers of these devices can enjoy diversity of shapes aesthetically pleasing to them without compromising the efficiency of the device. Designing of the rectangular patch of the Microstrip antenna was done for the five sets, circular, cross shaped and bow-tie Microstrip antenna patches were also designed but having similar surface area to the designed rectangular patch in the respective set. The four shapes of the antenna namely rectangular, circular, cross shaped and bow-tie were analyzed using HFSS software to determine the characteristic of the designed MSA, Bow-tie MSA radiated in two direction which is neither end-fire nor broadside but the other 3 shapes radiated in one direction along the z-axis, Bow-tie also provided the largest beamwidth. The prototype was fabricated on printed circuit board (PCB) and tested in the laboratory. The results of the research showed that the Rectangular patch had the best gain due to good Electric field distribution, Circular patch performed at the lowest frequency as compared to the other 3 shapes due to its shorter dimensions. Comparison of simulated data with data in the open literature was done. The percentage impedance bandwidth in this research of between (2-8) % is comparable to the impedance bandwidth in the open literature of about (3-5) %. The optimum performance of the designed Microstrip antenna for the four shapes was ascertained at a range of frequencies (1-10) GHz.