Design and Characterization of Polymer based Microstrip Patch Antenna

Microstrip antennas are also known as patch antennas. They are more suggested due to their advantages such as low production cost and fabrication is easier. Because of the size of the antenna, it is more compact to use and directly related to the wavelength at the resonance frequency, they are used for higher frequencies. An individual microstrip antenna consists of a patch of metal foil of various shapes on the surface of a PCB which is called as printed circuit board, with a metal foil ground plane on the other side of the board. The microstrip patch antennas are designed using ANSYS HFSS with various substrates and standard frequency. The commonly used substrate for designing a microstrip patch antenna is FR-4 epoxy. FR-4 epoxy has operational constraints when it comes to high power, voltage or heat. If its operational limits are surpassed, FR-4’s dielectric characteristics will break down. This indicates that the insulation of the material will weaken and it will begin to conduct electricity instead. To overcome this, the usage of polystyrene, polyflon cuflon and polyflon polyguide substrates are employed in the place of FR-4 epoxy. These substrates have good tensile strength and rigidity coupled with high dimensional stability. Simulation results show an improvement in return loss, gain, directivity and low VSWR which is preferable for good performance of the antenna.