Multi-scale triangular patch high impedance ground plane to improve the bandwidth of conformal bow-tie antennas

We demonstrate the realization and performance of a conformal bow-tie antenna printed on a multi-scale triangular element mushroom structure high-impedance ground-plane (HIGP). The two-scale HIGP was designed to exhibit a large frequency band-gap to cover the relatively broad operational frequency bandwidth of the bow-tie antenna. HIGP elements were chosen to be triangular to form a natural commensurate blending of the bow-tie into the structure. We characterize the experimental performance of the bow-tie-HIGP combination from 2–10GHz and demonstrate that the negative effects of a perfect electric conductor ground-plane may be mitigated by using a HIGP.