Novel microstrip patch antenna design employing Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) substrate for GSM, IMT, WLAN, Bluetooth, WiMAX and X-band applications

The paper represents, a novel wideband rectangular shaped MPA with microstrip feed and a reduced ground. The substrate employed in the presented antenna design is extruded polystyrene (XPS) having low electric permittivity of 1.02 and thickness of 2 mm. The presented microstrip patch antenna has an impedance bandwidth of 1.69 GHz with resonant frequencies of 2.07 GHz and 2.77 GHz and impedance bandwidth of 2.88 GHz with resonant frequencies of 5.58 GHz and 6.78 GHz respectively, thus making it suitable to be termed as wideband antenna. The proposed antenna covers GSM (1.8 GHz –1.99 GHz), IMT (2.3GHz – 2.4 GHz and 2.7 GHz – 2.9 GHz), WLAN (2.4 GHz – 2.48 GHz, 5.15 GHz – 5.35 GHz and 5.72 GHz – 5.82 GHz), Bluetooth (2.4 GHz – 2.5 GHz), Mobile WiMAX (2.5 GHz – 2.69 GHz and 5.25 GHz – 5.85 GHz) and X-Band Satellite downlink applications having operating frequency range of 7.25 GHz to 7.75 GHz. The antenna has been designed and simulated through CST Microwave Studio 2014. The antenna performance has been examined in terms of gain (dB), directivity (dBi), return loss(S
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), impedance bandwidth (GHz) and HPBW (degrees). The presented antenna design has been fabricated practically and tested experimentally through E5017C Network analyzer and anechoic chamber. It has been observed that the simulated antenna results intently relate with the practical results, thus implying the suitability of low dielectric constant extruded polystyrene (XPS) to be employed in the microstrip antenna design for wideband applications.