A Novel Miniaturized Triple-Band Monopole Antenna for 2.4/5.2 GHz WLAN and 5G Applications

A novel miniaturized triple-band monopole antenna is introduced in this work for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Sub-6 GHz 5G applications. It covers 2.4/5.2 GHz bands of WLAN and NR-77 (3.3 - 4.2 GHz) and NR-78 (3.3 - 3.8 GHz) standards of 5G communication. The triple-band characteristics of the proposed antenna are due to i) an integrated meander slot on the patch, ii) a rectangular patch, and iii) an integrated stepped slot on the ground plane. The antenna's meander and stepped slots are open-ended quarter wavelength long operating at lower and higher frequency bands of WLAN. The conventional rectangular patch is responsible for the radiation across the 5G spectrum. The optimized antenna through parametric analysis is operating at 2.44, 3.5, and 5.3 GHz with a compact footprint of 0.03 $\boldsymbol{\lambda}_{\mathbf{0}}^{\mathbf{2}}$. It provides reasonably good return loss characteristics of -18, -17, and -32 dB at the targeted resonant frequencies. It reports a decent -10 dB return loss bandwidth of 3.3 % (2.4 2.48 GHz), 24.6% (3.3 - 4.2 GHz), and 9.5% (5.0 -5.5 GHz). It exhibits good radiation characteristics in Co-pol to Cross-pol level, peak gains of 1.23, 2.14, and 2.83 dBi, and radiation efficacies of 86, 96, and 89% in the lower, middle, and higher operating bands. The presented triple-band antenna's excellent performance with the compact feature is suitable for portable wireless devices to provide simultaneous wireless connectivity for the targeted applications.