Broadband probe-fed patch antenna with a W-shaped ground plane

A new design of a broadband probe-fed patch antenna with a W-shaped ground plane is presented. The W-shaped ground plane is obtained by bending the conventional planar ground plane into an inverted V-shape, seen in the resonant direction of the patch antenna and then adding proper flanges at the two straight edges of the bent ground plane. The proposed design is applicable to the patch antenna with a planar radiating patch with a thin air substrate. With the use of the proposed W-shaped ground plane, the required probe-pin length in the substrate remains small, although the effective substrate thickness is significantly increased, resulting in a much wider operating bandwidth. Also, by choosing proper dimensions of the W-shaped ground plane, the antenna gain for frequencies over the obtained wide bandwidth is enhanced, compared to the conventional patch antenna with a planar ground plane. In addition, the cross polarization is also reduced for the proposed design and the cross-polarization level (XPL) in the H-plane pattern can even be better than that of a conventional probe-fed patch antenna with a thin air substrate.