Design and Performance Analysis of Defected Grounded Hexagonal Patch Antenna at 5.17 GHz

A defected grounded hexagonal patch antenna tuned at 5.17 GHz is designed in this manuscript. This antenna has reflection coefficient of -39.41 dB at its resonant frequency. It provides a fractional bandwidth of 22.97% around 5.17 GHz and it radiates over wide frequency range of 4.66 GHz to 5.85 GHz. This antenna possesses 1.63 dBi realized gain at its resonant frequency. Fabrication of this antenna has performed in this work to validate the simulated results. The resonant frequency of the fabricated antenna is observed as 5.10 GHz and its return loss value is 13.20 dB at this frequency. Comparing simulated and measured result, it is observed that these results slightly differ due to fabrication error. This antenna can be used for aeronautical radio-navigation and wireless communications. Due to presence of defected ground plane, back lobe is present in far field pattern of this antenna. Therefore, a metal reflector has been placed at a certain distance from the ground plane in the back side of the antenna.