Performance analysis of microstrip patch antenna employing Acrylic, Teflon and Polycarbonate as low dielectric constant substrate materials

This paper demonstrates the performance analysis and comparison of three different low dielectric constant materials - Acrylic, Teflon and Polycarbonate suitable to be employed as substrate in microstrip antenna design. The three proposed substrate materials - Acrylic, Teflon and Polycarbonate have low dielectric constant of 1.9, 2 and 2.1 respectively. The antenna designs employs step notched patch on the top surface of dielectric substrate and ground plane on the other side of substrate. The structure and dimensions of antenna designs have been kept same, whereas the substrate materials employed in the antenna designs are different. The performance of microstrip patch antenna designs have been analysed and compared in terms of gain, return loss (S₁₁), directivity and HPBW. The antennas have been designed in CST Microwave Studio 2014. It has been observed that the gain and directivity of antenna increases by employing low dielectric constant substrate materials. It has also been observed that resonant frequency shifts to lower frequency by using high dielectric constant materials as substrate in antenna design. The antenna designs have been fabricated and tested using E5071C Network analyser and anechoic chamber. It has been concluded that the tested return loss results approximately match with the simulated results.