A Compact Unidirectional Wideband Step Slot Antenna over an Artificial Magnetic Conductor

A compact unidirectional wideband step slot antenna backed by a wideband artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) to work at the frequency band of 1.2-3.6 GHz is presented. The proposed AMC consists of two printed circuit board layers separated by an air gap including a10 $\times$10 cell periodic structure. A compact step slot antenna with overall dimensions of $0.27 \lambda_{L} \times 0.13 \lambda_{L} \times 0.001 \lambda_{L}$ is ($\lambda_{L}$ the free space wavelength of the lowest operating frequency) is placed over the 0 proposed AMC structure which acts as a wideband reflector. The designed antenna is fabricated and tested. The measured results show a unidirectional radiation pattern with the maximum gain of 8 dBi in the operating frequency band.