Novel dual-frequency and broad-band designs of slot-loaded equilateral triangular microstrip antennas

By loading properly arranged slots in an equilateral-triangular microstrip patch, novel dual-frequency and broad-band operations of a single-feed triangular microstrip antenna are presented. For dual-frequency operation, the proposed design is achieved by loading two pairs of narrow slots in the triangular patch, one embedded close to the side edges of the patch and the other inserted at the bottom edge of the patch. The obtained two operating frequencies are of same polarization planes and by varying the positions and lengths of the inserted slots at the bottom edge of the patch, a tunable frequency ratio of the two frequencies ranging from about 1.16 to 2.06 is obtained. Furthermore, it is found that by protruding a narrow slot out of the embedded slots close to the side edges, broad-band operation of the triangular microstrip antenna near its fundamental resonant mode can be achieved. Results show that the antenna bandwidth of the proposed broad-band design can be greater than 2.6 times that of a conventional triangular microstrip antenna. Details of the proposed dual-frequency and broad-band designs are described and typical experimental results are presented and discussed.