Octagonal Microstrip Patch antenna array with gain enhancement for WiMAX and WLAN Applications

Abstract

An octagonal microstrip patch antenna is presented in this paper. A small sized microstrip patch antenna with a high gain has been the focusing point of so many researches over the years. Microstrip patch antenna is basically known to have a low gain as a result various techniques are carried out in order to enhance the gain. In this work, a single patch octagonal microstrip patch antenna and a 1x2 octagonal patch antenna array are designed and the effects are studied. The structure is designed on four different substrates FR4, Duroid, Arlon and Rogers substrate materials. Copper is used as the patch and ground material. The antenna is designed on a small substrate material and it is probe fed. The simulated results of the array reveals a gain increase of 6.25dB from 3.6dB of the single patch on the FR4 substrate. The simulated results of the antenna in terms of reflection coefficients, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) and gains realized showed that the antenna has prospective applications for 4.6 and 5.9GHz applications. Conclusively, the antenna with the FR4 substrate shows the best antenna performance in terms of Gain and Return loss and its operating frequency falls under the WiMAX and WLAN range compared to the other substrates. The tool used for the design and simulation is the Computer Simulation Technology (CST) microwave studio.