Compact microstrip patch antenna loaded with Artificial Transmission Line for wireless applications

ABSTRACT

This article presents an efficient yet simple spiral antenna design methodology for 2.44 GHz Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) applications. In the suggested design, the antenna’s radiating section is redesigned with a particular Artificial Transmission Line (ATL) construction that allows for good downsizing. Circuit analysis and electromagnetic solver are used to verify the design, which demonstrate good agreement with the measured results. The electromagnetic simulation and passive component analysis reveal that the new design matches the traditional designs in terms of frequency tuning and size reduction. The overall footprint of the proposed ATL design is (33 × 25 × 1.6) mm³ which equals to 0.2684λ×0.2033λ×0.013λ, where λ is the distance travelled by the wave per cycle at the operating frequency of 2.44 GHz. The antenna has a gain of 3.8dBi and a 50Ω impedance. Modifying the interdigital capacitance and inductance used in the ATL structure to achieve a longer electrical length of the line can also improve the wave guide mode of excitation. As a result, the phase constant is regulated, allowing for good antenna size minimisation. The effect of interdigital inductance and capacitance on the operating bands is also analysed.

KEYWORDS:

• Antenna design
• Artificial Transmission Line
• loading
• spiral antenna
• microstrip patch antenna

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully credit the Microwave Laboratory at Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences in Coimbatore for providing software and hardware support for fabrication and measurements.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).