Development of performance‐improved global positioning system (GPS) patch antenna based on sol‐gel‐synthesized dual‐phase (Bi4Ti3O12)X – (CaCu3Ti4O12)1–X composites

Abstract

As a first attempt, a series of composite materials of general formula (Bi4Ti3O12)X – (CaCu3Ti4O12)1–X (BTOX – CCTO1–X) (X = 0–1.0) is synthesized by a sol‐gel combustion method. The phase changes, including their formation and evolution during the gradual substitution of BTO into CCTO are analyzed from the X‐ray diffraction pattern. The Jana2006 refinement plotting method proves that formation of an ideal dual‐phase composite system with separate orthorhombic and cubic phases occurs. A surface morphological study revealed that the BTOX – CCTO1–X composites are composed of small CCTO grains embedded in large BTO grains and both coexisted with a bimodal distribution. The possible vibrational modes of interactions between the constituent phases are determined from Raman spectra. Our inexpensive, combustion method for BTO0.2 – CCTO0.8 gives a high dielectric constant (ε′ = 3232) at 100 Hz at room temperature. The nature behind these data is revealed that the BTO‐CCTO composite can be applicable for the fabrication of miniaturized global positioning system (GPS) patch antennas. The fabricated GPS patch antenna shows optimum results of small size (2.37 mm × 1.18 mm), return loss (‐14.419) and wide bandwidth (350 MHz) to be operated at 1.57 GHz.