SRR metamaterial-based broadband patch antenna for wireless communications

Abstract

This paper presents the design and analysis of a broad-band patch antenna using split ring metamaterial. The SRR metamaterial structures are embedded in a unique and novel way in the patch antenna, so that subwavelength modes get introduced in the patch cavity and a broad bandwidth antenna with good performance characteristics is obtained. A rectangular microstrip patch antenna is taken as a reference antenna, which resonates at a frequency of 5.2 GHz and has an impedance bandwidth of 70 MHz. To improve the bandwidth of the patch antenna, firstly the split ring resonator (SRR) is designed according to the reference patch antenna. The optimized SRR metamaterial is placed in between the patch and ground plane of the proposed antenna. The – 10 dB impedance bandwidth of the metamaterial-embedded proposed antenna is 1.63–4.88 GHz and has an average gain of 4.5 dB. The Prototype of the proposed antenna and reference antenna is fabricated and experimental results are obtained. Experimental and simulated results are in good agreement. The presented antenna can be used for LTE, GSM, WiMAX, Bluetooth, and other wireless applications.