Abstract A single-feed circularly polarized antenna with electromagnetic band gap (EBG) has been developed for the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands. The proposed antenna features a square patch with eight slits on each side and corner, along with a cross-slot in the middle. To prevent surface wave excitation caused by the patch antenna's thick substrate, new grounded like-mushroom EBG structures will surround the antenna. The frequency band gap characteristics of the EBG unit cells have been optimized at 5.8 GHz. A row of EBGs squares is 4.73 mm (0.063λo) away from the antenna square patch and surrounds it on all four sides. The proposed mushroom-like structure design improves the antenna's directivity by 43.31%, gain by 32.93%, reflection coefficient by 93%, and radiation efficiency by 35.22%. This topology enables a wide variety of wireless communications applications. Computer simulation technologies (CSTs) were used to generate simulation figures for the proposed antenna, operating at 5.8 GHz. Furthermore, the new Like-Mushroom EBG antenna simulation, experimental results, and other reported works confirm that our approach meets the studied objectives regarding polarization purity, radiation efficiency, high directivity, and gain.