Bandwidth Improvement of a 2.4 GHz Microstrip Patch Antenna Array with U-Slot Ground Plane for Wireless Applications
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63747/jeis.v1i2.41Keywords:
Patch, Wireless, substrate, Microstrip, gain, arrayAbstract
In this work, a design and evaluation of a 1×2 series-fed microstrip patch antenna array is presented for 2.4 GHz wireless communication applications. The antenna is implemented on a FR4 substrate, featuring a thickness of 1.6 mm and a relative dielectric constant (εr) of 4.3, making it suitable for high-performance RF designs.The series-fed network ensures that both elements are excited sequentially with minimal complexity, offering a compact and lightweight structure. Simulation results of the single-element patch demonstrate promising performance, with a return loss of –22.6 dB, excellent impedance matching, a Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) of 1.15, and a measured bandwidth of approximately 76.2 MHz around the 2.4 GHz band. The achieved directive gain of 6.52 dB marks a notable improvement compared to a conventional plain patch antenna at the same frequency. When configured as a two-element array, the antenna exhibits significant performance enhancement, achieving a return loss of -42.3 dB, VSWR of 1.01, directive gain of 7.4 dBi and an expanded bandwidth of 202 MHz, both centered around 2.4 GHz. These results confirm the effectiveness of combining a U-slot with series feeding to improve directivity, gain, and impedance bandwidth without substantially increasing the antenna footprint. A comparative analysis with existing 2.4 GHz patch antenna designs highlights the superiority of the proposed structure in terms of bandwidth efficiency, demonstrating its potential for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other ISM band applications.
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