Star shaped microstrip patch antenna design with slotted ground plane for Civil/Military radio location and satellite navigation applications

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the design and performance analysis of the star shaped microstrip patch antenna. The proposed antenna design employs substrate of FR4 material having thickness and dielectric constant of 1.6 mm and 4.4 respectively. The proposed antenna design consists of a FR4 substrate, star shaped radiating copper patch and slotted ground forming star shaped microstrip patch antenna configuration. The ground has been placed on the lower surface of the substrate and the star shaped radiating patch rests upon the upper surface of the substrate. The proposed antenna has been designed using CST Microwave Studio 2014. The performance of star shaped antenna has been analyzed in terms of resonant frequency, return loss (S11), gain (dB), directivity (dBi) and percentage bandwidth. It has been observed that the antenna is resonant at 13.49 GHz with an impedance bandwidth of 430 MHz and an operating frequency range of 13.32 GHz–13.75 GHz. The proposed antenna has return loss of −45.78 dB at resonant frequency of 13.49 GHz. The antenna has gain of 6.36 dB, directivity of 6.16 dBi and percentage bandwidth of 3.18 percent at resonant frequency of 13.49 GHz. The proposed antenna has been fabricated and successfully tested for return loss using E5071C network analyzer and anechoic chamber. The simulated and experimental results have been examined and it has been concluded that the practical results closely match with the theoretical results. The proposed antenna can be suitably used for Radio astronomy, Radio location (Civil), Radio location (Military) and Satellite navigation system applications.