High gain reduced ground terahertz microstrip patch antenna design for the detection of trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosives material

In this demonstrative research work, a high gain reduced ground terahertz (THz) rectangular microstrip patch antenna suitable to be employed for detection of Trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosives have been proposed. The polycarbonate material having dielectric constant (εr) 2.1 with thickness of 0.7 μm has been proposed to be employed as substrate in the antenna design. In the proposed antenna, the substrate is sandwiched between the patch and ground made up of copper material having thickness 0.05 μm with conductivity of 5.67 × 107S/m2. The proposed antenna has been designed using reduced ground structure to enhance in bandwidth and return losses. The proposed antenna has been designed and simulated using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Studio Suite 2016. The performance of the proposed antenna has been scrutinized in terms of different antenna parameters such as return loss (Su), directivity (dBi), gain (dB), bandwidth (THz), VSWR and Half Power Beam Width (HPBW). It has been analyzed that the proposed antenna has an impedance bandwidth of 0.43065 THz with an operating frequency range of 8.8919 THz-9.3225 THz and resonant frequency (fr) of 9.108 THz. The gain and directivity of the proposed antenna is 7.357 dB and 7.127 dBi at resonant frequency of 9.108 THz. The proposed antenna has impedance of 50.06 ohm making it suitable to be fed by SMA connector of 50ohms impedance. The proposed antenna has return loss (S11) of 69.03 dB at resonant frequency of 9.108 THz. The proposed antenna can be suitably employed for the detection of the Trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosives.