A surface micromachined high directivity GPS patch antenna with a four-leaf clover shape metamaterial slab

A high gain patch antenna with a four-leaf clover shape metamaterial slab on top is implemented using the combination of multiple ceramic and organic layers for global positioning system (GPS) applications. The four-leaf clover shape metamaterial slab showing a refractive index of zero or close to zero is designed for high gain antenna applications. An effective refractive index of 0.5 is obtained for a designed architecture. As a source antenna, a circularly polarized rectangular patch antenna is implemented with two diagonal corners truncated. The demonstrated architecture not only increases the antenna gain, but also maintains the circular polarization. The antenna size is reduced by using a high dielectric constant ceramic substrate, where the overall antenna size is as small as 25 × 25 × 4 mm3. It is surface mountable and has circular polarization with a center frequency of 1.58 GHz, and a gain of 4.48 dB.