Gain Enhanced Broadband L-Probe Inverted E-Shaped Microstrip Patch Antennas

In thispaper, a gain enhanced broadband L-probe inverted Frshaped microstrip patch antenna that covers the third generation (3G) band is presented. The design employed two dielectric layers arrangement where a thick air-filledsubstrate was sandwiched between a top-loaded dielectric substrate or superstrate with inverting radiating patch and a ground plane. The broadband characteristic was provided by the thick air-filled substrate and the L-shaped probe structure, while the gain enhancement was due to the superstrate structure. An antenna with a thickness of 12.7 mm was simulated using Sonnet em simulator. Measurement result showed satisfactory performance with a gain of about 10 dB and with achievable bandwidth of 28% at IO-dBreturn loss and 19% at 14-dB retum loss.