A new aperture coupled microstrip slot antenna

A new aperture coupled design is proposed for microstrip slot antennas to improve their radiation performance. The proposed design is based on a new aperture coupling technique in which the slot is fed by a microstrip line and coupled to several parasitic patch radiators etched on the opposite side from the slot. In contrast to the combination of a slot and a microstrip patch in conventional aperture coupled microstrip antennas, the patches here are employed to reduce the radiation into the half-space that they occupy and increase the radiation in the other half-space. Therefore, the slot antenna can produce radiation patterns with a high front-back ratio. The above objective is achieved by optimizing standing wave distributions of the aperture electric field in the slot through the adjustment of the position of the patches along the axis of the slot. In this paper, design considerations are given, and the results are validated by numerical simulations and experimental measurements.