Gain enhancement of air substrates at 5.8GHz for microstrip antenna array

This paper concerned on enhancement of gain for microstrip patch planar array antenna. The structure in this project is 2 by 2 microstrip patch planar array antenna using air substrate with ε_r= 1at frequency 5.8 GHz. Frequency for 5.8GHz can be applied to unlicensed WiMAX. In this project, the simulation is performed by using the simulation software Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave Studiowhich is a commercially available electromagnetic simulator based on finite difference time domain technique. The novelty of the design is the application of air to replace regular Flame Retardant 4 (FR-4) materials as the substrate.The substrate used for the design is C-foam (thickness = 3mm) which represent as air gap. Copper foil with thickness 0.12mm is used as the patch. The performance of the designed antenna was analyzed in term of bandwidth, gain, return loss, VSWR, and radiation pattern.