Low-cost and wide-band suspended patch element using a three-dimensional dual-feeding section

The progress in cellular systems as well as personal communication and wireless local loop systems for indoor communications has increased the need for novel, wide-band and compact antenna designs. A lot of work in the field of printed microstrip antenna has been done in the past with the aim to enhance the bandwidth of such radiating elements. A well-suited approach is the slot-coupled patch antenna supported by a thick foam layer with low permittivity to achieve wide-band characteristics. The challenge then is the feeding concept of such radiating elements maintaining the broadband behaviour on the one hand and avoiding unwanted spurious radiation from this feeding network on the other hand. A novel low-cost and wide-band patch is presented. The patch element is symmetrically fed from both sides by using an optimized three-dimensional (3-D) transition region. It can easily be manufactured by stamping the structure from a thin metal sheet, hence making it very interesting for high volume production