Design and investigation of meshed patch antennas for applications at 24 GHz

This contribution presents optically transparent microstrip patch antennas which are designed using meshed conductors. The influences on antenna performance of meshing both patch and ground plane are studied. Important geometrical parameters which have the main impact on the operating frequency and bandwidth are pointed out. The investigation shows that a necessity of reducing the patch size and/or enhancing the bandwidth can be accomplished by the meshing method. Furthermore, antenna structures with an optical transparency of roughly 90% can have comparable properties as a conventional patch antenna. A prototype is fabricated and the simulated and measured results are discussed.