Wideband E-shaped antenna design for WLAN applications

This paper presents a design, simulation and optimization study of a coaxial-fed wideband E-Shaped patch antenna that is suitable for 5 GHz WLAN applications. The bandwidth of the antenna was enhanced from 8.5% to 17.5% by changing the antenna shape from square patch to E-shaped patch. The proposed antenna gives an overall bandwidth of about 1 GHz and operates between 5-6 GHz frequency bands. The design has also been optimized to minimize the antenna size with desired characteristics and antenna width has been reduced from 19.2 mm to 15.8 mm. The antenna is designed on a glass microfiber substrate having thickness h = 3.175 mm and dielectric constant ε_r = 2.2. The antenna design and simulation is performed using Agilent ADS Momentum simulator. The simulation results against different E-shaped antenna parameters have been analyzed and discussed. Other antenna performance parameters like gain, directivity, return loss, radiation pattern and bandwidth have also been studied and analyzed.