A dual-feed rectangular patch antenna for bandwidth enhancement

A novel feeding mechanism for a rectangular patch antenna is introduced. A phase shift caused by path inequality between two possible symmetrical feeding points is introduced, in order to achieve wideband operation at the 2.4 GHz WiFi band. The idea is to create two separate resonances, by exploiting a phase shift in one of the feeds. Simultaneously activating the two feeds yields to an envelope formed by the separate resonances. This leads to a fractional bandwidth enhancement from 0.9% to about 1.8%. The feeding mechanism is furthermore folded on the back side of the patch, thus constructing an appropriate design for cellular applications, reducing its size. This configuration leads to an even better fractional bandwidth enhancement (53.07 MHz, i.e. 2.18%). The results are verified in terms of Return Loss, Input Impedance, VSWR and Antenna and Radiation Efficiency, all exhibiting satisfactory behaviour.