Broadband proximity-fed square-ring microstrip antennas

The fundamental and higher-order modes of a compact ring microstrip antenna are discussed. This provides insight into the functioning of this configuration. To increase its bandwidth and gain, various broadband proximity-fed configurations of a ring microstrip antenna in the 1000 MHz frequency band are proposed. A detailed explanation for the broadband behavior of all these configurations is presented. The proximity-fed square-ring antenna yielded a bandwidth of more than 250 MHz. A further increase in its bandwidth was realized by cutting a pair of rectangular slots on the edges of the ring patch. The pair of slots reduced the orthogonal TM02 mode´s resonance frequency of the patch and, along with the fundamental TM10 mode, yielded a bandwidth of more than 350 MHz. Furthermore, the proximity-fed gap-coupled configurations of rectangular-slot-cut C-shaped patches, which were derived from the ring patch, are proposed. These yielded a bandwidth of more than 500 MHz (>43%). Both of these slot-cut compact configurations gave broadside radiation patterns with gains of more than 6 dBi over the bandwidth. To further increase the gain and bandwidth of the slot-cut ring antenna, a multi-resonator configuration with parasitic ring patches, gap-coupled along the two coordinate axes, is proposed. This configuration yielded a bandwidth of more than 400 MHz with a peak gain of 9 dBi. In this configuration, a further increase in the bandwidth was realized by cutting a pair of rectangular slots on the edges of the ring patches that were gap-coupled along one of the coordinate axes. This configuration gave a bandwidth of more than 500 MHz with a peak gain of 9 dBi.