Broadband aperture-coupled equilateral triangular microstrip array antenna

Abstract

The aperture-coupled equilateral triangular microstrip array antenna comprising parasitic element and slot for broadband operation is designed and presented. An experimental study is carried out to see the effect of slot placed in the parasitic and radiating elements for enhancing the impedance bandwidth. The four-element aperture-coupled equilateral triangular microstrip array antenna(FAEMA) using a common parasitic element in the form of gap-coupled between the two radiating element gives an impedance bandwidth of 18.46%. If the slot is placed at the center of all elements of FAEMA, the impedance bandwidth is found to be 18.57%. However, this bandwidth is enhanced to 19.04% by placing the slot at the center of radiating elements of FAEMA. Further, the bandwidth is increased from 19.04 to 19.07% by placing a slot at the center of parasitic element of FAEMA. This bandwidth is 38% more when compared to four-element array antenna without using parasitic elements. The gain, azimuthal radiation patterns and input impedance of proposed antennas are studied and reported. Details of the antenna design are given and experimental results are discussed.