Development of microstrip array antenna for wide band and multiband applications

Abstract

The paper presents the design and development of an X-band linearly polarized microstrip array antenna. The array elements are fed by corporate feed network, which improves the impedance bandwidth of the two element rectangular microstrip array antenna (2RMSAA) by 15.38%. By increasing the array elements from two to four and eight, multiband operation can be achieved with improved impedance bandwidth. These multiband array antennas may provide an alternative to large bandwidth planar antennas in applications where large bandwidth is needed for operating at two separate transmit-receiver frequencies. When the two operating frequencies are far apart, a multiband antenna can be used to avoid the use of separate antennas. Experimental results for the array antennas in term of return loss, radiation pattern, -3dB beam width, and gain are presented.