Small microstrip patch antennas with short-pin using a dual-band operation

This article presents the design and fabrication of a short-pin dual-band E-shaped microstrip patch antenna for application in a 2.630–2.655 GHz band satellite-DMB with a 5.725–5.825 GHz band wireless LAN. The prototype consist of a short-pin and E-shaped patch. To obtain sufficient bandwidth in VSWR < 2, an air layer is inserted between the ground plane and the substrate. A small short-pin patch that has a dual-band characteristic is used. Important design parameters are the slot's existence, length, the air-gap's height, the feed point's position, and the short-pin's existence and point position. From these optimized parameters, an E-shaped antenna is fabricated and measured. The measured results of the fabricated antenna are obtained individually at 200 and 700 MHz bandwidths in VSWR < 2 referenced to the center frequency, and the individual gain at 8.79 and 10.26 dBi. The experimental 3 dB beam width is shown to be broad across the pass band in the E-plane, and in the H-plane is individually 73°, 65°, 74°, and 42°, respectively. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 367–371, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23099