A rectangular patch antenna based on flexible and non-flexible substrates for wireless applications

Microstrip antenna is one of the most popular types of printed antenna. It plays an excellent role in today’s world of wireless communication systems. Microstrip antenna offers the advantages of thin profile, light weight, low cost, ease of fabrication and compatibility with the integrated circuitry. In this paper, the design of a rectangular patch antenna based on flexible and non-flexible substrate is presented. First a simple rectangular shape patch antenna using microstrip feeding based on FR4 substrate is designed. The designed antenna operates at a center frequency 2.3 GHz with bandwidth ranging from 2.25 to 2.35 GHz (100 MHz). The same rectangular patch is subjected to two different flexible substrate i.e. Kapton polyimide film with thickness of 0.82 mm and Kapton polyimide film with thickness of 0.85 mm. With Kapton polyimide as substrate having thickness of 0.82 mm resulted in a center frequency of 2.4 GHz with bandwidth ranging from 2.36 to 2.45 GHz (90 MHz). With Kapton polyimide as substrate having thickness of 0.85 mm, the antenna provides a center frequency at 2.3 GHz, with bandwidth ranging from 2.25 to 2.35 GHz (100 MHz). The other radiational parameters (such as impedance matching, radiation pattern, radiation efficiency and gain) from all the three substrate are studied. The antenna based on FR4 substrate is finally fabricated and its results are compared with the simulated ones.