Analysis and design of a 3.5 ghz patch antenna for wimax applications

In 1953, the microstrip antenna approach was firstly proposed by Deschamps. However, two years later, Gutton and Bassinot received the first microstrip antenna patent in France. After twenty years from this patent, the first microstrip antenna was built by Munson, and Howell, and they published a paper announcing their design and realization of the first microstrip antenna, which was first proposed by Deschamps. With this realization, the microstrip antenna and its applications gained widespread importance. In recent years, the study of microstrip patch-type antennas has gained good momentum. Compared to conventional antennas, microstrip antennas are low-cost, low-profile, conformal, easier to fabricate, and have smaller dimensions. Because of these advantages, microstrip antennas attract many researchers in the field of wireless communications. Furthermore, the microstrip antennas can provide dual polarizations, multiband operation, feedline flexibility, and directional radiation patterns. This thesis presents a patch-type microstrip WiMAX antenna operating at 3.5 GHz with a parasitic radiator and a raised ground plane. This high gain antenna has been designed through extensive 3-D electromagnetic simulations. The patch itself provides a realized gain of about 3.5 dBi at 3.5 GHz. When a parasitic radiator, side walls and upper dielectric layer are placed on top of the patch, the gain increases from 3.6 dBi to about 8.8 dBi that's about an improvement of 5.2 dB without the need of an amplifier.