Application of different manufacturing techniques in high gain microstrip antenna design

Microstrip patch antennas are one of the most popular antenna types due to their geometry, lightness, lower manufacturing cost and easier applicability. Microstrip patch antennas have provided a significant improvement and innovation within antenna structures. Microstrip patch antennas have a low profile and weight. Since they are small and can share the same dielectric layer with the circuit elements, they can easily adapt to integrated circuit structures and do not increase the size of portable devices. However, electrical parameters such as resonance frequency, bandwidth, return loss, gain and efficiency may be insufficient for current communication applications. The antenna gain from these parameters, gives the power transmitted by the antenna compared to an isotropic antenna that spreads evenly in all directions. For example, in applications requiring high range, a high-gain antenna is always needed as a communication element, so it is very important to have a high gain. In order to achieve the desired antenna performance in suitable physical conditions and structures, studies are carried out on different designs and optimization techniques are used for an antenna with high performance. There are many methods in the literature to increase antenna gain. These; methods such as adding dielectric superstrate on the substrate, using an air gap under the patch, using high quality and costly dielectric materials, opening slots on the patch. In this thesis, different techniques such as array antenna design created by geometrically placing more than one antenna, modified ground plane, adding dielectric superstrate on the patch and slot on the patch are used as gain enhancement method. The manufacture technique used in antennas is a very important factor for the efficiency of the antenna. There are more than one antenna manufacturing technique and new ones are added to them as technology progresses. Even for an antenna with the same physical structure, antenna data may change as these techniques change. For these reasons, in this thesis, the same antenna is manufacture using more than one technique. These techniques are printing circuit method with iron, coating method with adhesive PVC foil, masking method with adhesive PVC foil, antenna manufacturing method using PCB device and coating method with copper tape. Afterwards, the manufactured antennas are measured and the results are evaluated, and the effects of different techniques are examined.