Improving the performance of a U-shaped patch antenna using metamaterials for biomedical applications

Abstract

This paper discusses the performance improvement of a patch antenna using metamaterials (MTM). The suggested antenna is a U-shaped patch antenna with a modified ground plane dedicated to biomedical applications. The size of the antenna is 40×20 mm2 with a FR4 substrate (εr=4.3, tanδ=0.02, H=1.6 mm) designed for operation at 2.4 GHz (ISM Band) and 6.23 GHz frequencies. The proposed MTM is 2×2 array positioned under the antenna at a distance of 2 mm. The integration of the MTM enhances clearly the antenna performance especially the return loss, voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) and the gain. However, the reflection coefficient was enhanced from -10.71 dB to -36.63 dB at 2.45 GHz and from -13.88 dB to -36.54 dB at 6.23 GHz, the VSWR improved from 1.66 to 1.03 at 2.45 GHz and from 1.75 to 1.04 at 6.23 GHz. Additionally, the peak gain also was increased from 1.77 dB to 3.48 dB. The obtained results confirm the suitability of the suggested antenna for biomedical applications.