Slot loaded rectangular patch antenna for dual-band operations on glass-reinforced epoxy laminated inexpensive substrate

This paper presents a straightforward design and analysis of rectangular radiating patch with narrow slots and microstrip line fed patch antenna for dual band operations. A parametric analysis has been carried on during the design process for finding the desired resonant frequencies. The final design concept of the antenna has been validated through fabricating the antenna prototype and then measuring its characteristics. The proposed antenna is implemented by using cost effective FR4 substrate, which comprises of vertical narrow slots on the radiating element and partial ground plane. The experimental results of the antenna prototype show the impedance bandwidth (\(<-10\) dB reflection coefficient, S11) 396.4 MHz (286.9–683.3 MHz) and 310 MHz (4.28–4.59 GHz) with center resonant frequency 460 MHz and 4.5 GHz respectively. The proposed antenna has achieved 6.6 dBi average gain with 85 % average radiation efficiency for lower band and 9.7 dBi average gain with 88 % radiation efficiency for upper band. The bandwidths of the antenna are broader enough to cover medical telemetry communications, UHF wireless communications and terrestrial communications services.