Performance enhancement of a circularly polarized patch antenna for radio frequency identification readers using an electromagnetic band‐gap ground plane

A miniaturized circularly polarized (CP) patch antenna with wide impedance matching and axial ratio bandwidths and a good efficiency using an electromagnetic band gap (EBG) ground plane is presented. CP is obtained with the truncated corners technique applied on a square patch and size reduction of this radiating element is based on the slow wave phenomenon created in the EBG structure. This antenna is fabricated on a 117 × 117 × 4 mm3 FR-4 substrate (eT = 4.4 and tan δ = 0.22) and dedicated to the European UHF radio frequency identification band (865–868 MHz). The measured bandwidth, realized gain, and total efficiency are 14.4%, 3.7 dBi, and 79%, respectively. Experimental and theorical results are presented and discussed. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:1599–1602, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27642