Gain enhancement of a circularly polarized equilateral-triangular microstrip antenna with a slotted ground plane

A novel circular polarization (CP) design of a single-feed equilateral-triangular microstrip antenna with enhanced antenna gain is presented. This CP design is obtained by placing three triangular slots at properly locations below the equilateral-triangular radiating patch in the ground plane. By adjusting one of the triangular slot's side lengths slightly longer than that of the others, two orthogonal near-degenerate resonant modes for CP radiation can be excited. Measured antenna gain in this study can easily be increased by 3.3 dBi (5.1 dBi versus 1.8 dBi), as compared to the same height, substrate material, operating frequency and radiating patch shape of a regular equilateral-triangular microstrip antenna without triangular slots in the ground plane. Prototype antenna is fabricated for experimental evaluation. Simulated and measured results are presented.