Flexible and miniaturized design of microstrip patch antenna with improved cross-polarized radiation

Abstract A simple and miniaturized design of rectangular microstrip patch antenna (RMPA) is presented with improved cross-polarization (XP) purity. This design approach is much more flexible to tune the resonance frequency of the antenna for its optimum performance. A complete design guideline based on theoretical analysis has been provided to estimate the antenna resonance frequency and corresponding resonant mode. The higher-order spurious mode, orthogonal to the co-polarized fields, has been identified as the source of XP radiation. The physical insight into the XP suppression has been thoroughly discussed and successfully applied for an optimum design. An improved antenna configuration has been realized without any perturbation in the radiating patch or the ground plane. Size, gain, and impedance matching of the proposed antenna have also been considered along with the suppression of XP value. This may be applicable to any conventional working RMPA by introducing very small possible changes. As much as 16 dB suppression of XP radiation is realized in the H-plane without affecting the co-polarized peak-gain value of 5.27 dBi. The proposed concept has been experimentally validated using a set of antenna prototypes. Measured results are closely corroborated with the simulated predictions.