Shorted plate slot cut proximity fed broadband microstrip antenna

Compact rectangular microstrip antenna is realized by placing the shorting plate along the zero field line at the fundamental TM₁₀ mode and it gives more BW as compared to the rectangular microstrip antenna. The antenna bandwidth is increased by fabricating the patch on thicker substrate and further by using simpler proximity feeding technique. In this paper, a quarter wavelength shorted plate rectangular microstrip antenna is discussed. A shorted plate rectangular slot cut microstrip antenna is proposed. The bandwidth of nearly 500 MHz at center frequency of around 950 MHz is obtained. The antenna gives a maximum radiation pattern in the end-fire direction with broadside level less than 3 dB down as compared to the co-polar levels. The antenna gain is more than 5 dBi over the operating bandwidth. With the above antenna characteristics the proposed antenna finds an application in the mobile communication bands around 950 MHz.