Multiband-integrated antenna/artificial magnetic conductor

An artificial magnetic conductor (AMC)-based multiband low-profile antenna for vehicle applications is designed, simulated and measured in this study. The AMC is a simple dual band structure, constructed on a 3.2 mm-thick FR-4 (ε_r=4.4) board, with the reflection phase and surface wave bandgaps in the 2.0 and 5.8 GHz ranges. A wideband printed circular disc monopole antenna uses this dual-band AMC as a ground plane resulting in a low-profile, multiband and platform-tolerant antenna system. The operating frequency bands covered are GPS (1.57542 GHz), DCS (1.710-1.880 GHz), PCS (1.850-1.990 GHz), UMTS (1.925-2.175 GHz), WLAN (2.4-2.485 GHz), WiFi (5.15-5.825 GHz) and V2X (5.76-5.84 GHz) using a -10 dB reflection coefficient criterion. It is demonstrated that the antenna gain increases significantly when the AMC is used over a large metal ground plane for the antenna.