Broadband microstrip antennas with integrated reactive loading

Broadband operation of microstrip antennas using the integrated reactive loading technique is studied. Such reactive loading can be integrated with the microstrip patch, retaining the advantages of low profile and easy fabrication. The integrated reactive loading is designed to be resonant at the fundamental resonant mode of the microstrip antenna, which makes it possible for the fundamental mode to be split into two near-degenerate modes, resulting in a much wider operating bandwidth. A number of design examples have been implemented. Details of the antenna designs and experimental results are presented