A bandwidth enhancement method for a proximity coupled microstrip patch antenna

A new method of enhancing the bandwidth of a proximity coupled microstrip patch antenna using an integrated impedance matching network (IMN) is presented and the design procedure is described. The measured bandwidth and radiation characteristics of a proximity coupled microstrip patch antenna with an integrated IMN are compared to those of a conventional proximity coupled microstrip patch antenna. The 10 dB return loss bandwidth of the former is 9.8%, while that of the latter is 4.2%. The improvement in bandwidth is 133%. The measured gain within the bandwidth of the former is larger than that of the latter.