Experimental Investigation of ADM-based Microstrip Square Patch Antenna with Resonant Frequency Lowering Characteristic

One of competitive advantages implementing artificial dielectric material (ADM) in the antenna application is its capability to lower the resonant frequency. In this paper, an experimental investigation of ADM-based microstrip square patch antenna with unique characteristic in resonant frequency lowering is presented. The ADM is implemented by configuring cylindrical-shaped copper conductors in such a way in a dielectric substrate, i.e. styrofoam, as host material which is perpendicular to the antenna patch and the groundplane. To show potentiality of the unique characteristic, a similar construction of conventional microstrip square patch antenna realized using a styrofoam is also experimentally characterized as comparison. The characterization result indicates that the use of ADM has affected the resonant frequency lowering up to 13.1% from the conventional antenna.