High gain antipodal meander line antenna for point-to-point WLAN/WiMAX applications

Abstract

This paper introduces a planar antipodal meander line antenna fabricated using RO3003 substrate. The proposed antenna is designed to radiate in the end-fire direction, achieving a maximum measured gain of 10.43 dBi within its working bandwidth, which ranges from 2.24 GHz to 2.7 GHz, covering long-range WLAN/WiMAX applications. A systematic procedure is adopted in the design process to prove its tunability to cover other application requirements in terms of gain and bandwidth. The proposed design steps show that the bandwidth and the gain can independently be controlled by adjusting specific design parameters such as the number of radiators and the scaling factor. The antenna is fine-tuned using sensitivity analysis and parametric study to guarantee optimum operation at the desired bandwidth. Experimental measurements of the fabricated design demonstrate a high degree of correlation with simulations conducted using CST and HFSS. In comparison to other end-fire antennas presented in the literature, the proposed design manifests its capability to provide high gain for WLAN/WiMAX nodes connectivity. The measurements show that the proposed traveling wave antenna exhibits a high radiation efficiency with maximum value of 99.8% at 2.35 GHz. The measured side lobe level is found to be below $-18$ dB and $-20$ dB at 2.45 GHz along the $E$ - and $H$ -planes, respectively. Apart from its excellent radiation performance, the antenna is characterized by its low profile and fabrication simplicity.