A Wideband and High-Gain Edge-Fed Patch Antenna and Array Using Artificial Magnetic Conductor Structures

In this letter, a new edge-fed patch antenna element using artificial magnetic conductor structures (AMCs) is proposed. The AMCs are employed as the antenna magnetic ground plane for bandwidth enhancement and radiation gain improvement of patch antenna. Meanwhile, the ground plane below the feedline is raised, the height of substrate is reduced, so the feedline width would be narrow to avoid the spurious radiation. In addition, it has been particularly found that the height and number of the AMCs have a specific impact on performances of antenna with AMCs. On the basis of antenna element design, a 2 x 2 array with AMC techniques is also proposed. Compared to the dual-thickness-substrate antenna and cavity-backed antenna in the previous literature, the antenna element and array with the AMCs have wider bandwidth and higher-gain performances. The simulated and measured results both demonstrate significant improvements. The antenna element exhibits 11.76% bandwidth and high gain of 9.36 dBi; the 2 x 2 array achieves 20.45% impedance bandwidth and high gain of 15.95 dBi.