Design of a broadband hexagonal-shaped zeroth-order resonance antenna with metamaterials

A broadband hexagonal-shaped metamaterials (MTMs)-based zeroth-order resonant (ZOR) antenna was designed and fabricated. The hexagonal shape of a top patch on a mushroom structure makes not only direct-current paths between the two ends of the patch but also round-current paths along the outside of the patch, thereby widening the resonance frequency of the mushroom MTM antenna. According to the shape of the hexagon patch, the presented antenna achieved impedance bandwidth of 58.6% corresponding to ultra-wideband technology. The proposed ZOR antenna was modeled by utilizing a composite right- and left-handed (CRLH) transmission line and provided 4 to 9.3 dBi of the antenna gain with reduced size as compared to conventional microstrip antennas at Ku- to K-band frequencies.