Miniature CRLH-Based Ultra Wideband Antenna with Gain Enhancement for Wireless Communication Applications

Abstract A novel miniaturized ultra wideband (UWB) antenna based on composite right/left-handed (CRLH) metamaterial unit cells for modern wireless communication applications is presented. The physical size of the small and compact antenna is 15×7.87×1.6 mm3 or 0.15 λ o × 0.07 λ o × 0.01 λ o in terms of the free-space wavelength at 3 GHz. The proposed antenna covers an impedance bandwidth of 3–10.6 GHz, which is equivalent to a fractional bandwidth of 111%. The gain and efficiency of the antenna are greater than 2.89 dBi and 38.54%, respectively, with a peak gain of 9.41 dBi and a peak efficiency of 99.93%. The characteristics of the antenna were validated with measured results obtained from a fabricated prototype to establish the proof of concept