Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of a Dual-BandElectrically Small Meander-line Monopole Antenna for Wireless Communications

Acompact, planar, dual-band meander-line monopole antenna that operates in frequency range of 2.400-2.480, 5.150-5.350, and 5.725-5.825 GHz was designed, fabricated, and characterized. Theoretical analysis based on the antenna theory was conducted to obtain the optimum characteristics.A 3-D electromagnetic finite-element solver, high frequency structure simulator (HFSS), was used in antenna simulation. The antenna was fabricated on a Rogers RO4003C substrate with dielectric constant of 3.38 and loss-tangent of 0.002 at 10 GHzand thickness of 0.813 mm. In 2.400-2.480 band, gain of 1.6 dBi and -10 dB frequency bandwidth of 11% were measured. In 5.150-5.350 and 5.725-5.825 bands, gain of 4.3 and 3.9 dBi with 1.14 GHz -10 dB bandwidth were measured. Omnid irectional rad iation pattern was obtained for 2.400-2.480 band and double end-fire patterns were observed for 5.150-5.350 and 5.725-5.825 bands. The proposed antenna can be potentially used forportable wireless communication applicat ions.