Tiny Microstrip Antenna Covers WLAN, LTE, and WiMAX (.PDF Download)

Growing use of radio/wireless technology creates greater demand for small, efficient, and low-cost antennas in a range of telecommunications and wireless local area network (WLAN) applications, as well as worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), satellite communications (satcom), and spacecraft.1 Desirable properties for such an antenna include mechanical durability, conformability, low cross-polarized radiation patterns, and economical fabrication.

Microstrip patch antennas became well received in wireless communications systems due to their low cost of fabrication and effectiveness in those systems.2 With the increasing number of wireless applications, an antenna for wireless communications must also operate across multiple frequencies, so that it can be used for a number of different applications at the same time.3 Several different antenna designs have been proposed and published for wireless communications systems, including WLAN, LTE, and WiMAX applications.