Analysing the Impact of Substrate Thickness on Antenna Performance for GPS Application

Abstract

A microstrip patch antenna is a popular  choice of antenna for use in the L band frequency range.  They also have good radiation characteristics, making them  ideal for receiving and transmitting low-power radio  frequency signals. The proposed compact antenna is meant  for GPS applications covering the L1 band. The antenna is  designed involving the Rogers’s substrate having a  dielectric constant of 2.2. The design is based on circular  microstrip patch structure with inset feed technique. The  selection of the dielectric material and its thickness is very  crucial in designing microstrip patch antenna. This paper  also explains how antenna performance is improved by  varying the thickness of the substrate. The radiation pattern,  return loss, gain, directivity, VSWR and efficiency are  obtained using EM Simulation and the results are compared  for various designs structures. It is inferred that as the  thickness of the substrate increases, the performance of the  antenna also gets better.