Design and Characterization of a Compact Four-Element Microstrip Array Antenna for WiFi-5/6 Routers

Abstract

The WiFi-5 band was the most popular WiFi band until the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a new spectrum of 6 GHz WiFi (5.925–7.125 GHz) for unlicensed users. Our proposed work is about to cover both the 5 GHz and 6 GHz WiFi bands. These two bands have a great impact in the wireless communication field. A low-loss Rogers RT 5880 material is used as the substrate layer, which helps us to make the antenna compact ( <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"> <a:mn>23</a:mn> <a:mo>×</a:mo> <a:mn>40</a:mn> <a:mo>×</a:mo> <a:mn>0.79</a:mn> </a:math> mm3) keeping a good performance profile over the latest high-speed WiFi-5/6 band. The proposed antenna covers a huge bandwidth (simulated BW: 2.85 GHz ranging from 4.50 to 7.35 GHz and measured BW: 2.83 GHz ranging from 4.50 to 7.33 GHz), which can be used for the latest WiFi-5 and WiFi-6 routers. The antenna also has omnidirectional properties. Besides that, the gain and directivity of the antenna are quite good, and the measured results buttress the simulated results. The presented different detail parametric studies indicate the antenna’s optimization level, which is excellent. The minimum values of reflection coefficient and voltage standing wave ratio make it a compatible candidate for the implementation of high-speed WiFi-5/6 routers.