Characteristics of a compact microstrip antenna

The characteristics of a bow‐shaped microstrip patch antenna are analyzed and compared with a conventional rectangular microstrip antenna. The various parameters such as return loss, gain, and VSWR are determined and compared. It is found that the center frequency of the bow‐shaped antenna is lower by about 12.82% than that of the conventional rectangular microstrip antenna. This implies that the size of the patch needs to be reduced in order to maintain the same resonant frequency. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 40: 158–160, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.11314