Patch Antenna Design for Smart Grid Data Transmission at WiMAX and ZigBee Bands

In this study, new patch antenna designs operating in the WiMAX and ZigBee bands are proposed for smart grid data communication. The same design procedure has been repeated for different dielectric materials such as FR4, RO3203, RT6006, used in the patch antenna structure. This way, it has been determined which material exhibits more efficient propagation characteristics at the target frequency bands. Thanks to the proposed rectangular slots on the antenna, improvements have been achieved both in return losses and in operational bandwidths. The slot dimensions have been chosen as specific multiples of the wavelength for each material, enabling the generalization of the design procedure. Moreover, the width and length of the first slot were taken as λ/50 and λ/20, respectively, which resulted in an increase in the antenna’s bandwidth. Then, the dimensions of the second rectangular slot were defined relative to the first slot, with its width set to half of the first slot’s width and its length set to four times the first slot’s length, yielding a further enhancement in the bandwidth. The antennas designed in the simulation environment have been fabricated using the printed circuit board (PCB) etching method. It has been demonstrated that the antennas measured with a vector network analyzer operate at the designed frequency as transmitter and receiver with the help of a signal generator and a spectrum analyzer.