Int. J. Electron. Commun.

(AEÜ) 102 (2019) 90–98

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Electronics and

Communications (AEÜ)
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aeue

Regular paper

Low Profile Multiband Meander Antenna for LTE/WiMAX/WLAN and

INSAT-C Application
Riki Patel a,⇑, Trushit Upadhyaya a, Arpan Desai a, Merih Palandoken b
a
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Charotar University of Science and Technology, Changa, Gujarat, India
b
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Izmir Katip Celebi University, Izmir, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A multi-band planar antenna inspired from a meander line structure is proposed. The antenna is printed
Received 10 October 2018 on a low-cost FR4 substrate having loss tangent, dielectric constant and height of 0.02, 4.4, and 1.6 mm
Accepted 18 February 2019 respectively. The conductive patch consists of design inspired by Meander lines which is optimized to
achieve targeted frequency bands. Partial ground plane acting as a defected ground structure is incorpo-
rated on the bottom side which is engineered for achieving acceptable bandwidths for multi-frequency
Keywords: bands. The proposed antenna has an overall size of 40
40
1.6 mm2 which resonates at
Defected ground
2.47–2.54 GHz, 4.14–4.23 GHz, 5.43–5.78 GHz and 6.71–7.42 GHz, respectively having the reflection
Multiband
WiMAX
coefficient (S11) better than 10 dB and a peak gain of 0.5 dBi to 4.5 dBi for all the resonant frequencies.
WLAN The simulated and measured results show great correlation making the antenna suitable for its use in
INSAT C WiMAX, LTE, WLAN, and INSAT C-Band applications.
Ó 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction used in passive transponders for radio frequency identification

The enormous traits in the field of wireless communication for
mobile handsets, TV broadcasting and satellites demand long dis-
tance communication with high data rate and modern design.
The devices communicate over various frequencies which needs
efficient communication devices interfaced within it. In particular,
systems communicating over 2.5 GHz WiMAX and 2.4/5.2 GHz
WLAN frequencies are highly desirable due to its wide availability
worldwide [1]. The designing of communication devices such as
antennas should have a certain degree of standardization to meet
the requirements of the IEEE 802.11/802.16. Designing a multi-
band antenna is beneficial so as to avoid multiple antennas to be
interfaced on such devices [2].
Yuehui et al proposed a planar antenna working in the fre-
quency bands of 800 MHz, 2 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 5.5 GHz for an
application like LTE/GSM/UMTS and WLAN/WiMAX garnered using
a combination of inverted C- and X-F shaped monopole with men-
der line coupling [3]. Lin et al. Proposed single feed at the top side
and the bottom side parallels strips line with multiband frequency
range antenna [4].
Keskilammi et al proposed an antenna working at 869 MHz
with help of meander line for size reduction of dipole antennas
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Rikipatel.ec@charusat.ac.in (R. Patel).
(RFID) [5]. Chuang et al proposed an antenna using meander line
working in the frequency range of 2.4–2.5 GHz for USB-WLAN card
laptop application [6]. One of the options for increasing the
antenna bandwidth is including defected ground structure (DGS)
structures. There are two main categories of DGS where the first
one includes one defect or unit cell, and the other one includes a
number of small defects in a periodic or non-periodic approach
[7]. Akanksha et al proposed a circular patch antenna for multi-
band applications using DGS structure working in the frequency
range of 3300 MHZ, 6970 MHz and 8590 MHz, respectively [8,9].
Jing et al proposed antenna working in bands of 2.4–2.7 GHz cen-
tered at 2.61 GHz, 3.1–4.15 GHz centered at 3.5 GHz, and 4.93–
5.89 GHz Centered at 5.4 GHz frequency with a combination of cir-
cular ring, Y-shaped strip, and a defected ground plane [10,11].
Huiqing et al put forward a multiband antenna by means of DGS
and circular-arc-shaped radiator at top side with single stripline
working in the frequency band of 2.38–2.78 GHz, 3.28–3.76 GHz,
and 4.96–5.96 GHz, respectively [12]. Researchers are working
towards increasing the bandwidth of the antennas so that same
antenna can be used for multiple applications [20–22].
The proposed antenna is compared with the existing antennas
from the literature as shown in Table 1 in terms of dimension,
application area, bandwidth and gain which shows that antenna
presented here displays acceptable results for the targeted
frequencies.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeue.2019.02.010
1434-8411/Ó 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
 R. Patel et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 90–98 91

Table 1
Comparison of the proposed antenna with other reported multi-band antennas.

Ref. Type of structure Antenna type Antenna size Antenna purpose Material Bandwidth Gain (dBi)
(mm2) (MHz) (%)
[13] Rhombus slot antenna fed by Dual- band 50
50 2.4/5.2/5.8 GHz FR4 607/1451 1.9 to 4.1
CPW
[14] Bow-Tie-Shaped CPW-Fed Dual-band 60
45 2.4/5.2/5.8 GHz Rogers RT/ 50/100 0.1 to 2
Duroid
[15] Microstrip-fed slot antenna Multi-band 40
50 1.65/1.93/2.20 GHz FR4 3.11/4.25/9.2 1.08, 1.82 and
loaded with split-ring resonator 2.93
[16] Elliptical nested fractal with DGS Multi-band 41
44 910/2.4/3.22/4.88 Rogers RT/ – 8.4 to 1.6
Duroid 6010
[17] Two PIN diodes with slot and Multi-band 50
45 2.4/5.5/3.2 FR4 2.5/8 0.2 to 3
DGS
[18] Vee dipoles Dual-band 100
100 3.3/4.2 FR4 12.1/4.8 2.2 to 3.4
[19] Koch fractal with flexible Multi-band 115
90 (0.77–1.36 GHz/ FR4 55.39/29.50/ 1.25 to 2.23
substrate 1.85–2.49 35.3
GHz/2.80–4.00 GHz
Proposed Antenna DGS with meander line Multi-band 40
40 2.5/4.2/5.5/6.8 GHz FR4 70, 90, 350 0.5 to 4.5
(WLAN/ and 710
WiMAX/LTE/INSAT
C-Band TX)

This paper proposes a multiband printed planar antenna using
patch design inspired from meander lines concept integrated with
the partial ground plane. The antenna shows a directional radiation
pattern with adequate values of gain and returns loss. Proposed
antenna has reflection coefficient of less than 10 db in the
2.47–2.54 GHz utilized for LTE-TDD/FDD downlink for Canada,
Latin America, Singapore, Brazil, Hongkong, Russian Federation,
Malaysia and WiMAX Applications in band of 4.14–4.23 GHz uti-
lized for Super Extended C Band and WiMAX applications, 5.43–
5.78 GHz utilized for WLAN applications, and 6.71–7.42 GHz bands
utilized for INSAT C-Band TX (Transmit) Frequency applications.
Multiband antenna structure and design is discussed in Sec-
tion 2 followed by simulated and measured results of reflection
coefficient (S11), radiation pattern, and gain in Section 3. The final
conclusion is conferred in Section 4.
2. Antenna design
The simulated and fabricated design of multiband antenna
inspired using meander lines is illustrated in Fig. 1(a) and (b).
The antenna is printed on an FR4 substrate having loss tangent,
dielectric constant and height of 0.02, 4.4, and 1.6 mm respectively
with an overall dimension of the antenna as 40
40
1.6 mm3.
Antenna feeding width line is 2.9 mm which is improved for
impedance matching. Slots are etched out from the FR4 substrate
after which the structure formed resembles the design inspired
by meander lines.
The partition between lines arising due to slots acts as multiple
resonators. The multiband frequencies are arising mainly due to
multiple resonators created with the help of slots. Offset fed is pro-
vided to the antenna which is elevated to match the 50 O impe-
dance for maximum power transfer.
The dimensions of meander lines are optimized to achieve the
targeted frequency bands. The simulated and fabricated design of
the ground plane as shown in Fig. 2 is partially etched so as to
achieve the defected ground which helps in broadening the impe-
dance bandwidth [23,24]. Table 2 shows the optimized dimensions
of the proposed multi-band antenna.
3. Results and discussion
6.8 GHz. The reflection coefficient is greater than 10 db at all the
frequencies. The reflection coefficient (S11) is measured using Agi-
lent VNA E5072A.
Fig. 3 demonstrates the simulated and measured VSWR which
is less than <2 for all the application frequency range.
The measured show in Fig. 4. Impedance bandwidth of the fab-
ricated antenna is 80 MHz, 110 MHz, 370 MHz, and 730 MHz
which match well with simulated results with values of 70 MHz,
90 MHz, 350 MHz and 710 MHz at all four frequency bands. Differ-
ences between simulated and the measured results are probably
due to production tolerances, thickness uncertainty and/or practi-
cal dielectric value of FR4 and SMA connector quality used.
Fig. 5 clarifies the different phases for achieving the proposed
structure. Phase 1 and Phase 2 model shows variation in meander
lines design which shows that meander lines help in tuning the fre-
quency bands due to inductive and capacitive coupling effects.
Phase 3 and phase 4 shows variation in a ground plane which illus-
trates that partial ground plane helps in increasing the bandwidth.
Phase 3 uses a full ground plane whereas phase 4 uses the partial
ground plane. In the case of phase 1 shown by blue1 dotted line
depicts that frequency bandwidth is narrow and reflection coeffi-
cient (S11) is below 10 dB for the WLAN and WiMAX range. Phase
2 presented by orange line shows that frequency band is shifted
due to the addition of an inverted L strip. Addition of one more
inverted L strip leads to the addition of 2 more frequencies as shown
in phase 4. Phase 4 (Proposed antenna) shown by black line shows
that reflection coefficient (S11), as well as bandwidth, has improved
a lot due to the addition of meander lines formed using slots etched
out from the patch and partial ground plane. The lowest order reso-
nance or the dominant mode of the patch antenna gets changed with
change in antenna Length. Frequency bands can be controlled by
modifications in electrical length of the antenna. Introduction of
the slots on the patch antenna varies the surface currents. Surface
currents induced in the patch can effectively control antenna param-
eters viz. resonant frequency, radiation pattern and effective impe-
dance. The fringing field which gets altered due to introduction of
arms or slots is dependent on the magnetic vector potential (A)
which in turn is dependent on surface electric current density. The
dependency of electromagnetic field on magnetic vector potential
and electric potential can be given as [27]
The Magnetic Field

Antenna performance based on the reflection coefficient is

exemplified in Fig. 4. It can be observed that proposed antenna res- 1
For interpretation of color in Fig. 5, the reader is referred to the web version of
onates at multi frequency bands of 2.5 GHz, 4.2 GHz, 5.5 GHz, and this article.
92 R. Patel et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 90–98

Fig. 1. Proposed Antenna (Top View) (a) Simulated and (b) Fabricated.

Fig. 2. Proposed antenna (a) Backside (b) side view (c) Bottom side (Fabricated).

Table 2
Parameter with dimensions (All are in mm).

Pl Pl1 Pl2 Pl3 Pl4 Pl5 Pl6 Pl7 Pl8 Pl9 Pl10 hs
6 24 8 2 12 2 10 6 2 2.8 2 1.6
Pw Pw1 Pw2 Pw3 Pw4 Pw5 Pw6 Pw7 Gndl Gndw Gndw1
28 23.5 21.5 16 3 20 15.5 18 40 40 6

B¼r
A ð1Þ where r is the position vector, t0 is retarded time and r0 is source
point in current distribution and d3r0 is the integration measure.
and Electric Field
Fig. 6 shows effects on reflection coefficient (S11) due to the
@A
E ¼ r/  ð2Þ variation of the distance between meander lines. Pl2 is varied from
@t 7 mm to 9 mm with an increment of 0.5 mm as shown in Fig. 6(a).
Considering non-zero current density (J) and charge density (q), 1st and 2nd resonant frequencies are unaffected but 3rd and 4th
The time varying magnetic vector potential (A) and electrical scalar resonant frequencies are affected as PL2 is varied. As the distance
potential (/) can be given as: between lines increases, the capacitance between two lines
Z
l0 Jðr0 ; t 0 Þ 3 0 increases.
Aðr; tÞ ¼ d r ð3Þ
4pX jr  r j
0 The optimized value of Pl2 as 8 mm is selected which gives the
best results. Pl10 is varied in the range from 1.6 mm to 2.6 mm
Z
1 qðr0 ; t0 Þ 3 0 with an increment of 0.2 mm as shown in Fig. 6(b). As Pl10 varies,
/ðr; tÞ ¼ d r ð4Þ
4pe0 X jr  r0 j the higher resonant frequency value shifts along with a decrease in
 R. Patel et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 90–98 93

Fig. 3. VSWR against frequency plot.

Fig. 4. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient (S11) of the multiband
antenna.
the reflection coefficient (S11). After optimization, the value of
Pl10 is selected as 2 mm.
Effect on reflection coefficient (S11) due to the variation of the
meander line width is shown in Fig. 7. As the width of the meander
line is varied, the higher order frequency shifts towards lower side
whereas there is not much effect on lower frequency side. The Pw3
is varied from the range of 14 mm to 18 mm with an increment of
1 mm. The optimized value after variation is selected as 16 mm.
The possible reason for such behavior is due to increased mutual
inductive coupling. The variation of the width (PW) from 26 mm
to 30 mm with an increment of 1 mm leads to an increase in the
value of reflection coefficient (S11) but it also shifts the frequency
from the targeted bands. The optimized value of PW is 28 mm.
Fig. 8 shows the effect on reflection coefficient (S11) due to the
variation of the ground plane width (Gndw1). The Gndw1 is varied
from 4 mm to 8 mm with an increment of 1 mm. As the width of
ground plane changes, the impedance bandwidth increases on
higher frequency side. This effect is possible due to better impe-
dance matching on the higher side in relation to lower frequencies.
The optimized value of Gndw1 is 6 mm.
Effect on reflection coefficient (S11) due to the variation of the
meander line 2nd arm length is shown in Fig. 9. As the length of the
meander line is varied, the higher order frequency shifts towards
lower side whereas there is less effect on lower frequency. The
Pw1 is varied from the range of 21.5 mm to 26.5 mm with an incre-
ment of 1 mm. The optimized value after variation is selected as
23.5 mm.

Fig. 5. Development Phase reflection coefficient (S11) of the proposed antenna.

94 R. Patel et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 90–98

Fig. 6. Effect on reflection coefficient (S11) due to the variation of the distance between meander lines (a) Pl2 (b) Pl10.

Fig. 7. Effect on reflection coefficient (S11) due to variation in meander line width (a) Pw3 (b) PW.

Fig. 8. Effect on reflection coefficient (S11) due to Variation in Ground plane (Gndw1).

The current distribution of the proposed multiband antenna is
shown in Fig. 10. As visible from the figure, the current is mainly
distributed in the center portion near two inverted U shapes and
also near left corner of the antenna at 2.5 GHz whereas, at
4.2 GHz, more amount of current distribution is near feed-line
and evenly distributed on rest of the antenna. At 5.5 GHz and
6.8 GHz, the current distribution is almost similar to the previous
case apart from the center area of the patch where it is lower at
5.5 GHz.
Fig. 11 shows 2-D radiation patterns of the proposed antenna
which illustrate that the antenna radiates in uni- directional man-
ner for 2.5 GHz frequency while it shows dipole like pattern for
4.2 GHz, 5.5 GHz and 6.8 GHz frequency bands. Electrically com-
pact antenna suffers from low gain, however, it provides ease in
 R. Patel et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 90–98 95

Fig. 9. Effect on reflection coefficient (S11) due to variation in 2nd arm length PW1.

Fig. 10. Surface current distributions of the antenna at (a) 2.5 GHz (b) 4.2 GHz, (c) 5.5 GHz and (d) 6.8 GHz.

integration in communication devices and cost effectiveness. For
finite ground plane, the surface wave propagation occurs till the
edges after which reflection and diffraction takes place. Due to
the removal of partial ground plane, field minima occurs at the
truncated edges and field diffraction takes place. Hence back radi-
ation starts increasing and F/B ratio of radiation pattern starts
decreasing. The radiation pattern tends to become omni-
directional. The radiation pattern shall not be consistent at differ-
ent resonance due to generation of multiple resonant modes. At
the higher order resonance, cross-polarization isolation further
gets reduced. Proposed antenna has fair radiation pattern at
5.5 GHz. Despite reduced gain at broadside at target resonant fre-
quency, the antenna can be utilized for SOHO environment WLAN
repeaters.
Fig. 12 shows Co-Polarization and Cross-Polariaztion patterns in
E and H Plane for proposed frequency of application. As shown in
96 R. Patel et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 90–98

2.5 GHz

4.2 GHz

5.5 GHz

6.8 GHz
E Plane H Plane
Fig.11. Simulated (Solid) and Measured (Dashed) radiation patterns of the proposed antenna for: (a) 2.5 GHz (b) 4.2 GHz (c) 5.5 GHz (d) 6.8 GHz.

the figure cross polarization near azimuth plane is above 20 dB.
Thus, the antenna at receiver end will not affect much polarization
for horizontal rays [25,26].
The radiation pattern of the low profile multiband planar
antenna is simulated in the E plane and H- plane using HFSS Ansys
v15 and measured in an anechoic chamber. The setup for measure-
ment of the radiation pattern in an anechoic chamber is shown in
Fig. 13. The Horn antenna acts as a transmitter and Antenna Under
Test (AUT) is kept in the receiving section. The Horn antenna is fed
using VNA and the output from AUT is again measured in VNA
which is connected to the software where radiation pattern is
plotted.
Simulated and measured peak gain and efficiency of the pro-
posed antenna is shown in Fig. 14 which depicts that the gain of
the multiband antenna is between 0.5 dBi and 4.5 dBi in all the
operating bands. The measured efficiency is about 84% in the first
 R. Patel et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 102 (2019) 90–98 97

Fig. 12. Measured (Dotted) and Simulated (Solid) Co-Pol and Cross-Pol Patterns.

Fig. 13. Anechoic chamber using an antenna measurement system.

of 2.47–2.54 GHz, 4.14–4.23 GHz, 5.43–5.78 GHz and 6.71–

7.42 GHz. The maximum value of the S11 < 10 dB is 14.74 dB,
18.70 dB, 16.55 dB, and 27.65 dB, respectively. Directional and
dipole like radiation patterns with reasonable gain and efficiency
make the proposed antenna suitable for WiMAX/LTE (FDD-TDD)/
WLAN and INSAT C-Band TX (Transmit) frequency.

Appendix A. Supplementary material

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeue.2019.02.010.

References

Fig. 14. Simulated and measured peak gain and efficiency of the proposed antenna.
operating band, about 90% in the second operating band, 89% in the
third operating band and 96% in the last operating band,
respectively.
4. Conclusion
The multiband antenna having meander line inspired
structure with DGS in the ground plane is resonating in the range
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