Design and Development of a Miniaturized Multiband Patch Antenna Incorporating Metamaterials for IoT Applications

This paper presents the design, simulation, and fabrication of a novel compact metamaterial-based patch antenna for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The antenna operates over four frequency bands: 868 MHz, 2.45 GHz, 4.2 GHz, and 5.8 GHz. The reduction in the size of the antenna was achieved using a parasitic patch along with a combination of Complementary Split Ring Resonators (CSRRs). The total area of the final patch antenna was 40 mm × 46 mm. In addition to achieving miniaturization, the Defected Ground Structure (DGS) and the uniplanar Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) array were integrated into the patch antenna to enhance performance by suppressing the surface waves and improving the impedance matching. Simulated and measured results show that the impedance matching is very good at the operating frequencies of 868 MHz, 2.45 GHz, 4.2 GHz, and 5.8 GHz with approximate bandwidths of 7 MHz, 73 MHz, 120 MHz, and 90 MHz, respectively. The antenna was fabricated on a Rogers RO4003C substrate (thickness 1.524 mm, εr = 3.38, tanδ = 0.0027) and the Rohde & Schwarz ZVA50 Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) was used to obtain the measured results and compare them with the simulated results. Good agreement was obtained between the simulated and measured results, confirming the feasibility of the proposed antenna as a suitable candidate for compact, low-power, multiband IoT applications.