Compact tri-band monopole antenna with hybrid strips for WLAN/WiMAX applications

A novel compact microstrip-fed tri-band monopole antenna for WLAN and WiMAX applications is presented in this letter. Hybrid Strips including an L-shaped strip and a meandered strip are used to generate three resonances in the monopole antenna. Due to the use of a meandered line structure, the antenna size is reduced to 38 × 20 × 1 mm3 only. Compared to the existing designs, the proposed antenna has a size 30, 55, and 70% of the designs in [1–3], respectively. To investigate the performance of antenna versus key antenna design parameters, results of a parametric study are presented. Simulated surface current is also shown. To validate the concept, one antenna prototype is implemented and tested, and the measured results show that the antenna can achieve good performance for WLAN 2.4/5.8 GHz and WiMAX 3.5 GHz applications. The antenna has a compact size and is easy for fabrication, hence useful for practical applications. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:94–99, 2015