Design of a Novel Dual-Band Microstrip Patch Antenna Operating at 2.45 GHz and 2.84 GHz with Practical Implementation Anik Mallik, Sanjoy Kundu Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering (ECE) Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET) Khulna, Bangladesh anikmallik@yahoo.com, sanjoykundu.ece@gmail.com Abstract—This paper presents the design and analytical studies of a novel dual-band microstrip patch antenna operating at two frequencies of ISM bands: 2.45 GHz and 2.84 GHz. The necessity for multiband antennas is increasing with the demand of wireless communications and as a result, light-weight, low-volume and low-profile microstrip patch antennas have been nourished by the researchers which initiated our design of this proposed antenna. This antenna is characterized well with its parameters i.e. Reflection coefficient (below -10 decibels), voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) (about 1.5), forward gain (above 8.07 decibel with compared to isotropic antenna), radiation pattern etc. which are shown in this paper. The antenna was designed in Numerical Electromagnetic Code (4nec2) design environment and simulated for the antenna parameters. Then it was practically implemented and tested with WATS-2002 (wave and antenna training system). The simulated and tested results show that this antenna is eligible for short range communication like Bluetooth, WLAN, Wi-Fi and so on. This antenna is highly directive, matched with 50 ohms feeding line impedance and has uniform radiation over all the directions, but has a low bandwidth for each of the two bands which can be improved with a modification in the structure and the frequency bands can be changed by adding some parasitic elements. Index Terms—Microstrip patch, multiband antenna, ISM band, forward gain, VSWR, radiation pattern. I. INTRODUCTION Modern civilization, now-a-days, completely relies on communication system advancements. The evolution of wireless communication has brought the shine of the science into the palm of human race where antenna covers the lead role in the electromagnetic paradigm. An antenna can be defined as a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic waves which converts electromagnetic waves into electric current and vice versa [1]. It is the device from which any signal is radiated into free space which makes it a very important part of any wireless systems where the ‘property of reversibility’ is an important feature; the same antenna can be used with the same characteristics as a transmitter or as a receiver antenna [2]. The enormous research in wireless communications has been introducing the development of new antennas with new design and measurement that operate in the required frequency bands [3]-[7]. Such as, a proximity-fed annular slot antenna for UWB applications has been designed with band rejection [8]. The design of wearable components and antennas for wireless applications has also caught significant attention in the past decade [9]. But, a small antenna with unidirectional radiation characteristics is required to be designed for the short-range wireless communication [10]. This necessitates an initiative to extensive research and development of micro-strip antenna and arrays exploiting the numerous advantages such as simple, inexpensive, light weight, low volume, low cost, planar configuration, compatibility with integrated circuits, easy to mount and mechanically robust which have led to diverse applications to the broad field of microwave antennas [11], [12]. A microstrip patch antenna offers a low profile, which means thin in structure and easy to manufacture, providing with a great advantage over traditional antennas [13]. Patch antennas are planar antenna used in wireless link communications and a wide variety of microwave applications [14]. They can be easily integrated into arrays- which is much advantageous while greater gain is needed [15]-[17]. Microstrip patch antenna is named before the radiating patch conductor it has on the board, which is generally made of copper and can be of any shape square, rectangular, circular, elliptical, triangular or any other desired configuration. Because of ease of analysis and fabrication and their attractive radiation, square, rectangular, dipole and circular are the most common in the design procedure [18]. In order to achieve the polarization, microstrip antenna usually uses two orthogonal patch modes in phase quadrature [19]. The circularly polarized microstrip patches are commonly used for various applications. Such as, a well-known circularly polarized structure, the square patch microstrip antenna with truncated corner, has been used for the UHF band [20]. Most circularly polarized patch antennas are designed on the two adjacent sides of a square patch with signals of equal magnitude and 900 phase difference using a power splitting network which can also be a truncated patch fed by single strip or coaxial line [21]. In spite of being many benefits to use microstrip patches, they have some