Vol.:(0123456789) Wireless Personal Communications https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-019-06556-y 1 3 Patch Antenna Performance Optimization and Multi‑band Operation Using Single Rectangular Slot Qassim Nasir 1  · Omar Mahdi 1 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract In this paper, an investigation is carried out to see how a single, rectangular shaped slot (cut) can be used to signifcantly improve the performance of a simple, impedance matched rectangular microstrip patch antenna operating in wireless local area network frequencies. Tests are also extended to show how this type of slot can be employed to achieve multi- band operation. The efects of diferent slot orientations are also examined. The proposed confgurations are simulated using the HFSS software package, where return loss, input impedance (Z-parameter), and radiation patterns are used for the analysis of the diferent confgurations. It is found that this type of patch modifcation can be used to exceed the performance of much more complex patch designs and to ofer outstanding efciency even at multiple resonant frequencies while generally maintaining the radiation properties of the original antenna it was implemented on and avoiding base frequency shifts, making using this slot much easier than other designs. Keywords Microstrip patch antenna · Slotted antenna · High performance · Multi-band operation · WLAN 1 Introduction Modern wireless communication systems require small, lightweight and energy efcient antennas so that they can be embedded in portable devices. For this purpose, microstrip antennas are attractive since they can easily meet these requirements as they are easy to fabricate, have very low cost and can be integrated into printed circuits [1]. They are used extensively in many areas [2, 3] including Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), wireless local area networks (WLAN), the aerospace industry, portable, and embedded devices, among other applications. * Qassim Nasir nasir@sharjah.ac.ae Omar Mahdi omarmahdi13@yahoo.com 1 Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates