Cylindrical conformal wideband antenna with enhancement of gain using integrated parasitic triangular shaped elements for WiMAX application

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to propose a cylindrical conformal wideband antenna with increased directive behaviour using integrated parasitic triangular-shaped elements for WiMAX application. Design/methodology/approach The proposed antenna is a wideband directional cylindrical conformal antenna consisting of three fork-shaped dipole elements incorporated with parasitic triangular-shaped reflecting components increases the gain of reference conformal antenna. The novel parasitic elements with triangular shapes are designed on the radiating patch as well as the ground plane side. The parasitic triangular elements enable the antenna to enhance the gain along the end-fire direction. Findings The proposed antenna has a 20.2% impedance bandwidth ranging from 3.1 to 3.8 GHz. The half power beam-width (HPBW) of the reference antenna in the H-plane is 122.9° and falls to 99.1° after integrating with parasitic elements at 3.3 GHz, whereas it falls from 56.7° to 54.7° in the E-plane. However, at 3.5 GHz, the reference antenna’s HPBW is at 116.8°, which decreases to 92.4° in the H-plane, whereas it reduces from 57.9 to 53.4° in the E-plane. The proposed antenna has a lower HPBW than reference antennas and achieved a gain enhancement of 1.2 dBi, indicating that the pattern becomes more directed. Originality/value In the proposed work, the directive behaviour of cylindrical conformal antenna structure with a 30 mm radius of curvature is improved using parasitic reflective elements. The fabricated antennas’ experimental findings are an excellent contender for wireless point-to-point WiMAX applications because it features a wideband, directional properties, and strong gain over the whole operational frequency range of 3.1–3.8 GHz.