Exploring the Preparation of Calcium-Doped Zinc Aluminate Ceramic Nanoparticles for Microstrip Patch Antenna Fabrication

Abstract

Zinc aluminate (ZnAl2O4) dielectric materials have proven crucial in microwave applications, particularly in antenna miniaturization. This article presents the characteristics of sol-gel-prepared Ca-doped ZnAl2O4 (ZnAl2O4Ca) ceramic nanoparticles for their application in microstrip patch antenna (MPA). We examined the crystallinity, functional groups, morphology, and elemental properties of ZnAl2O4Ca ceramic nanoparticles using different techniques. Later, a prototype antenna was fabricated and evaluated, which demonstrated the return loss of -23.4 dB and -19.2 dB with voltage standing wave (VSWR) ratios of 1.1 and 1.2 at resonant frequency ( ) values 4.5 and 6.4 GHz, respectively. The presented work demonstrates that the prepared ceramic nanoparticles possess better microwave properties, enabling the fabrication of a patch antenna for c-band communication with two resonant peaks having reasonably good return loss.