Planar Antennas for Reliable Multiband RF Communications

Multiband functionality in antennas has become a fundamental requirement to equip wireless devices with multiple communication standards so that they can utilize the electromagnetic spectrum more efficiently and effectively. This is necessary to ensure global portability and enhance system capacity. To meet these requirements, microstrip technology is increasingly being used in communication systems because it offers considerable size reduction, cost-effectiveness as they can be easily manufactured in mass production, are durable and can conform to planar or cylindrical surfaces. Unfortunately, such antennas suffer from intrinsically narrow bandwidth. To overcome this deficiency, various techniques have been investigated in the past. In this chapter, a novel approach is presented to design antennas for applications that cover radio frequency identification (RFID) and WiMAX systems.