The bandwidth-enhancement characteristics of slot-loaded rectangular microstrip antennas constructed on a thin microwave substrate have been investigated in this dissertation. The primary design process about this topic is demonstrated. Firstly, a new antenna design idea is provided from pre-determined antenna design specifications or obtained antenna performances from the previous antenna design, which lead to a novel antenna configuration. From the results of the simulation software IE3DTM, the characteristics of this new antenna configuration are obtained and compared with the experimental results. The antenna configuration is also modified to achieve a final optimal design from the comparison results. The study of the single-feed dual-frequency rectangular microstrip antenna with a pair of bent slots is first presented. By embedding properly-designed slots on a rectangular microstrip patch, the impedance characteristics of this antenna design have been effectively changed to exhibit dual-resonant behavior, which result in the excitation of two adjacent resonant modes with similar radiation characteristics. Furthermore, the two resonant modes can be excited at frequencies very close to each other to form a wider operating bandwidth by embedding additional perturbation slots. Four successful antenna designs with different embedded-slot shapes for bandwidth enhancement have been implemented and discussed in this dissertation.

Novel designs of printed slot antennas have been investigated in this dissertation. For the linearly polarized designs, the study of single-feed dual-frequency printed slot antennas with an open-ring conducting strip is first presented. In addition, a novel design of dual-frequency dual-loop printed slot antenna is described. As for the broadband printed slot antenna designs, a printed semicircular slot antenna with a microstripline feed is shown. The impedance bandwidth obtained reaches about 46%. For the circularly polarized designs, we propose a circularly polarized microstrip antenna with an asymmetry of the antenna structure. By choosing a suitable meandered slot, CP operation can be obtained. Finally, we apply the design concept of CP operation using a shorted section to achieve a circularly polarized printed slot antenna design. The obtained CP bandwidth of this design is greater than 8%.

Novel broadband designs of patch antennas with an air substrate have been proposed in this dissertation. In the dual-frequency design, the study of single-fed dual-frequency microstrip antenna with a V-shaped slot has been first presented. As for the broadband patch antenna design, antennas with a U-shaped slot or a pair of wide slits can have an operating bandwidth more than 2.0 times that of a conventional one at a given operating frequency. The antenna bandwidth of then can be enhanced about 25%. In the designs of reducing cross-polarization, by using dual capacitive feeds with equal input powers, but with a 180¢X-phase shift, The cross-polarization radiation can be reduce about 10 to 15dB in the H-plane. Finally, A broadband shorted patch antenna fed by an aperture-coupled feed with an H-shaped coupling slot is proposed. By using an air substrate of thickness about 0.07 free-space wavelength of the center operating frequency, the proposed antenna can have an impedance bandwidth of about 26.2%. And the antenna design reduced the antenna size to be 40%~50%of the simple case.

The designs of various feeding networks for microstrip antennas have been investigated in this dissertation. In the active microstrip antenna designs, an amplifier-type microstrip antenna integrates a two- port amplifier circuitry to the various passive antennas through a 50£[ inset microstrip feed line which can function in broadband operation¡ACP operation and dual-frequency operation. As for the broadband circularly polarized microstrip antenna with a dual-perpendicular feed design, antenna with a dual-perpendicular feed which was formed by a Wilkinson power divider with a quarter-wavelength section of microstrip line for providing equal splitting of the input power and 90¢X phase difference to the two feed points has been presented. The broadband CP bandwidth can be achieved due to the good isolation between the two output lines of the feed network. In the microstrip antennas with CPW feed designs, we first proposed a microstrip antenna with three-dimensional CPW feed. A separate feed substrate is used which can provide a large-area space for the layout of complicated microwave circuitry. In addition, the feed substrate can also be oriented to the patch substrate with various angles, resulting in more flexibility in the proposed three-dimensional feed design. Finally, we proposed a design with two slot lines located at both sides of the coupling slot which can lengthen the excited patch surface current path, thus the resonant frequency is reduced and an antenna size reduction up to 40% has been obtained.

The novel designs of circular microstrip antennas have been investigated in this dissertation. In the linearly polarized designs, the study of single-feed dual-frequency circular microstrip antenna with an open-ring slot has been firstly presented. As for the broadband circular microstrip antenna designs, antennas with two open-ring slots, embedded reactive loading by probe feed and microstrip-line feed have been presented. The antenna bandwidth of them can be enhanced about 4% to 6%. In the circularly polarized designs, we have proposed a circularly polarized microstrip antenna with a spur line. By choosing a suitable length of the spur line, CP operation can be obtained. And then, such a design can be applied to a compact circular patch antenna with bent slots. These reduced the antenna size to be 40%~50% of that of the simple case. Finally, we use the ideas of CP operation with elliptic patch and dual-frequency operation with stacked patch to propose a dual-band circularly polarized stacked elliptic microstrip antenna design. The frequency ratio of this design is about 1.39.