Nested Hexagonal Split Ring Resonator-Based Metamaterial for Performance Enhancement in Multiband Antenna

In this paper, we present a Nested hexagonal shaped split-ring resonator based negative epsilon metamaterials layered on 11 mm × 10 mm × 1.524 mm Rogers RO4350B dielectric substrate and designed to enhance the performance of multiband satellite antennas. Simulations using CST electromagnetic software show that the NH-SRR metamaterial manifests seven distinct resonance frequencies of S21spectrum at 2.37, 3.92, 5.4, 7.71, 8.58, 9.73 and 10.94 GHz, spanning S, C, and X-bands. The unit cell yields an effective medium ratio (EMR) of 12.66 and an electrical dimension of 0.087λ × 0.079λ when calculated at 2.37 GHz, which implies the effectiveness and compactness of the NH-SRR shaped metamaterial. The simulated outcomes also revealed that negative electric permittivity (є) response is attained within 4.16-5.75 GHz, 10.16-11.58 GHz and 14.46-16 GHz, with Near-Zero permeability property near the resonance frequencies. Our methodology involves using multiple electromagnetic software tools, including CST, HFSS and COMSOL for simulation results and design validation. A detailed numerical analysis was conducted to assess the impact of using this metamaterial as array cover above a Log Periodic Dipole Array (LPDA) Antenna on the performance metrics, demonstrated that the LPDA with metamaterial superstrate surpasses the conventional antenna in term of gain, return in loss and impedance matching, particularly at frequencies where negative permittivity and near-zero permeability properties are observed. These findings suggest that the NH-SRR metamaterial offers compactness, efficiency and scalability for applications in modern wireless communication and network systems.