Performance Analysis of Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna on Varied Substrates for RF Energy Harvesting Systems

In this paper, a 4-element rectangular microstrip patch antenna operating at 2.4 GHz has been introduced. The initial proposed antenna design is designed on an FR4 substrate with a relative dielectric permittivity of 4.4, featuring a patch dimension of 43.1 x 28.47 mm. To enhance efficiency, the proposed design was subsequently optimized using two different Roger materials as a substrate: R3003 with a permittivity of 3, and R5880 with a permittivity of 2.2. The study examines how variations in substrate material affect the antenna properties such as physical dimension, impedance matching radiation pattern and overall performance. The comparative analysis indicated that the S11 parameters achieve the best impedance matching at 2.402 GHz with R5880, followed by FR4 and R3003. The VSWR analysis further supports R5880 as the optimal material for efficient power transmission at this frequency. Additionally, far-field performance metrics such as efficiency, directivity, and gain are evaluated, revealing that the antenna with the R5880 substrate offers the best performance. This study focused on showing the impact of substrate material selection on design and properties.