Design and Deployment of a Metamaterial-Inspired Low-Profile Dual-Band Microstrip Patch Antenna with Defected Ground Structures for Vehicular Communication

Metamaterial-inspired high-gain microstrip antennas have gained significant attention as viable solutions to address the demanding performance criteria in vehicular communication system applications. This work introduces a novel, cost-effective, and compact metamaterial-inspired microstrip antenna that uniquely integrates complementary split-ring resonator shaped unit cells on the patch and two split ring–shaped resonators on the side of the patch along with a square-gap defected ground structure to deliver wideband, high-gain performance across multiple wireless standards. The proposed antenna is fabricated on a low-cost and easily available Flame Retardant 4 (FR4) substrate that has a thickness of 1.6 mm and a dielectric constant of 4.4 and loss tangent (tan δ) of 0.02. The antenna features a compact form factor of 27.75 mm × 24 mm × 1.6 mm or 0.305 λ0 × 0.264 λ0 × 0.0176 λ0, where λ0 corresponds to the free space wavelength at 3.3 GHz and supports multiple wireless standards including Wi-Fi, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), 5G, and satellite communication bands. The antenna achieves a peak realized gain of 10.6 dBi at 3.3 GHz and 12.7 dBi at 5.8 GHz at ϕ = 0° and ϕ = 90°, and a fractional bandwidth of 35.45% for the lower band and 23.10% for the upper band is also observed, which is more than the required Fractional BandWidth (FBW) of 20% for the vehicular communication applications. The proposed antenna empirically exhibits a maximum efficiency of 95% in the lower band 2.78 GHz to 3.90 GHz and minimum efficiency of 87% in the higher band 5.1 GHz to 5.9 GHz. The antenna’s key performance metrics were optimized and validated through simulation software and experimental measurements, showing strong agreement between the simulated and measured results. Cite this article as: S. Pain, U. S. Patkar, A. Banerjee, A. Bhowmik and T. Mondal, “Design and deployment of a metamaterial-inspired low-profile dual-band microstrip patch antenna with defected ground structures for vehicular communication,” Electrica, 26, 0271, 2026, doi:10.5152/electrica.2026.25271.