Alexandria Engineering Journal (2022) 61, 4241–4252

H O S T E D BY
Alexandria University

Alexandria Engineering Journal

www.elsevier.com/locate/aej
www.sciencedirect.com

Improvement of low-profile microstrip antenna

performance by hexagonal-shaped SRR structure
with DNG metamaterial characteristic as UWB
application
Saktioto a,*, Yan Soerbakti a, Romi Fadli Syahputra a, Moh. Danil Hendry Gamal b,
Dedi Irawan c, Emansa Hasri Putra d, Rizadi Sasmita Darwis d, Okfalisa e

a
Department of Physics, Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia
b
Department of Mathematics, Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia
c
Department of Education Physics, Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia
d
Department of Telecommunication Engineering, Politeknik Caltex Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia
e
Department of Informatics Engineering, Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Syarif Kasim, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Received 25 February 2021; revised 29 August 2021; accepted 16 September 2021

Available online 01 October 2021

KEYWORD Abstract A metamaterial is any material engineered with a property not discovered in naturally
Metamaterial; occurring materials. Its existence is important in the development and application of modern tech-
Microstrip antenna; nology in this century. Furthermore, Its characteristics such as high sensitivity and gain can be
Hexagonal; potentially applied in antenna technology. In this research, the metamaterial implementation was
Double-negative; used to improve low-profile microstrip antennas as ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. The pro-
Ultra-wideband posed metamaterial consists of variations of one to four hexagonal shape split ring resonator (SRR-
H) elements. This study was carried out through simulation and experiments which were operated
in the frequency range 0.05–9 GHz. Based on the results, the proposed antenna with the variation of
the SRR-H elements provides increased performance than the without SRR-H. The highest double-
negative (DNG) metamaterial characteristic of the SRR-H four-element structure provides the
highest antenna performance compared to others. The given working frequency occurs at
5.98 GHz with an increase in bandwidth of 47.49% from without SRR-H. The antenna metamate-
rial structure also responds by providing an ultimate gain radiation pattern of 5.97 dBi at a 45-
degree angle in the Quadrant II region. Thus, the performance of the proposed antenna shows
the potential for use in UWB technology.
Ó 2021 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria
University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: saktioto@yahoo.com ( Saktioto).
Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2021.09.048
1110-0168 Ó 2021 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
4242 Saktioto et al.

1. Introduction antenna form of several pairs of symmetric C-shaped SRR

with a size of 14.5
22 mm2 [27]. In this research, innovation
Developments in this modern digital era required sophisticated for microstrip antennas is proposed by applying the symmetri-
antenna technology with high-quality performance. The cal structure of the hexagonal-shaped SRR metamaterial. The
advancement in the world of industry [1], medicine [2], agricul- aim is to obtain effective antenna performance with operating
ture [3], maritime affairs [4], and astronomy [5], which contin- frequencies in the UWB range for potential applications, such
ues to grow, cannot be separated from the contribution made as transmission signal amplifiers, detectors, and imaging.
by the application of antenna technology. This technology Therefore, this microstrip antenna proposed can enhance the
increasingly proves the ease of work, and just like work is car- performance of transmitter and receiver using metamaterial
ried out manually, it can be performed automatically with an structure design.
antenna detector [6,7]. Even expensive and rare medical imag-
ing technologies can be replaced by simple and uncomplicated 2. Configuration and characterization of metamaterials
antenna technology [8,9]. The amplification of the communica-
tion signal can also be improved and updated through innova- The metamaterial implemented on the antenna has two sepa-
tions and antenna technology innovations. rate and concentric hexagonal rings, also known as split ring
Antenna technology with simple specifications and low resonator hexagonal (SRR-H). It was discovered that the
manufacturing cost is called the microstrip antenna [10]. How- amplitude of SRR-H was smaller than the wavelength of the
ever, it has a narrow bandwidth, low gain, and a reduced radi- frequency acting on the structure to preserve the DNG meta-
ation radius [11]. The challenge that arises from this situation material properties [28]. A complete picture of the SRR-H sin-
is developing a multifunctional antenna technology by generat- gle element structure proposed in this study can be seen in
ing more than one frequency band with a large bandwidth, and Fig. 1.
Ultra-wideband frequency (UWB) antennas can meet this SRR-H element structure consists of FR4 as a substrate
challenge. Based on Federal Communications Systems regula- with a dielectric constant of 4.3 and copper as metal inclusions.
tions, UWB is a frequency band that has an extensive band- The dimensions of thickness, width, and radius of the ring are
width (>500 MHz) that operates at a speed of 3.1– shown in Table 1.
10.6 GHz and is commonly used in short-range communica- The proposed metamaterial structure has a combination
tion systems [12,13]. In contrast, the Infocomm Development variation of one to four SRR-H elements, as shown in
Authority, a spectrum regulatory body in Singapore, has set Fig. 2. Each combination of SRR-H elements has the same
the UWB frequency allocation at 2.2–10.6 GHz [14]. Over size, except the substrate length W1 for each combination of
the past five years, several UWB antennas have been applied one to four SRR-H elements, which are 7.4 mm, 13.6 mm,
in various communication and medicine areas. The research 19.8 mm, and 26.0 mm. The separation distance between
track record can be mentioned as follows, such as the mono- SRR-H for each combination has the same size as X3, such
pole antenna shaped I for breast cancer detection operating as the distance between the outer ring and the adjacent sub-
at a frequency of 3.22–11.92 GHz [15], a monopole antenna strate wall. Unlike common materials used for antenna design,
supplied by a coplanar waveguide (CPW) with a square struc- this microstrip structure is focused on geometry and structure
ture. The length operates at a frequency of 0.5–10 GHz for design imposed by metamaterial characteristics. Hence, optical
detection of brain tumors [16], then a spear-shaped antenna considerations are limited such as interferences, polarizations,
operating at 3.1–10.8 GHz for wireless communication [17], and refractions.
and a monopole CPW antenna, which works at 3–12 GHz with
triple band-notch at 3.4, 5.5, and 8.2 GHz for WiMAX,
WLAN, and X-band [18].
Although the UWB antenna performance is good, there is
no need to develop this modern technology with a larger
antenna size. Another solution designed is to place a metama-
terial in the antenna, which can reduce the antenna’s size [19].
Metamaterials can also increase the received power, band-
width, gain, and directivity [20]. Furthermore, they are artifi-
cial periodic structures made up of structural elements with
negative permittivity and permeability or the so-called double
negative (DNG), which carry sub-wavelengths at a specific res-
onant frequency [21,22]. They can be applied in sensing
because they offer high miniaturization, enabling the materials
to be sensitive to environmental changes and show their suit-
ability [23].
Meanwhile, there are several studies on the implementation
of metamaterials in the examined antenna structure, such as a
V-shaped and two rectangular slot antenna with a size of
27
33 mm2 [24], the antenna form of a complementary
split-ring resonator (SRR) with dimensions of 13.5
34 mm2
[25], then a Koch star fractal antenna with a circular SRR
Fig. 1 SRR-H element configuration: the front side (left) and the
structure with dimensions of 12
14 mm2 [26], and the
thickness side (right).
Improvement of Low-Profile microstrip antenna performance 4243

Table 1 SRR-H element structure size.

Parameter Unit Parameter Unit Parameter Unit
(mm) (mm) (mm)
R1 2.9 X1 0.43 W1 7.4
R2 2.2 X2 0.6 Ts 1.6
R3 1.7 X3 1.19 Tp 0.035
R4 1.0 L1 7.4 – –

Fig. 2 Several metamaterial were proposed from a combination of 1 to 4 SRR-H.

The characteristics of metamaterials are required to investi- Furthermore, the search for the characteristics of metamateri-
gate S-parameters, which consist of S11 (reflection spectrum) als in relative permittivity (er), relative permeability (mr), and
and S21 (transmission spectrum) [29]. This information can refractive index (n) can be carried out using the equation mod-
be generated from the simulation by constructing a wave gen- ified with the Nicolson-Ross-Weir method [32] as shown in
eration channel and the boundary conditions related to the below,
SRR-H element [30]. The generation channels in the form of
wave port-1 (input) and wave port-2 (output) are located in V1 ¼ S21 þ S11 ð3Þ
the x-axis direction, which has a transmission distance of
5.5 mm from the side of the SRR-H element. In addition,
V2 ¼ S21  S11 ð4Þ
the boundary fields of the perfect electric conductor (PEC)
and the perfect magnetic conductor (PMC) are placed on the
y-axis and z-axis, respectively [31]. An illustration of the instal- 2c 1  V1
er ¼ ð5Þ
lation of boundary conditions and generation channels can be j2pftm 1 þ V1
seen in Fig. 3.
It is necessary to process the data of the S-parameter to 2c 1  V2
obtain the characteristics of metamaterials. The spectral lr ¼ ð6Þ
j2pftm 1 þ V2
parameter information obtained from S11 and S21 has a value
in absolute and phase forms; therefore, it must be converted pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
into a complex number with a formula as shown in Eqs. (1) n ¼  er lr ð7Þ
and (2).
The frequency used is denoted by f, while the symbol c indi-
S11 ¼ jS11 jeih11 ð1Þ
cates the speed of light (3
108 m/s). The value tm represents
the distance between the input and output excitation channel
S21 ¼ jS21 jeih21 ð2Þ
through the SRR-H structure.

Fig. 3 Illustration of installation of excitation channels and boundary of PEC and PMC.
4244
3. Analysis of metamaterial phenomena properties
Characteristic of metamaterials with the variation of the SRR-
H elements consist of relative permittivity, relative permeabil-
ity, and refractive index. The proposed structure produces per-
mittivity and permeability with high negative resonance in the
500 MHz range, as in Fig. 4 (a) and (b). This is known as a
negative anomalous scattering event where the resonance
drops drastically beyond the zero indexes, as a result of which
the reverse propagation phenomenon occurs in the reflection
and transmission waves in the metamaterial structure. Based
on these two optical material properties, the metamaterial
gives a characteristics negative refractive index or is referred
to as a DNG metamaterial, as shown in Fig. 4c.
Metamaterials with one SRR-H element have a small reso-
nance with a near-zero refractive index (NZRI) in the range
3.48–3.62 GHz. Simultaneously, the highest resonance is pro-
duced by the four SRR-H elements with NZRI at 1.52–
1.97 GHz. In this case, the addition of the SRR-H element
causes an increase in negative resonance, which indicates the
metamaterial is instructive. In addition, another phenomenon
that appears is a negative resonance shift towards lower fre-
quencies of the one to four elements SRR-H structure.
The equivalent circuit for one element of the hexagonal
SRR structure is shown in Fig. 5. The circuit is composed of
several components such as total induction (Ls) which is
formed due to metal rings and distributed capacitance C1
and C2 occurs due to gaps above and below the SRR structure.
Meanwhile, the gaps in the inner and outer rings of the SRR
form the capacitance C3 and C4. So that from this component
Fig. 4 The characteristics of a metamaterial consisting of (a) relative permittivity, (b) relative permeability, and (c) refractive index.
Saktioto et al.
part, the resonant frequency (fo) of the SRR hexagonal struc-
ture can be determined as shown in Eq. (8) [33],
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
fO ¼ ð8Þ
Ls Ceq
It is known that fo is the resonant frequency which depends on
the value of the inductance (Ls) and the total distributed
capacitance (Ceq). By forming a series combination on the
SRR-H structure, the multi-element system has a parallel
capacitance component that can obtain a high price compared
to a single element. In addition, the resonant frequency is also
influenced by the dimensions of the metal inclusions and the
dielectric material used.
The electromagnetic field simulations on the distribution of
electric and magnetic fields are shown in Fig. 6. The resonance
frequencies obtained are defined as the frequency of the electric
and magnetic fields analyzed on the metamaterial structure of
the SRR-H elements variation. In the structure of one SRR-H
element, or as seen in Fig. 6 (a), the maximum electric field of
41,744 V/m is located in the upper metal space, indicating that
the space provides maximum resonance and other peaks vari-
ations of the SRR-H elements. While the maximum electric
field distribution is provided for the metamaterial with two,
three, and four SRR-H elements located at the top and bottom
ends of the structure or as seen in Fig. 6 (b), (c), and (d). Fur-
thermore, it can be seen that the presence of an electric field
follows the direction of the incoming electromagnetic waves
hitting the metamaterial structure. The high absorption of elec-
tromagnetic fields in the metamaterial of one SRR-H element,
it should be noted that such a structure can generate an electric
Improvement of Low-Profile microstrip antenna performance 4245

Fig. 5 Equivalent circuit for hexagonal SRR.

Fig. 6 The simulation result of electric field distribution of (a) to (d); and magnetic field distribution of (e) to (h) from 1 to 4 SRR-H.

field of about 300% greater than the 16,628 V/m generated by

the four SRR-H elements. Besides, the dielectric density influ-
ences the electric field’s reduction due to the addition of the
SRR-H element. The electric field applied to the dielectric
medium causes the polarization of positive and negative
charges, thereby reducing the electric field of the metamateri-
als. Based on this, similarities are also provided by distributing
the magnetic field in the metamaterial structure, and the
maximum magnetic field exerted by one SRR-H element is
585 A/m or 600% greater than the 97.9 A/m generated by four
SRR-H elements. The magnetic field distribution in an SRR-H
Element is located in the space between the two metal rings, as
Fig. 7 Geometry of the microstrip antenna.
shown in Fig. 6 (e). Likewise, the maximum magnetic field dis-
tribution provides the two, three, and four SRR-H elements,
therefore it can be seen that the four SRR-H elements provide
the broader distribution of the magnetic field and this distribu- electromagnetic wave range. In addition, the antenna geometry
tion is more dominant in the dielectric medium. is also affected by the height (h) and the dielectric constant (e).
It can be calculated using the following Eqs. (9) to (11) [34],
4. Design of metamaterial antenna structure c
W ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffi ð9Þ
2fo eþ1
The type of antenna used is a microstrip made of radiating or 2

patch elements, a dielectric substrate, and grounding as shown   !

in Fig. 7. The antenna structure material consists of copper as c eeff þ 0:3 Wh þ 0:264
L ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi  0:824h    ð10Þ
a conductor or patch and ground, FR4 as a substrate. The 2fo eeff eeff  0:258 Wh þ 0:8
microstrip antenna has a width (W) and a length (L) on the
patch based on the operating frequency (fo) set within a certain
4246
2 3
e þ 1 e  16 1 7
eeff ¼ þ 4qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 h ffi5 ð11Þ
2 2 1 þ 12 W
In this case, the set operating frequency is at the mid-frequency
source of the 9 GHz working antenna. The given antenna
dimensions have a reflection coefficient well above 10 dB.
So it is necessary to initial process for optimization and char-
acterization of the proposed antenna configuration. Determin-
ing the geometry of the microstrip antenna structure consists
of several optimization segments as shown in Fig. 8. This step
is done by eliminating a part of the antenna structure which
seeks to obtain more effective performance.
According to Fig. 8, the patch portion of the antenna orig-
inally proposed at Stage 1, has a patch area of approximately
189.28 mm2, with the ground portion covering half of the
antenna’s dielectric medium. This stage has sub-standard per-
formance, wherefrom each working frequency point, the effec-
tiveness of the received power is lower with 10% more reflected
power as shown in Fig. 9. In Stage 2 optimization, eliminating
52.05 mm2 at the bottom of the patch, providing progress
towards power absorption. Meanwhile, in the Stage 3 opti-
mization, it only gets a smaller boost than before by eliminat-
ing part of the feed line edge and the top center of the ground.
Furthermore, the final optimization on Stage 4 by partially
eliminating the bottom edge of the patch and the top edge of
the ground provides a drastic increase in power absorption
effectiveness from the previous optimization stage. Thus, it
provides the potential for higher performance when the
SRR-H element is implemented in the antenna structure.
The proposed antenna structure has a wide patch shape
used to implement one to four SRR-H elements, as shown in
Fig. 10. Then it is simulated at a working frequency of
0.05–9 GHz to get the performance of each of the proposed
antenna structures.
Fig. 11 shows the simulation results in the form of return
loss for some of the proposed antennas. The antenna design
without SRR-H has a low profile with a narrow bandwidth
based on the simulation results. When the SRR-H metamate-
rial implementation is applied, the antenna profile increases
with better bandwidth. The proposed antenna structure has
two resonance bands at the operating frequencies during oper-
ation, and an antenna design with one SRR-H element has a
lower return loss than without an SRR-H with a difference
Fig. 8 Several stages of optimization of the proposed antenna
structure design.
Saktioto et al.
Fig. 9 Reflection coefficient for each optimization stage.
of 7.5 dB. The addition of one SRR-H element on the
antenna causes the bandwidth to expand by 41.33%, and when
viewed from a perspective, antennas with one and two SRR-H
elements have similarities in the return loss profile. However,
the differences lie in the magnitude of the return loss for two
different resonance frequencies. Under the same conditions,
the return loss profile in the antenna design with three and four
SRR-H elements also possesses identical characteristics.
Therefore, it is clear that a different return loss phenomenon
occurs at the second resonance frequency for an antenna with
three SRR-H elements. This event is due to the discontinuity
between the transmission line and antenna structure due to dif-
ferences in input and load impedance. Subsequently, the cause
of the difference in efficiency loss at the first and second reso-
nance frequencies is given by the impedance factor, which
influences the reflection coefficient of some of the proposed
antennas.
In this regard, the highest performance is provided by an
antenna with four SRR-H elements, and the return loss profile
provided is a bandwidth of 7.92 GHz with the first resonance
band 25.17 dB at a frequency of 1.56 GHz and the second
resonance band 56.85 dB at a frequency of 5.98 GHz. Based
on the characteristics of the UWB antenna, the profile given to
the antenna with four SRR-H elements has excellent perfor-
mance with a wide bandwidth of 5.9 GHz at an operating fre-
quency of 5.98 GHz. The antenna’s return loss with four SRR-
H elements has the lowest peak of the other designs, which
means that the reflected power is very little from the transmit-
ted power. The proposed metamaterial antenna has a high
potential suitable for medical and communication
applications.
The complete parts of the metamaterial antenna structure
can be seen in Fig. 12. The shape of the structure has been
characterized and optimized to obtain high-quality perfor-
mance. The size of the antenna structure can be seen in
Table 2.
5. Investigation of the performance result
Fig. 13 shows that the measurement results are compared with
the simulation results of the microstrip antenna design with
one to four SRR-H elements. The measurements were carried
out using a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA), which provides
only a working frequency source of 0.05–9 GHz. Based on the
Improvement of Low-Profile microstrip antenna performance
Fig. 10 Several types of metamaterial antennas are proposed with front (patch) and rear (ground) side views for without and one to four
SRR-H element.
Fig. 11 The simulation of return loss results for antennas
without SRR-H and antennas with the implementation of multiple
SRR-H elements.
measurement results, all antenna designs have a return loss
profile relatively the same as the simulation results at a given
resonance frequency, except for the width of the bandwidth,
which experienced an average shrinkage of about 50.52%.
However, the measurement results show the UWB criteria with
a minimum bandwidth of 500 MHz, and a fairly detailed com-
parison of the antenna with four SRR-H elements is given, as
shown in Fig. 13 (d). The manufactured antenna provides a
suitable impedance for the resulting resonance frequency but
not for the bandwidth profile. This is due to the fabrication
of the antenna with incompatible materials and limited
Fig. 12 The complete configuration of the proposed metamaterial antenna structure: the front side for the patch section (left), the
backside for the grounding section (center), and the side for the thickness section (right).
4247
measuring instruments, making it difficult to control various
parameters during the measurement process. The antenna’s
measurement results with four SRR-H elements give a return
loss of 42.54 dB, which is lower than the simulation results,
and are located at almost the same resonance frequency.
Simultaneously, the specified bandwidth profile is 5.87 GHz
or 72.5% of the simulation results. Also, with a certain profile,
this antenna construction has a relatively good performance
and meets the requirements for use in UWB applications.
Fig. 14 shows the simulated current distribution patterns
for the antennas of each SRR-H element variation. Observa-
tion of the current diffusion phenomenon is focused on the
high resonant frequency generated by each antenna in the
UWB range. The antenna current distribution pattern given
at the resonant frequency appears to have varying current den-
sities in the feed line, metal inclusions (patch), and ground
regions. This phenomenon is due to the different impedance
matches between the feed line and the transmission line for
each antenna structure. The density of the distributed currents
spreads to the center and resonates between the feed line and
ground. Interesting events occur with antennas with three
and four SRR-H elements, where the current distribution rel-
ative to one and two SRR-H elements propagates through
the structure of the metamaterial. This phenomenon indicates
that the implemented metamaterial structure provides superior
sensitivity to the antenna profile. Generally, the best antenna
performance can be achieved with four SRR-H elements, as
shown in Fig. 14 (d). The current distribution at the frequency
of 5.98 GHz, the antenna absorbed more power or reflectance
of 0.0002% of the received power. The distribution pattern at
the resonance frequency, the higher the current density, the
4248 Saktioto et al.

Table 2 Metamaterial antenna structure size.

Parameter Unit Parameter Unit Parameter Unit
(mm) (mm) (mm)
L2 26.4 W4 3 G3 5.25
L3 5.8 W5 1.5 G4 3
L4 13.2 X2 0.6 Tg 0.035
L5 0.8 X3 1.19 Ts 1.6
W2 26 G1 24 Tp 0.035
W3 24 G2 7.4 – –

Fig. 13 The comparison of measurement and simulation for antenna design with the implementation of (a) one SRR-H, (b) two SRR-H,
(c) three SRR-H, and (d) four SRR-H.

more distribution occurs in the entire antenna structure. The
maximum current density observed is seen in the feed line
and spreads to the metamaterial structure implemented on
the antenna.
The simulation of the gain measurement on an antenna
with a structure of one to four SRR-H elements is shown in
Fig. 15, and it can be seen that each proposed antenna pro-
vides a good gain value. Exciting monitoring can be seen at
0.5–4.5 GHz, as each type of antenna has the same gain at
the same frequency. However, at the next frequency, each
antenna’s gain, especially at one, two, and three SRR-H ele-
ments, is distorted and changes with apparent differences.
When the resulting gain is the same at a particular frequency,
the structures for all types of antennas have the same load
impedance and receive power. Conversely, after a frequency
of 4.5 GHz, each type of antenna’s gain profile experiences
its characteristics. This is because the implementation of one
to four SRR-H elements provides different load impedances
to the antenna structure. Based on these results, the antenna
with four SRR-H elements had the best gain than the others.
For all given operating frequencies, the antenna with four
SRR-H elements provides a minimum gain peak of 1.85 dBi
at 0.45 GHz and a maximum gain peak of 5.97 dBi at
7.65 GHz. The gain at the lowest resonance return loss is
4.61 dBi at 5.98 GHz and higher than 2.12 dBi at 1.56 GHz.
In the UWB band’s frequency range, the simulated gain
increases linearly with the frequency, which offers the advan-
tage of high operating effectiveness. Therefore, it can make a
considerable contribution to antenna radiation for distant
fields [26].
The 3D gain simulation pattern on an antenna with one to
four SRR-H elements is shown in Fig. 16. At the resonant fre-
quency, it can be seen that the gain has different 3D and 2D
radiation patterns for all antennas with various SRR-H ele-
ments, as shown in Fig. 16. It can be seen that at 5–7 GHz,
the gain pattern is distorted with changes in the maximum
radiation direction, pointing upwards towards the antenna
structure and ending at the feed line area. More specifically,
it can be seen from the 2D radiation gain pattern that changes
drastically for each proposed antenna type. The largest gain
Improvement of Low-Profile microstrip antenna performance
Fig. 14 The current distribution patterns that occur resonance
frequencies in UWB range at (a) 6.79 GHz, (b) 6.82 GHz, (c)
5.25 GHz, and (d) 5.98 GHz.
Fig. 15 Simulated gain increase for antennas with one to four
SRR-H elements.
Fig. 16 The 3D and 2D radiation pattern simulation results from the gain at the resonance UWB frequency at (a) 6.79 GHz, (b)
6.82 GHz, (c) 5.25 GHz, and (d) 5.98 GHz.
4249
radiation position is predominantly located at an angle of
45°in the quadrant II area with a maximum average of 4.78
dBi. This incident explained that the gain radiation pattern is
greatly influenced by the load impedance of implementing
one to four SRR-H elements into the antenna structure. Out
of all these antennas, implementing the SRR-H four elements
turned out to have high performance.
As shown in Fig. 16 (d), the resulting gain pattern has a
more effective electromagnetic wave radiation. The antenna
structure has the most increased resonance with a greater
receiving power. The gain radiation experiences distortion,
which forms a two-way pattern at a resonant frequency of
5.98 GHz with the highest gain of 4.63 dBi, namely at an angle
of 49.20-degree in front of the patch antenna. As a result of the
interactions in the metamaterial structure, the antenna gain
polarization tends to form a distorted omnidirectional pattern
with good performance in the UWB frequency band. The dif-
ferences affect this phenomenon of resistance or impedance
from the antenna structure to the transmission line, resulting
in a distortion of the radiation pattern [35]. The incidence of
polarization of Gain radiation in the YZ plane can be seen
in Table 3. The highest radiation arises because of the reso-
nance interaction between the transmission line’s impedance
and the antenna load, close to matching and occurs precisely
in the metamaterial structure in the antenna [36].
6. Comparison of metamaterial antenna in UWB applications
The performance of conventional microstrip antennas has
been widely developed in today’s modern technological world.
The planned development consists of implementing the
antenna in the UWB application, and the design of the
UWB antenna has also been the subject of extensive research
over the last decade. Furthermore, it is proven that the low
profile given by the microstrip antenna increases with a wide
bandwidth with a good impedance match. However, this
antenna has a significant drawback, namely the large
dimensions of the structure, and it takes up enough space to
be difficult to use in certain fields. The researcher takes a
4250 Saktioto et al.

Table 3 The polarization of the antenna radiation is based on the YZ plane.

Metamaterial antenna Frequency resonance Polarization-YZ
hR Gain (dBi) hL Gain (dBi)
1 SRR-H 6.79 GHz 53.25° 5.07 52.61° 4.98
2 SRR-H 6.82 GHz 51.57° 5.04 50.14° 5.00
3 SRR-H 5.25 GHz 50.98° 4.25 48.73° 4.37
4 SRR-H 5.98 GHz 49.20° 4.63 47.86° 4.57

Table 4 References of the metamaterial-inspired antenna as a UWB application.

Reference Model Dimension Bandwidth Gain
(mm2) (GHz) (dBi)
[37] SRR rectangle elements in an array 21
16 3.4–12.5 5.16
[38] A fork monopole antenna with CRLH 40
35 5.98–8.42 6.2
[39] SRR square eight planar elements 26
22 3.1–10.71 3.54
[40] X-shaped square knot and four slots 27.6
32 3.2–24 8.7
[41] SRR-R Array based on Fractal pattern 21
22 3.55–10.34 2.61
Proposed Metamaterial antenna with four SRR-H 26.4
26 1.08–9 5.97

unique material, namely a hexagonal metamaterial, which has
the DNG characteristics phenomena it gives to be imple-
mented in the antenna structure to solve this problem. The
existence of metamaterials for the past five years can prove
that it can reduce the dimensions of the antenna. Besides, its
high sensitivity and miniaturization can increase Gain and
amplify the antenna’s radiation field. The following are some
antenna studies on the implementation of metamaterial in
UWB applications that have been carried out over the last five
years are shown in Table 4.
Table 4 presents a comparison of the UWB antenna with
different models of metamaterial structure. The antenna in this
research uses a metamaterial structure with a hexagonal SRR
shape with DNG characteristics. The proposed antenna offers
high performance and is better than several other studies, and
its dimensions are slightly larger than those of other authors
since the dimensions of the structure are derived from the
wavelengths used at certain frequencies. The limitation of the
equipment also affects this study, in which the VNA used only
has a maximum frequency source of 9 GHz. To classify the
UWB antenna from this proposed model, the bandwidth
obtained is 5.9 GHz, and the operating frequency is
5.98 GHz. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the
antenna under construction has a good performance and pro-
portionally includes functional bands rather than existing ref-
erences as UWB applications.
7. Conclusion
In this research, a microstrip antenna with hexagonal metama-
terial implementation has been proposed as a UWB applica-
tion. The metamaterial structure of the SRR-H element
variation shows the refractive index’s properties close to zero
or DNG characteristics with permittivity and permeability in
the 500 MHz range. The proposed implementation shows
improved performance at low profile antennas for the
frequency range from 0.05–9 GHz. Furthermore, for each of
the antenna types, the SRR-H’s four-element implementation
delivers extremely high-quality performance. The resulting
return loss parameter is 56.85 dB with an increase in band-
width of 47.49% of the antenna structure without SRR-H.
Also, this study has a high gain of 5.97 dBi at 7.65 GHz. This
proposed antenna provides an operating frequency at
5.98 GHz with a maximum radiation gain of 4.63 dBi at an
angle of 45-degree in the quadrant II area. In contrast, this
antenna has an extensive bandwidth of 5.9 GHz for the
UWB category. From some of the advantages mentioned ear-
lier, it can be concluded that the antenna with the implementa-
tion of this metamaterial has a high potential in UWB
applications.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The authors expressed profound gratitude to the Ministry of
Education and Culture of the Indonesian Government and
Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, for providing financial support
and grant through the Lembaga Penelitian dan Pengabdian
Kepada Masyarakat (Research Institution and Community
Services) Universitas Riau, 2021.
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