Transparent dual band antenna with μ-negative material loading for smart devices

A dual-band optically transparent antenna having two slotted circular rings with partial ground plane is proposed for smart applications. The antenna has circular split ring resonators (SRRs) array which offers negative refractive index properties to the resonator. The antenna is fed using microstrip feed line which is matched at 50 omega. The conducting patch, partial ground plane and two circular SRRs are made up of transparent conducting thin film AgHT-8 having transparency of above 80%. Substrate in the form of Plexiglas is used for making the antenna structure completely transparent. Metamaterial is incorporated for achieving acceptable values of antenna gain. The patch design is engineered for antenna operation in IEEE a/b/g/n frequency bands working at 2.4 GHz and 5.5 GHz, respectively. The size of the proposed transparent antenna is 35 x 35 x 1.84 mm(3) with measured impedance bandwidth of 13.27% and 5.28% achieved for lower frequency band of 2.4 GHz and the upper frequency band of 5.5 GHz, respectively. The proposed antenna is useful for smart devices communicating over WLAN frequency bands without need of extra board space due to the optical transparency of antenna.