Half-Mode Substrate-Integrated-Waveguide Cavity-Backed Slot Antenna on Cork Substrate

A wideband half-mode substrate-integrated-waveguide cavity-backed slot antenna covering all Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) radio bands (5.15-5.85 GHz) is designed, fabricated, and validated. By a half-mode implementation of a multimoded cavity with nonresonant slot, a compact ultrawideband antenna is obtained with very stable radiation characteristics, owing to the excellent antenna/platform isolation. Cork material is applied as antenna substrate, making the proposed antenna suitable for integration into floors or walls. In free-space conditions, an impedance bandwidth of 1.30 GHz (23.7%), a radiation efficiency of 85%, a front-to-back ratio of 15.0 dB, and a maximum gain of 4.3 dBi at 5.50 GHz are measured. Performance is also validated when the antenna is deployed on various dielectric or conducting platforms and underneath different dielectric superstrates. Only the latter slightly detunes the antenna's impedance bandwidth. Yet, the complete frequency band of interest remains covered, owing to additional design margins incorporated in the requirements. Its compactness, unobtrusive integration potential, and stable high performance in different environments make this antenna topology an ideal candidate for Internet of Things applications.