Abstract

This research focuses on designing and simulating the Yagi-Uda antenna with folded dipole as a driven element for gain and bandwidth optimization. Four models were investigated to guide the designer in choosing the most suitable model for Wi-Fi applications with a resonance frequency of 2.4 GHz. The designed antenna shows promising results in terms of bandwidth, gain, reflection coefficient |S11|, and directivity. The proposed design produced a bandwidth (BW) of 0.33 GHz with a corresponding peak realized gain of 10.43 dBi when the driven element was replaced with the folded dipole, at 2.40 GHz. The design achieved a directivity of 10.44 dBi, and a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of 1.01:1. This suggests a good matching between the transmission line (TL) and the folded dipole. The high input impedance of approximately 300 Ω is another significant advantage of using a folded dipole. The |S11| of the optimized design is -52.018 dB at 2.40 GHz. This research has application in broadband services where high gain and bandwidth is of concern, such as backhauling using point-topoint and point-to-multipoint services. An appreciable gain is maintained with an improved bandwidth of 4% compared to existing works.

Key words: Yagi-Uda antenna; Endfire antenna; Wi-Fi; Bandwidth.