Recent Advances in Microstrip Antenna Design, Advanced Substrate Materials, and Intelligent Optimization Techniques: A Comprehensive Review
Microstrip antennas are very important in modern wireless communication systems due to their small size, low cost of manufacturing and easy integration with electronic devices. With the continuous development of wireless technologies, the demand for antennas with better bandwidth, gain, radiation efficiency, miniaturization and intelligent design capability is growing. This paper provides a detailed narrative review on the recent developments in microstrip antenna technology in three complementary research areas: antenna design techniques, advanced substrate materials, and intelligent design and optimization methods. The recent studies were systematically gathered and analyzed, and compared critically based on the design methodologies, material characteristics, antenna performance, optimization approaches, practical applications, and reported limitations. As revealed by the review, innovative structural designs, engineered substrate materials and artificial intelligence based optimization techniques have been able to enhance the performance of the antennas while minimizing the complexity of the designs and the development time. Important research challenges are also identified, such as the need for multi-objective optimization, standardized evaluation methods, wider experimental validation, and better incorporation of advanced materials with intelligent optimization techniques. In general, the review shows that the integration of structural innovation, substrate engineering and intelligent computational methods is an effective way for the development of next generation microstrip antennas. The results provide a single reference for researchers and engineers to design compact, efficient, and intelligent antennas for future applications such as 5G and 6G, the Internet of Things, satellite communications, wearable electronics, and millimeter-wave wireless systems.