Metamaterials are artificially engineered material having negative permittivity and permeability. Due to their negative constitutive parameters, metamaterials are capable of focusing incident electromagnetic energy called as beam focusing property. We have made use of beam focusing property of metamaterial to enhance antenna far‐field gain. We have also conducted experimental study by varying the distance between patch antenna and metamaterial array to determine optimum distance. The distance is varied in seven steps of 35 mm. The far‐field gain of antenna is increased by 4 dB when metamaterial is placed at 95 mm. The beamwidth of antenna reduces when loaded with metamaterial indicating beam sharpening. At 155 mm from patch antenna, the beamwidth reduces to 33.95° and starts increasing as metamaterial is moved further away. The resonance frequency and bandwidth of antenna follows alternate increase and decrease pattern as the distance of metamaterial is increased, however, the impact is negligible. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:178–183, 2015

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Metamaterials are artificial materials with negative permittivity and permeability. Metamaterials due to their unique negative parameter are capable of focusing the electromagnetic energy incident upon them. This focusing of electromagnetic energy is used to increase the gain of microstrip patch antenna. A capacitive loaded strip (CLS)-loaded split ring resonator is used to form a multilayer array of metamaterial and used in front of microstrip patch antenna to enhance far-field gain of antenna. An accurate simulation model is created and analyzed using CST. The simulated model is then fabricated and measured in fully anechoic chamber for validation. The far-field gain of regular patch antenna with and without metamaterial is measured in anechoic chamber. The increase in gain by 4 dB is measured at 95 mm from antenna. The beam focusing property is also evident from 3 dB beamwidth of antenna which is reduced to 42.01°.