A microstrip patch antenna (MPA) loaded with linear-type negative permittivity metamaterials (NPMMs) is designed. The simple linear-type metamaterials have negative permittivity at 1–10 GHz. Four groups of antennas at different frequency bands are simulated in order to study the effect of linear-type NPMMs on MPA. The antennas working at 5.0 GHz are processed and measured. The measured results illustrate that the gain is enhanced by 2.12 dB, the H-plane half-power beam width (HPBW) is converged by 14°, and the effective area is increased by 62.5%. It can be concluded from the simulation and measurements that the linear-type metamaterials loaded on the substrate of MAP can suppress surface waves and increase forward radiation well.

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In this study, a novel low profile wideband omnidirectional antenna is proposed. Horizontal dimension is utilized by introducing annular patches and near‐zero‐index metamaterials, instead of enhancing horizontal gain through increasing the profile of antenna. Measured results illustrate that horizontal gain of this antenna is enhanced to more than 2.5 dBi with 9.81% relative bandwidth (4.97−5.49 GHz) and low profile (0.034λ). Compared with other works, this novel antenna has obvious advantages in electromagnetic characteristics and physical structure, which has great potential in vehicular communications.