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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 6, JUNE 2009

Design of a Compact Semi-Elliptic Monopole Slot Antenna for UWB Systems

M. Gopikrishna, Deepti Das Krishna, C. K. Anandan, P. Mohanan, and K. Vasudevan

AbstractA printed semi-elliptic monopole slot antenna for use in ultrawideband (UWB) communication systems is presented. The antenna features a coplanar waveguide signal strip terminated with a semi-elliptic stub and a modied ground plane to achieve wide bandwidth from 2.8520 GHz. An exhaustive study of the radiation characteristics of this antenna in the frequency and time domains are presented. Design equations are derived and experimentally validated. Transient analysis indicates linear phase response and minimum dispersion to the transmitted pulse. The proposed radiator is omnidirectional with appreciable gain throughout the band. Index TermsCoplanar waveguide (CPW) antennas, monopole, planar antenna, slot antenna, ultrawideband (UWB).

I. INTRODUCTION Ultrawideband (UWB) technology supersedes existing short range wireless standards such as 802.11 LANs and Bluetooth PANs with the capability to handle multiple, high data rate streams at lower consumed power in a simple, compact transceiver architecture. The wide swath of bandwidth utilized to transmit and receive high speed pulse trains in turn impose stringent requirements on the antennas deployed. Antenna design for UWB systems calls for special care, for if the surface currents on different parts of the antenna undergo signicant time delays before summed up at the antenna terminal or transmitted as a free wave, signal dispersion may result [1]. For application in portable systems, compact, radiation efcient, omni directional printed antennas are desired. Among those proposed that satisfy these requirements are slot antennas where wide impedance bandwidth can be obtained by different techniques. The antennas discussed in [2] use a large slot for bandwidth enhancement and L- or T-shaped bends for size reduction. The wide band slot antenna in [3] uses a wide aperture and a modied microstrip feed to create multiple resonances. In another technique, a rotated slot is proposed [4] wherein two modes of close resonances are excited by a microstrip feed line. In [5] and [6], a tapered slot feeding structure is used to transform the guided waves to free space waves without causing any pernicious reection within the structure. Other methods [7], [8] include the excitation of a wide elliptic, circular or rectangular slot with an offset stub of the same geometry terminating the feed line. Variations of these designs use a U-shaped stub inside the aperture as in [9] and [10]. In this communication, we present the design details of a semi-elliptic slot antenna with enhanced bandwidth and radiation characteristics to cater the modern communication systems. The antenna comprises of a modied ground and a semi elliptic radiating patch that resonates within the 3.110.6 GHz FCC approved UWB. Even though multi resonant antennas [11][13] offer a wide impedance band width,
Manuscript received January 29, 2008; revised September 04, 2008. Current version published June 03, 2009. The work of M. Gopikrishna was supported in part by the University Grants Commission. The work of D. D. Krishna was supported in part by the Department of Science and Technology. The measurements were carried out using the facilities created under DST-FIST program. The authors are with the Department of Electronics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, Kerala 682022, India (e-mail: anand@cusat.ac. in). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TAP.2009.2015850

Fig. 1. Geometry of the semi-elliptic slot antenna.

they widen a narrow pulse in the time domain. It is the multiple reections within the antenna that results in the ringing of the pulse. Such detrimental effects on the transmitted pulse can be minimized if the higher order modes excited within the operating band are avoided. The proposed antenna introduces only two resonances within the operating band, each due to the modied ground and the semi elliptic patch respectively. Also, this geometry is very compact compared to earlier designs [7] where ultrawidebandwidth was realized using two offset ellipses. A detailed analysis of this structure is presented along with simulation using Ansoft HFSS. Simple design equations are derived and veried experimentally. The 2:1 VSWR bandwidth of this antenna is from 2.8520 GHz with omni directional radiation and reasonably good gain throughout the band. Transient analysis of the antenna reveals linear phase response in the far eld and minimum dispersion to the transmitted waveforms. II. ANTENNA GEOMETRY, DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION A. Geometry Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the proposed semi-elliptic slot antenna. The ground plane of the antenna is shaped as a semi-ellipse near the patch with a1 and b1 as major and minor radii. The major and minor radii of the semi-elliptic patch are a2 and b2 respectively. The patch is displaced from the ground plane by a distance d. The ground plane extends beyond the patch to form an L-shaped section of length l1 + l2 .

B. Design As shown in the intensity distribution in Fig. 2(a), the curved path OA is approximately half a wave long at the rst resonance. i.e.,

p1

s g;1 4 + l1 + l2 0 g 0 2  2

(1)

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Fig. 3. Return loss of antennas with computed geometric parameters.

Fig. 4. Return loss of antennas with optimized geometric parameters. Fig. 2. E-eld distribution on the conductor (Intensity) and aperture (vector) at (a) 3.2 GHz, (b) 8.5 GHz, and (c) 12 GHz. TABLE I ANTENNA DESCRIPTION

where p1 is the perimeter of the ellipse in the ground plane given by

p1

 2

a1 2 + b1 2 : 2

(2)

The path O= A= in the antenna as shown in Fig. 2(b) is responsible for the second resonance. From the eld distribution in Fig. 2(b), it can be arrived that

p2 2

2  g; 2

(3) C. Optimization Based on the observations aforementioned, a design procedure for the semi-elliptic antenna can be framed as explained in this section. 1) Design a 50 CPW line on a substrate with permittivity "r and thickness h. Calculate "re using the s and g values of the CPW line [14]. 2) Design the ground to create the rst resonance (f1 ) using

where p2 is the perimeter of the ellipse with a2 and b2 as the major and minor radii. Here, g;i is the wavelength in the dielectric which is computed from the free space wavelength 0;i as

g;i =

0;i ; i = 1; 2 p "re

(4)

and "re is the effective permittivity of the substrate [14]. In designing the antenna proposed in this communication, the rst resonance is designed to fall in the lower UWB (3.15.1 GHz) and the second resonance in the upper UWB (5.82510.6 GHz). The vector distribution of the aperture eld is also shown in Fig. 2. The modes excited resemble the fundamental modes of typical aperture antennas [8], namely T E01 and T E11 at the rst and the second resonances. The lower and upper resonances are xed at 3.2 and 8.5 GHz, respectively, and a smooth transition between them is obtained by adjusting the spacing d. Extensive simulation studies indicate that the optimum ellipticity values (a1 : b1 ) and (a2 : b2 ) are at 3.55 and 1.4 respectively. It is observed that the parameter t does not contribute to the resonances or the bandwidth of the antenna. Hence, in the proposed design, a thin strip of width 1 mm is employed.

l1 = g;1 =6 l2 = g;1 =9
and then compute b1 and a1 using

b1 = 0:12(g;1 + s + 2g ) 0 0:24(l1 + l2 ) a1 = 3:55b1 :

3) Design the patch at the second resonance (f2 ) using

b2 = 0:26g;2 a2 = 1:4b2 :
Using the parameters so computed, the antenna was studied on substrates with different permittivity, described in Table I. Fig. 3 shows the

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 6, JUNE 2009

TABLE II COMPUTED AND OPTIMIZED GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF THE ANTENNAS

Fig. 5. Return loss of the prototype antenna on FR4 (Antenna 2).

return losses of the antennas with the computed geometric parameters given in Table II. Resonances of these antennas show slight deviation from the designed values but there is impedance match throughout the band. The reason for this is that the effective permittivity computed for the CPW line does not hold for the radiating part of the antenna where the CPW line can be considered as ared. This value of "re is lower than that computed using [14]. Hence, the parameters are optimized using HFSS to have resonances at 3.2 and 8.5 GHz. The S11 plots of these antennas are shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 6. Radiation patterns of Antenna 2 along (a) X-Y (b) X-Z (c) Y-Z planes.

III. EXPERIMENT RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. In the Frequency Domain A prototype of the antenna was fabricated on a substrate of "r = 4:4 and h = 1:6 mm with the optimized parameters in Table II. Measurements in the Frequency domain were carried out with R & S ZVB 20 VNA. Return loss measurements indicate a wide band width from 2.8520 GHz, which is validated by simulation in HFSS as shown in Fig. 5. The slight deviation from the simulation at higher frequencies could be due to the SMA connector which is not accounted in the simulation. Since the antenna is for use in the 3.110.6 GHz band, this can be ignored. Radiation patterns of the antenna in the X-Y, X-Z and Y-Z planes for three different frequencies are shown in Fig. 6. The patterns are stable throughout the band and resembles that of a monopole; omnidirectional in the H-plane (X-Y) and bidirectional in the E-planes (Y-Z and X-Z). Polarization of the antenna is along the Z direction. Measured gain of the antenna is compared with the simulated one in Fig. 7 which shows reasonable agreement throughout the band.

Fig. 7. Measured and simulated peak gains of Antenna 2.

B. In the Time Domain Measurement of group delay is performed by exciting two identical prototypes of the antennas kept in the far eld for two orientations; face-to-face and side-by-side. As shown in Fig. 8, the group

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the side-by-side orientation is less than the face-to-face orientation, both the waveforms retain the information contained in the transmitted signal with minimum dispersion. IV. CONCLUSION A compact slot antenna with minimum insidious reections is proposed for UWB operation. The antenna features wide impedance bandwidth from 2.8520 GHz and stable radiation patterns and gain across its entire operating band. In addition, transient response of the antenna is impressive and all these minimize the distortion to the transmitted and received pulses. The antenna can be easily fabricated on any commercially available substrates since a reliable empirical design guideline is provided. All these features make the proposed design a potential candidate for emerging UWB applications.

Fig. 8. Measured group delay for two different orientations of the antenna.

REFERENCES
[1] K. Siwiak and D. McKeown, Ultra-Wideband Radio Technology. New York: Wiley, 2005, pp. 97111. [2] S. I. Latif, L. Shafai, and S. K. Sharma, Bandwidth enhancement and size reduction of microstrip slot antennas, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 9941003, mar. 2005. [3] N. Behdad and K. Sarabandi, A multiresonant single-element wideband slot antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 58, Jan. 2004. [4] J. Y. Jan and J. W. Su, Bandwidth enhancement of a printed wide-slot antenna with a rotated slot, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 53, no. 6, pp. 21112114, Jun. 2005. [5] T. G. Ma and C. H. Tseng, An ultra wideband coplanar waveguide-fed tapered ring slot antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 11051111, Apr. 2006. [6] T. G. Ma and S. K. Jeng, Planar miniature tapered-slot-fed annular slot antennas for ultrawide-band radios, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 11941202, Mar. 2005. [7] E. S. Angelopoulos, A. Z. Anastopoulos, D. I. Kaklamani, A. A. Alexandridis, F. Lazarakis, and K. Dangakis, Circular and elliptical CPW-fed slot and microstrip-fed antennas for ultrawideband applications, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 294297, Jun. 2006. [8] Y. C. Lin and K. J. Hung, Compact ultra wideband rectangular aperture antenna and band-notched designs, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 54, no. 11, pp. 30753080, Nov. 2006. [9] P. Li, J. Liang, and X. Chen, Study of printed elliptical/circular slot antennas for ultrawideband applications, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 16701675, Jun. 2006. [10] C. Marchais, G. Le Ray, and A. Sharaiha, Stripline slot antenna for UWB communications, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 5, pp. 319322, 2006. [11] T. G. Ma and S. K. Jeng, A printed dipole antenna with tapered slot for ultrawideband applications, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 53, no. 11, pp. 38333836, Nov. 2005. [12] S. Y. Chen, P. H. Wang, and P. Hsu, Uniplanar log-periodic slot antenna fed by a CPW for UWB applications, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 5, pp. 256259, 2006. [13] D. Ghosh, A. De, M. C. Taylor, T. K. Sarkar, M. C. Wicks, and E. L. Mokole, Transmission and reception by ultrawideband (UWB) antennas, IEEE Antennas Propag. Mag., vol. 48, no. 5, pp. 6799, 2006. [14] R. N. Simons, Coplanar Waveguide Circuits and Components and Systems. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Interscience, 2001, pp. 2021. [15] W. Sorgel and W. Weisbeck, Inuence of the antennas on the ultrawideband transmission, EURASIP J. Appl. Signal Process., vol. 3, pp. 296305, 2005.

Fig. 9. Input and received pulses.

delay remains constant with variation less than a nano second for the face-to-face case, while the side-by-side orientation shows variation towards the higher frequency bands. The antenna transfer function is

antennas [15] and is plotted in Fig. 8. It shows fairly at magnitude with variation less than 10 dB throughout the band for both the orientations except at 9 GHz for the side-by-side case. This can be attributed to the proximity of a higher order mode at 11 GHz as in Fig. 5. Transient response of the antenna is studied by convoluting the modulated Gaussian monocycle

RcS21 (!)e (5) j! where c is the free space velocity and R is the distance between the two H (!) =
2
j!R=c

vin (t) = A sin(2f t) e0(

c
1

t=T )

(6)

with ( ), the inverse Fourier transform of (5). Spectrum of this pulse fully covers the FCC band and comply with the emission standards specied when the amplitude constant A = 1 61, carrier frequency c = 6 8 GHz and pulse duration parameter T = 90 ps. The received pulse thus is

ht :

vrec (t) = vin (t) h(t)

V m

(7)

The input and received waveforms for the face-to-face and side-byside orientations of the antenna are shown in Fig. 9. For easy comparison with the received waveforms, the input pulse is scaled by 0.01 in the gure. Although the maximum magnitude of the waveform for

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