Monopole Antenna with Double Rectangular Slot and

Truncated Corners Ground for Ultra-Wideband

Application
Ria Aprilliyani, Fariz Azhar Abdillah, Rian Gilang Prabowo, Teguh Samudra Firdaus, Fitri Yuli Zulkifli
Electrical Engineering Department
Engineering Faculty Universitas Indonesia
Kampus Baru UI Depok
Email : ria.aprilliyani@ui.ac.id, fariz.azhar@ui.ac.id, rian.gilang@ui.ac.id, teguh.samudra@ui.ac.id, yuli@eng.ui.ac.id
Abstract- Design and performance measurements of a
monopole antenna with modified ground plane for ultrawideband application is proposed. The proposed antenna has yshape patch to provide wider bandwidth. The ground plane
located at the bottom layer is modified with truncated corners
and double rectangular slot to have better matching impedance.
The patch and ground plane of the antenna are etched on FR4
substrate with an overall size 39 mm 40 mm 1.6 mm. The
results of the simulation show that the antenna operates with
return loss less than -10 dB over the frequency band from 2.97
GHz to 11.54 GHz. Return losses of 58.81 dB for the resonant
frequencies at 4.2 GHz can be achieved when the depth of the
diagonal cut is 3 mm. The dimension of each rectangular slot is
12 5 mm, and rectangular notch size is 3 3.64 mm, providing
a 14.1% wider bandwidth than ultra-wideband standard.
KeywordsUltrawideband, Antenna, Monopole, Double Slot,
Truncated Corners

I.

INTRODUCTION

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a wireless technology that

guarantees to transform high speed transmission. UWB
technology offer unique advantage which cannot be supported
by narrowband technology. The advantage is less power
consumption, high data speed, multi-path propagation
immunity, and easy hardware configuration. Various
applications e.g. localization, tracking, biomedical imaging
and monitoring, short-range wireless communication are the
cause of ultra-wideband technology is widely used [1-2].
UWB frequency range from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz has been
regulated by federal communication commission with
transmission power spectral density of -41.3dBm/MHz [3]. It
allows ultra-wideband technology to coexist with nowadays
and future wireless systems.
One component to support UWB wireless technology is
UWB antenna. There were many UWB antenna researches
that had been conducted to achieve frequency range from 3.1
GHz 10.6 GHz with bandwidth of 7.5 GHz. The research
had used several kinds of antennas; there were wire antenna,
aperture antenna, micro strip antenna, biconical antenna, array
antenna, reflector antenna, and lens antenna [4-8].
Technology development needs small antenna for small
space. Therefore, micro strip antenna is one candidate that is

suitable for UWB wireless technology. Different methods

have been proposed to achieve wide frequency with stable
performance. These methods included using resonant
structures [9], filters [10], slots [11], different shaped patch
[12], modifying the shape of patch [13], modifying the shapes
of the ground planes [14-15].
There were many shape variations of patch and ground
plane for micro strip antenna. Micro strip with square patch
[16], as well as circular patch [17] have been studied
profoundly in terms of their radiation pattern and impedance
bandwidth. Such y-shaped patch antenna with ground plane is
known to have the ability to increase the antenna bandwidth
[18]. However, based on simulation result in [18], it showed
that the return loss of the micro strip y-shape structure did not
obtain good matching condition for some ranges of frequency.
In this paper, a y-shape monopole antenna with slot and
truncated corners at the ground plane for UWB application is
proposed. The objective is the antenna to obtain an impedance
bandwidth (with Return Loss -10 dB) of 7.5 GHz from 3.1
GHz 10.6 GHz.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
An ultra-wideband antenna is designed using Computer
Simulation Technology (CST) microwave studio. The overall
dimension of the purposed antenna is 40 mm x 39 mm. A 0.8
mm thick FR4 substrate with a relative permittivity of 4.3 and
a loss tangent of 0.025 is used. The impedance of micro strip
line is 50 ohms.

(a)
(b)
Fig. 1. The Geometry of the Proposed Antenna
(a) Top View (b) Bottom View

The patch of the proposed antenna has a quite unique shape

which resembles the letter y. Figure 1 shows the geometry of
the top and bottom view of the ultra-wideband monopole
antenna. Table 1 show the dimension of the antenna design.
Table 1. Top and Bottom Antenna Variables and Their Values
Dimension of the top antenna variables
Lsu

Wsu

Lg

Lst

L1

L2

L3

L4

L5

Wst

40

39

12.7

17.5

7.04

12.5

Values
(mm)

The simulated return loss characteristic between proposed

antenna, proposed antenna without rectangular slot and
proposed antenna without the truncated corner are depicted in
Figure 3. The simulated return loss characteristic of the
proposed antenna without rectangular slots exhibit value of 21.9 dB at the 3.607 GHz. While return loss of proposed
antenna without truncated corners is -35.34 dB at 3.959 GHz.
The addition of double rectangular slots and truncated corners
significantly improve the matching condition at some range of
frequency. However, it does not really affect the bandwidth of
antenna.

Dimension of the bottom antenna Variables

SL

SX

SY

3.64

12

Values
(mm)

The ground plane of the proposed antenna is etched as a

rectangular notch with 3mm x 3.64 mm size, with double slot
both on the right side and the left side. Both top-left and topright of the ground plane are cut into an equilateral triangle
that has a shape like a trapezoid. The addition of notch, slot,
and truncated corners will affect the value of S11, voltage
standing wave ratio, gain, and efficiency of the proposed
antenna.

(a)

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The proposed antenna was simulated using CST Microwave
Studio software with excellent radiation characteristics. The
simulation results showed the return loss characteristics,
efficiency characteristics, gain characteristics and radiation
pattern characteristics.
The simulated return loss characteristic between [18] and
proposed antenna is depicted in Figure 2. The simulated return
loss characteristic of the proposed antenna exhibit value of 58.81 dB at the design frequency. The simulation result shows
an 8.57 GHz impedance bandwidth at frequency 2.97-11.54
GHz. Meanwhile, the simulated return loss characteristic of
reference antenna [18] exhibit value of -40.43 dB with 8.11
GHz impedance bandwidth at frequency 2.74-10.85 GHz.

Fig. 2. Return Loss Comparison between [18] and Proposed

Antenna

(b)
Fig. 3. Return Loss Comparison between Proposed Antenna
and (a) without double rectangular slots (b) without truncated
corners
The simulation result shown in Figure 4 shows the efficiency
of antenna increases linearly from 1 GHz to 4 GHz then
reduced slowly from 4 GHz to 12 GHz. The maximum
efficiency is obtained at 4 GHz, which has 84.57% of radiation
efficiency and 83.28% of total efficiency.

Fig. 4. Efficiency of the Proposed Antenna

Based on Figure 5, the gain of the designed antenna has a

fluctuating value. At frequency 3.1 GHz, the antenna gain is
2.26 dB whereas at 10.6 GHz is 3.64 dB. The maximum gain
is 4.5 dB at frequency of 8.7 GHz.

(a)

Fig. 5. Gain of the Proposed Antenna

The simulated radiation pattern characteristics are displayed
in figure 6 and 7. The proposed antenna has directional
radiation pattern. At resonant frequency of 4.179 GHz, the
antenna gain is 1.74 dB. The half-power beam width of
proposed antenna is 133.4.
(b)
Fig. 7. Radiation Pattern of the Proposed Antenna at 8.7 GHz
(a) 2D View (b) 3D View

(a)

The proposed antenna was then fabricated and measured.

The antenna was fabricated using FR4 dielectric substrate with
relative permittivity of 4.3, thickness of 0.8mm and tan =
0.025. The measurement of return loss characteristic was
obtained using network analyser in anechoic chamber at
Department of Electrical Engineering, Universitas Indonesia.
The fabricated monopole antenna with rectangular slot and
truncated corners ground is shown in Figure 8.

(b)
Fig. 6. Radiation Pattern of the Proposed Antenna at 4.179
GHz (a) 2D View (b) 3D View
At frequency of 8.7 GHz, proposed antenna has the highest
gain. The gain is 4.58 dB and the half-power beam width of
proposed antenna is 71.8.

Fig. 8. Photograph of the Fabricated Proposed Antenna.

As shown in Figure 9. The bandwidth measured has wider
results compared to the simulation results. The fabricated
antenna bandwidth is from 2.47 to 11.15 GHz while
simulation from 2.97 to 11.53 GHz. This slight difference
between simulation and measurement result is due to
imperfect fabrication of the antenna.

[9]

[10]
[11]

[12]

[13]

Fig. 9. Return Loss Comparison between simulation and

fabricated antenna

[14]
[15]

CONCLUSION
In this paper, monopole antenna with modified ground for
ultra-wideband applications has been designed, fabricated and
measured. The antenna has been designed to have better
matching impedance by adding double rectangular slots and
truncated corners at the ground plane. This simulation result of
monopole antenna exhibits a wide bandwidth of 8.57 GHz
ranging from 2.97 to 11.54 GHz with the value of return loss
under -10 dB. Return losses of 58.81 dB for resonant
frequencies, respectively, can be achieved when the depth of
the diagonal cut is at optimum value of 3 mm, rectangular slot
(12 4 mm), and rectangular notch (3 3.64mm) providing a
maximum 14.1 % wider bandwidth than the FCC
recommended standard of 3.110.6 GHz. The measured result
of the proposed antenna also shows similar result with
impedance bandwidth of 8.68 GHz at 2.47-11.15 GHz.
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