Wideband and UWB antennas for wireless applications. A comprehensive review

A comprehensive review concerning the geometry, the manufacturing technologies, the materials, and the numerical techniques, adopted for the analysis and design of wideband and ultrawideband (UWB) antennas for wireless applications, is presented. Planar, printed, dielectric, and wearable antennas, achievable on laminate (rigid and flexible), and textile dielectric substrates are taken into account. The performances of small, low-profile, and dielectric resonator antennas are illustrated paying particular attention to the application areas concerning portable devices (mobile phones, tablets, glasses, laptops, wearable computers, etc.) and radio base stations. This information provides a guidance to the selection of the different antenna geometries in terms of bandwidth, gain, field polarization, time-domain response, dimensions, and materials useful for their realization and integration in modern communication systems

Mountain-Shaped Coupler for Ultra Wideband Applications

This paper demonstrates a novel mountain-shaped design for a compact 3-dB coupler operating at ultra-wideband (UWB) frequencies from 3.1GHz to 10.6 GHz. The proposed design was accomplished using multilayer technology in which the structure is formed by three layers of conductors interleaved by a layer of substrate between each conductor layer. Simulation was carried out using CST Microwave Studio; the result was then compared with results from rectangular and star-shaped couplers that implemented the same technique. The results obtained show that the proposed new coupler has better performance compared to both rectangular and star-shaped coupler designs in terms of return loss, isolation, and phase difference. The coupler was fabricated and measured; the measurement results satisfactorily agree with the simulation results

A Tri-band-notched UWB Antenna with Low Mutual Coupling between the Band-notched Structures

A compact printed U-shape ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with triple band-notched characteristics is presented. The proposed antenna, with compact size of 24×33 mm2, yields an impedance bandwidth of 2.8-12GHz for VSWR<2, except the notched bands. The notched bands are realized by introducing two different types of slots. Two C-shape half-wavelength slots are etched on the radiating patch to obtain two notched bands in 3.3-3.7GHz for WiMAX and 7.25-7.75GHz for downlink of X-band satellite communication systems. In order to minimize the mutual coupling between the band-notched structures, the middle notched band in 5-6GHz for WLAN is achieved by using a U-slot defected ground structure. The parametric study is carried out to understand the mutual coupling. Surface current distributions and equivalent circuit are used to illustrate the notched mechanism. The performance of this antenna both by simulation and by experiment indicates that the proposed antenna is suitable and a good candidate for UWB applications

Spline-shaped ultra-wideband antenna operating in the ECC released frequency spectrum

A spline-shaped antenna for Ultra-Wideband (UWB) communications that operates in the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC) released band from 6 GHz up to 8.5 GHz is described. Selected simulated and measured data are reported to assess the achieved impedance matching over the whole band of interest, and the distortionless behavior as well as to show the omnidirectional radiation properties. This paper is a postprint of a paper submitted to and accepted for publication in Electronics Letters and is subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is available at IET Digital Library

A reconfigurable wideband and multiband antenna using dual-patch elements for compact wireless devices

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 IEEEA reconfigurable wideband and multiband C-Slot patch antenna with dual-patch elements is proposed and studied. It occupies a compact volume of 50 × 50 × 1.57 (3925 mm3), including the ground plane. The antenna can operate in two dual-band modes and a wideband mode from 5 to 7 GHz. Two parallel C-Slots on the patch elements are employed to perturb the surface current paths for excitation of the dual-band and the wideband modes. Two switches, implemented using PIN diodes, are placed on the connecting lines of a simple feed network to the patch elements. Dual-band modes are achieved by switching “ON” either one of the two patch elements, while the wideband mode with an impedance bandwidth of 33.52% is obtained by switching “ON” both patch elements. The frequencies in the dual-band modes can be independently controlled using positions and dimensions of the C-Slots without affecting the wideband mode. The advantage of the proposed antenna is that two dual-band operations and one wideband operation can be achieved using the same dimensions. This overcomes the need for increasing the surface area normally incurred when designing wideband patch antennas. Simulation results are validated experimentally through prototypes. The measured radiation patterns and peak gains show stable responses and are in good agreements. Coupling between the two patch elements plays a major role for achieving the wide bandwidth and the effects of mutual coupling between the patch elements are also studied

Compact printed multiband antenna with independent setting suitable for fixed and reconfigurable wireless communication systems

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.This paper presents the design of a low-profile compact printed antenna for fixed frequency and reconfigurable frequency bands. The antenna consists of a main patch, four sub-patches, and a ground plane to generate five frequency bands, at 0.92, 1.73, 1.98, 2.4, and 2.9 GHz, for different wireless systems. For the fixed-frequency design, the five individual frequency bands can be adjusted and set independently over the wide ranges of 18.78%, 22.75%, 4.51%, 11%, and 8.21%, respectively, using just one parameter of the antenna. By putting a varactor (diode) at each of the sub-patch inputs, four of the frequency bands can be controlled independently over wide ranges and the antenna has a reconfigurable design. The tunability ranges for the four bands of 0.92, 1.73, 1.98, and 2.9 GHz are 23.5%, 10.30%, 13.5%, and 3%, respectively. The fixed and reconfigurable designs are studied using computer simulation. For verification of simulation results, the two designs are fabricated and the prototypes are measured. The results show a good agreement between simulated and measured results