Compact‐size linearly tapered slot antenna for portable ultra‐wideband imaging systems

A compact‐size asymmetrical linearly tapered slot antenna required for portable ultra‐wideband (UWB) imaging systems is presented. The total antenna size is reduced compared with the conventional linearly tapered slot antenna by using a triangular slot on the left‐hand side of the tapered‐shaped radiator, whereas introducing a corrugated pattern of cuts on the right side. The antenna operates over a wide bandwidth extending from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz with a maximum gain of 8.5 dBi. Stable radiation patterns are observed across the operational bandwidth, with cross‐polarization levels below ?20 dB. The realized antenna structure occupies a volume of 35 × 36 × 0.8 mm³, and possesses the essential time domain fidelity needed for UWB imaging applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2013.     

Circularly polarized planar monopole antenna for ultrawideband applications

A broadband circularly polarized (CP) planar monopole antenna is proposed here for ultrawideband (UWB) communication. The antenna is composed of a modified annular ring patch fed by a tapered microstrip line and a rectangular semiground plane on the opposite side of the substrate. Capability of generating wide axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) is another feature of the proposed antenna. Wide ARBW is achieved by introducing a rectangular slot and a stub in the ground plane. The CP antenna has an impressive ARBW of 5.52 GHz (81.42%, 4.02‐9.54 GHz) within the UWB frequency range (3.1‐10.6 GHz). Measured 10‐dB return loss bandwidth of the proposed antenna is 120.86% centered at 7.48 GHz (2.96‐12 GHz). The proposed antenna is well used for wireless local area network (5.2 and 5.8 GHz), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (5.5 GHz), and other wireless systems in C band as well as CP‐UWB antenna communication.     

Novel Compact UWB Band Notch Antenna Design for Body-Centric Communications

In this paper, a novel and compact ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with band-notched characteristics for body-centric communication is examined and implemented. The shape of the designed antenna looks like a ‘swan’ with a slotted patch. The performance parameters of this antenna for both the free space and on-body scenario for body-centric communication are analyzed and investigated through the simulation process using Computer Simulation Technology (CST). This antenna can avoid the interference caused by Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) (5.15–5.825 GHz) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) (5.25–5.85 GHz) systems with a band notch because of newly designed UWB antenna is revised small form factor sized. At first, the performance parameters like return loss response, gain, radiation patterns, and radiation efficiency on the free space of this UWB antenna are evaluated. After that, the on-body performance parameters of the antenna are also examined to place the antenna at various distances like 2 mm, 4 mm, 6 mm, 8 mm, and 10 mm away from 3-layers of phantom body model at frequencies of 3.5 GHz, 5.2 GHz, 5.8 GHz, 8 GHz, and 10 GHz. All the on-body performance parameter results are compared and analyzed with free space performance parameter results. Lastly, by changing patch slot length and ground plane length, parametric studies were done for performance comparison. Due to its compact size, novel shape and significant on-body performance, the proposed antenna is very suitable for multi-purpose healthcare applications and sports performance monitoring.     

A printed high gain UWB vivaldi antenna design using tapered corrugation and grating elements

A compact Vivaldi antenna is proposed with high gain over the ultrawideband (UWB) using novel combination of corrugation and grating elements. As it is very intricate to improve the radiation characteristics such as gain throughout the UWB using single technique, therefore, corrugation at the flares and grating elements in the area of tapered slot are used to improve gain over the UWB. Due to the corrugation, the gain and front‐to‐back ratio improved significantly over 3–8 GHz whereas the effect of grating elements is observed over 8 GHz. The antenna operates for 2.9 GHz to more than 12 GHz with S₁₁ < ?10 dB and is designed on 0.8‐mm thick low cost FR4 substrate (40 mm × 45 mm). The proposed antenna shows nearly stable unidirectional radiation patterns, peak realized gain more than 5 dBi, and front‐to‐back ratio better than 10 dB over the UWB. Furthermore, the time domain study of the antenna is carried out which shows good pulse handling capability with nearly flat group delay. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:610–618, 2015.     

Coplanar strip fed UWB antenna with a step cut

A novel compact coplanar strip fed dipole antenna with a step cut suitable for ultrawideband (UWB) application is developed. The antenna is evolved from an open ended slot line by symmetrically etching out two rectangular metallic parts from its upper inner corners. The antenna has ?10 dB reflection coefficient from 3.1 to more than 12 GHz that covers the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) specified UWB frequency range. From the simulation and experimental studies, it is found that the proposed antenna delivers moderate gain and stable radiation patterns over the operating band. Time domain analysis on the proposed antenna has been conducted and was found that the antenna can be used for UWB applications. The proposed antenna occupies a compact size of 28.5 × 10 × 1.6 mm³. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:665–672, 2014.     

Multilayered substrate integrated waveguide 4 × 4 butler matrix

In this article, a multilayered substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) Butler matrix beam‐forming network is proposed, designed, and demonstrated at 24 GHz for automotive radar system applications. The proposed low‐cost SIW structure can be used to develop a highly integrated multibeam antenna platform in automotive radar systems and other applications. In this structure, an SIW H‐plane coupler is optimized with an H‐plane slit to provide the required phase shift. A class of SIW E‐plane 3‐dB couplers in doubled layer substrate are studied and designed as the fundamental building blocks to avoid crossovers usually required in the construction of a Butler matrix. A 4 × 4 matrix is investigated and designed, which shows excellent performance over 22–26 GHz frequency band. Two types of antenna are tested with the proposed matrix scheme. First, an antipodal linearly tapered slot antenna (ALTSA) is incorporated into the Butler matrix to verify the broadband performances. Second, a longitudinal slotted waveguide antenna array is examined to generate radiation patterns in the broadside direction. Measured results agree well with simulated counterparts, thus validating the proposed multilayer SIW design concepts. In the next sections, the use as feeding networks for providing the reconfigurability operation of an antenna will be illustrated. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE , 2012.     

Wideband microstrip‐fed tapered slot antennas and phased array

Two wideband tapered slot antennas are designed, fabricated, and tested. The first antenna, which is fabricated on a high dielectric constant substrate (?_r = 10.2), shows a measured return loss of better than 10 dB from 1.6 to 12.4 GHz (7.7:1 bandwidth), and an antenna gain varying from 3.6 to 7.8 dBi. The second antenna is built on a low dielectric constant substrate (?_r = 2.2), and demonstrates return loss of better than 10 dB from 1.8 to 15.2 GHz (8.4:1 bandwidth). The second antenna also has improved antenna gain, from 5 to 15.6 dBi, and is used to build a wideband 1 × 4 H‐plane phased array with a total gain of 9–17 dBi and a beam steering angle of ±15° from 3 to 12 GHz. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2007.     

Reconfigurable wide band circularly polarized antenna array for WiMAX,C‐Band,a and ITU‐R applications with enhanced sequentially rotated feed network

In this article, a wide‐band circularly polarized slot antenna array with reconfigurable feed‐network for WiMAX, C‐Band, and ITU‐R applications is proposed. Different novel methods are used in proposed array to improve antenna features such as impedance matching, 3 dB axial‐ratio bandwidth (ARBW), gain, and destructive coupling effects. Miniaturized dual‐feed square slot antenna, with one attached L‐shaped strip and a pair of T‐shaped strip at ground surface for improving impedance matching and circular polarization (CP) purity, is presented. For further enhancement of CP attributes, reconfigurable sequentially rotated feed network is utilized to obtain wider 3 dB ARBW. Furthermore reconfigurable property of network gives controlling Right and Left handed CPs, respectively. Finally, a special form of Electromagnetic Band gap structure is employed on top layer of substrate that provides high isolation between radiating elements and array feed network to enhance overall performance of antenna. The measured results depict 3 dB ARBW from 4.6 to 7.2 GHz, impedance bandwidth from 3.3 to 8.8 GHz for VWSR<2, and peak gain of 10 dBi at 6 GHz. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:825–833, 2015.     

A simple planar monopole UWB slot antenna with dual independently and reconfigurable band‐notched characteristics

An extremely simple and compact planar monopole ultrawideband (UWB) slot antenna with dual band‐notched characteristics is proposed. The antenna is composed of a circular radiation patch, a microstrip‐fed line, and a partial ground. By etching an arc‐shaped slot on the radiation patch and a C‐like slot on the feed line, dual notched frequency bands at 3.3–3.7 GHz for WiMAX and 5.15–5.825 GHz for WLAN are achieved. And, the two notched bands can be adjusted independently by varying the length of the slots. Moreover, the band‐notched characteristics can be reconfigurable by shorting the corresponding slots. So, the antenna is capable of operating in one of multiple modes which makes it an excellent candidate for UWB applications. Meanwhile, experimental results indicate that the antenna has an available impendence bandwidth from 2.9 to 11 GHz which covers the UWB frequency band, and nearly omnidirectional patterns, stable gains, small group delay in operating band except rejected bands. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:706–712, 2014.     

Compact ultra‐wideband slot antenna with three notched‐band characteristics

A very compact ultra‐wideband (UWB) slot antenna with three L‐shaped slots for notched‐band characteristics is presented in this article. The antenna is designed and fabricated using a new stepped slot with different size, integrated in the ground plane, and excited by a 50 Ω microstrip transmission line. The stepped slot is used to minimize the dimensions of the antenna and to achieve an impedance bandwidth between 2.65 and 11.05 GHz with voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) less than 2. The length of the stepped slot is equal to a quarter wavelength to create a resonance in the desired frequency. Three L‐shaped slots with various sizes are etched in the ground plane to reject three frequency bands in C‐band (3.7‐4.2 GHz), WLAN (5.15‐5.825 GHz), and X‐band (7.25‐7.75 GHz), respectively. The notched‐band frequency can be controlled by changing the length of the L‐shaped slot. The proposed antenna has a very small size (20.25 × 8 × 1.27 mm³) compared with previous works. The measured and simulated results show a good agreement in terms of radiation pattern and impedance matching.     

Circularly polarized slot antenna array with sequentially rotated feed network for broadband application

This article presents a novel circularly polarized sequentially rotated slot antenna array (CPSSAA) designed to operate at a frequency of 5.5 GHz. This antenna is suitable for communication applications such as WLAN/WiMAX. Method of feeding is based on sequential rotation with seven quarter‐wavelength transformers. In this case, the elements with 200 Ω impedance could be replaced by other elements with different input impedance. Reducing the elements input impedance, maximum power can be transferred to the elements. Because the lower losses in transmission line occur in presence of lower impedance, the 3 dB axial‐ratio bandwidth of the CPSSAA extends to ～1.3 GHz. The CPSSAA was designed to operate over the frequency range between 4.5 and 6.4 GHz corresponding to an impedance bandwidth of 34.86% for VSWR < 2. Acceptable agreement between the simulation and measured results validates the proposed design. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:358–363, 2015.     

Broadband high‐gain slot grid array antenna for millimeter wave applications

A broadband high‐gain slot grid array antenna (SGAA) is proposed in this paper. Based on the electromagnetic complementarity principle, the metal elements in the traditional microstrip grid array antenna (GAA) are replaced by a wide slot element. Compared with the GAA, the proposed SGAA achieves broadband and high‐gain performance. In order to demonstrate this concept, a prototype with 9‐element SGAA is designed using wide slot radiation elements and fabricated on Rogers 5880 printed circuit board (PCB) substrates, which is fed by a 50 Ω coaxial probe. The measured and simulated results show a good agreement. The proposed SGAA achieves a measured peak gain of 14.8 dBi at 26.0 GHz, a 10‐dB impedance bandwidth from 22.2 to 28.5 GHz with a fractional bandwidth of 24.9%. These results indicate that the SGAA is with high performance and it is suitable for the fifth‐generation (5G) millimeter wave (mmW) wireless communication system.     

一种易调谐的小型GPS微带天线设计

提出了一款新颖的易调谐小型GPS微带天线结构。采用正方形贴片作为辐射单元,通过切角微扰实现右旋圆极化辐射;在贴片中心开槽和四周开缝,利用贴片曲流技术减小天线的尺寸;使用同轴中心馈电加载微带匹配段,实现阻抗的匹配。文章给出了天线的设计思路,并进行了大量的电磁仿真优化,最终对天线进行了加工实验。实验结果表明,在设计的频带内,天线具有较好的阻抗匹配和圆极化辐射特性。该天线具有结构紧凑、易于调谐的特点,具有良好的应用前景。     

Fork‐shaped patch printed ultra‐wideband slot antenna with dual band‐notched characteristics using metamaterial unit cells

In this article, a miniaturized fork‐shaped patch ultra‐wideband (UWB) planar wide‐slot antenna with dual band‐notched characteristics is proposed. With fork‐shaped patch, ultra‐wideband impedance matching from 3.1 to 13.2 GHz is easily achieved. Then, two novel and simple methods are applied to solve the difficulty for UWB slot antennas with fork‐shaped patch to realize band‐notched characteristics. By etching one pair of I‐shaped resonators on both branches of the fork‐shaped structure and adding a rectangular single split‐ring resonator in the rectangular openings of fork‐shaped patch, the wireless local area network (WLAN) band from 5.5 to 6.1 GHz and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 8 GHz band from 7.9 to 8.7 GHz are rejected, respectively. The coplanar waveguide‐fed UWB antenna is successfully designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured and simulated results show a good agreement. The antenna provides nearly stable radiation patterns, high gains and high radiation efficiency.     

Design and analysis of slot antenna with band notch function

In this article, the design, simulation, and construction of a novel wide rectangular slot antenna fed by a 50 Ω coplanar waveguide (CPW) are presented and investigated for multifunctional communication systems. The physical dimension of the antenna is 29 mm (length) × 32 mm (width) × 1.6 mm (thickness). Detailed simulations and experimental investigations are performed to understand its behavior and to optimize for 2.4 GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) and ultra wideband (UWB) operations. The proposed slot antenna is etched on an FR4 substrate with a thickness of 1.6 mm and relative permittivity of 4.4. To improve the impedance matching, a stepped stub structure with CPW feed technique is used. According to the measured results, the proposed antenna has a large bandwidth from 2.1 to 11.6 GHz for voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) less than 2, totally satisfying the requirement of 2.4 GHz WLAN and UWB systems, while providing the required band notch function from 5.1 to 5.9 GHz. The study of time domain characteristics and surface current distributions also indicate the band‐notched function of the antenna. The radiation patterns display nearly omnidirectional performance and the antenna gain is stable except for the rejected frequency band (5.1–5.9 GHz). Moreover, group delays are within 1.5 ns except for the notch‐band. It is observed that the simulated and experimental results have good agreement with each other. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2012.     

Antipodal tapered slot antenna array using broadband decoupling structure for mutual coupling reduction

In this article, an effective method to reduce the mutual coupling between the antipodal tapered slot antenna (ATSA) array is proposed. This method is mainly implemented by loading a set of decoupling structures (DS) perpendicular to the dielectric substrate between two antenna elements. The proposed DS can provide transmission forbidden band which can effectively prevent leaked electromagnetic waves. DS can operate in most frequency bands within 4 to 17.5 GHz. It can enhance about 23 dB isolation between the ATSA array without affecting bandwidth and radiation characteristics. The proposed ATSA arrays are fabricated and tested. The measured results can verify its excellent properties. The proposed broadband decoupling method is a suitable candidate for restrain mutual coupling of ultra‐wideband planar end‐fire antennas. This design sheds new light on broadband decoupling.     

Employing irises and septums to excite the centreline longitudinal slot antennas

A suitable method is introduced to excite the centreline longitudinal slot antennas. For each slot, an iris and a rectangular septum are employed at the opposite sides of the slot such that they have offset from the waveguide centreline. It is shown that to form a high performance slotted array antenna consists of the centreline longitudinal antennas, employing antenna elements where each of them is excited only by an iris or a septum is not advisable. So, employing an iris and a septum all together is proposed to excite the centreline longitudinal slot antennas. This enables one to have a better control over the characteristics of the proposed slot antennas. The performed study indicates that the proposed slot antennas can be modelled as a shunt admittance on a transmission line. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed slot antennas, a two‐by‐three planar array is designed, constructed and tested. The efficacy of the proposed slot antennas is verified by the simulation and the measurement results.     

Application of wiggly ridge waveguide for design of linear array antennas of centered longitudinal shunt slot

A suitable radiating element for design of linear arrays of centered longitudinal shunt slot is proposed, which allows it to largely suppress the second order beams. The proposed radiating slot consists of a centered longitudinal slot, which is cut in the broad wall of a single wiggly ridge waveguide. The wiggly ridge is placed exactly under the slot and the wiggly part is in V‐shape. It is shown that by varying the wiggle depth of the proposed slot, the amount of power coupled to the slot can be adjusted. Some Stegen's like design graphs are obtained for the proposed slot. Then, two linear arrays consist of five and six elements are designed using the obtained graphs and by neglecting the mutual coupling between slots. The arrays have Dolph‐Chebyshev distribution with 20 and 30 dB of side lobe levels. For a better comparison between the proposed slotted arrays and the conventional longitudinal shunt slot arrays, two other slotted arrays in conventional topology and with the same specifications following the well known Elliott's design procedure are designed and simulated. Comparison of the simulated results shows that the second order beams of the designed array are effectively eliminated, while the other antenna specifications are also achieved. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2009.     

Double U‐slots patch antenna for tri‐band wireless systems

A compact microstrip patch antenna with two U‐slots shape is presented. Detailed simulation and experimental investigation are conducted to understand the behavior of the two U‐slots. The proposed antenna generates three resonant frequencies at 2.7, 3.3, and 5.3 GHz. It can, therefore, be used in Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access compliant communication equipment. The proposed antenna has two U‐slot shaped and two bridge elements to connect both shapes together to adapt the structure to the desired interest operating frequency. A comprehensive parametric study has been applied to understand the effect of each U‐slot on the antenna's performance. Moreover, the current distribution for the three bands is investigated to give further understanding of the antenna behavior. The proposed antenna is verified experimentally and the simulated and measured results are in good agreement. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2010.