IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 54, NO.

4, APRIL 2006 1105

An Ultrawideband Coplanar Waveguide-Fed Tapered

Ring Slot Antenna
Tzyh-Ghuang Ma, Member, IEEE, and Chao-Hsiung Tseng, Member, IEEE

Abstract—In this paper, we present a new coplanar wave-

guide-fed tapered ring slot antenna for ultrawideband (UWB)

applications. This antenna consists of a 50 coplanar waveguide

feeding line, wideband coplanar waveguide-to-slotline transition,
and a pair of curved radiating slots. The impedance bandwidth
with VSWR 2is from 3.1 GHz to more than 12 GHz. The
actual operating bandwidth is, however, limited by the distortion
of radiation patterns. Such pattern distortion can be attributed to
the antenna mode transition and is investigated in this paper with
the help of the radiation patterns in the traditional sense as well as
a dimensionless normalized antenna transfer function. By suitably
allocating such mode-transition phenomenon to the notched band
in a UWB radio, we demonstrate that antennas with desirable
radiation characteristics in both UWB low and high bands can be
readily achieved. The system responses of a transceiving antenna
system in free space are addressed as well.
Index Terms—Antenna radiation patterns, coplanar waveguide,
slot antennas, ultrawideband (UWB) antennas.

I. INTRODUCTION
Fig. 1. Configuration of the antenna. (a) Top view. (b) Cross-sectional view.

U LTRAWIDEBAND (UWB) technology has experienced

a blooming growth in the past few years and has become
the most promising candidate for future short-range high-speed
indoor data communications. In 2002, the U.S. Federal Com-
munication Commission officially allocated the spectrum from
3.1 to 10.6 GHz for unlicensed UWB communication applica-
tions. The antenna implemented in a UWB radio plays a more
unique role than it does in conventional narrowband systems. In
such a system, the antenna behaves like a filter in both spatial
and frequency domains and tends to introduce unpleasant signal
distortion and degradation. Many studies have been devoted to
investigating antennas for UWB radios [1]–[11]. Schantz pro-
poses a variety of new designs including planar elliptical dipole
antenna [1] and COTAB magnetic slot antenna [2]. Chen et al.
discuss the considerations for the source pulses and antennas in
UWB radios [3] and also propose new design like the bi-arm
rolled monopole [4]. Issues regarding pattern descriptors and
time-domain effective height have been discussed [5], [6], and
various novel UWB antenna designs have been recently reported
as well [7]–[11].
In this paper, a new coplanar waveguide-fed tapered ring slot
antenna is proposed for UWB radios. This antenna is formed
by a 50 coplanar waveguide (CPW), a wideband coplanar
Manuscript received June 29, 2005; revised September 29, 2005.
T.-G. Ma is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National
Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail:
tgma@ee.ntust.edu.tw).
C.-H. Tseng is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA on leave from the De-
partment of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10764,
Taiwan, R.O.C.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2006.872562
0018-926X/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
waveguide-to-slotline transition, and a pair of curved radiating
slots. By gradually changing the width of the radiating slots,
impedance matching between the transmission line and free
space can be accomplished over a very wide bandwidth. The
actual antenna bandwidth is, however, ultimately limited by
the distortion of radiation patterns. In Section II, the antenna
geometry and design guideline are first introduced. In the first
part of Section III, parameters in the traditional sense including
return loss and radiation patterns are illustrated. With the help
of a dimensionless normalized antenna transfer function [7],
those antenna parameters frequently involved in UWB antenna
design, i.e., the antenna transfer functions, gain responses,
and group delays, are addressed and discussed in detail in the
second part of Section III. Finally, the system responses as the
proposed antenna serving as both the transmitting and receiving
antennas in a transceiving antenna system are investigated at
the end of this paper.
II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION
In designing a UWB antenna, there is a need for an impedance
transformer so that the wideband impedance matching between
the transmission line and free space can be accomplished. In [2],
such a transformer is realized by means of a pair of tapered radi-
atingslots,whilein[9]itisachievedbygraduallychangingthegap
spacing between the radiator and the ground plane. In this paper,
we propose a coplanar waveguide-fed tapered ring slot antenna
whose mechanism of wideband transformer can be explained as
follows. As shown in Fig. 1, which is the antenna configuration
1106 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 54, NO. 4, APRIL 2006

along with the design parameters, the signal is first fed into a 50
coplanar waveguide via a standard miniature adapter (SMA)
connector. At the end of the CPW feeding line, a pair of 100
slotlines are connected in parallel to ensure impedance matching.
The widths of the slotlines are then widened steadily to increase
the characteristic impedance and therefore facilitate the radia-
tion from the slotline to free space. To minimize the required an-
tennadimension,theslotlinesaredirectedbackwardintentionally
and are described by equations of ellipses. For optimum inband
impedance matching, a set of parametric studies were carried out
using Ansoft High Frequency Simulation Solver (HFSS) version
9.0. It is found that the ratio of outer semiminor to semimajor axes
of the elliptical profile, i.e., , is the most significant
parameter to affect the impedance matching. Roughly speaking,
an optimal ratio of 3:4 can be observed for a variety of substrates.
The initial width of the radiating slot is kept the same as the
width of a 100 slotline, and the end width of the radiating slot
can serve as a fine-tuning parameter. A narrower slot will
inevitably affect the inband impedance matching while a wider
one may increase the cross-polarization level. It is also found that
the ground plane size around the radiation slots, which is defined
by by , can be minimized as long as the inband matching
condition is remained.
The lowest operating frequency of the proposed antenna can
be approximated by
(1)
where is the estimated
longest current path along the outer boundary of the elliptical
profile, is the speed of light, and is the ef-
fective dielectric constant. Due to the fact that the bandwidth
of the coplanar waveguide-to-slotline transition is much wider
than that required in UWB radios, the highest antenna operating
frequency, on the other hand, is generally limited by the distor-
tion of radiation patterns. Also note that owing to the symmetry
of antenna geometry, bonding wires between the ground planes
are not necessary and the proposed antenna is therefore a true
uniplanar design.
The proposed antenna was fabricated on a Rogers RO4003
substrate with dielectric constant and height
mm. The loss tangent is 0.0027 at 10 GHz. At the center
frequency of the UWB spectrum, i.e., 6.85 GHz, the design
parameters for a 50 coplanar waveguide are mm
and mm. The length and width of the 100 slotline
and are determined at the same frequency and equal
to 0.3 and 5 mm, respectively. The antenna geometric param-
eters are designed in accordance with the design guideline in
the previous paragraphs and are given by mm,
mm, mm, mm,
and mm. According to (1), the corresponding lowest
operating frequency is 3.2 GHz. The ratio of is
equal to 0.8, which is close to the ratio for optimum antenna
inband impedance matching. The ground plane around the radi-
ating slots is minimized by setting as 5 mm, and the overall
antenna size is thus 66.1 44 mm .
Fig. 2. Measured and simulated return losses of the proposed antenna.
III. EXPERIMENT RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Return Loss and Radiation Patterns
The simulated and measured return losses are illustrated in
Fig. 2. The simulation was performed by Ansoft HFSS 9.0 and
the measurement was taken by an Agilent E8362B vector net-
work analyzer. Fairly good agreement between the results can
be observed and the little discrepancy can be mostly attributed
to the fabrication inaccuracy. The measured antenna impedance
bandwidth with dB (or VSWR ) is from 3.1
to more than 12 GHz. The actual operating bandwidth is, how-
ever, ultimately limited by the distortion of radiation patterns.
Suitable band-notched structures [10], [11] can be introduced
to the antenna to avert the potential interference due to the co-
existence of UWB and wireless local-area networks (WLAN)
as well.
The radiation patterns were measured and calibrated in an
anechoic chamber. Fig. 3(a) and (b) illustrates the simulated and
measured normalized patterns in both E- (or -) and H- (or -)
planes at the center frequencies of UWB low and high bands.
The UWB low band is from 3.1 to 5.1 GHz, whereas the high
band is from 5.825 to 10.6 GHz. The copolarized components
in the E- and H-planes are and , respectively. It is shown
in the figure that the copolarizations are broadside and bidirec-
tional, and the slight asymmetry in the measured H-planes can
be attributed to the alignment mismatch in the measurement as
well as the reflection from the connecting cable. The cross-po-
larizations, although not shown here for simplicity, are gener-
ally small compared to the copolarizations. It is also interesting
to note that the patterns in the high band are quite distinct from
those in the low band. This phenomenon is frequently encoun-
tered in UWB antenna design and will be exploited in detail in
the next section.
B. Antenna Transfer Functions
Due to the extremely large operating bandwidth, UWB an-
tennas evaluated solely in the traditional sense are generally not
MA AND TSENG: UWB COPLANAR WAVEGUIDE-FED TAPERED RING SLOT ANTENNA
Fig. 3. Measured and simulated radiation patterns of the proposed antenna. (a)
E- (yz -) plane. (b) H- (xz -) plane.
sufficient. Instead, many researchers devote themselves to inves-
tigating the derivation of antenna transfer functions or the corre-
sponding antenna impulse responses so as to give a comprehen-
sive description of the antenna performance [12]–[13][14]–[15].
Baum et al. extend the definitions of antenna gain and radiation
pattern into time domain and also describe in detail the relation-
ship between the antenna transient gain and the conventional
gain definition in the continuous-wave sense [12], [13]. Soergel
et al. compare the measurement procedures for UWB antennas
in frequency domain to that in time domain [14]. Scheers et al.
propose a normalize impulse response (IR) for transverse elec-
tromagnetic mode horns and successfully apply this normalized
IR in simulating the system responses of various problems [15].
These system responses are reported to be curial in UWB an-
tenna design as well [3].
Recently, we modified the definition of the antenna transfer
function given in [15] by a normalization factor , re-
1107
Fig. 4. (a) Arrangement for measuring the dimensionless normalized antenna
transfer function. (b) Transceiving antenna system with the E-planes of the
transmitting and receiving antennas being aligned with each other.
sulting in a dimensionless normalized antenna transfer function
[7]
dimensionless (2)
where represents the normalized IR of an antenna.
The main idea behind this revised definition is that the con-
ventional two-antenna gain measurement method can now be
readily adopted to evaluate the antenna transfer function as long
as the standard antenna for calibration purpose is well matched
to the measuring system and with constant group delay. The
experimental arrangement for evaluating this dimensionless
normalized antenna transfer function is shown in Fig. 4(a).
With this arrangement, the dimensionless normalized antenna
transfer function of the antenna under test (AUT) can be deter-
mined by [7]
(3)
where is the measured transmission scattering
parameter of the AUT at a specific angle is
that of the standard antenna in its maximum gain direction, and
is the dimensionless normalized antenna transfer
function of the standard antenna, which is given by
(4)
1108 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 54, NO. 4, APRIL 2006
Fig. 5. Measured gain responses of the proposed antenna at  = lower edge of the WLAN bands. Another notch frequency also
0 45 ; 0 ; 45 , and 90 in (a) E-plane and (b) H-plane.
and in (4) are the absolute gain and group delay of
the standard antenna, respectively.
With the knowledge of the location of antenna virtual source
[15], the group delay of standard antenna can be readily deter-
mined. The absolute gain can be read from the data sheet as
well. By substituting (4) into (3), the dimensionless normalized
antenna transfer function of the AUT can now be experimen-
tally evaluated. It should be emphasized that the magnitude
in decibels of this dimensionless normalized antenna transfer
function is exactly the absolute gain of an antenna, and therefore
will be referred to as gain response in the following discussion
for simplicity.
In this paper, a Spectrum Technologies International
DRH-118 double ridged horn antenna was chosen to be
the standard antenna. This antenna is well matched to the
measuring system and has a 630 ps group delay. Following the
measurement procedure in [7], the gain responses and group
delays of the proposed antenna were evaluated in both E-
and H- planes from 2 to 12 GHz with a
0.025 GHz step. Fig. 5(a) and (b) illustrates the measured gain
responses at four angles: , and in the E-
and H-planes, respectively. The intended masked spectrum at
the WLAN bands is depicted in the figure as well. Referring to
Fig. 5(a), the gain response in the E-plane reveals dual peaks
at the boresight direction and is with a notch frequency around
Fig. 6. Measured antenna group delays at  = 045 ; 0 ; 45 , and 90 in the
E-plane.
6 GHz. As the reception angle deviates from the antenna
mainbeam, i.e., the boresight direction, such notch frequency
becomes less conspicuous and even negligible. Due to the
deep null in the far-field pattern, the received signal strength
at is so small that the periodical fluctuations can
be principally attributed to the mismatch reflections between
the antenna and the instruments. Fig. 5(b) illustrates the gain
responses in the H-plane. The gain response at the boresight
direction is certainly the same as that in the E-plane, and the
little discrepancy is due to alignment mismatch in the mea-
surement. As the reception angle departs from the boresight
direction, the notch frequency moves steadily downward to the
can be observed around 9.5 GHz.
In the previous section, we have pointed out that the radiation
patterns in UWB low and high bands have noticeable difference.
This implies that between the two bands the antenna operation
mode may transit from the fundamental mode to the next higher
order mode so that the radiation patterns change noticeably. The
measured gain responses in Fig. 5 further sustain this inference.
Refer to the figure, the notch frequencies around 5–6 GHz can be
properly interpreted by this mode transition phenomenon. Owing
to the mode transition, additional distortion is inevitably intro-
duced to UWB signals, and the system performance suffers ac-
cordingly. For the proposed antenna, however, such signal degra-
dation could be mitigated because the mode transition is now al-
located in the band that will likely not be used in UWB radios due
to interference problem. We therefore infer that in UWB antenna
design, it is desirable to allocate such mode transitions at the re-
jected bands, e.g., the WLAN bands, so as to mitigate potential
signal distortion as well as to achieve stable radiation patterns si-
multaneously in UWB low and high bands.
Finally, Fig. 6 shows typical antenna group delays at the same
reception angles in the E-plane. It is shown in the figure that
the group delays demonstrate rather stable responses, and thus
suggest that the proposed antenna does not introduce pernicious
phase distortion to the incoming/outgoing UWB signals. The
fluctuations in the curves are mostly attributed to the noise in
the measurement. It can be reduced by implementing some av-
eraging algorithm to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Further
MA AND TSENG: UWB COPLANAR WAVEGUIDE-FED TAPERED RING SLOT ANTENNA
Fig. 7. Magnitude of the simulated system responses with the E-planes of the
transceiving antenna pairs being aligned with each other.
reducing the intermediate-frequency (IF) bandwidth or using
time-gating techniques in a vector network analyzer can also
improve the measurement accuracy at the expense of time.
C. System Responses
We have addressed that the system responses of a transceiving
antenna system are frequently discussed in UWB antenna de-
sign [3]. It is also noted that an antenna system with desir-
able responses but insufficient impedance bandwidth may be
even more preferable than that with adequate impedance band-
width but less attractive responses. In this section, it is there-
fore interesting to evaluate the system responses as the pro-
posed antenna serving as both the transmitting and receiving an-
tennas in a transceiving antenna system. Such system responses
can be experimentally evaluated in an anechoic chamber, or
instead, can be simulated with the help of individual transfer
functions of the transmitting and receiving antennas. In [7], we
have demonstrated that the newly proposed dimensionless nor-
malized antenna transfer function is capable of accurately pre-
dicting such system responses by simply substituting the corre-
sponding transfer functions into
(5)
In (5), and are the
dimensionless normalized antenna transfer functions of the
transmitting and receiving antennas, respectively, and
and are the associated orientations of the antennas.
Fig. 4(b) illustrates a typical transceiving antenna system with
the E-planes of the antennas being aligned with each other.
The angle between the - and ’-axes is , and the separation
distance between the antennas is . In evaluating the system
responses, the corresponding antenna transfer functions should
be properly substituted into (5) in accordance with the angle of
. pp. 214–218.
Fig. 7 illustrates the evaluated system responses of the con-
figuration in Fig. 4(b). The separation distance is 2 m and the
1109
angles are , and 90 . Referring to the figure, the
responses exhibit dual peaks and remain acceptable in most part
of the UWB bands. The group delays, although not shown here
for simplicity, reveal stable responses over the frequency band
as well. System responses other than those in the E-plane can
also be readily derived as long as the corresponding antenna
transfer functions have been evaluated in advance. Finally, it is
interesting to note that the dimensionless normalized antenna
transfer function is expected to find applications in estimating
the system responses in more realistic environments as well.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new UWB coplanar waveguide-fed tapered
ring slot antenna has been proposed and demonstrated. This an-
tenna possesses adequate impedance bandwidth and quite stable
radiation patterns in both UWB low and high bands. The pat-
tern distortion phenomenon that commonly occurred in UWB
antenna design has been explained in terms of mode transition,
and the suggestion for improving the antenna radiation charac-
teristics has been given. The responses of a transceiving antenna
system further certify the suitability of the antenna for UWB
applications. The future works will be in introducing suitable
band-notched structures to mask the WLAN bands and in sim-
ulating the system responses in a more realistic environment
with the help of the measured dimensionless normalized an-
tenna transfer functions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the
reviewers and to Prof. S.-K. Jeng at National Taiwan University
for their valuable and thoughtful comments.
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1110 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 54, NO. 4, APRIL 2006

[12] E. G. Farr and C. E. Baum, “Extending the definitions of antenna gain Chao-Hsiung Tseng (S’03–M’05) was born in
and radiation pattern into time domain,”, Air Force Research Lab. Sensor Miaoli, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1974. He received the
and Simulation Note 350, 1992. B.S. degree in electronic engineering from National
[13] C. E. Baum, E. G. Farr, and C. A. Frost, “Transient gain of antennas Taipei Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan,
related to the traditional continuous-wave (CW) definition of gain,” R.O.C., in 1994 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in
in Ultra-Wideband Short-Pulse Electromagnetics 4, Jun. 1998, pp. communication engineering from National Taiwan
109–118. University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1999 and
[14] W. Soergel, F. Pivit, and W. Wiesbeck, “Comparison of frequency do- 2004, respectively.
main and time domain measurement procedures for ultra wideband an- From 1999 to 2000, he was an Associate
tennas,” in Proc. Antenna Measurement Techniques Assoc. 25th Annu. Microwave Researcher with the Center for Mea-
Meeting Symp., Irvine, CA, Oct. 2003, pp. 72–76. surement Standards, Industrial Technology Research
[15] B. Scheers, M. Acheroy, and A. V. Vorst, “Time-domain simulation and Institute, Hsinchu. From 2001 to 2002, he was a Teaching Assistant with the
characterization of TEM horns using a normalized impulse response,” Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, where he
Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng. Microw. Antennas Propag., vol. 147, pp. 463–468, became a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2004. He is now a Visiting Scholar
Dec. 2000. with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los
Angeles. His research interests include left-handed metamaterials, microwave
measurements and calibration techniques, and microwave-imaging systems
and techniques.
Tzyh-Ghuang Ma (S’00–M’06) was born in Taipei,
Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1973. He received the B.S. and
M.S. degrees in electrical engineering and the Ph.D.
degree in communication engineering from National
Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1995,
1997,and 2005, respectively.
In 2005, he joined the Faculty of the Department
of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan Uni-
versity of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan,
R.O.C., where he is now an Assistant Professor. His
research interests include mobile antenna designs,
electromagnetic theory and numerical techniques, ultrawideband antenna, and
passive circuit designs.