Active UWB antenna with tunable microstrip filter embedded in the other side of the monopole surface.

band-notched behaviour With this structure the isolation is achieved for a wide frequency
range, as it is needed for the wide tuning range of the antenna. As will
E. Antonino-Daviu, M. Cabedo-Fabrés, M. Ferrando-Bataller be shown later, the isolation circuit does not alter significantly the
and A. Vila-Jimenez ominidirectional radiation pattern of the planar monopole.

An ultra-wideband (UWB) planar monopole antenna with a tunable

band-notched response is proposed. Tuning of the rejected frequency
is realised by loading an embedded resonant slot with a varactor.
Simulations and measurements are presented for the proposed
antenna, both in frequency and time domain.

Introduction: In recent years, antenna design for ultra-wideband

(UWB) systems has attracted increasing interest owing to the appeal-
ing properties of this new communication standard. Planar monopole
antennas have been found to be excellent candidates to operate in
UWB systems, since they can cover the system’s required frequency
range (from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz) and they present a low-cost, very
compact structure [1].
However, over the UWB frequency band there exist other frequency
bands reserved for narrowband technologies, such as wireless LAN
(5725–5825 MHz), which might interfere with the UWB system.
Hence a step forward in UWB antenna design has been to provide a
frequency-notched characteristic in the antenna itself. In recent years,
several authors have proposed UWB antennas including this feature, Fig. 2 Measured return loss of proposed antenna for different bias
which is usually accomplished by inserting an inverted-U-shaped voltages
resonant slot in the antenna planar geometry, and by properly adjusting
its length to make it resonant at the desired filtering frequency [2, 3].
Once the antenna has been designed, it is difficult to readjust the
narrow frequency notch band, since it is determined by the length of the
slot embedded in the planar monopole. Therefore, with the designs
provided up to now it is not possible to tune the centre frequency of the
notch filter in case it was necessary; for instance, as a result of
component tolerances or inaccuracies during fabrication.
In this Letter, an UWB antenna with tunable band-notched behaviour
is proposed. The antenna provides the possibility of adjusting the
rejected band within a wide range of frequencies. Using a varactor
diode the tunable behaviour is easily accomplished, while preserving
the compact structure, the omnidirecctional radiation pattern and the
phase linearity of the planar monopole antenna.

Fig. 1 Geometry of proposed UWB antenna

Grey colour corresponds to back side of antenna

Antenna design: The proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 1. It consists

of a bevelled square planar monopole antenna with an embedded
rectangular slot ring, fabricated over a high-frequency substrate
GML=2032 (er ¼ 3.2) with 0.76 mm thickness, and located over a
100
100 mm2 metallic ground plane. The slot ring is 2 mm thick
and is located 4 mm over the ground plane, and loaded with a lumped Fig. 3 Measured radiation patterns in xy- and zy-plane for proposed
capacitor or varactor. Depending on the value of the capacitance, the antenna
resonant frequency of the embedded slot changes and then the a At 4 GHz
b At 8 GHz
band-rejection in the UWB antenna can be adjusted. The bias network c At 11 GHz
of the varactor used in tuning the antenna is shown also in Fig. 1. The —— Ey
DC bias voltage is isolated from the RF by means of a lowpass – – – Ef

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 31st August 2007 Vol. 43 No. 18

Results and discussion: A high quality varactor with a tuning range
of 0.5 to 2.1 pF for 20 V  VDC  0 V was used for the proposed
design. The antenna was first simulated and optimised with CST
Microwave Studio package and then a prototype of the antenna was
fabricated. Fig. 2 shows the return loss of the antenna measured for
different bias voltages. As observed, the filtering frequency can be
tuned electronically by adjusting the reverse bias voltage applied to
the varactor. By increasing the DC bias voltage from 0 to 20 V, the
capacitance increases and the notch band is shifted up from 4.6 to
6.2 GHz. The measured radiation patterns at 4, 8 and 11 GHz are
shown in Fig. 3, for a notch frequency tuned to 5.8 GHz. As desired,
the antenna gives a nearly omnidirecctional radiation pattern in the
xy-plane. The antenna gain measured in the entire operating band is
presented in Fig. 4, showing a sharp gain decrease in the tuned
notched frequency. Moreover, time domain measurements have been
carried out in order to guarantee the suitability of the antenna for
UWB systems. Fig. 5 shows the group delay measured for the
proposed antenna, which is nearly constant in the whole band
except at the notched frequency. This result demonstrates that the
antenna exhibits phase linearity as desired in UWB antennas [3].
Fig. 4 Measured gain against frequency
Fig. 5 Measured group delay
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 31st August 2007 Vol. 43 No. 18
Conclusions: An UWB antenna with tunable band-notched behaviour
has been implemented by loading the resonant slot of the antenna with
a variable capacitance or varactor. By means of a control signal, the
notch band can be easily tuned, while maintaining good radiation
performance. Time domain characteristic has been measured to
guarantee the suitability of the antenna for UWB systems. The idea
of loading the slot with an active device to control frequency rejection
can be easily extended to those monopoles the structure of which is
coplanar to the ground plane.
Acknowledgment: This work has been supported by the Spanish
Ministry of Education and Science under project TEC 2004-
04866-C04-01.
# The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2007
28 May 2007
Electronics Letters online no: 20071567
doi: 10.1049/el:20071567
E. Antonino-Daviu, M. Cabedo-Fabrés, M. Ferrando-Bataller and
A. Vila-Jimenez (Departamento de Comunicaciones, Universidad
Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain)
E-mail: evanda@upvnet.upv.es
References
1 Schantz, H.: ‘The art and science of ultrawideband antennas’ (Artech
House, Norwood, MA, 2005)
2 Su, S.W., Wong, K.L., and Tang, C.L.: ‘Band-notched ultra-wideband
planar monopole antenna’, Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., 2005, 44, (3),
pp. 217–219
3 Cho, Y.J., Kim, K.H., Choi, D.H., Lee, S.S., and Park, S.-O.: ‘A miniature
UWB planar monopole antenna with 5-GHz band-rejection filter and the
time-domain characteristics’, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., 2006, 54,
(5), pp. 1453–1460