752
11, 2012
Systematic Design of UWB Monopole Antennas
With Stable Omnidirectional Radiation Pattern
Foad Fereidoony, Somayyeh Chamaani, and Seyed Abdullah Mirtaheri
Abstract—This letter proposes a simple design approach to gain
stable omnidirectional radiation pattern in printed ultrawideband
(UWB) antennas. Monitoring of the current distributions in dif-
ferent frequencies shows that a combination of standing and trav-
eling modes exists on the antenna. By determining the dominant
mode at higher and lower frequencies, the corresponding optimum
size of antenna that guarantees a stable omnidirectional radiation
pattern and a good return loss is obtained. Using the proposed
method, two compact antennas with circular ground and minia-
turized fractal ground are designed. Simulation and measurement
results show a good impedance matching and an excellent omnidi-
rectional radiation pattern for proposed antennas.
Index Terms—Monopole antenna, omnidirectional, pattern sta-
bility factor (PSF), radiation mechanism, ultrawideband (UWB).
I. INTRODUCTION
A MONG the various configurations proposed for ultraw-
ideband (UWB) antennas, the planar monopole antenna
attracts more attention because of its small size and simple struc-
ture. This type of antenna can be easily matched over the UWB
bandwidth (3.1–10.6 GHz) [1]. However, the main issue is ra-
diation pattern degradation of this antenna at higher frequen-
cies. This degradation causes error in many applications such as
high-accuracy positioning systems, portable devices, and cog-
nitive radio systems, which require stable omnidirectional radi-
ation pattern over the whole UWB frequency band.
Up to now, various techniques [2]–[9] have been proposed to
improve the radiation pattern using some fingertip guide without
any physical insight. In other words, there is no theory by which
a UWB antenna can be designed considering aforementioned
constraints. To fulfill a strong procedure for design of UWB
monopole antenna, its operating mechanism must be examined
precisely.
In this letter, a novel design procedure is presented for the
UWB monopole antenna considering its radiation mechanism.
The current distribution pattern on the antenna structure con-
sisting of a monopole element and a ground plane is probed.
It is observed that at the lower frequencies, distributed surface
current on the radiator and ground is purely a standing wave pat-
tern, which changes to a traveling wave pattern at the higher fre-
quencies. From the impedance bandwidth viewpoint, the radius
Manuscript received June 11, 2012; accepted June 18, 2012. Date of publica-
tion June 22, 2012; date of current version July 12, 2012.
The authors are with the Electrical Engineering Department, K. N. Toosi Uni-
versity of Technology, Tehran 6618856383, Iran (e-mail: foad.feredoony@ee.
kntu.ac.ir).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2012.2205658
1536-1225/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.
of the patch and dimensions of the ground must be chosen so that
the antenna can support both traveling wave and standing wave.
However, from the radiation pattern viewpoint, transition from
standing wave pattern to a traveling wave pattern of the surface
currents leads to variation of the symmetric radiation pattern
in the lower frequencies to the pinched donut-shape pattern at
higher frequencies [10]. In addition, at higher frequencies, the
radiated fields in the broadside direction cancel out each other,
and a dip appears. Based on these facts and using a simple com-
putational analysis, upper and lower limit and also the optimum
values for the radius of the patch and length and width of the
ground are computed.
Using our proposed method, two monopole antennas with
miniaturized circular ground and fractal ground are presented.
Simulation and measurement results show that both proposed
antennas have an excellent omnidirectional radiation pattern (in
the -plane) over the 3.1–10.6-GHz frequency band with high
(98%) pattern stability factor (PSF) [11] and low pattern nonuni-
formity ( 3 db) [6]. Furthermore, results show higher PSF for
the proposed antennas compared to antennas in [2] and [9].
It is worthwhile to mention that the proposed antennas also
have the advantages of light weight, low profile, low fabrication
cost, high radiation efficiency, and a 100% overall bandwidth
dB and ) [11], which make them good
candidates for UWB communications.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
A basic UWB monopole antenna with circular patch and rect-
angular ground plane has been studied in [10]. In the following
parts, the optimum values of the various parameter of the an-
tenna will be computed, and two antennas will be proposed
according to the obtained values. The antenna is printed on a
mm RF35 board with and a thickness of
0.76 mm. It is fed by a tapered 50- microstrip line.
A. Optimum Radius of Circular Patch
In the first step, the optimum radius of the circular patch
is determined regarding two criteria: 1) impedance bandwidth
(3.1–10.6 GHz), and 2) stable radiation pattern.
To satisfy the former, the diameter of the patch should be
about a quarter wavelength of low frequency [10], [12]. In the
latter case, finding the optimum radius for stable radiation pat-
tern, the radiation mechanism of the antenna is studied. In Fig. 1,
current distribution pattern along the circumference of the patch
and ground have been plotted. As illustrated in Fig. 1(a), in the
frequency of 3 GHz, the current distribution has a standing wave
pattern along the edge of the patch, and peaks of different phase
are at the same place, which shows that the antenna operates like
a resonance (quarter-wavelength diameter) monopole antenna
FEREIDOONY et al.: SYSTEMATIC DESIGN OF UWB MONOPOLE ANTENNAS WITH STABLE OMNIDIRECTIONAL RADIATION PATTERN
Fig. 1. Distributed magnetic field in different phases on the edge of (a) half-
disk GHz , (b) half-disk GHz , (c) ground GHz , and
(d) ground GHz .
having symmetric radiation pattern. The reason is that at low
frequency, the wavelength is bigger than antenna dimensions
and electromagnetic (EM) wave can be coupled to the structure
easily [12]. In the frequency of 10 GHz [Fig. 1(b)], however, the
current travels along the lower edge of the patch, i.e., peaks of
different phase have a delay regarding each other, while it has
an oscillating pattern in the upper edge. In this case, the wave-
length becomes comparable to the antenna dimensions, hence
EM waves need to travel down to the antenna structure [12].
To approximate the radiation pattern of traveling current on
the patch, we use the radiated fields in the broadside direction
by traveling current on the wire of length “ ” as
follows:
(1)
It is seen that if the current travels on a -length antenna, a
null appears in the broadside direction. Thus, to have an omnidi-
rectional radiation pattern, half the perimeter of the patch should
be less than the minimum wavelength in desired frequency band
mm . Therefore, a proper value for radius of
the patch to have a good impedance matching and stable radia-
tion pattern over the whole UWB frequency range is the average
value of 12 mm and 9 mm , which
is about 10 mm.
B. Optimum Length of Rectangular Ground
In this step, the optimum value of the length of ground is
computed. In Fig. 1(c) and (d), the magnetic field distributions
on the edge of the ground plane are shown. It is obvious that
fields have purely standing wave pattern along the vertical and
horizontal edge of the ground at low frequency (3 GHz), while
at high frequency (10 GHz), it has traveling wave pattern on
the horizontal edge and standing wave pattern on the vertical
edge ( ). Owing to the fact that standing wave currents that are
responsible for copolarization components are distributed only
on the vertical edge of the ground, the standing wave radiation
in the broadside direction can be shown by [Fig. 1(c) and (d)]
(2)
753
Fig. 2. (a) Distributed surface currents on the antenna. (b) Tow current source
with phase difference of .
Thus, to avoid appearing null in the broadside direction, “ ,”
the ground length, should be lower than minimum wavelength in
the frequency band. Although shorter length of ground supports
more uniform radiation pattern, results show that in the cases of
mm, the impedance bandwidth of the antenna is de-
graded because the ground cannot support the traveling wave on
its upper horizontal edge. In summary, the length of the ground
should be: 1) less than 28 mm to achieve omnidirectional ra-
diation pattern; and 2) more than 10 mm to support traveling
wave current, which is necessary for good matching at higher
frequencies. As a consequence, the optimum value for length of
the ground is about 10 mm.
C. Optimum Width of Rectangular Ground
In this step, the optimum value of ground width is computed.
According to the aforementioned discussion, by choosing 10
mm for both the radius of patch and length of the ground, they
have omnidirectional radiation pattern separately. However, ra-
diation pattern of the antenna is a contribution of the radiated
electric fields by surface currents on the monopole part and
ground section.
In Fig. 2(a), surface current distribution on the antenna
structure is shown. As long as the vertical currents on both the
antenna and ground, shown by “1” and “2” respectively, are
in-phase, the -plane radiation pattern will be omnidirectional.
However, the radiated electric fields by the vertical currents
on the ground have a phase delay with respect to monopole
currents. This is due to fact that, first, surface currents on the
ground travel along the width of ground and they have no
vertical component. After a phase delay of is the
wavenumber in the operating frequency, and is width of the
ground-surface currents turn in to vertical direction. Therefore,
what is to take place can heuristically be expressed as a contri-
bution of the electric field radiated by two current sources with
a phase deference of as shown in Fig. 2(b). Equation
(3) shows the total radiated field by two current sources with
the phase difference of [13]
(3)
where and is the phase difference
between current sources. Total radiated field in the broadside
direction is shown by
(4)
It is clear that if , a null appears in the broadside direc-
tion. It follows that to have an omnidirectional radiation pattern,
754 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 11, 2012

Fig. 4. (a) Structure of the proposed fractal ground. (b) Design procedure of
Fig. 3. (a) Structure of UWB monopole antenna with circular ground ( the fractal geometry ( mm, mm). (c) Distributed surface
mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, current on the fractal ground.
mm, mm, mm, mm, mm,
mm). (b) Distributed surface currents on the antenna with circular ground.

the ground width should be shorter than the minimum wave-

length in the frequency band . The shorter ground
width leads to less nonuniformity in the radiation pattern. How-
ever, when the ground width is less than , it cannot
support traveling currents on its upper edge, which affects
the impedance bandwidth at higher frequencies. Therefore,
the ground width should be: 1) less than (28 mm)
Fig. 5. Measured of the presented antennas.
to achieve omnidirection radiation pattern; and 2) more than
(14 mm) to achieve good impedance matching.
TABLE I
Hence, 14 mm is chosen as an optimum value. COMPARISON OF THE RADIATION PATTERN MAXIMUM NONUNIFORMITY
( -PLANE), PSF, AND IMPEDANCE BANDWIDTH OF THE
D. UWB Monopole Antenna With Circular Ground PRESENTED ANTENNAS

Results show that an antenna with proposed values of the

ground width (14 mm), ground length (10 mm), and patch ra-
dius (10 mm) has an omnidirectional radiation pattern in the
-plane with 4 dB nonuniformity, but still it needs to be im-
proved. According to the previous discussions, radius of patch
and length and width of ground cannot be violated from their
optimum values. Therefore, the best way to further improve the
performance of the antenna is shaping the ground part with op-
timum dimension so that the currents on the patch and ground
become in-phase. To acquire this aim, the radiator element and
ground should have similar shapes [Fig. 3(a)]. Fig. 3(b) shows
the distributed surface current on this structure. In this case, a
rectangular ground with the width of 14 mm has been shaped to
a circle segment. Since the upper edge of the rectangular ground
that was responsible for phase delay has been bended, the ver-
tical surface currents, shown by “2,” can travel on it without
any phase delay with respect to the current on the monopole
part, which is shown by “1.” This will guarantee an excellent
omnidirectional radiation in the -plane. Results show that the
radiation pattern nonuniformity has been decreased to 2.5 dB,
which is an acceptable value [6].
E. UWB Monopole Antenna With Miniaturized Fractal
Ground
A novel approach to further improvement of the radiation
pattern is to use a miniaturized fractal rectangular ground
[Fig. 4(a)]. In this structure, first the width of the rectangular
ground is decreased to 10 mm , which results
in much less nonuniformity in the radiation pattern. In the
next step, to mitigate the corrupted impedance bandwidth, the
upper edge of the ground is shaped using fractal geometry
[14]. In Fig. 4(b), the horizontal path on the fractal geometry
is shown by “ ,” and the vertical path is shown by “ .” It can
be seen that total horizontal path of
the fractal ground is about 7 mm compared to the 5 mm of
horizontal path ( ) for the antenna with rectangular ground.
Thus, the fractal ground meets the constraint of the
width of ground obtained in Section II-C, and as a result, its
impedance bandwidth has been improved in comparison to
an antenna with rectangular ground . Although the
phase delay of the fractal ground has been
increased compared to that of rectangular
ground, contribution of the extra vertical currents, existing on
the vertical paths of the fractal edge [Fig. 4(c)] with vertical
currents of patch and ground, compensate the nonuniformity
of radiation pattern. Table I shows the simulated radiation
pattern nonuniformity, PSF-radiation pattern stability over the
impedance bandwidth [11], and impedance bandwidth for the
presented antennas. It is obvious that the antenna with a fractal
rectangular ground has the least radiation pattern nonuniformity
compared to others.
III. RESULTS
Fig. 5 shows the measured of the presented antennas.
As can be seen, the antenna with circular ground has good
impedance matching in the 3.1–10.6-GHz frequency band.
FEREIDOONY et al.: SYSTEMATIC DESIGN OF UWB MONOPOLE ANTENNAS WITH STABLE OMNIDIRECTIONAL RADIATION PATTERN 755

Fig. 7. Broadside gain of the presented antennas.

IV. CONCLUSION
In this letter, a new approach for design of the planar
monopole UWB antenna was proposed to achieve a good
impedance matching and stable omnidirectional radiation pat-
tern. Two compact antennas with circular ground and fractal
ground were proposed in which drawbacks of conventional
antennas were alleviated. Simulation and measured results
show that in the proposed antennas, the radiation pattern has
been improved noticeably compared to previously proposed
antennas, which makes them good candidates for many UWB
applications.
Fig. 6. H-plane radiation pattern. (a) Antenna with circular ground. (b) An- REFERENCES
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