1282
14, 2015
Structure and Computationally Efficient
Simulation-Driven Design of Compact
UWB Monopole Antenna
Adrian Bekasiewicz and Slawomir Koziel, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—In this letter, a structure of a small ultra-wideband
(UWB) monopole antenna, its design optimization procedure as
well as experimental validation are presented. According to our ap-
proach, antenna compactness is achieved by means of a meander
line for current path enlargement as well as the two parameterized
slits providing additional degrees of freedom that help to ensure
good impedance matching. For the sake of reliability, the antenna
design process (simultaneous adjustment of multiple geometry pa-
rameters) is carried out using high-fidelity EM analyses. Surro-
gate-based optimization involving an auxiliary coarse-discretiza-
tion EM model it utilized to accomplish the design in practical time-
frame. Penalty function approach allows us to reduce the antenna
footprint (to only mm ) while maintaining acceptable
reflection in the UWB frequency range. Experimental validation of
the design is also provided.
Index Terms—Computer-aided design, simulation-driven
design, small antennas, space mapping, UWB monopole.
I. INTRODUCTION
S MALL size has nowadays become an important design
consideration for ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas, espe-
cially for handheld devices and wearable applications [1]. In
particular, design of simple yet compact antennas is funda-
mental for UWB system integration with portable devices as it
can reduce complexity of the RF sections [1]. Unfortunately, re-
alization of small-footprint UWB structures poses considerable
challenge: reduction of the antenna size results in a decrease of
the current path, which leads to matching degradation for lower
frequencies. Perhaps the most common approach to handle this
issue is introduction of slits and stubs to enlarge the current
paths within the ground plane and, consequently, to improve
low-frequency antenna performance in terms of its reflection
response (e.g., [2] and [3]).
Given the antenna topology, an important design issue is
adjustment of its geometry parameters: as a result of com-
plex interactions between the antenna components and their
effect on the reflection response, as well as the lack of simple
theoretical models, EM-simulation has to be used for reliable
Manuscript received November 21, 2014; revised January 05, 2015; accepted
February 07, 2015. Date of publication February 10, 2015; date of current ver-
sion June 02, 2015. This work was supported in part by the National Science
Center, Poland, under Grants 2013/11/B/ST7/04325 and 2014/12/T/ST7/00045.
The authors are with the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and In-
formatics, Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk 80-233, Poland (e-mail:
adrian.bekasiewicz@eti.pg.gda.pl; koziel@ru.is)
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.2015.2402282
1536-1225 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.
performance evaluation [4]. As conventional optimization
methods (such as gradient-based algorithms [5]) require large
number of EM analyses to converge (which is extremely
expensive in computational terms), simulation-driven design
is typically realized through parameter sweeps. This is still
laborious and does not lead to truly optimum results because
only a few parameters can be handled this way.
In this letter, we propose a structure of a compact UWB
monopole with meander line for current path enlargement
as well as two parameterized slits that introduce additional
degrees of freedom when controlling the current flow in the
ground plane. In order to achieve the smallest possible size,
we carry out explicit minimization of the antenna footprint
with penalty functions utilized to enforce sufficient matching
in the UWB band. The novelty of the method lies in its ability
to reduce the antenna footprint while maintaining acceptable
reflection response. Computational efficiency of the design
process is obtained by means of surrogate-based optimization
(SBO) [6] exploiting space mapping [7] and underlying low-fi-
delity antenna models obtained through coarse-discretization
EM simulations. This allows us to simultaneously adjust all
geometry parameter of the antenna and minimize its footprint
(to only mm ) while maintaining low reflection
in the UWB frequency range. The antenna is further redesigned
with a connector included in its EM model, which leads to an
even smaller size ( mm ). Experimental validation of
the design is also provided.
II. COMPACT UWB MONOPOLE GEOMETRY
Consider a planar monopole antenna composed of a circular
shape radiator and a 50- microstrip feed line [8]. The structure
has fairly large dimensions of mm , which are neces-
sary to achieve wideband impedance matching and sufficient
current path within the ground plane. The design can be modi-
fied by introduction of L-shaped stub into the ground plane and
a tapered feed for better impedance matching [9], resulting in
a considerable antenna miniaturization into mm . As
the current path within the ground plane has considerable im-
pact on antenna performance and, consequently, possibility of
its miniaturization, the structure can be further modified by dis-
turbing current through ground plane slits, and increasing the
stub length by means of a meander line. Both elements ensure
that electrical length of the circuit is sufficient for UWB oper-
ation despite compact ground plane. Moreover, the number of
degrees of freedom for the structure miniaturization can be in-
creased using elliptical shape of the radiator. Geometry of the
proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 1.
BEKASIEWICZ AND KOZIEL: STRUCTURE AND COMPUTATIONALLY EFFICIENT SIMULATION-DRIVEN DESIGN OF COMPACT UWB MONOPOLE ANTENNA 1283

B. Optimization Using Space Mapping

As the high-fidelity model is computationally expensive, fea-
sible optimization of multiple geometry parameters cannot be
executed directly. Here, we use SBO [6] that shifts the optimiza-
tion burden from to its cheaper representation, the surrogate
model.
A generic SBO scheme can be described as an iterative
process

(3)

Fig. 1. Compact UWB monopole antenna—geometry. where is a surrogate model obtained by a suitable cor-
rection of the low-fidelity model (here, obtained through
coarse-mesh EM antenna simulations, cf. Section II), and
The structure is described by 14 independent design param- , , is a sequence of approximated solu-
eters: , whereas tions to the original problem. In this letter, we employ
, , , remain fixed (all dimensions in output and frequency space mapping [7] as the low-fi-
mm). The antenna is designated to operate on TLP-5 dielectric delity model correction techniques, which is well suited
substrate ( , , mm). The sim- for wideband antenna response handling. More specifically,
ulation model of the structure (referred to as the high-fidelity let , where
model ) is implemented in CST Microwave Studio [10] is evaluation of the low-fidelity model at frequency
( mesh cells, average evaluation time 42 min). In (here, ). The frequency-scaled model is de-
the design process (cf. Section III), we also utilize an auxiliary fined as
model ( cells, simulation time 28 s), which is a
coarsely discretized counterpart of . The design objective is (4)
to achieve minimum footprint while ensuring dB
in 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency band of interest. where and are scaling parameters obtained to minimize
the misalignment between and at as
III. DESIGN OPTIMIZATION USING SPACE MAPPING (5)
In this section, we discuss the simulation-driven design opti-
mization approach utilized to adjust the geometry parameters of The CPU cost of (5) is negligible as the responses of
the antenna structure proposed in the paper. The aim is to main- , is obtained by inter-
tain reliability of the design process (by utilizing high-fidelity polating the known values of . The response
EM model) and low computational cost (by exploiting SBO). correction is realized with output SM [7], i.e., we have
. This ensures
A. Problem Formulation zero-order consistency [11] between the corrected model and
Our objective is to optimize the high-fidelity antenna at , i.e., .
model , specifically, to minimize the antenna size while Good correlation between the low- and high-fidelity models
keeping its reflection response at the acceptable level (i.e., (both are evaluation using the same EM solver) normally leads
dB in the UWB range). Here, is a vector to a convergence of the process (3) after a few iterations (cf. [7]),
of geometry parameters of the structure. The design task is each requiring just one evaluation of the high-fidelity model.
formulated as This, in conjunction with the fact that is much faster than
, leads to the low overall cost of the design process.
(1)
IV. NUMERICAL RESULTS
where is an objective function that encodes given perfor-
In this section, we summarize the optimization results. We
mance specifications; is the optimum design to be found.
consider two cases: without and with a connector included in the
Here, is defined as
EM antenna model. The latter is necessary to perform adequate
experimental validation reported in Section V.
(2)
A. Optimization Results
where is the antenna footprint, is a penalty factor
(here, ), whereas is a penalty function defined as The initial antenna dimensions are
(i.e., . A
if dB in the UWB band, or corresponds to set of optimized antenna parameters
relative violation of the dB threshold otherwise). Formu-
lation (2) penalizes designs that violate reflection requirements is obtained using methodology of Section III
so that the problem can be solved as an unconstrained one. after only four iterations of (3). The overall area of optimized
1284
Fig. 2. Surface current distribution expressed in dB (1 A/m) at the optimized
design at: (a) 3.1 GHz; (b) 4 GHz; (c) 7 GHz; (d) 10 GHz.
Fig. 3. Reflection of a compact UWB monopole antenna: (a) structure without
connector at initial (– –) and optimized (––) design; (b) initial (– –) and
optimized (––) design (cf. Section IV-B) of antenna with connector.
design (defined as a rectangle of , where and
) is mm .
Implementation of a meander-based stub line together with
the rectangular ground plane slits resulted in significant design
miniaturization obtained through EM-driven optimization. The
importance of ground plane modifications for antenna miniatur-
ization is explained using surface current distributions shown in
Fig. 2. It can be observed that the current density is high along
the meander line stub, as well as on slits when antenna oper-
ates at low frequencies (3.1 GHz and 4 GHz), see Fig. 2(a)–(b).
When frequency increases, current density within the ground
plane perforation becomes weaker, and it mainly occurs within
the radiator and the feed line. This explains that introduction of
the ground plane slits and meandering of its L-shaped stub con-
siderably influences the operation of the antenna for lower fre-
quencies. These structure modifications have minor impact on
antenna behavior at higher frequencies, Fig. 2(c)–(d). Thus, we
may conclude that ground plane perforations are crucial for op-
eration of the structure within 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz frequency
band of interest while maintaining the reflection requirements,
i.e., dB. Comparison of reflection characteristics
at the initial and miniaturized designs is shown in Fig. 3(a).
Note that the reduced footprint has been obtained by degrading
the reflection performance; however, the reflection level is still
below–10 dB for the entire UWB range.
B. Design Including Connector
SMA connectors considerably influence reflection charac-
teristics (see Fig. 3(b)), as well as radiation pattern of compact
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 14, 2015
Fig. 4. Visualization of compact monopole antenna with an SMA connector.
TABLE I
UWB MONOPOLE: INITIAL AND REDUCED VARIABLE BOUNDS
antenna structures, which is mostly a result of their considerable
size in comparison to antennas themselves. For this reason,
experimental validation (cf. Section V) of such structures is
hindered. For the sake of meaningful validation, the antenna
is re-designed with the SMA connector included into its EM
model. Two models of modified antenna, i.e., (
mesh cells, evaluation time 80 min) and (
mesh cells, simulation time 123 s) are implemented in CST
Microwave Studio. Conceptual visualization of the structure is
shown in Fig. 4. The initial design of the antenna is (i.e., the
optimum design without SMA).
The algorithm of Section III is again utilized for
antenna re-optimization. The final design,
, is obtained in three iterations of (3).
The antenna footprint is mm , which is 7% smaller
in comparison with a structure of Section IV-A. The obtained
design is 84%, 56% and 30% smaller in comparison to
structures of [8], [9], [12]. One should note that the proposed
compact antenna is designated to work on a different substrate
than the designs of [8] and [9]. For size comparison, their
dimensions can be expressed in terms of the guided wavelength
(calculated for a strip, a 6.85 GHz operating frequency,
and given substrate parameters). A detailed comparison
of antenna miniaturization is gathered in Table I, whereas
comparison of reflection characteristics for designs and
(both realizations are equipped with connectors) is shown in
Fig. 3(b).
The total optimization cost of antenna without connector
(cf. Section IV-A). arresponds to nd the one with connector
is about 9.8 and 28 hr, respectively. The optimization cost of
the former co14 model evaluations and it includes: 805
evaluations of and models, respectively. The design
cost of the latter is 650 simulations of model and 4 eval-
uations of its counterpart for response refinement, thus it
corresponds to about 21 model evaluations. For the sake of
comparison a direct optimization of an antenna of Section IV-A
driven by a pattern search algorithm [13] has been performed.
The design similar to that obtained with SBO has been found
after over 300 model evaluations (217 hr), which indicates
the advantages of SBO algorithms for the design of compact
BEKASIEWICZ AND KOZIEL: STRUCTURE AND COMPUTATIONALLY EFFICIENT SIMULATION-DRIVEN DESIGN OF COMPACT UWB MONOPOLE ANTENNA 1285
TABLE II
UWB MONOPOLE: DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION COST
Fig. 5. Fabricated prototype of the compact UWB monopole: front view (left)
and back view (right).
Fig. 6. Reflection responses of the antenna with SMA connector: simulation
(—) and measurement (- - -) results.
Fig. 7. Comparison of simulated ( ) and measured (––) radiation patterns of
a compact UWB monopole: (a) 5 GHz; (b) 7 GHz; (c) 9 GHz; (d) 10 GHz.
antennas with complex topologies. A detailed comparison of
optimization cost for discussed antenna realizations has been
collected in Table II.
V. MEASUREMENT RESULTS
The antenna structure of Section IV-B has been fabricated
and measured. A photograph of a design is shown in Fig. 5,
where as a comparison of simulation and measurement results
for antenna reflection are illustrated in Fig. 6. Radiation patterns
of the antenna in a plane perpendicular to the antenna substrate
at selected frequencies are shown in Fig. 7. The differences be-
tween simulated and measured characteristics result from using
(in simulations) a simplified model of a connector, as well as ad-
ditional—electrically large—environment of an antenna needed
for measurements.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this letter, a geometrically complex structure of a compact
UWB antenna has been successfully designed and optimized
using SBO scheme. A comparison of the optimization time of
SBO against direct optimization exhibits its superiority in terms
of computational cost. The introduced ground plane modifica-
tion and simultaneous adjustment of all geometry parameters
through computationally efficient simulation-driven optimiza-
tion led to a very compact size of mm . Experimental
validation confirms the correctness of the design approach.
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