Open-Slot Loaded Monopole Antennas for WLAN and UWB Applications Kuan-Jung Hung (1) and Yi-Cheng Lin*

(2)
(1) Graduate Institute of Communication Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan. (2) Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan *Email: yclin@cc.ee.ntu.edu.tw

Introduction In this paper, planar CPW-fed dual-band rectangular monopole antennas with variation of slot-loaded and taper-fed designs are investigated and discussed. Monopole antennas of shapes utilizing beveling or tapering technique such as triangle [1] and rectangle [2] could easily broaden the impedance bandwidth to satisfy UWB band requirements. Furthermore, the dual-band operation of both UWB (3.1-10.6 GHz) and existing WLAN 802.11b/g (2.4-2.5 GHz) has gain increasing interests in the backward compatible design if the multi-band OFDM technology is adopted as UWB standard. In this case, the antenna should be designed as dual-band with a notch in the 2.5-3.1 GHz band to match the FCC spectrum mask. Using a slot-loaded band rejection technique [3], we propose a open-slot loaded antenna to achieve the band notch function. This paper also investigates the effect of the tapered feed on the performance of phase linearity. It concludes that the antenna of a circular tapered feed has a better phase linearity. Antenna Design and Experimental Results The dimensions and design flow of the proposed antennas are shown in Fig. 1 (a-c). First, a linear-tapered rectangular monopole, as shown in Fig. 1a, is designed as the original antenna to cover the whole UWB band. Secondly, a pair of quarter-wavelength open-slots resonating at 2.6 GHz is added to the upper edge of the original monopole to perform the desired notch, as shown in Fig. 1b. Furthermore, the antenna is modified with a circular-tapered near the CPW feed to achieve a better phase linearity over the whole band, as shown in Fig.1c. Figure 2 shows the measured return loss in terms of magnitudes and phases in lower and upper bands. In Fig. 2(b), we found that the antennas with linear tapering have degraded phase linearity from 8 to 10 GHz. However, the antenna with circular tapering may keep the phase quite linear from 3 to 12 GHz. In addition, a wider impedance bandwidth compared to the linear tapering design is achieved because of the smoother discontinuity in the shape. Furthermore, by inserting open slots, the lower bound of the impedance bandwidth is lowered form 2.7 GHz to 2.4GHz. The inserted slots equivalently extend the monopole length of the upper part of the monopole. The following discussion of radiation characteristics is focused on the antenna with the circular tapering and notched band design, as shown in Fig. 1c.

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The gain spectrums in three planes of XZ, YZ, and XY are shown in Fig.3. For frequencies higher than 5GHz, the dominant radiated power would have a tendency toward the PCB plane (XY plane), and is off from the Z axis. The radiated patterns of E plane, XY plane, at different frequencies are shown in Fig.4. Figure 5 shows the H plane (XZ plane) patterns at various frequencies showing that the antenna gain has more variation than in Z axis than that in X axis. This implies the antenna performs better signal integrity when positioned side-by-side than positioned face to face, the similar results as mentioned in [4]. Analysis of gain variation as observed in different directions in the PCB plane (XY) is performed, as shown in Fig. 6. Conclusion Utilizing the loaded slots, a CPW-fed monopole antenna with dual band operation is achieved. To improve the phase linearity of the antenna, a circular tapering is used and its radiation characteristics are presented. References [1] Lin, C.-C., Kan, Y.-C.; Kuo, L.-C.; Chuang, H.-R., A planar triangular monopole antenna for UWB communication, Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE Vol. 15, No. 10, pp. 624-626, 2005 [2] M. J. Ammann, Control of the impedance bandwidth of wideband planar monopole antennas using a beveling technique, Microwave and Optical Technology Letters Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 229-232, August 2001 [3] Hyungkuk Yoon, Hyungrak Kim, Kihun Chang; Young Joong Yoon; YoungHwan Kim,A study on the UWB antenna with band-rejection characteristic, Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium 2004, Vol. 2, pp. 1784-1787, June 2004 [4] Jianxin Liang; Chiau, C.C.; Xiaodong Chen; Parini, C.G.; Study of a printed circular disc monopole antenna for UWB systems, IEEE Trans. on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 53, No. 11, pp. 3500-3504, Nov. 2005

Fig.1. Proposed antennas: (a) the original UWB monopole antenna, (b) the dualband monopole with loaded slots and linear-tapered feed, and (c) the antenna with circular-tapered feed. All are fabricated on a 1.6mm thick FR4 substrate of dielectric constant r =4.3

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(c) (d) Fig. 2 Measured return loss in terms of magnitudes and phases in lower and upper bands: (a) Phase S11 at 2-3 GHz, (b) Phase S11 at 3-12 GHz, (c) Magnitude S11 at 2-3 GHz, and (d) Magnitude S11 at 3-12 GHz

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Fig. 3 Maximum gain spectrum in XZ, YZ, and XY planes measured in the band of (a) 2-3 GHz, (b) 3-12 GHz

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Fig. 4 Measured co-polarized patterns in E-plane (XY) at 3.1, 5, 7, 9, and 10.6 GHz

Fig. 5 Measured co-polarized patterns in H-plane (X-Z), at 3.1, 5, 7, 9, and 10.6 GHz

Fig. 6 Measured gain spectrum observed in a certain direction varying in E-plane (X-Y) indicated as = 90o

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