A compact balanced antipodal bow-tie antenna having double notch-bands

Abstract

A balanced antipodal bow-tie antenna is presented for ultrawideband (UWB) applications. Bandwidth enhancement and size reduction are achieved by introducing staircase edging to the peripheral of the patch radiator, and by tapering the microstrip feed balun to generate balanced currents on each branch of radiator. The antenna provides band-notch functionality by embedding dumbbell-shaped slots within the radiator, and adding an open-circuit L-shaped meander stub. The small and low-profile antenna can easily be fabricated on a single layer of FR4 substrate with dimensions of 26 × 31 × 1.6 mm3. Good correlation is obtained between the simulated and measured results. The antenna operates across 2.8-11 GHz to fully satisfy Federal Communications Commission's UWB specifications. In addition, the antenna provides notch-bands across 3.3-4 and 5-6 GHz to minimize interference from the WiMAX and WLAN networks. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.