A compact triple band-notched UWB monopole antenna using EBG

structures

Faiza Mouhouche, Arab Azrar, Mokrane Dehmas and Kahina Djafri

University M’Hamed Bougara of Boumerdes, Institute of Electrical and Electronic

Engineering, Signals and Systems Laboratory, Department of Electronics,
35000 Boumerdes, Algeria.
E-mail:mouhouche35@gmail.com

Abstract In this paper, a compact ultra-wideband
(UWB) monopole antenna with triple band-notched
characteristics is presented. These triple band rejections
are produced by inserting the Complementary Co-
directional Split-Ring Resonator (CC.SRR) on radiating
element for WiMAX/WLAN (3.4-3.95GHz/5.35-
5.9GHz) and Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG)
structure in the vicinity of transmission line for X-band
satellite communications (6.7-7.7GHz). The proposed
antenna with a total size of 18× 20.9 ×1.63 mm3 has
been constructed and tested. An equivalent RLC circuit
model is proposed and investigated. The simulated and
measured results show that the proposed antenna has
impedance bandwidth (VSWR < 2) from 3.05GHz–14
GHz with triple notched bands of [3.3-3.9 GHz], [5.25-
5.86 GHz] and [6.7-7.7GHz]. A triple band notched
characteristics and a good radiation patterns make the
proposed antenna a good candidate for the UWB
applications.
Index Terms CC.SRR, EBG Structure, monopole
antenna, band rejection, equivalent circuit, UWB
antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
UWB technology has been growing rapidly due to
its advantages of high speed data rate, low power
consumption, high capacity, low cost, and low
complexity of wireless applications. Moreover, the
UWB technology has a bandwidth of 7.5 GHz (from
3.1-10.6 GHz), which was declared from the US
Federal Communications Commission in 2002 [1]. To
achieve UWB operation, a printed monopole antenna is
an attractive candidate since it has small dimensions,
the wider bandwidth, and stable radiation properties [2].
However, there exist some narrow bands of the other
communication systems such as WiMAX, WLAN, and
X-band, which are operating in the frequencies of 3.3–
3.7, 5.15–5.825, and 7.25–7.75 GHz, respectively.
These may cause the electromagnetic interference with
UWB communication systems. To prevent the
electromagnetic interference problem, some techniques
are used to reject the narrow bands of UWB systems. In
literature many techniques have been applied to get
band rejection, among them by using slots on the patch
[3], [4, 5], on the ground-plane or feed line[6, 7],
parasitic element near the radiating element or feed
line[8], a novel concepts are also mentioned which
employ an artificial material which is metamaterial like
C.SRR [9], [10, 11], and new application of mushroom-
type EBG structures[12, 13]. Communication systems
usually involve a small size of the antenna in order to
convene the requirements of miniaturization. Never-
theless, Many monopole antennas have been recently
reported in the literature have a large size [4], [7, 14],
which may lead to a difficult task in miniaturizing the
antenna design. In addition, only a few works have also
been proposed to reject multiple bands [11, 15], and the
majority of the existing antennas have single or dual
stop-band characteristics.
In this paper, a very compact UWB monopole
antenna with triple band-notched characteristics is
proposed and investigated. By inserting the CC.SRR on
the radiating element and using two EBG structures in
the vicinity of the transmission line, triple band-notched
are created for WLAN/WLAN bands and X-band
satellite. An equivalent circuit model is carried out to
understand the behavior of band notch. The component
values of RLC circuits are determined using
conventional circuit theory and optimization process.
The design process has been performed by microwave
studio CST. Details of the antenna design and the
VSWR and radiation pattern are presented and
discussed.
II.Antenna design and simulation
The geometry of triple band-notched UWB
monopole antenna fed by a 50- microstrip line is
presented in Fig 1. A patch is implemented on an FR4
substrate with a thickness of 1.63 mm, a relative
permittivity of 4.3, and a loss tangent of 0.0017. From
Fig 1, the antenna has compact dimensions of 18× 20.9
mm2. The monopole antenna structure consists of
overlapped of rectangular shape and circular shape
patches to form a radiating element, on the other side of
the substrate, a partial rectangular ground plane is
joined with an extra invert-L shaped strip. In order to Fig.2. Antenna design process
achieve triple band-notched for WLAN/WiMAX and
X-band, a triangle of complementary co-directional Antenna A is a radiating monopole antenna fed by
split ring resonator (CC.SRR) engraved on the radiating microstrip line; in Antenna B, the CC.SRR engraved in
element is used and two modified mushrooms-like EBG the middle of the patch; Antenna C includes two
structures introduced symmetrically in the vicinity of modified mushrooms-like EBG structures which are
feed line of the radiating element. The optimized values located symmetrically on both sides of the microstrip
of proposed antenna design parameters are labeled in feed line above the ground plane. Fig.3 presents the
Fig 1 and and listed in Table 1 . simulated VSWR characteristics for three designed
prototypes of the proposed antennas.

Fig.3. Simulated VSWR of various antennas

As illustrated in the graph, the reference antenna has an

ultra bandwidth of 128.44% ranging from 3.05GHz to
14GHz with VSWR<2, to provide bands rejection
around 3.55GHz and 5.55 GHz, the CC.SRR can show
Fig. 1. Physical structure of the proposed antenna. distinct double band gaps because of the weaker mutual
coupling between inner and outer triangles even the two
Table 1: Optimized parameters of the proposed antenna. band gaps are adjacent. Thus, CC.SRR is selected to
Param. mm Param. mm Param. mm obtain adjacent dual notched bands for WiMAX and
Wg 18 L1 9 Ls 3 WLAN. By altering the dimensions of CC.SRR, the
L 21 B2 6.7 T1 0.3 desired two notched frequencies can be easily achieved
Lg 5.5 G 1.72 L3 3.90 by using the following formula:
Wf 2 R 6 Cx 0.3 f =( ).
(1)
W1 6 S1 0.6 Cy 0.5
From Fig.1 ,it is observed that the centers of the inner
W2 2.8 S2 4.75 T3 0.7
triangle and outer triangle are not in the same position.
W3 7 L2 8.37 Rm 0.3
Therefore, the CC.SRR can provide good dual band-
T2 1 B1 13.13 L4 4.86
notch performance for WLAN and WiMAX bands.
To realize triple band-notch characteristics, two
Further, to study the antenna precisely, the antenna is modi ed mushroom types EBG unit cell is composed of
designed in three steps as illustrated in Fig.2. These a hexagonal conductive patch with C slot loaded and
structures have been analyzed using CST software. one shorting via placed at the center that connects the
patch and the ground plane together as illustrated in
Fig.1. The band gap region of unit cell EBG structure is
determined by plotting the dispersion Brillouin diagram
where no mode is propagated. Fig. 5 (a) shows the unit
cell of EBG under boundary condition using CST
software. From Fig. 5 (b) , it can be seen that band gap
is from 7.12 to 7.8 GHz. An equivalent circuit model is
designed based on LC resonator to explain the
mechanism of the EBG structure coupled to the
microstrip feed line as depicted in Fig.4. Then based on (a)
the LC-parameters the resonant frequency of the EBG
cell can be obtained by[13, 16]:

f = ( )( )
(2)
( )
C = cosh (3)
L= h (4)

Where C0 is the capacitance between the EBG patch

and microstrip line and C1 is capacitance between EBG
patch and ground plane. The inductance L is due to
current ow through the via and L is due to current
ow around the L-slots.

(b)
Fig.5. (a)A unit cell of EBG,(b)Dispersion brillouin
diagram of the modified mushroom-like EBG structure

To understand the influence of some important

parameters of the proposed antenna on the notched
characteristics, parametric study are carried out. The
variation of VSWR for different number of EBG
structure is shown in Fig. 6. From the plot, the VSWR
of X-band notch with left or right EBG cell decreases,
this is due the reduction of capacity coupling between
(a) the EBG cells and the feed line compared to the antenna
with two EBG structures.
VSWR

(b)
Fig.4. (a) EBG structure in vicinity of microstrip line
and, (b) equivalent resonant circuit of unit EBG cell.

Fig.6. The effect of number of EBG structures on the

VSWR.
The effect of variation the radius ‘r’of via EBG
structure on VSWR plot is shown Fig.7(a). It is clear
that as the radius of the via increases, the center
frequency of notched band also shifted to a higher
frequency range with some increases in bandwidth, this
is due to that when the radius of via decreases the

VSWR
inductance related to via increases as illustrated in the
equivalent circuit of Fig. 4 (b).

(d)
Fig.7.Variation of VSWR with the variation of some
parameters of CC.SRR and EBG structures.

The effect of the slot C width (T1) and length of EBG

structures(L3) is displayed on the Fig. 7(b),(c). From
the plot, as increases T1 the X-band decreases with
slight increases in bandwith of the band. The same
(a) thing , length L3 is proportional to the center frequency
of X-band notch. The variation of the width of CC.SRR
is depected in Fig. 7(d), it is noted that as increases T3
the center frequency of WiMAX/WLAN bands
increases with constant bandwidth.

III.Equivalent circuit
VSWR

To investigate the behavior of the proposed antenna

with triple band notched characteristics, an equivalent
RLC circuit model is proposed. The impedance
bandwidth of the UWB radiating element can be
presented by several parallels RLC cells in series [17]
as illustrated in Fig. 9(a). The input impedance of the
equivalent circuit for Antenna A can be given as

(b) Z = ( )
(5)

Where Rk, Lk, and Ck can be calculated using equation

(5) by taking the value of Za either from the simulated
or measured results .
Fig. 8(a) ,(b) show the real and imaginary part of
VSWR

input impedance of the proposed antenna. The

equivalent circuit of band notched structures can be
determined with the help of input impedance plot of the
proposed antenna (measured or simulated). As
illustrated from Fig .8(a), in the WiMAX band the real
part of the input impedance is very high on 210 at 3.5
GHz, whereas at 3.8 GHz magnitude is low in the order
of 38 as compared to the 50 impedance. While the
imaginary part plot is varying from positive to negative
(c) values and negative to positive values at the frequency
points, respectively. It shows a parallel resonance on
3.5 GHz and series resonance on 3.8 GHz. In the
WLAN band the impedance is around 65 at 5.2 GHz
and at 5.7 GHz about 15 while the imaginary curve is
changing from positive to negative side and negative to
positive side, which shows series and parallel
resonance characteristics, respectively.

220

200

180 (b)
160 Fig.9.The L-C resonant circuit models of (a) Antenna
Real part of input impedance

140 A, (b) Antenna C.

120
The same thing for X-band ,the resistance at
100
6.85GHz is high about 158 and at 7.6GHz around
80
39 , the imaginary is changing from positive to
60
negative values and negative to positive values which
40 illustrate series and parallel resonance characteristics.
20 According to the discussion above, the equivalent
0
circuit is constructed as illustrated in Fig 9(b). Za
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Frequency ,GHz
represents the complex input impedance of Antenna A.
The bandwidth and resonant frequency of the series and
(a) parallel resonant circuits are shown in Fig .9(b), can be
100
calculated from following equation, [18]
80

60
= (6)
Imginary part of input impedance

40

20
BW = (7)
0 = (8)
-20
BW = (9)
-40

-60

-80
The components (Lsn,Csn,Rsn,Lpn,Cpn,Rpn) can be
calculated using the equations (6)- (9), the lumped
-100
components are optimized and tuned using ADS
-120
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 software to obtain the band notched characteristics as
Frequency ,GHz desired. The optimized values of the lumped element
(b) used in equivalent circuit model are given in Table 2.
Fig.8. The input impedance of the proposed antenna (a)
real and (b) imaginary part. Table 2: Calculated values of the lumped elements of
equivalent RLC circuit.
Elements Value Elements Value Elements Value
( ) (pf) (nH)
Rs1 7.7 Cs1 0.0265 Ls1 18.4
Rp1 925 Cp1 4.96 Lp1 8
Rs2 7.1 Cs2 4.96 Ls2 24.9
Rp2 2000 Cp2 0.034 Lp2 22
Rs3 34.16 Cs3 9 Ls3 24.45
Rp3 2002. Cp3 0.067 Lp3 0.27
2

(a) IV.Result and discusssion

The proposed antenna is optimized and then fabricated
using PCB prototype machine as depicted in Fig 10,
and measured by Roche &Schwarz; ZNB20: Vector From the table, the proposed antenna is more desirable
Network Analyzer: 10 KHz -20GHzas. Fig .11 shows than other works.
the simulated and measured VSWR of the proposed
triple band-notched UWB antenna. It is evidently seen
that a measured impedance bandwidth for VSWR < 2
covers 3.05 to 14 GHz, while the three notched-band
are observed at 3.3 to 3.9 GHz (WiMAX), 5.25 to
5.86GHz (WLAN) and 6.7-7.7GHz (X-band) for
VSWR >2. There is good agreement between the
simulated, measured and equivalent circuit results.

(a)
Fig.10. Photograph of the fabricated prototype (a) Front
view (b) Bottom view

10
Simulated
Measured
8 Equivalent circuit

0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Frequency ,GHz
Fig.11. Measured and simulated VSWR for the
(b)
proposed antenna.

The radiation patterns of the proposed antenna in E-

plane and H-plane at 4.5, 7.0, and 10.0 GHz,
respectively, are shown in Fig. 12. From the plot, it is
noted that the H-plane patterns are nearly
omnidirectional and the E-plane is the same as the
dipole antenna having a doughnut shape at three
frequencies. The realized gain of the both Antenna A
and Antenna C is depicted in Fig. 13. From the plot, it
is noticed that the gain decreases considerably to the
negative at the three band notches for antenna C,
whereas the Antenna A, the gain is almost constant for
all the frequency range and varies between 2 dB and 7
dB. Table 3 summarizes the comparison of the
proposed antenna with the antennas existing in
literature, in terms of compactness, rejection bands. (c )
Fig.12. The radiation patterns at different frequencies.
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Mu Li, "A Compact Triple Band-Notched UWB
A very compact monopole antenna with triple band
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Faiza Mouhouche was born in
Boumerdes, Algeria. She received
the Engineer and M.S degrees in
2005 and 2010 from National
Institute of Electricity and
Electronics of Boumerdes,Algeria,
respectively. She is currently
pursuing her PhD degree from the
same institute. She is a member team in the Research
of communication systems. Her research interests
include RF/microwaves, antennas and propagation.
University and his elds of interest include Antennas,
Propagation, and Micro-waves.
Mokrane Dehmas was born in
April 1967 in Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria.
He received the Engineer and
Magister degrees in the National
Institute of Electricity and
Electronics (INELEC-Boumerdes,
Algeria) respectively in 1991 and
1996. He is currently a member
Of the research team in communication systems. His
main fields of interest are semiconductor devices
modeling and microstrip radiating structures.
Kahina Djafri was born on
January 21st, 1982, in Bejaia,
Algeria. She received the Engineer
degree in June 2005 from National
Polytechnic School of Algers,
Algeria; the M.S. degree in March
2008 from National Polytechnic
School. Currently, she is Phd student in the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Boumerdes
University. Her research interests include Microwave
propagation and Antennas, antenna miniaturization
techniques including Defected Ground Structures
(DGS) and insertion of shorting pins.

Arab Azrar was born in Takerboust,

Bouira, Algeria, on August 2,1971.
He received the B.S.degree in
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
form National Institute of Electricity
and Electronics of boumerdes
Algeria in 1995 and the M.S and
doctorate Polytechnic school of El-
Harrach,Alger ia respectively in 1998 and
2004.Currently, he is a Senior Professor in the Institute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Boumerdes