IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.
7, 2008
UWB Staircase-Profile Printed Monopole Design
Daniel Valderas, Raúl Álvarez, Juan Meléndez, Member, IEEE, Iñaki Gurutzeaga, Jon Legarda, and
Juan I. Sancho, Member, IEEE
Abstract—In printed monopoles, the current distribution along
the lower monopole sheet and upper groundplane edges can be
made analogous to a transmission line distribution by an ap-
propriate antenna feed design. Accordingly, the VSWR
impedance bandwidth upper frequency limit can be estimated for
staircase-profile printed 2-D ultrawideband (UWB) monopoles.
Following this guideline, three tailored-bandwidth prototypes are
designed, implemented and measured. They retain their length
and width while multiplying their upper frequency (4.87, 8.7,
and 15.15 GHz) by the number of monopole profile steps (1, 2,
and 3). The deviation is found mainly below 13% in relation to
the reference formula. The concept of angular range based on
pattern stability factor (PSF) is introduced to compare the solid
angle of UWB pattern stability operation when increasing the
bandwidth. The angular range degradation versus impedance
bandwidth improvement shows all the possible performance levels
of the antennas. Thus, the design of UWB printed monopoles is
approached from both points of view, i.e., impedance bandwidth
and pattern stability.
Index Terms—Broadband antennas, low-profile antennas,
monopole antennas, pattern stability, printed antennas, transmis-
sion line modeling, ultrawideband (UWB) antennas.
I. INTRODUCTION
LTRAWIDEBAND (UWB) wireless technology gives
U antenna designers the challenge of performance stability
over the extremely wide spectra (3.1–10.6 GHz) released by
the Federal Communications Commission [1]. For this reason,
either planar [2]–[4] or folded [5]–[7] metal plate monopoles
(MPM) have been given much attention because they show
large impedance bandwidth with possible omnidirectional
performance on the H-plane.
Furthermore, research into small and broadband antennas has
been encouraged by the rapid development of portable wire-
less communication devices such as cell phones, laptops and
personal digital assistants (PDA). Broadband monopoles are re-
quired for features such as low profile, light weight, low cost,
and ease of integration into arrays or circuits. As 3-D MPM
are too bulky for portable handheld devices, 2-D printed cir-
cuit monopole (PCM) antennas have recently been investigated.
Manuscript received October 30, 2007; revised December 21, 2007. The work
of D. Valderas was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Education
within the framework of the Torres Quevedo Programme, and co-financed by
the European Social Fund.
D. Valderas, J. Meléndez, J. Legarda, and J. I. Sancho are with CEIT
and Tecnun (University of Navarra), 20018 San Sebastián, Spain (e-mail:
dvalderas@ceit.es; jmelendez@ceit.es; jlegarda@ceit.es; isancho@ceit.es).
R. Álvarez and I. Gurutzeaga are with Tecnun, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain
(e-mail: ralvarezb78@gmail.com; iguruceaga@tecnun.es).
Color versions of one or more figures in this letter are available online at
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2008.921364
1536-1225/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE
255
Similar 3-D MPM techniques for increasing their impedance
bandwidth have been also applied in this case, such as stair-
2 case-profile implementation [8], [9] and groundplane-monopole
transition taper [10]–[12]. However, tailoring PCM bandwidth
by a suitable antenna profile design has not yet been approached.
Recently, transmission line modeling (TLM) has been applied
to predict the upper frequency limit of UWB staircase-profile
planar MPM [13]. For this reason, it appeared reasonable to syn-
thesize the PCM that should exhibit a required bandwidth limit.
With this aim in mind, the increasing bandwidth influence over
PCM UWB radiation stability should also be investigated for
practical applications. Thus, it seems necessary to introduce a
new concept, i.e., Angular Range, with which PCMs with in-
creasing bandwidth can be compared from the point of view of
pattern stability.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
A. Preliminary Concepts
Pattern stability factor (PSF) has been proposed as a figure
of merit to study the stability of UWB antennas within a solid
angle of radiation for a given frequency band (1), [14]
(1)
where represents how the radiated waveform in the ref-
erence direction is correlated to all other directions of in-
terest in the range. For good all-round performance in an
UWB system, may be desirable [14]. For a given
solid angle of radiation, the PSF of a typical antenna tends to
deteriorate as the operating bandwidth increases. On the other
hand, for a given operating bandwidth, the PSF tends to deteri-
orate as the solid angle is increased. Therefore, two limitations
may be set for an UWB antenna: over an impedance bandwidth
and over a solid angle. The maximum angle of coverage where
from a reference direction on a plane of
radiation over a specific bandwidth is now introduced as the An-
gular Range . Angles lower than Angular Range
will fall within the limits and angles higher than Angular Range
will not.
B. Antenna Configuration and Current Distribution
Fig. 1 illustrates the PCM under consideration and the design
parameters.
Typical microstrip or coplanar waveguide (CPW) printed an-
tenna feed has been substituted by a probe feed placed as close
as possible to the monopole sheet to dismiss its influence on the
matching. Fig. 2 shows the current distributions on this type of
PCM using CST Studio Suite [16]. It can be observed that the
256 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 7, 2008

Since dielectric substrate is only a PCM fabrication require-

ment and not considered by (2), it may be drilled within the
transmission line zone. In this manner, its effect is reduced and
the control of the resonances introduced by the staircase profile
improved. Two dielectric strips are retained to achieve mechan-
ical sustainability.

C. Design Strategy

1) Impedance Bandwidth Tailoring: Unlike referenced

PCM analysis techniques, this synthesis approach tends to
respond to prior specifications. Accordingly, three designs
are required so that upper-frequency values lay around
4.85 GHz (DS-UWB), 10.6 GHz (UWB), and 15 GHz with
the same parameter. The groundplane and monopole sheet
height and width dimensions are retained in all the designs so
that the lower impedance bandwidth limit is mainly constant
[ mm and mm, Fig. 1(b)]. Table I presents the
estimated values given by (2) with the number of notch pairs
(1, 2, or 3) and mm that correspond to the said
specifications.
Frequency provides an estimate of what can be obtained
by adjusting parameters , and from fixed and for
impedance bandwidth [Fig. 1(c)]. As an example,
parameter values for three PCMs are presented in Table II along
with the simulated bandwidth achieved with CST Microwave
Studio Suite. The same strategy could have been applied for
other values, i.e., for other and . The value of the pa-
rameter has remained constant and as short as possible.
For PCM 1N, cost-effective FR4 ( mm)
is employed. In this case, there is no need to drill the antenna
Fig. 1. Staircase-profile PCM. (a) Top. (b) Front and side view. (c) Detailed
view with parameters. to meet specifications. For PCM 2N and PCM 3N, Rogers
RT/duroid 5870 is preferred ( mm) due
to its low permittivity and better performance over higher
horizontal current distribution is predominant over the vertical frequencies.
along the lower monopole sheet and upper groundplane edges. 2) Angular Range Computation: Fig. 1 shows the
Therefore, the middle part of the global antenna can be consid- axis reference direction assumed
ered as a transmission line and (2) [13] can be applied in this in the calculations for an antenna located in a handheld de-
case on a more practical low-profile 2–D radiator. vice for broadside radiation. The E- and H-plane fields are
considered to compute Angular Range and
Angular Range , respectively. This is per-
formed as follows.
(2)
The radiated field is computed in transmission at
1000 mm in far-field conditions as a Gaussian pulse response
with at 5 intervals on each side of the reference axis on both sides
of the antenna. It is assumed that the and axes are not
directions of interest. Frequency domain 0–15 GHz transfer
(3) functions are obtained directly from CST Microwave Studio
Suite followed by fast Fourier transform. For any 2 angle
where is a maximum upper impedance band- of coverage between 0–15 GHz (Fig. 1), PSF can now be
width limit estimate (in GHz); is a given number of pairs of computed (1), [14]. For each Angular Range
notches and the semiwidth (in meters). The parameter lx is with , an upper operation frequency is found. As
the same for all the notches. the Angular Range is decreased, the fre-
Although expression (2) was initially conceived for staircase- quency is increased and extends to beyond the upper frequency
profile MPMs, this is shown to also be valid for staircase-profile impedance bandwidth limit given by (2). The specific Angular
PCM with probe feed. This is because the frequencies of the Range where this crossing is observed will
resonances added by the slots [13] are predictable by TLM due define the overall frequency and angular ranges of antenna
to the same current distribution. coverage either on E- or H-plane.
VALDERAS et al.: PRINTED MONOPOLE DESIGN 257

Fig. 2. Typical PCM vertical (a) and horizontal (b) current density distribution at 3 GHz ( W = 30mm L = 45 mm).
;

f
TABLE I
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS FOR STAIRCASE PCM WITH SPECIFIED

TABLE II
CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE DESIGNED PCM AND SIMULATED IMPEDANCE
BANDWIDTH. DIMENSIONS IN MM AND GHZ

Fig. 3. Simulated and measured VSWR for PCM 1N, PCM 2N, and PCM 3N.

VSWR 2 I
TABLE III
MEASURED < MPEDANCE BANDWIDTH FOR THE PCM AND
DEVIATION FROM (2)

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Impedance Bandwidth
PCM 1N, PCM 2N and PCM 3N examples are prototyped in
PCB. A 50 coaxial probe excites the bottom of the antennas
through the ground plane via an SMA connector. The VSWR is
measured by the Agilent PNA E8364B Network Analyzer and
shown in Fig. 3 along with simulations. the matching is defined. Thus, since PCM 3 exhibits an
Table III presents the measured impedance bandwidths and value that is slightly greater than the proposed limit (15 GHz),
the percentages of deviation from the upper frequency design VSWR is just over 2 at certain frequencies. Consequently,
estimation limit for the three examples. another PCM 3N example may be designed with
As shown, the limit (2) proposed in Table I is a good impedance bandwidth, but below 15 GHz with further com-
estimation. According to Bode and Fano [15], puting and prototyping costs. Therefore, this approach is useful
a tradeoff between the upper frequency limit and quality of for knowing what can be obtained.
258
Fig. 4. Angular Range versus frequency and operation
range for the PCMs.
Fig. 5. Angular Range versus frequency and range of
operation for the PCMs.
B. Angular Range for
Fig. 4 shows Angular Range versus fre-
quency for the three prototypes. As shown, the tendency of the
plot is decreasing with frequency in all cases. The area below
the plot and on the left of the corresponding impedance band-
width upper frequency limit (4.87, 8.7, and 15.15 GHz, respec-
tively) covers the operation ranges (e.g., A-zone for PCM 1N).
Areas B and C are additional zones that have been added for
PCM 2N and PCM 3N in that order, in such a way that C in-
cludes mainly A and B; B also includes A. Fig. 5 shows Angular
Range versus frequency.
It can be observed that PCM 1N exhibits E-plane 83 and
H-plane 115 coverage on both sides of the antenna up to 4.85
GHz DS-UWB upper frequency limit. PCM 2N and PCM 3N
also meet this coverage and go beyond this frequency limit with
a decreasing angle. They exhibit approximately E-plane 45
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 7, 2008
Fig. 6. Absolute PCM gain within the impedance bandwidth.
and H-plane 73 stable coverage up to 10.6-GHz UWB oper-
ation. PCM 3N can perform further direction-specific applica-
tions over increasing bandwidths up to 15 GHz.
Fig. 6 shows the computed maximum Gain (IEEE) for the
three antennas within their impedance bandwidths. In general,
the different staircase profiles do not affect its value. The ra-
diation patterns, not shown for the sake of brevity, are mainly
symmetric to XZ and YZ planes. Owing to PCM radial asym-
metry, maximum gain is observed in the reference direction up
to 4 GHz ( , [5]). As expected, above this frequency, the
maximum radiation direction changes and gain is chiefly within
3.5 and 5.5 dB.
IV. CONCLUSION
Two-dimensional UWB PCM with a required
impedance bandwidth can be synthesized. On the one hand,
if the length and width are retained, the lower limit is basi-
cally fixed. On the other, the current distribution around its
electrically short antenna feed can be described by TLM. Ac-
cordingly, the maximum upper limit achievable
by a staircase-profile PCM can be estimated by a simple for-
mula. Thus, as higher frequencies are required (4.85 DS-UWB,
10.6 UWB, 15 GHz, etc.), PCMs can be synthesized by in-
creasing the number of profile steps of the antenna.
The deviation percentage remains mainly under 13% for three
implemented examples and can be optimized further by means
of GA or other computational methods. With an increasing
number of stairs, each PCM performs similarly to the previous
ones but with an extra frequency bandwidth operation over a
narrower stable-radiation angular range ( E-plane
45 and H-plane 73 up to 10.6 GHz typical). This property
makes them suitable for application-specific UWB links.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Prof. T. Dissanayake of Mac-
quarie University for providing very useful MATLAB codes to
compute PSF and the Vasc Council for the help provided for this
research.
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