lower frequency to a lower value.
The fabricated DRA with two
stubs is shown in Figure 10. Figure 11 shows the measured and
simulated reflection coefficients for the DRA with and without
two stubs with lengths L1 ¼ 10.65 mm and L2 ¼ 8.96 mm, and
W ¼ 1 mm. The measurement results show that the two notches
appear at 5.08 and 6.2 GHz.
6. CONCLUSION
A new notch band frequency design was proposed for UWB
antennas excited by a microstrip line. The technique was tested
with the A-shaped DRA UWB antenna. The technique showed
the flexibility in controlling the notch frequency location. Also
multi notches were easily created using multi stubs.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The financial support by Concordia University is acknowledged.
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C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
V backed plane. The antenna has a compact size of 15  15 mm2
DOI 10.1002/mop MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 5, May 2013
DUAL-BAND NOTCHED
ULTRA-WIDEBAND ANTENNA BY
USING STEP-BY-STEP DESIGN INSIDE
CONDUCTOR-BACKED PLANE
Zahra Esmati and Mahdi Moosazadeh
Department of Electrical Engineering, Urmia Branch, Islamic Azad
University, Urmia, Iran; Corresponding author:
zahra.esmati@yahoo.com
Received 21 August 2012
ABSTRACT: A coplanar waveguide fed (CPW-fed) ultra-wideband
antenna with dual band-notched characteristics is proposed. The main
features of the proposed antenna are the compact dimensions and band-
notched characteristics that are achieved without modifying the radiator
or the CPW-ground plane. Dual band-notched characteristics are
achieved by M-shaped strip inside the slotted conductor-backed plane.
Also, wider impedance bandwidth can be achieved with this structure.
The measured results show that the proposed antenna operates over the
frequency band between 2.6 GHz and 11.7 GHz (127%), defined by
VSWR < 2, except two notched bands (3.25–4.32 GHz and 5.02–5.97
GHz), where the VSWR is more than eight, aimed at suppressing any
interference from IEEE802.16 WiMAX (3.3–3.6 GHz), C-band (3.7–4.2
GHz), and IEEE802.11a WLAN (5.15–5.825 GHz). The designed
antenna has a small size of 15  15 mm2. The antenna has a desirable
VSWR level, radiation pattern and gain characteristics for ultra-
wideband frequency band range. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:1069–1074, 2013; View this article
online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27512
Key words: dual notched bands; ultra-wideband antenna; coplanar
waveguide antennas; microstrip-fed monopole antenna
1. INTRODUCTION
Quick development of wireless communication in the field of
UWB technology and its applications has increased demand in
commerce and industry. There has been great progress in the
design of ultra-wideband antennas and devices in recent years.
On the other hand, the printed monopole antenna exhibits very
main parameters in designing UWB antennas, such as easy to
manufacture structure, compact size, low cost, and omnidirec-
tional radiation pattern across the band from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz
[1–4]. However, there are several narrow bands that might
become potential interferences within the UWB frequency spec-
trum, such as IEEE802.16 WiMAX (3.3–3.6 GHz), C-band
(3.7–4.2 GHz), and the wireless local area network (WLAN) for
IEEE802.11a (5.15–5.825 GHz), so the UWB antenna with band
stop performance is required. Several designs in the literature
concerning the UWB antenna with band-notched characteristics
have been reported. Those designs use different types of slots,
slits, and parasitic elements in the radiator, the ground plane, or
even in the feeder to achieve the required band-notching charac-
teristics with limited impact on the required pass band [5–17].
In this article, the main target is to present a compact struc-
ture with dual-band notched characteristics that are achieved
without modifying the radiator or the CPW-ground plane with a
step-by-step design procedure. The main radiator of the pro-
posed antenna is a simple square that is fed using a CPW-feed-
line. A conductor-backed plane that is used to achieve the band-
notched characteristics of the antenna is located at the bottom
layer. Dual band-notched characteristics are obtained by using a
M-shaped strip inside the conductor-backed plane. Also, the im-
pedance bandwidth is enhanced by using slotted conductor-
1069
Figure 1 Geometry of the propose antenna with M-shaped form on the conductor-backed plane. (a) Dimensions (units: mm), (b) Photograph of fabri-
cated antenna (back). [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

on 0.8 mm FR4 substrate. The presented design is validated by
simulations and measurements.
2. MONOPOLE ANTENNA DESIGN
Figure 1(a) shows the configuration of the proposed UWB
antenna with Wsub  Lsub dimensions. The photograph of the
fabricated band-notched UWB antenna with the final optimal
design is shown in Figure 1(b). The top layer includes the main
radiator in the form of square patch and a CPW-ground plane.
The design starts by assuming that a square path of dimensions
pffiffiffiffi 
kg/2  kg/2 (where kg is the guide wavelength ¼ c= er fc at
the center of the UWB, that is, at 6.85 GHz, c is speed of light
in free space) is placed at the top layer of a substrate as
depicted in Figure 1(a). Also, the bottom layer includes a slotted
conductor-backed plane. The proposed antenna, with compact
dimensions of 15  15 mm2, is constructed with a substrate
made of FR4, with the thickness 0.8 mm and the relative dielec-
tric constant er ¼ 4.4. The initial dimensions of the substrate are
chosen to be kg  kg. The width of the CPW feedline is fixed at
3 mm for 50-X impedance. In the first step of the design, the
dimensions of the substrate, radiator, and CPW-ground plane are
optimized using the software HFSS for an UWB frequency
coverage. The optimized dimensions are 15  15 mm2 for the
substrate, 7.5  7.5 mm2 for the radiator, and 4 mm for the
width of the ground plane. As illustrated in Figure 1, a slotted
conductor-backed plane is placed under the patch and is also
symmetrical with respect to the longitudinal direction. The opti-
mum gap between the radiator and the ground plane is 1.6 mm.
To modify the performance of the antenna by creating two sub-
bands at the WiMAX (3.3–3.6 GHz), C-band (3.7–4.2 GHz),
and WLAN (5.15–5.825 GHz), the conductor-backed plane is
slotted in the manner shown in Figure 1. By using the small M-
shaped strip inside the conductor-backed plane as depicted in
Figure 2(a), the two bands are centered at 3.2 and 6 GHz. How-
ever, it is also clear from Figure 3 that the antenna has a poor
performance at the frequency band between 5 GHz and 5.5
GHz, which should be part of the WLAN band from 5.15 to
5.825 GHz. To improve the performance at the band, a final M-
shaped strip is included at the conductor-backed plane. By using
the design, it is worth mentioning that using the slotted conduc-
tor-backed plane in the manner shown in Figure 2(b), not only
enables the rejection of the undesired sub-bands, but it also
improves the performance at the upper frequency band. This is

1070 MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 5, May 2013 DOI 10.1002/mop
 Figure 2 The proposed antenna with an initial M-shaped design and final M–shaped design on the conductor-backed plane
proven by the simulated results shown in Figure 3. To estimate
the effect of the design parameters and to show whether it is
possible to easily control the position of the rejected bands, the
simulated performance of the antenna is calculated for different
values for the design parameters. It is shown that the effective
parameter in the position of the lower rejected sub-band of
WiMAX (3.3–3.6 GHz) and C-band (3.7–4.2 GHz), is the length
Wm shown in Figure 1. The simulated results for different values
of this parameter are shown in Figure 4. Increasing that design
parameter results in an increase in the frequency of the lower
rejected sub-band with negligible effect on the upper rejected
sub-band. From the simulated results indicated in Figure 4, it is
possible to verify that the center of the rejected sub-band is
defined by the length of the left hand or right hand track indi-
cated in Figure 1. Concerning the upper rejected sub-band, the
main parameter that defines that band is shown to be Lm. The
simulated performance of the antenna for different values of that
parameter is shown in Figure 5. As shown in Figure 5, the cen-
tral frequency of band notch at 5.5 GHz decreased by increasing
the value of Lm. The whole structure of the antenna is optimized
using HFSS for the widest possible bandwidth using the most
compact structure. The optimal parameters of the constructed
Figure 3 Simulated VSWR for antenna shown in Figure 2
DOI 10.1002/mop MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 5, May 2013
antenna are as follows: Wsub ¼ 15 mm, Lsub ¼ 15 mm, Wc ¼ 3
mm, gc ¼ 0.3 mm, Lgnd ¼ 4 mm, gap ¼ 1.6 mm, Lm ¼ 3 mm,
Wm ¼ 4.5 mm. The other optimized dimensions of the antenna
are indicated in Figure 1. To show how the utilized conductor-
backed plane becomes effective in the rejection of the two sub-
bands, the field distribution at the structure of the first and sec-
ond notched frequency bands are given. As shown in Figure
6(a), with a proper value for the design parameter Wm, the cur-
rent at the lower side of M-shaped form and the lower-side of
rectangular slot cut inside conductor-backed plane is at opposite
directions. Thus, the total effective radiation is very low, and
thus a notched band is achieved. In Figure 6(b) and for the opti-
mized value of Lm, the current to the left and right side of the
M-shaped form are on opposite directions. Thus, the total radia-
tion from the antenna ceases to exist and the input signal is
reflected back. Thus, the overall radiation at this band is very
limited and a second notched band is obtained.
3. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULT
The impedance bandwidth with dual-notched characteristics is
tested by using an Agilent 8722ES Vector Network Analyzer.
Figure 4 Simulated VSWR of the antenna with different values
for Wm
1071
Figure 5 Simulated VSWR of the antenna with different values for Lm
Figure 7 Measured and simulated VSWR of the proposed dual band-
notched antenna
The simulated and measured VSWR of the antenna depicted in
Figure 7 reveal that the antenna covers the ultra-wideband fre-
quency range from 2.6 GHz to more than 11 GHz in the meas-
urements, assuming VSWR ¼ 2 as a reference. Figure 7 clearly
shows that the constructed antenna exhibits two notched bands
centered at 3.5 and 5.5 GHz. Also, it can be observed that by using
this filter structures inside conductor-backed, the lowest frequency
is significantly decreased from 5.5 to 2.6 GHz. There is generally
a good agreement between the simulated and measured results.
Figure 8 shows the measured maximum antenna gain from 3 to 11
GHz for the developed antenna with the conductor-backed plane.
The values in Figure 8 indicate that the realized dual band-notched
antenna has good gain flatness except in the two notched bands,
where the gain decreases drastically at 3.5 and 5.5 GHz. Figure 9
shows the measured radiation pattern for three different frequencies
3, 6.5, and 9.5 GHz of the UWB band in H-plane (xoz-plane) and
E-plane (yoz-plane). From an overall view of these radiation pat-
terns, the designed antenna behaves quite similarly to the typical
printed monopoles in the lower and middle frequency bands. The
H-plane patterns are almost omnidirectionl, but they are more
directional in the higher band. All of the presented simulated and
measured results certify that the antenna is a promising candidate
for ultra-wideband systems that need to avoid any interference
with WiMAX (3.3–3.6 GHz), C-band (3.7–4.2 GHz), and WLAN
(5.15–5.825 GHz) bands.

Figure 6 Simulated current distribution at the conductor-backed struc-

ture of the dual band-notched antenna at: (a) 3.7 GHz and (b) 5.5 GHz.
[Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at
wileyonlinelibrary.com] Figure 8 The measured gain of the proposed antenna

1072 MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 5, May 2013 DOI 10.1002/mop
Figure 9 Measured radiation pattern of the proposed antenna at: (a) 3 GHz; (b) 6.5 GHz; and (c) 9.5 GHz. Solid line: co-polarization; dashed line:
cross-polarization

4. CONCLUSION feature of the proposed antenna is the extremely compact

A novel and compact coplanar waveguide fed (CPW-fed) dimensions of 15  15 mm2. A slotted conductor-backed plane
printed monopole antenna with ultra-wideband performance and is placed at the bottom layer to create two notched bands. The
dual band-notched characteristics has been presented. The main dual band-notched characteristics are achieved by an M-shaped

DOI 10.1002/mop MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 5, May 2013 1073
design inside the conductor-backed plane. Also, the notched
band can be controlled by adjusting the filter structure on the
SMALL PIFA FOR ZigBee AND WLAN
conductor-backed plane, which exempt from interfaces with APPLICATION
existing systems in WiMAX (3.3–3.6 GHz), C-band (3.7–4.2 Ching-Fang Tseng and Yi-Wen Chen
GHz), and WLAN (5.15–5.825 GHz). Experimental results show Department of Electronic Engineering, National United University,
that the fabricated antenna with proper dimensions and afore- No. 1 Lien Da, Kung-Ching Li, Miao-Li 36003, Taiwan;
mentioned characteristics, such as small size, light weight, and Corresponding author: cftseng@nuu.edu.tw
good omnidirectional radiation patterns, is a very good candidate
for UWB applications. Received 22 August 2012

ABSTRACT: A multiband printed PIFA with an I-shaped strip and an

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1074 MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 55, No. 5, May 2013 DOI 10.1002/mop