U-shaped Printed Monopole Antenna
Aastha Bajirao
B.E., Department of Electronics and Telecommunications
Vidyalankar Institute of Technology
Mumbai, India- 400 037
bajiraoaastha@gmail.com
Abstract—Studies have been carried out on broadband
printed square monopole antenna with microstrip line feed and
results are presented here. Simple way has been demonstrated to
show the effects on radiation due to position of surface current
and the effect of central part of patch on the impedance-
bandwidth of the printed square monopole antenna. For VSWR
< 2 the bandwidth obtained is 60% for the center frequency of 2
GHz. Experiment has been carried out to validate simulated
result.
Keywords—Printed Monopole Antenna; U-shaped PMA;
Broadband width, microstrip line feed.
I. INTRODUCTION
Modern wireless systems are placing a greater demand on
antenna designs. Present time is witnessing a very rapid
growth of wireless communications for data, for which
antennas with a larger bandwidth are in demand, so that
various applications are covered with fewer or preferably with
a single antenna. This demand and scope in the ultra-wideband
antenna design is due to the declaration of the unlicensed use
of 3.1GHz - 10.6GHz frequency band for commercial use by
the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) [1].
The limitations in bandwidth of the microstrip antenna have
provided an opportunity to develop Printed Monopole
Antenna (PMA). PMA owing to its wide impedance
bandwidth and omni-directional azimuthal radiation pattern
are an extremely attractive candidate to be used in emerging
open spectrum, UWB, applications [2]. The compact and
simple structure of the PMA, its ease of fabrication and low
cost are few of its numerous advantages.
PMA have various geometries and are majorly categorized
into two types: firstly, regular shaped radiating patches and
secondly a configuration with modified/slotted radiating
patches [3]. The vast variety in the designs of the PMA is one
of the main reasons to the growing research activity that is
being focused on them. The Printed Square Monopole
Antenna (PSMA) and Printed Rectangular Monopole Antenna
(PRMA) have been studied and presented with larger substrate
whereas the presented geometry shows the improvement in its
impedance bandwidth characteristics with the removal of the
part of radiating patch and square patch turns into U-shaped
radiator. In the earlier presented paper, [4-5] diverse
parametric study was done for bandwidth enlargement of
PRMA. The incompatibility at the junction of the patch and
the 50-ohm feed line causes an inherently narrow bandwidth
978-1-5386-0646-9/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE.
Sanjay Singh Thakur
Professor, Dept of Electronics and Telecommunications
Vidyalankar Institute of Technology
Mumbai, India- 400 037
sanjayami@gmail.com
even though PRMAs have a simple geometrical configuration
[6].
In this paper, a profound study has been presented for the
regular PSMA with optimal bandwidth leading to a new
design with a PSMA changed as U-shaped to obtain the same
bandwidth. The radiation depends upon the current
distribution over the radiating patch. The current vector lies on
the edges of the radiating surface, so the internal part does not
affect the radiation pattern. Therefore, central part of the
PSMA is removed. The various parameters of this new
configuration have been studied and compared with the
PSMA, secondly the substrate size is reduced by 36% as
compared to [4-5], and this is because of optimization of
impedance matching for the U-shaped radiator with that of
microstrip line feed.
The presented small size broadband printed monopole antenna
may have many applications such as ground penetrating
RADARs, medical imaging in broadband/ UWB range
including applications below 3.1GHz like GSM cellular
mobile (PCS) and ISM [3-8].
The result of the new designed configuration of printed square
monopole antenna is presented and is in good agreement with
experimental results. The simulations have been carried out in
IE3D software [9].
II. DESIGN
Instead of the resonance frequency, the lower band’s edge
frequency is to be approximated by equating the surface area
of the PSMA with that of its equivalent cylindrical monopole
antenna, as shown in the Fig. 1, because the radiation depends
upon surface area of the conductor. Lower band’s edge
frequency is an essential parameter of the planar monopole
antenna to design it.
The lower band edge frequency (fL) for VSWR < 2 is given
by:
fL = c / Ȝ = 7.2 /(l + r + p) GHz
Where, l is the length of the monopole, r is the effective radius
of an equivalent cylindrical monopole antenna and p is the
length of the feed line in cm. This configuration has dielectric
layer on one side of a printed monopole which increases the
effective dimensions of the monopole leading to reduction in
the lower frequency.

Fig. 1. PRMA and its equivalent cylindrical monopole antenna
Hence, more appropriate equation for the lower frequency is
given as:
A. VSWR and impedance bandwidth
Plots for different geometries of the substrate are shown in
Fig. 3, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 to demonstrate the variation of input
impedance loci in Smith Chart and corresponding VSWR. The
simulated and experimental results are shown for the U-
Shaped PMA. It is seen that the bandwidth of the antenna
presented in the previous paper [4-5] and the U-shaped PMA
with a smaller substrate area presented in this paper are
approximately same as shown. Even though, there is a U-
shaped slot in the radiating patch and also a subsequent
decrease of 36% in the square substrate area, there is very
little difference in their Impedance bandwidth. The 80mm
x80mm substrate with a radiating patch length of 50mm, with
a U-shaped slot has the fL= 1.5GHz and a bandwidth of
approximately 1.2GHz similar to that of the PSMA [4-5].

f = c / Ȝ = 7.2 /[(l + r + p)×k] GHz

Here, k can be thought of as effective İ arising because of

dielectric layer with İr= 4.3. The value of k =1.1 gives the
lower resonance frequency for VSWR < 2 within 10%
accuracy [4-5].

A U-shaped slot has been removed from the center of the

radiating patch of the PSMA resulting into a U-shaped Printed
Monopole Antenna with the similar bandwidth as of PSMA.
The PSMA patch is designed at lower band edge frequency of
approximately 1.5 GHz. The side length a of PSMA as
50mm. The PSMA is fabricated on substrate of thickness of
1.59 mm, dielectric constant, ‫ڙ‬r= 4.3 and loss tangent tanį
= 0.02 and the optimized size of 80 mm x 80 mm, with slot on
radiating patch size of 30 mm x 40 mm,
. The microstrip line feed is designed with width of 3mm for
the impedance of 50ȍ. The width of the ground plane below Fig. 2. Geometry of the proposed U-shaped PSMA
the 50ȍ line feed was optimized at 20 mm.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The patch length of 50mm is fixed throughout the various
geometries so that the lower edge frequency is around
1.4GHz. The antenna is fabricated on a FR4 substrate of size
varying from 100mm x100mm to 80mm x80mm with ‫ڙ‬r =4.3,
thickness h =1.59mm and loss tangent tanį= 0.02. A U-shaped
slot of size 40mm x30mm is cut from the radiating patch. This
antenna is fed using a 50ȍ microstrip line of width of 3mm
above the ground plane, as shown in Fig. 2.

(a)
 (b)
Fig. 3. (a) VSWR vs Frequency (GHz) and (b) Impedance variation

of PSMA with substrate size of 80mm x 80mm

(a)

(b)
(a)
Fig. 5. Impedance Variation with respect to Frequency of the U-shaped PMA;
(a) simulated (b) experimental

B. Current Distribution
Simulated vector current distribution of PSMA and of the
U-shaped antenna is as shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7
respectively. It is observed that the current distribution in the
PSMA is predominantly at the edges of the radiating patch.
There is very small amount of current over the central part of
the radiating patch. Thus, the central part of radiating patch
is eliminated creating a U-shaped radiating patch antenna. It
reduces the size of the antenna immensely although,
providing almost the same bandwidth as obtained by the
PSMA.

(b)

Fig. 4. VSWR vs Frequency (GHz) of the U-shaped PMA ;(a) simulated

(b) experimental
 Fig. 6. Vector current distribution of PSMA with substrate size of
80mm x80mm Fig. 8. H – Field on X-Z plane for 2 GHz

Fig. 7. Vector current distribution of the proposed U-shaped PMA

Fig. 9. E – Field on X-Y plane for 2 GHz

C. Radiation Pattern
For the optimized U-Shaped PMA configuration, the
radiation patterns were simulated for mid-band frequency. The
azimuthal radiation pattern or the H – Field on X-Z plane is
“omni-directional” as shown in Fig. 8 and in the elevation i.e.
E – Field on X-Y plane; it is a “figure of eight” as shown in
Fig. 9 at the operating frequency of 2GHz. Fig.10 shows the
3D radiation pattern of the proposed U-shaped Antenna.

Fig. 10.3D radiation pattern for 2 GHz


Fig. 11. Radiation Efficiency ( ____) and Maximum Gain (dBi)(- - - -) vs
Frequency (GHz)
D. Maximum Gain and Efficiency
The maximum gain vs frequency and efficiency vs
frequency plots of the U-shaped antenna are as shown in Fig.
11. The radiation efficiency of the antenna is always above
87% for the operating frequency bandwidth. The maximum
gain varies between 2 dBi to 3.5 dBi for the entire operating
frequency bandwidth. These parameters make this antenna an
efficient radiator for the required range of bandwidth.
The photograph of the fabricated U-shaped PMA, which is
proposed in this paper, is shown in the Fig.12.
Fig. 12. Photograph of the prototype of the proposed u-shaped PSMA
IV. CONCLUSION
Profound studies have been carried out and presented on a
PSMA with a smaller substrate area and a U-shaped Monopole
Antenna. Various parameters have been studied and it is found
that reducing the area of the radiating patch to a U-shaped
patch has a minor effect on the bandwidth of the antenna.
Measurements have been carried out on U-shaped Monopole
antenna for input VSWR, which is in agreement with
simulated result.
REFERENCES
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[9] IE3D software, Version-12