Abstract
This article proposes a parallel metal‐plated tuning fork‐shaped omnidirectional antenna for UWB application.Printed monopole antennas fabricated on a substrate offer impedance band width, which can cover UWB. However, radiation pattern varies significantly over the bandwidth. The cross polar component increases with frequency and the pattern degrades from the desired omnidirectional characteristics. Omnidirectional radiation bandwidth can be increased significantly by decreasing the substrate thickness and using substrate material of low dielectric constant. In the proposed antenna, omnidirectional radiation bandwidth is further increased by using rectangular strips on both sides of a semi annular ring monopole antenna. The proposed metal‐plated structure using foam dielectric is designed, fabricated, and tested. The measured voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) is <2 over 3.1–10.6 GHz frequency band. The antenna offers high efficiency, low cross polarization and its radiation patterns indicate its suitability for UWB applications. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:601–604, 2011; View this article at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.25786