Analysis of a Compact 4-shaped Annular Ring Ultra Wideband Antenna Using Characteristic Modes

This communication proposes a compact 4-shaped monopole annular ring UWB antenna design. The proposed structure contains multiple radiating strips inside the annular ring, in the form of a 4-shaped and a 50Ω microstrip feed line. A tapered structure with a feed point is chosen to achieve wideband characteristics. The proposed model is printed on a low-priced FR4 substrate with a size of 0.180₀ × 0.225₀ (20 × 25mm²). The proposed model achieves a fractional bandwidth of 133.74% in the 2.7 to 13.6 GHz range with S11<-10dB and covers the 3.1-10.6 GHz unlicensed band approved by FCC in 2002 and X-band applications. The antenna exhibits stable and Omni-directional radiation patterns in the operating frequency range. The analysis of the proposed monopole antenna using characteristic modes is performed to obtain a physical understanding of the radiation process occurring on the radiating antenna. The modal significance curves and the modal current distributions are used to analyze the radiating antenna using the first six characteristic modes. The measurement and simulation results show a good agreement.