A Compact Printed Monopole Antenna for WiMAX/WLAN and UWB Applications

In this paper, a printed monopole antenna design for WiMAX/WLAN applications in cable-free self-positioning seismograph nodes is proposed. Great improvements were achieved in miniaturizing the antenna and in widening the narrow bandwidth of the high-frequency band. The antenna was fed by a microstrip gradient line and consisted of a triangle, an inverted-F shape, and an M-shaped structure, which was rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise to form a surface-radiating patch. This structure effectively widened the operating bandwidth of the antenna. Excitation led to the generation of two impedance bands of 2.39-2.49 and 4.26-7.99 GHz for a voltage standing wave ratio of less than 2. The two impedance bandwidths were 100 MHz, i.e., 4.08% relative to the center frequency of 2.45 GHz, and 3730 MHz, i.e., 64.31% relative to the center frequency of 5.80 GHz, covering the WiMAX high-frequency band (5.25-5.85 GHz) and the WLAN band (2.4/5.2/5.8). This article describes the design details of the antenna and presents the results of both simulations and experiments that show good agreement. The proposed antenna meets the field-work requirements of cable-less seismograph nodes.