Multiband Stepped Antenna for Wireless Communication Applications

In this paper, a novel design of a coplanar waveguide fed (CPW) triple-band antenna is introduced. An ultra-wideband (UWB) characteristic is achieved by the initial design through the cut of a stepped shape from the lower part of the initial radiating patch and through the use of a truncated ground plan. To avoid the effects of the electromagnetic interferences with some coexisting wireless communication systems, a transition from the UWB to multiband function is assured by etching a simple circular ring inside the radiating patch. The antenna is printed on the low-cost FR4-substrate having a compact size of 0.162 lambda 0x0.123 lambda 0x0.008 lambda 0 at 1.57 GHz. The design and the analysis of the antenna were done using the commercially software CST Microwave Studio (TM) while the fabricated prototype was tested and measured by using a R & S (R) ZNB Vector Network Analyzer. The measurements show that the fabricated prototype resonates between 1.57-2.33 GHz (38.97%), 5.84-6.41 GHz (9.31%), and 7.93-10.88 GHz (31.37%). Besides, the proposed antenna has consistent measured radiation pattern characteristics and it also reveals an acceptable realized gain and a high efficiency over the working ranges. Hence, the designed antenna can be a good candidate for many wireless communication systems.