COPLANAR-WAVEGUIDE FED MONOPOLE ANTENNA
A planar monopole antenna is provided that includes a dielectric substrate with an electrically conductive antenna element adhered to the substrate surface. A coplanar waveguide is also adhered to the surface of the dielectric substrate in electrical communication with the antenna element. A microwave absorber layer is adhered to an opposing rearward surface of the dielectric substrate. The resultant antenna operates at a reduced return loss and lowers operating frequency compared to an antenna lacking the microwave absorber layer. As a result, an otherwise nonultrawideband antenna is operated as an ultrawideband antenna without increasing the dimensions of the antenna elements through resort to adherence of a microwave absorber layer to the rearward surface of the substrate.
1 . A planar monopole antenna comprising:
a dielectric substrate having a first surface and an opposing rearward surface;
an electrically conductive antenna element adhered to the first surface of said dielectric substrate;
an electrically conductive coplanar waveguide in electrical communication with said antenna, said coplanar waveguide adhered to the first surface of said dielectric substrate;
two ground planes adhered to the first surface of said dielectric substrate as part of the coplanar waveguide; and
a microwave absorber layer adhered to the rearward surface of said dielectric substrate.
2 . The antenna of claim 1 wherein said dielectric substrate is composed of fiberglass reinforced epoxy laminate (FR-4), polytetrafluoroethylene; (PTFE) composites reinforced with glass microfibers, ceramic, or a combination thereof.
3 . The antenna of claim 1 wherein said dielectric substrate is rectilinear in shape.
4 . The antenna of claim 1 wherein said electrically conductive antenna element is circular.
5 . The antenna of claim 1 wherein said electrically conductive antenna element is rectilinear, ellipsoidal, pentagonal, hexagonal, or polygon with seven or more sides, or arbitrary in shape.
6 . The antenna of claim 1 wherein said two ground planes are rectilinear.
7 . The antenna of claim 1 wherein said microwave absorber layer is formed of carbon powder impregnated on sponge.
8 . The antenna of claim 1 wherein said microwave absorber layer has a thickness of between 2 to 3 centimeters.
9 . The antenna of claim 1 wherein said microwave absorber layer can be contoured.
10 . The antenna of claim 1 further comprising a contact adhesive intermediate between the rearward surface and said microwave absorber layer.
11 . A process of converting a nonultrawideband antenna as an ultrawideband antenna comprising: constructing an antenna comprising:
a dielectric substrate having a first surface and an opposing rearward surface;
an electrically conductive antenna element adhered to the first surface of said dielectric substrate;
an electrically conductive coplanar waveguide in electrical communication with said antenna, said coplanar waveguide adhered to the first surface of said dielectric substrate;
attaching a microwave absorber layer to the rearward surface of said dielectric substrate to form the ultrawideband antenna;
energizing the ultrawideband antenna with a reduced return loss and lower operating frequency compared to the nonultrawideband and an ultrawideband antenna.
12 . The process of claim 11 wherein the energizing step occurs at a frequency of between 0.16 and 1.2 gigahertz.
13 . The process of claim 11 wherein the energizing step occurs at a frequency of between 0.16 and 1.2 gigahertz to maintain omnidirectional radiation pattern.
14 . The process of claim 11 further comprising providing a low noise signal amplifier in electrical communication with the ultrawideband antenna.
15 . The operating frequency range of the antenna with microwave absorber can readily be changed by scaling up or down of the antenna element size and correspondingly sizes of dielectric substrate, coplanar wave guide, and the microwave absorber.