A Novel Compact Ultra-Wideband Frequency-Selective Surface-Based Antenna for Gain Enhancement Applications

Abstract

This article presents a compact ultra-wideband (UWB) circular monopole antenna with a frequency-selective surface (FSS) for gain enhancement. The proposed antenna has a circular patch with circular cuts at the edges and is excited by a microstrip feed. The bottom plane is truncated and further modified by two triangular cuts at the sides and one rectangular cut in the middle to improve the radiation characteristics of the UWB antenna. The antenna is designed on an FR-4 substrate with a thickness of 1.6 mm, a relative permittivity of 4.3, and planner dimensions of 30 mm × 30 mm. To improve the proposed antenna’s gain, an FSS is designed that consists of periodic unit cells of metal printed on the upper layer of an FR-4 substrate with dimensions of 0.11λ × 0.11λ at the lowest operating frequency of 3.3 GHz. The FSS shows a very low transmission coefficient and linearly reducing reflection phase with increasing frequency over a frequency range of 3.3–10.8 GHz. The gain of the proposed antenna is increased from 3 dB to 8.1 dB at 9 GHz by placing the antenna on the FSS. Moreover, the prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated, and the experimental results are measured, which show close agreements with simulated results. The FSS-based antenna has directional radiation patterns, making it a potential candidate for ground-penetrating radar and UWB applications.