Design of Key-shaped monopole antenna for UWB applications

In this paper key shaped monopole antenna with and without rectangular slot inserted on feeding strip is proposed for Ultra Wide Band (UWB). This UWB antenna is etched on a 30 x 30mm 2 commercially available low cost substrate of Flame Recorded Grade 4 (FR4) with thickness of 1.6mm, relative dielectric constant ɛr = 4.4 and dielectric loss tangent = 0.02. One of the industry leading 3D EM software tools for radio frequency (RF) application known as High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) was used to design this UWB antenna. The reflection coefficient S 11 of the proposed antenna was found to be less than -10dB and Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) is less than 2. It was found that the designed UWB antenna is operable over the entire 3.1GHz - 10.6GHz frequency range. KEYWORDS : Key-shaped monopole antenna, rectangular slot, HFSS software, UWB antenna, flame recorded grade.