Broadband Blade Monopole Antenna Covering

100-2000 MHz Frequency band

S.D.Ahirwar, C.Sairam, Ashwani Kumar
Defence Electronics Research Laboratory,
Chandrayangutta lines, Hyderabad-05
Fax: 040-24440525
E-mail: sdahirwaniirediffmail.com

Abstract- In this paper, design and development of broadband

blade monopole antenna covering 100MHz - 2000MHz is
Zin = 60 In [cot (8/4)] 0 ,
presented with measured results. A broadband impedance
matching circuit has been designed and developed to match Where 8 is the cone angle.
the frequency dependent antenna impedance to 500 system.
The antenna shows VSWR:s 3:1 over 100MHz to 590MHz and The above relationship for input impedance is valid only if
:s 2.1:1 above 590MHz. Blade monopole antennas are the antenna element length is infinity. For limited antenna
preferred antenna configurations for airborne platforms due height the lower end of the impedance bandwidth is decided
to lower drag offered by them. The metallic skin of the by the antenna height. This height should be IJ4 at lowest
platforms can be used as a ground plane of the antenna to
balance it electrically. The DC grounding is also provided frequency of operation. According to this requirement the
through impedance matching circuit for lightning protection. antenna height should be 750mm with required cone flare
angle and full slant length. In this proposed design, the
I. INTRODUCTION antenna height is selected as 150mm (IJ20 at 100 MHz) due
The rapid advancements in communication technologies to size and weight constraints. To meet the aerodynamic
are the driving forces in design and development of requirements in terms of shape and compactness, the
broadband antennas with desirable mechanical features like antenna element is also truncated from sides and width of
compact size and light weight. Small size, low weight and the radiating is limited to 100mm (IJ30 at 100 MHz). For
volume, aerodynamic shape, are some of the important these dimensions the resistive part of input impedance of
requirements for the antenna in airborne systems. the antenna is a few ohms with high capacitive reactance at
Monopole antenna owing to their simple structure, small lower frequency of operation. A broadband impedance
size and feasibility ofimplementation in printed circuit form matching circuit is designed to shift the impedance loci
is preferred for airborne applications [I] . Such monopole toward the centre of the Smith chart especially at lower
antennas utilize the skin of the airborne platform as its frequency band of the antenna and good impedance match
ground plane. Conventional quarter wave monopole antenna is achieved over the frequency band of interest.
is a narrowband antenna having bandwidth of operation of III. ANTENNA REALIZATION
the order of 1% to 5% [2]. The narrow band wire antennas
can be transformed into broadband radiating structure by The copper claded FR4 substrate (height = 1.6mm,
using various techniques. Such techniques include, low dielectric constant = 4.4) was used as a base to print the
wavelength to diameter ratio (IJD) [3], defining the antenna radiating element of the antenna. An aluminum base plate
structure by angle (angular concept) [4], using matching in elliptical shape was fabricated to hold the connector and
networks [5] or a combination of these. The antennas provide interface to ground plane. The N (F) connector was
related to first two techniques, require full size for their used for excitation of the antenna. The centre pin of
operation. The size of the antenna can be reduced connector is connected to the printed radiating element of
substantially if impedance matching circuit is used to match the antenna and outer to the aluminum base plate. A
the antenna to a 500 system. Such broadband antennas broadband impedance matching circuit is realized using
cater for data and voice communication, multimedia, custom built toroidal inductors. The impedance matching
surveillance, telemetry etc. In this paper, the details of circuit is integrated to the radiating element at the feed point
design and development of a broadband monopole blade of the antenna. This impedance matching circuit provides
antenna with impedance matching network, is presented good impedance match over the frequency band as well as
which can be effectively used to meet the requirements of the DC grounding to antenna to protect it from lightning.
above applications. The antenna schematic is shown in Fig.l .which shows the
dimensional details of the antenna.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
The input impedance of the conical monopole antenna is
given by

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 90 mm This plot shows the good impedance match above 300MHz
:...
I I
~: due to angle concept and less IJD ratio (30 at IOOMHz). The
_____ lower frequency band is matched with especially designed
impedance matching network. The impedance profile for this
network is shown in Fig. 3. The comparison of VSWR plots
without and with impedance matching circuit is shown in
FigA.

Printed
radiating IOOmm
CHI 511 11 U ., : 70 .83 0 j71 .63 0
100 MHz
element "2 232 . 4 Q -j1Z1.9 0
377 . 87~ MHt:
'73 : 57 .10 Q - j 119.2 0
582.625 ""z
174 : 22 . 03 o . j33 .42 0
1 .2919375 GHz
23 .76 o . j6.921 0
IOOmm 2 .01587~ GHz
0 J5.202 0 C4l
2.50825 GHz
0 irn .rs 0
3 .2126875 GHz
50. 9 0 j2.292 0
.4 GHz
Base plate
150mm CPl

'll

'"
5110

Fig. I. Schematic of the proposed antenna

"
IV. MEASURED RESULTS AND DISCUSSION SlAIH 100 t1l-1z ST(1' 4 GHz

The antenna was evaluated for its impedance characteristics Fig. 3. Measured impedance loci of impedance matching circuit
using M is R&S ZVRE vector network analyzer model
No.1043.0009.The impedance loci of the antenna, without
impedance matching circuit is shown in Fig. 2.

CH' 511 "'1: 4 . B0 8 0 - j 15 3 . 8

0 CHI 51l LIN 5WA 1 U' REF" 1 U "'1 : '2. 27 5 U
" U
100 MHZ
:I 1~ U V2 :
'DO "Hz
172 : 26 .80 0 j7 . 8 40 0 '2 . 92 6 U
377 .875 MHz 2 5 1 . 12 5 "Hz
"", , 100 .7 0 - j29 . 98 0 V3 : t . 9 75 U
582 .625 MHz 59 2.375 ""z
73 .27 0 -j32 .25 0 'V4 : '2 . 1 ].4 U
1 .2919'375 GHz 1. 2919375 G"z
39 .17 0 - j8 . 342 0 V5 : 1.3 79 U
2 .015875 GHz 2 . 0 15 8 75 GHz
40. 2 0 0 j821 .3 m9 CA l Vii : 1 . 230 U C41
'2.50825 GHz
'2. 50 825 GHz
44 . 6 9 0 -j 401 .7 »c
V7 : 1 . 154 U
3 .21268755Hz
3.2 126875 GHz
49 . 15 0
, G"z
j850 .6 mO
l V8 :
1/ 1.030 U
, GHz
eP L I CPl
......
,",l
-- -

2:
\Ok ,. n,
5"0
\.
l/ \ , 1.
I Ok
5 "0

.. .. Ii ': . ........... ..
I -c
~. " "
START 100 MHz STOP 4 GHz 1 U
~

~"" ." ~ ..... ......."..... ....•.....

7
... . .. . ,,1 ~
STA~T 10 0 M"z 500 Ml-lz l SlOP 4 G"z

Fig. 2. Measured impedance loci of antenna without impedance Fig. 4. Measured VSWR plots of antenna without and
matching circuit with impedance matching circuit

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 -
2GHz E -
2G Hz H

The measured VSWR is less than 3:I from 100MHz to

590MHz and :s 2.1:I above 590MHz.
The antenna was evaluated for its radiation characteristics in
ground reflection test range in the frequency range of 100-
450MHz and in anechoic chamber above 500MHz frequency
band. A circular ground plane of diameter 102m was used for
evaluation of the antenna. The measured elevation plane
radiation patterns (figure of eight) and azimuth plane radiation
patterns (circular) are shown in Fig. 5(a-c). As evidenced from
Fig. 4 the impedance bandwidth of the antenna is more than 27H---++--+--+--+-~
40:1. The pattern bandwidth limits the operating bandwidth of
this type of antenna. This limitation occurs in terms of beam
lift in elevation plane and more omni deviation in azimuth
plane. This tradeoff between antenna size and pattern
bandwidth can be clearly seen in Fig.5.

180

© Frequency : 2000M Hz

Fig. 5 (a-c) . Measured elevation and azimuth plane

radiation patterns

The measured radiation patterns show good elevation

coverage ( ::::35°) and less omni deviation in azimuth plane
patterns. The omni deviation is :s ± IdB up to 1200MHz, :s ±
2.5dB up to 1700MHz and ±4dB at 2000MHz. The measured
antenna gain varies from -26dBi to +6.5dBi over the band.

V . CONCLUSIONS

-
Q~~ E
(a) Frequency : IOOMHz

-
Q~~H
A broadband blade monopole antenna has been designed and
developed. The antenna is electrically small. At lower
frequency band the antenna height is only 13.33% compared
to its conventional monopole counterparts. The antenna can be
enclosed in aerodynamically shaped radome to mount at
airborne platforms. The antenna can be used for Direction
Finding, signal monitoring and other communication
applications. The radome fabrication for the antenna is under
progress.

ACKNOLEDGEMENT

Authors express their sincere thanks to Shri G. Boopathy,

27 ~+---+--+-+---+-----=:
Director, DLRL for providing encouragement and motivation.
Authors also would like to thank Shri T.N. Yadagiri Rao,
Associate Director and Dr V.C. Misra, Director, Technologies,
for their guidance and support to carry out this work.

180

(b) Frequency : 500MHz

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 REFERENCES

[1] C.Sairam, T.Khumanthem, S.D.Ahirwar, Ashwani Kumar,

" Design and development of broadband blade monopole antenna",
International Conference on Recent Advances in Microwave
Theory and Applications, Jaipur, India, pp. 150-151, 21-24
Nov. 2008.

[2] Constantine A.Balanis, "Antenna theory, analysis and design"2 nd

edition, John Willey& Sons, Inc. New York, pp. 160-164, 1998.

[3] Y.T. Lo/ S.W. Lee, "Antenna handbook", Volume-I, Van Nostrand
Reinhold Pub. New York, pp 3-27 to 3-30,1994.
[4] Constantine A.Balanis, "Antenna theory, analysis and design"2 nd
edition, John Willey& Sons, Inc. New York, pp. 542-566, 1998.

[5] S.D. Ahirwar, C.Sai Ram, T.Khumanthem, Ashwani Kumar "A com
pact size, broadabnd dipole antenna for direction finding applica
tions", International Conference on Recent Advances in Communi
cation ngineering (RACE-08), Hyderabad, India, 20-23 Dec.,2008.

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