UWB Antennas for Communication Systems

TLDR

The FCC’s opening of the 3.1–10.6 GHz band for unlicensed UWB use has spurred many antenna studies, yet most focus only on reflection coefficient and radiation pattern while neglecting critical time‑domain metrics such as transient gain, group delay, dispersion, and efficiency that are essential for practical UWB systems. This paper reviews UWB antenna designs, assessing their suitability for various applications by evaluating these critical time‑domain characteristics, and discusses array configurations, polarization diversity, and body‑area‑network use. The authors evaluate antennas by analyzing time‑domain metrics—such as transient response, group delay, and dispersion—to guide intuitive design and system integration.

Abstract

Since the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened the spectrum from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz for unlicensed radio applications with an EIRP of up to 41.3 dBm/MHz, numerous papers have been published on ultrawideband (UWB) antennas. Often the goal in these publications is to present an antenna, which has a satisfactory input reflection coefficient and a reasonable, constant radiation diagram versus frequency. However, in the case of UWB, there are numerous additional critical characteristics, which must be considered in the proper wireless system design. The publications, which treat this topic with sufficient proficiency, use such quantities as transient gain, group delay, ringing, dispersion, signal fidelity, polarization, efficiency, and the peak value of the transient response. For practical applications based on signals with an UWB instantaneous bandwidth occupation, all criteria are of vital importance, because they determine the sensor resolution, accuracy, or increase the bit error rate in communications systems. This paper gives an overview of UWB antenna designs together with their suitability for different applications with respect to the aforementioned critical characteristics. Additionally, UWB antenna array design, polarization diversity, and application in body area network (BAN) will be discussed. In nearly all cases the time-domain characteristics are taken into account, as they are more intuitive to interpret and very convenient for time-domain UWB system design.