Fast simulation-driven design of a planar UWB dipole antenna with an integrated balun

The paper presents a design of an ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with an integrated balun. A fully planar balun interfacing the microstrip input of the structure to the coplanar stripline (CPS) input of the dipole antenna is introduced. The electromagnetic (EM) model of the structure includes the dipole, the balun, and the microstrip input to account for interactions over the UWB band. The EM model is adjusted for low reflection over the UWB band by means of fast simulation-driven surrogate-based optimization. This allows us to obtain the final design at low computational costs. Measurements of the manufactured optimal design validate the use of the balun as well as the design approach.