An ultra-wideband printed monopole antenna with the gain enhanced using a surface-mounted short horn

An ultra-wideband printed monopole antenna, improved by attaching a short two-plate horn to its surface, is reported in this paper. The short horn, which has a slant length of 45 mm and a total physical height of 46.9 mm, significantly increases the gain of the printed monopole antenna at lower frequencies where the gain of the monopole is otherwise low, giving an almost flat gain over a 114 % bandwidth. The new antenna has a measured gain in the range of 4.8 dBi ± 0.7 dB from 3 GHz to 12 GHz. Due to its compact configuration, ease of fabrication, high gain, broad azimuth pattern and minimal ringing of a radiated pulse, it is suitable for UWB applications.