Metal-Stamped and IR-UWB-Optimized Air-Filled Cavity-Backed Antenna Array for Cost-Effective Single-Anchor 3D Localization

A cost-effective, yet high-performance, time-domain-optimized air-filled cavity-backed metal-stamped slot antenna is presented for next-generation multi-channel, multi-antenna IR-UWB applications. Equipping a quarter-mode metal-stamped cavity with a novel feeding mechanism yields a compact 0.43 $\lambda _{{0}}$ 0.43 $\lambda _{{0}}$ antenna that is compatible with standard low-cost manufacturing processes and that has a fractional bandwidth of 34.4%, covering UWB channels 5, 6, 8 and 9. The antenna is optimized in the frequency and time domains for IR-UWB applications. It is robust against variations in material properties and manufacturing inaccuracies in the metal stamping process. Furthermore, it retains its performance when exploited in a three-element V-shaped antenna array for single-anchor distance and 2D angle-of-arrival estimation. Measurements demonstrate excellent estimation performance in both free-space conditions and challenging real-life deployment scenarios. Specifically, 97% of all distance estimation errors are below 2cm, with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 7.1 mm. In terms of angle estimation, 91% of all errors are below $10^{\scriptscriptstyle \circ }$ , with an MAE of $5.0^{\scriptscriptstyle \circ }$ . These results highlight the antenna’s excellent IR-UWB and isolation performance, enabling single-anchor 3D localization for Industry 4.0 and Healthcare 4.0 applications.