UWB antennas: Design and application

Since FCC released the extremely wide spectrum with emission masks for commercial ultra-wideband (UWB) applications in 2002, much effort of research and development has been paid for the design of UWB antennas for a variety of applications from wireless or wired communications to noncommunications such as imaging, location, and radar systems. Many UWB antennas have been developed to cover the ultrawide operating bandwidth of the UWB systems with acceptable performance. Currently, the prospective applications of UWB technology are becoming clearer and clearer. The majority of UWB R&D activities have been focused on how to meet the specific requirements of forthcoming UWB systems. This paper will review the R&D of UWB antennas since 2002. The important milestones of the UWB antenna designs will be introduced. The issues how to apply UWB antennas in the promising UWB systems will be highlighted. Many state-of-the-art designs will be updated.