A Compact balanced symmetric discone antenna with optimized ultrawideband omnidirectional impulse radiation behavior

A symmetric compact discone antenna for the 3GHz to 20GHz frequency range is presented and characterized. The radiation pattern exhibits excellent frequency independence thanks to a careful theoretical and practical analysis of the radiated spherical modes. The time domain impulse response of the antenna is short and shows very low angular dependence. Moreover, the antenna in equipped with an improved feeding mechanism based on two separate discone antennas. Overall, the results show significantly improved impulse responses and input matching compared to a standard biconical antenna. Hence, the new antenna is well suited for advanced channel characterization, reference measurements, and system verifications.