Design and fabrication of broadband planar monopole antenna operating in 1.2–6 GHz band

This paper presents the design of a broadband planar monopole antenna intended for airborne communication applications. The proposed design is a low profile hexagonal planar blade antenna with slant tapered edges which covers a bandwidth 133% (1.2–6GHz) with VSWR less than 2. The antenna exhibits radiation pattern providing full 360° coverage in the intended field of view with a gain variation not greater than 3dBi over the band. Prototype of the design is fabricated using metal sheets. The details of aforementioned specialized design along with its measured and simulated results are reported in this paper.