Broadband Antenna Designs for Wireless Communication
Summary
Broadband antenna designs have evolved to meet the ever-growing demand for high-data-rate wireless links across diverse spectrum bands. By extending operational bandwidths beyond narrow-band constraints, modern antennas support emerging applications such as 5G networks, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Key strategies include the use of parasitic elements, shorting strips and multi-resonant structures to achieve fractional bandwidths in excess of 100 percent, while maintaining a low profile and stable radiation patterns. Additive manufacturing and substrate-integrated waveguide techniques have enabled rapid prototyping, material optimisation and seamless integration with platforms of constrained form factor. At the same time, band-notching and metamaterial loading afford interference suppression and gain enhancement, ensuring reliable links in congested environments. These advances collectively underpin global efforts to deliver resilient, high-throughput wireless connectivity in urban, vehicular and aeronautical contexts.
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Broadband Antenna Designs for Wireless Communication publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in broadband antenna designs for wireless communication across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Broadband antenna: An antenna designed to operate over a wide frequency range, typically with a fractional bandwidth exceeding 20 percent.
Ultra-wideband (UWB): A radio technology characterised by very large bandwidth ratios (often exceeding 100 percent), enabling high-speed data transmission and fine temporal resolution.
Fractional bandwidth: The ratio of the bandwidth over which the antenna meets performance criteria to its centre frequency, expressed as a percentage.
Omnidirectional radiation pattern: A radiation characteristic in which an antenna emits energy uniformly in the azimuthal plane.
Band-notching: A technique to introduce a narrow rejection band within a broadband response, reducing interference from specific frequency bands.
Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW): A planar transmission line technology that replicates waveguide behaviour within a dielectric substrate, enabling low-loss feeding of antenna arrays.
References
- A Compact Ultra-Wideband Monocone Antenna with Folded Shorting Wires for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Applications. Sensors (2023).
- Design of a 3D Top-Loaded Low-Profile Sleeve Antenna for UAV Applications. IEEE Access (2020).
- A 3D-Printed Tapered Cavity-Backed Flush-Mountable Ultra-Wideband Antenna for UAV. IEEE Access (2019).
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