A Planar Self-Complementary Bow-Tie Antenna for UWB Applications

A new planar bow-tie antenna is proposed here for UWB applications. The self-complementary principle has been applied to a planar triangular monopole antenna along with bending the microstrip feed line. The antenna has a wider frequency band compared to the traditional bow-tie antenna, complies with the UWB requirements and it is directly matched to the (SMA) connector via 50 Ω microstrip feed line. This antenna has a simple shape which overcomes the complicated matching techniques using baluns or impedance matching sections that are commonly used in bow-tie antennas for widening their limited bandwidths. Another improvement on this new bow-tie antenna is achieved through fractal self-similarity repetition of the triangular shape on each of the patch and its complimentary slot. The simulation results obtained from the CST and HFSS software packages are verified by experimental measurements.