Wideband tab monopole antenna array for wireless adaptive and mobile information systems application

The Wireless Adaptive Microwave Information Systems (WAMIS) program is concerned with the development of adaptive, high speed data communications systems and associated supporting technologies for mobile applications. One of the projects under the umbrella of the WAMIS program is the Hardware Technologies for Adaptive High Bit-Rate Wireless Transceivers currently underway at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA's project has among its goals the development of enabling technologies that facilitate the implementation of high data rate, portable digital, wireless data links with data rates up to 60 Mbit/s. The end product of UCLA's effort will be a flexible, robust, digital radio testbed enabling multimedia peer to peer, indoor communication between portable notebook style computers. The testbed radio being developed will incorporate channel coding, frequency hopping, fully adaptive antenna arrays for both transmit and receive, adaptive bit and power allocation, adaptive equalization, adaptive bit rate selection, and various custom RF and IF integrated circuits. The project goals call for the development of antenna array with a minimum operational band of 2.4 to 2.48 GHz that can be interfaced with the project hardware. These requirements imply a printed antenna with a bandwidth that is considerably wider than 2.4-2.48 GHz to allow for manufacturing tolerances and future requirements. This paper reports on an antenna array that has been developed for the UCLA WAMIS project that utilizes a newly developed, broadband, printed circuit antenna element called the tab monopole.