Planar UWB monopole antenna optimization to enhance time-domain characteristics using PSO

A planar monopole antenna with microstrip feed line for ultrawideband (UWB) applications is optimized to reduce two parameters: return loss and dispersion. The optimization is accomplished with a modified version of local-best particle swarm optimization (MLPSO). The resulting antenna shows a good matching in the desired frequency band. The transient characteristics of optimized antenna are compared with a prototype circular disk monopole antenna. The results show that the former antenna presents a higher value for the fidelity factor and very small variations in phase and amplitude of its transfer function, suitable for low-distortion impulse radio communications. Various time-domain patterns are presented to show the performance of antenna.