Compact printed dual-band dipole with wideband integrated balun

A novel compact printed dual-band dipole with an integrated wideband balun is presented. The proposed antenna consists of two radiating microstrip branches and a slot balun etched in the ground plane. With the integrated balun, the proposed antenna yields an impedance bandwidth of 2.38-2.65 and 4.95-6.35 GHz with return loss less than 210 dB, while retaining a compact size of 30 x 25 x 0.8 mm(3). The antenna has general good omnidirectional radiation patterns in its H-plane and attains considerable gain characteristics across its dual bands. Measured and simulated results are demonstrated to verify the proposed design.