Vertically-polarized omnidirectional antenna with broadband amplitude taper

A vertically-polarized omnidirectional antenna, comprising:

• a body comprising:
• a host printed circuit board (PCB) comprising:
• a first slot and a second slot;
• and
• a metal flooded ground plane;
• a first antenna PCB and a second antenna PCB forming an array of four dipole pairs, each of the first antenna PCB and the second antenna PCB comprising two of the four dipole pairs, the first antenna PCB being mounted to the host PCB through the first slot, the second antenna PCB being mounted to the host PCB through the second slot;
• respective first, second, and third ground connection fillet tabs, connected to the metal flooded ground plane of the host PCB and to a respective antenna PCB among the first and second antenna PCBs, at a transition between the host PCB and the respective antenna PCB, the first and second ground connection fillet tabs being on a first side of the host PCB, and the third ground connection fillet tab being on a second side of the host PCB opposite to the first side of the host PCB, the first, second, and third ground connection fillet tabs being on a same side of the respective antenna PCB;
• a respective amplitude taper on each antenna PCB at the transition between the host PCB and each respective antenna PCB, each amplitude taper comprising:
• a first transmission line connected to the respective antenna PCB, the first transmission line having a characteristic impedance of Z0−Δ, where Δ is between 0 and 0.2*Z0, the first transmission line splitting off into a second line having a characteristic impedance of Z0 and a third transmission line having a characteristic impedance of at least 2*Z0, the second transmission line being routed toward a center of the array on the first and second antenna PCBs and feeding two antennas, each having an input impedance of 2*Z0, to form one dipole pair among the four dipole pairs, the third transmission line stepping into the impedance of the second transmission line using a quarter-wave transformer or a or multi-section transformer to feed a dipole pair at the edge of the array;
• and
• a radio frequency (RF) connector coupled to one end of the body to enable signal transmission and reception between the radio and antenna.