Design and performance of an integrated antenna for a 433MHz car park monitoring system

A top-loaded vertical monopole antenna is designed to be integrated in a wireless sensor of a car park monitoring system operating at 433MHz. The final design came out from a careful analysis of the effects on the antenna input impedance of nearby elements (photovoltaic cells, battery, sensor cover, ultrasonic transducer). A performance comparison between the proposed vertically polarized antenna and a commercial ceramic antenna is presented, showing an average increase of the received power level at the reader of about 2.2dB, when measurements are performed on a distance range of 10-60m between the sensor and the reader antenna of the car park monitoring system. © 2012 IEEE.