A novel design for compact probe-fed wideband microstrip patch antenna for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications is proposed in this paper. The antenna consists of a folded ramp-shaped feed, trapezoidal patch and shorting pins. By adding two pins at end side of the patch, its size is miniaturized. The measured impedance bandwidth (VSWR≤ 2) of fabricated antenna is more than 130 % from 3.7 to 17.6 GHz. This antenna achieves an acceptable miniaturization and provides an excellent UWB impedance bandwidth with stable radiation patterns. It is shown by simulated results how the bandwidth can be considerably increased by introducing novel feeding method namely, the folded ramp-shaped feed. Likewise, the parametric study is performed to describe the characteristics of the proposed antenna. Moreover, good antenna performances such as radiation patterns, acceptable miniaturization and antenna gains over the operating band have been observed.
