Four ultrawideband monopole antennas exploiting periodicity to reduce their size are presented. Experimental results are also discussed for these antennas. The first antenna uses a fractal topology based on a hexagonal pattern. It achieves a bandwidth of 8.85 GHz from 3.65 to 12.5 GHz with a 14 × 16.52 mm2 footprint. The second antenna uses an electric‐magnetic‐electric matrix and provides a 7 GHz bandwidth from 3.5 to 10.5 GHz with a 14 × 15.9 mm2 footprint. Two antennas based on a serrated structure which reduces the surface up to 15% are also presented with dimensions of 15 × 16.3 mm2: the first one covers a bandwidth of 3.5 to 11.73 GHz, whereas the second adds a notch between 5.15 to 5.825 GHz to reject the wireless LAN band. All these antennas can be incorporated into very small communication modules while maintaining excellent performances with a return loss below −10 dB and with a good multidirectional radiation pattern. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:2038–2044, 2014