Coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed ultra wideband planar monopole antenna with small form factor is presented. Miniaturization of the antenna to an extent of 40% is achieved by etching out portion of the radiator and ground plane by optimizing the surface current distribution. Slots in the ground provide additional resonances and hence the bandwidth is increased up to 143.81% over 3.18 - 19.8 GHz. Frequency band notch is achieved by embedding a C shaped slot on the radiating patch. The antenna has nearly omni directional characteristics with an average gain of 2.26 dB over the UWB band except for the notchband. © 2012 ISRAMT.