Wideband circularly polarized hybrid dielectric resonator antenna
The present invention provides a dielectric resonator antenna comprising: a dielectric resonator; a ground plane, operatively coupled with the dielectric resonator, the ground plane having four slots; and a substrate, operatively coupled to the ground plane, having a feeding network consisting of four microstrip lines; wherein the four slots are constructed and geometrically arranged to ensure proper circular polarization and coupling to the dielectric resonator; and wherein the antenna feeding network combines the four microstrip lines with a 90 degree phase difference to generate circular polarization over a wide frequency band.
1. A dielectric resonator antenna comprising:
a dielectric resonator;
a ground plane, operatively coupled with the dielectric resonator, the ground plane having four independent slots with each slot being arc in shape and forming a ring configuration; and
a substrate, operatively coupled to the ground plane, having a feeding network consisting of four microstrip lines, with each microstrip line feeding independently into each slot;
wherein the four slots are constructed and geometrically arranged to ensure circular polarization and coupling to the dielectric resonator;
wherein the antenna feeding network combines the four microstrip lines with a 90 degree phase difference to generate circular polarization over a wide frequency band; and
wherein the feeding network includes a compact wideband rat-race combined with two surface mount (SMT) branch-line hybrid couplers.
2. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , further including a back plate housing operatively coupled to the substrate.
3. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , wherein the dielectric resonator is cylindrical in shape.
4. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , wherein the dielectric resonator is dimensioned to excite a hybrid HE11δ mode.
5. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , wherein the dielectric resonator is cylindrical in shape with a cylindrical radius of 25.4 mm, a cylindrical height of 18 mm and a dielectric permittivity of 16 and wherein the substrate is made of CER-10 material.
6. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , wherein the dielectric resonator is cylindrical in shape with a cylindrical radius of 19.05 mm, a cylindrical height of 15 mm and a dielectric permittivity of 30 and wherein the substrate is made of CER-10 material.
7. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , wherein the dielectric resonator is square in shape.
8. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , wherein the dielectric resonator is glued to the ground plane.
9. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , further includes plated thru holes that provide a common ground plane between the dielectric resonator and the feeding network.
10. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , wherein the dielectric resonator has a dielectric permittivity of a range of approximately 10 to approximately 30.
11. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , further including a metallic back plate housing operatively coupled to the substrate.
12. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , wherein the substrate is made of FR-4 material.
13. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 1 , wherein the substrate is made of CER-10 material.
14. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 3 , wherein the four slots excite four degenerate HE11δ resonance modes.
15. The dielectric resonator antenna as in claim 7 , wherein the four slots excite two degenerate TEδ11 and TE1δ1 modes.