Aperture Coupled Dielectric Resonator Antenna Embedded in A Secondary Substrate For Mechanical Firmness
Aperture Coupled Dielectric Resonator Antenna Embedded in A Secondary Substrate For Mechanical Firmness
Aperture Coupled Dielectric Resonator Antenna Embedded in A Secondary Substrate For Mechanical Firmness
Dept. of Electronics & Tele-comm. Engineering, Indian Institute of Science Engineering and Technology, Shibpur,
Howrah-711103, India
[email protected], [email protected]
Abstract. An aperture coupled rectangular dielectric res- for design DRAs. Rectangular shapes of DRA are gener-
onator antenna (RDRA) is proposed where high permittiv- ally preferred over other basic shapes such as cylindrical or
ity radiating element is embedded on a comparatively low hemispherical due to their fabrication simplicity and addi-
permittivity secondary substrate material (here FR4 is tional degrees of freedom from designer aspect [1–3].
used). Proposed dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is Again DRA supports different modes and each mode of
accurately excited in fundamental mode TE111 for efficient DRA has its unique electromagnetic field distributions and
broadside radiation. All the existing DRAs are placed on hence different modes of DRA need different boundary
ground plane using adhesive which is not suitable for conditions to be met [4–6]. As a consequence different
practical application. The proposed design can be consid- feeding mechanism has to be used for individual modes to
ered as a promising solution of mounting of DRA on the satisfy different boundary conditions. In literature several
ground plane with good mechanical firmness. Since the types of feeding mechanism for DRA are proposed, such as
RDRA is embedded on FR4 substrate, it can be withstand probe feed, microstrip line feed, slot aperture coupling,
very high pressure and vibrating condition which is the coplanar line feed, dielectric image guide coupling and so
main practical limitation of existing DRA technology. The on [2]. Again the excitable DRA modes strongly depend on
effect of embedding the radiating DRA on secondary sub- the position of feeding source. They are also the main deci-
strate is studied here in details. A prototype of single an- sive factor for determining nature of radiation pattern of
tenna element is designed, fabricated and measured to DRA. In this paper, the aperture-coupled source [7] is
validate the simulation results. Further, a 2 × 2 antenna preferred because the ground plane can isolate its feed
array with such antenna element is designed at the center network from the DRA and, thus, spurious radiation from
frequency of 6.684 GHz for obtaining higher directive the feed network can be avoided which ensure that most of
gain. The array offers an impedance bandwidth of 4.94% the energy is radiated from DRA. Again it is easier to ob-
and a maximum gain of 13.4 dBi at the operating fre- tain a good single mode operation using a centrally fed slot
quency. A good agreement has been obtained between the because all modes TM and half of the TE modes are elimi-
measured and simulated results. nated (for this configuration, only TEmnl modes with odd
m,n,l can be excited) [8]. Recently DRA arrays have found
widespread attentions due to high gain, wide bandwidth,
low side-lobe-level, high efficiency in various communi-
Keywords cation systems. But most of the DRAs are mounted over
Aperture coupled, antenna gain, dielectric resonator ground plane using adhesive or superglue [9–11]. This
antenna (DRA), embedded technique is not suitable for adverse conditions (high tem-
perature, high pressure etc.). For good performance of
array each individual DRA element must be placed and
attached at the appropriate position. As we go for higher
1. Introduction frequency, the size of the elements becomes small, and
The versatility in design offered by dielectric resona- their exact locations become more decisive, in that situa-
tor antennas (DRAs) make them attractive alternatives to tion this approach not suitable in practice. Aim of our study
other low-gain antennas such as microstrip antennas or is to investigate whether a DRA embedded on a secondary
wire antennas. Lack of surface wave losses and minimal substrate radiates efficiently or not which can eliminate the
conductor losses help them to maintain high radiation effi- above mentioned practical limitations. Some works were
ciency at microwaves or millimeter-waves frequencies. done [12], [13] earlier where DRA’s are embedded within
Various shapes of different dielectric materials can be used one another to enhance impedance bandwidth. In [14–16],
2. Parameter Analysis
Fig. 10. Simulated S11 of the DRA for different dielectric Fig. 11. Schematic diagram of two RDRA placed at distance s
constant of substrate2. Inset shows the corresponding on a substrate of length lm = 80 mm and width
gain plot. wm = 48 mm.
RADIOENGINEERING, VOL. 27, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2018 683
(a) (b)
4. Conclusion
With our proposed embedded design we can develop
DRA blocks which become more rigid. For large array
design using DRA, instead of mounting each individual
element on the ground plane, from our work we can think
of an inhomogeneous uneven substrate on which high
permittivity regions are formed as per design requirement
for efficient radiation. This makes whole arrangement
become more stable and rigid in practice. A prototype of
single element embedded RDRA has been fabricated and
measured. The simulated results of reflection coefficients
Fig. 17. Simulated and measured S11 of the proposed antenna
and radiation patterns have been found to be in reasonably
array. Parameters as in Tab. 1.
good agreement with measured results. A prototype of
2 2 array is also fabricated and measured. The measured
maximum gain of 13.4 dBi has been found for the pro-
posed DRA array. Embedded slot feed array design notably
reduces cross-polarization level and also significant reduc-
tion in sidelobe levels is obtained. The proposed DRA
array has very simple geometry and is inexpensive to fabri-
cate. Due to non-availability of measurement facility we
restrict our design within microwave frequency band. But
the proposed DRA array is supposed to be a good approach
in mm wave frequency band for 5G communication tech-
nology which is currently going through many challenges.
The proposed antenna array has increased the reliability of
use DRA for air/space born systems.
Acknowledgments
Fig. 18. Simulated and measured E-plane normalized radiation
pattern of antenna array at 6.68 GHz. The authors thank senior colleagues for their valuable
RADIOENGINEERING, VOL. 27, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2018 685
comments which have helped to improve the quality of [13] SANGIOVANNI, A., DAUVIGNAC, J. Y., PICHOT, CH. Em-
bedded dielectric resonator antenna for bandwidth enhancement.
paper.
Electronics Letter, 1997, vol. 33, no. 25, p. 2090–2091. DOI:
10.1049/el:19971430
[14] PETOSA, A., THIRAKOUNE, S., ZULIANI, M., et al.
Comparison between planar arrays of perforated DRAs and
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Techniques, 1983, vol. 31, no. 12, p. 1023–1029. DOI: Suparna BALLAV received the B.Sc. (Physics Hons)
10.1109/TMTT.1983.1131656 degree in 2011 and the B.Tech. and M.Tech in Radio
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(IIEST), Shibpur, West Bengal, India since august 2016.
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Physics and B.Tech. degree in Radio Physics and Elec-
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1987 and 1990, respectively and the Ph. D. degree in Mi-
[9] NIKKHAH, M. R., KISHK, A. A., MOHASSEL, J. R. Wideband
DRA array placed on array of slot windows. IEEE Transactions on crowave Engineering from the Bengal Engineering and
Antennas and Propagation, 2015, vol. 63, no. 12, p. 5382–5390. Science University (presently known as the Indian Institute
DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2015.2490246 of Engineering Science and Technology), Shibpur, India.
[10] LIN, J. H., SHEN, W., YANG, K. A low-sidelobe and wideband From 1993 to 2000, he was an Instrument Engineer in
series-fed linear dielectric resonator antenna array. IEEE Antennas Process control Industries. Since 2000, he has been associ-
and Wireless Propagation Letters, 2017, vol. 16, p. 513–516. DOI: ated with the Dept. of Electronics and Tele-Communica-
10.1109/LAWP.2016.2586579 tion Engineering, Indian Institute of Engineering Science
[11] RANA, B., PARUI, S. K. Nonresonant microstrip patch-fed & Technology, Shibpur and presently holds the post of
dielectric resonator antenna array. IEEE Antennas and Wireless Associate Professor. He is the author of more than 60 pa-
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pers in referred journals and conference proceedings. His
research interests include planar circuits, antennas, SIW,
[12] KISHK, A. A. Experimental study of broadband embedded dielec- DGS, EBG, FSS and metamaterials. Dr. Parui was awarded
tric resonator antennas excited by a narrow slot. IEEE Antennas
and Wireless Propagation Letters, 2015, vol. 4, p. 79–81. DOI: post doctoral fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engi-
10.1109/LAWP.2005.844648 neering, U.K in the year 2009.