ENHANCED RADIATION PATTERNS OF A WIDE-BAND STRIP-FED DIELECTRIC RESONATOR ANTENNA

A simple wide-band rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is designed for the X-band and Ku-band applications. The DRA is excited by a vertical strip placed on the middle of the DRA’s wide side wall through a coaxial probe attached to a finite size ground plane. Good agreement between measured and simulated results is obtained. The measured 10 dB return loss bandwidth of the antenna is about 7.8 GHz (62%). The simulated gain of the antenna is 6.1 dBi at 12 GHz. The antenna excites undesired modes that perturb the radiation patterns and increase the cross-polarization level. The dielectric resonator is wrapped by a conducting strip to suppress some modes and improve the radiation characteristics of the antenna. Adding the strip reduces the cross-polarization level and improves the co-polarization radiation pattern.