A study of the wide-band L-probe fed planar patch antenna mounted on a cylindrical or conical surface

The characteristics of an L-probe fed planar patch antenna mounted on a cylindrical or conical surface are investigated in this paper. It is found that the wide-band characteristic of the L-probe patch antenna can be maintained with this structure and further enhanced by using a curved ground. An antenna mounted on a cylinder is built and measured to confirm the simulated results. A 10 dB impedance bandwidth of 45.2%, which is about 50% larger than that of the patch mounted on a flat ground plane, and a 3 dB beamwidth of 89° are achieved. This antenna, with a peak gain of 8.6 dBi, provides stable radiation patterns across the entire passband. Then an antenna with the same structure on a metallic conical ground is also evaluated. It is found that the bandwidth can be further improved when the antenna is mounted on a conical structure. The result is useful for the design of wide-band cylindrical antenna arrays with down tilted patterns.