Wideband rectangular dielectric resonator antenna with novel array of square shaped slots

A wideband rectangular dielectric resonator antenna with novel array of square shaped slots has been designed and proposed. The number of symmetrical square shaped array is optimized to 5 × 5 elements. The dielectric material used is a Teflon based ceramic, Rogers RT/ Duroid 6010.2LM having dielectric constant of ε_r = 10.2. Advantage of drilling square shaped slots from conventional rectangular dielectric resonator antennas is twofold; one reduction of the effective dielectric constant, second is antenna weight reduction. Light weight antennas are required in specific applications. The effect of reduction of the effective dielectric constant, results in lowering down of the quality factor. As a result improvement in impedance bandwidth from 9.3 % to 31 % is achieved. The proposed antenna operates in the frequency range of 2.6-3.5 GHz at the resonant frequency of 2.9 GHz. The peak gain of 6.5 dBi is obtained at 3.4 GHz. A good agreement between simulated and measured results predicts that the proposed antenna can be used for applications in wireless communications.