A Hybrid Dielectric Resonator Antenna with Polarization-Agility and Wideband Operation

This summary article focuses on the design and performance of a compact antenna unit for polarization reconfigurability. A four-element array of aperture coupled slots is employed, and each slot is fed by two microstrip lines defining an eight-port antenna unit. The slot array is also topped by a dielectric resonator antenna to hybridize radiation and improve gain and bandwidth while also reducing cross-polarization levels. The eight-port antenna is low-profile, compact (160 mm by 160 mm by 22 mm), and offers good radiation performance with a bandwidth of more than 35%. In addition, the planar feeding circuit for element excitation is covered by a back plate enclosure with integration on the underside of the antenna ground plane which allows for the possibilty of different polarization states. Measurements and simulations are in agreement and the compact antenna may be useful for satellite navigation systems, diplexing units, and other phased arrays for wireless communications, including polarization diversity, direction finding, and other beam steering applications.