A wideband circularly polarized slot antenna with antipodal strips for WLAN and C‐band applications

A single‐fed circularly polarized square shaped wide slot antenna with modified ground plane and microstrip feed has been presented. The field in the slot is perturbed by introducing an antipodal strips section attached with a microstrip line to produce circular polarization in a wide band of frequencies. The antipodal strip section consists of a group of four strips of unequal length and separation. The presence of asymmetric perturbations in the slot is mainly responsible for exciting two orthogonal modes in the slot having equal magnitude and 90° phase difference which results in circular polarization. A wide bandwidth of 3.3 GHz (4.4 GHz‐7.7 GHz) has been achieved for an axial ratio value AR < 3 dB with the minimum axial ratio value being 0.3 dB. The impedance bandwidth for |S₁₁| < ?10 dB ranges from 4.3 GHz to 8 GHz, and therefore covers most of the C‐band communication systems. The antenna exhibits stable radiation patterns throughout the circular polarization bandwidth with a gain around 6 dBi in entire operational bandwidth. A prototype of antenna was fabricated and measured. The antenna has a planar size 0.40λ₀ × 0.40λ₀ and thickness of 0.02λ₀ where λ₀ is the wavelength in free space at the lowest frequency. With its compact size and low profile, the antenna is a favorable choice for WLAN (5.15‐5.85 GHz) and a wide variety of C‐band wireless applications.     

Frequency tunable circularly polarized antenna with branch line coupler feed network for wireless applications

In this article, frequency tuning and circularly polarized concentric circular microstrip antenna is investigated. The proposed antenna consist of varactor diode for frequency tuning and branch line coupler (BLC) feed network to achieve the circular polarization (RHCP/LHCP). By changing the varactor diode capacitance between 12.33 pF (0 V) to 1.30 pF (15 V) attain the frequency tuning (2.34‐2.68 GHz). The right hand circular polarization (RHCP) and left hand circular polarizations (LHCP) are realized in the antenna through BLC feed network output ports. The impedance bandwidth (2.05‐3.13 GHz) of BLC feed network is well‐matched with the circular microstrip antenna frequency tunable bandwidth. The proposed antenna is fabricated, and simulated results are verified using the mathematical modeling and experimental verification.     

A high‐gain compact circularly polarized microstrip array antenna with simplified feed network

A broadband high‐gain circularly polarized (CP) microstrip antenna operating in X band is proposed. The circular polarization property is achieved by rotating four narrow band linearly polarized (LP) microstrip patch elements in sequence. Since the conventional series‐parallel feed network is not conducive to the miniaturization of the array, a corresponding simplified feed network is designed to realize the four‐way equal power division and sequential 90° phase shift. With this feed network, the impedance bandwidth (IBW) of the CP array is greatly improved compared with that of the LP element, while maintaining a miniaturized size. Then, parasitic patches are introduced to enhance the axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW). A prototype of this antenna is fabricated and tested. The size of proposed antenna is 0.93λ₀ × 0.93λ₀ × 0.017λ₀ (λ₀ denotes the space wavelength corresponding to the center frequency 10.4 GHz). The measured 10‐dB IBW and 3‐dB ARBW are 13.6% (9.8‐11.23 GHz), 11.2% (9.9‐11.07 GHz) respectively, and peak gain in the overlapping band is 9.8 dBi.     

Wideband circularly polarized square dielectric resonator antenna for WLAN/WiMAX applications

In the present article, a novel single fed square dielectric resonator antenna (SDRA) is presented and two orthogonal modes ( ${\mathrm{TE}}_{111}^{\mathrm{x}}\text{and}{\mathrm{TE}}_{111}^{\mathrm{y}}$) of SDRA are utilized to produce the wideband circular polarization. To generate circular polarization over a broad frequency band, a new technique known as hybrid DRA has been proposed in this article. In this technique, the feeding circuit act as a radiator and also provides feeding to the dielectric resonator which enhances the impedance and axial ratio bandwidth. A 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 26.66% is achieved by the SDRA excited through a rectangular patch united with 50 Ω microstrip line. In order to further increase the axial ratio bandwidth from 26.66% to 48%, a notch is truncated from the rectangular patch. The design antenna prototype has been fabricated and experimentally tested. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed structure has broad impedance and axial ratio bandwidth of 75.86% and 43.75%, respectively, and the entire axial ratio bandwidth fully matched with the impedance bandwidth. The proposed antenna produces a right handed circularly polarized (RHCP) field. By taking the mirror image of the proposed microstrip feeding, the RHCP field is converted into left handed circularly polarized (LHCP) field. This antenna is preferred for wireless applications such as indoors communication, remote sensing, wireless sensor systems and WLAN/WiMAX applications.     

A new dual‐mode wideband circularly polarized rectangular dielectric resonator antenna coupled with stubs and asymmetric ground plane for WiMAX applications

In this article, a new radiating stub microstrip feed has been investigated with asymmetrical ground plane for generation of circular polarization (CP) in a dielectric resonator antenna (DRA). Here, asymmetrical ground plane and 3 radiating stubs with microstrip feed line are used for generation of 2 different modes namely TE_11δ and TE_12δ in rectangular DRA. By using mode matching concepts, these modes are responsible for enhancing the impedance bandwidth (TE_12δ ie, and ) and axial ratio (AR) bandwidth (TE_11δ ie, and ) in proposed antenna. Designed antenna offers measured input impedance bandwidth (|S₁₁| < ?10 dB) and AR bandwidth (AR < 3‐dB) of 44.78%, ranging from 4.6 to 6.9 GHz and 23.32%, ranging from 4.6 to 6.9 GHz, respectively. It has been observed that proposed antenna shows left‐handed CP fields in boresight direction with average gain of 3.15 dBic and radiation efficiency of 90.54%. Designed antenna is suitable for Wi‐MAX (3.3‐3.7 GHz) applications.     

Compact broadband circularly polarized slot‐patch antenna array

A simple design of circularly polarized slot‐patch antenna array with broadband operation and compact size is presented in this article. The antenna element consists of a circular slot and a semicircular patch, which are etched on both sides of a substrate. For the gain and axial ratio (AR) bandwidth enhancement, its array antennas are implemented in a 2 × 2 arrangement and fed by a sequential‐phase feeding network. The final 2 × 2 antenna array prototype with compact lateral dimension of 0.8λ_L × 0.8λ_L (λ_L is the lowest frequency within AR bandwidth) yielded a measured impedance bandwidth of 103.83% (2.76‐8.72 GHz) and a measured AR bandwidth of 94.62% (2.45‐6.85 GHz). The peak gain values within the AR bandwidth are from 2.85 to 8.71 dBi. A good agreement between the simulated and measured results is achieved. This antenna array is suitable for multiservice wireless systems covering WiMAX, WLAN and C‐band applications such as satellite communications.     

Dual‐band reconfigurable circularly polarized monopole antenna

A microstrip antenna with dual‐band reconfigurable circular polarization (CP) characteristics in Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) bands is presented in this article. The proposed antenna has a symmetrical U‐shaped slot with PIN diodes on the ground plane. The slotted ground generates a resonant mode for broad impedance‐band width, and excites contrary CP state at 2.45 GHz for WLAN and 3.4 GHz for WiMAX, respectively. Because switching the states of PIN diodes on the slot can redirect the current path, the CP state of the proposed antenna can be simply switched between the right‐handed CP and left‐handed CP. The proposed antenna has a low profile and a simple structure. Measured results of the fabricated antenna prototype are carried out to verify the simulation analysis. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:109–114, 2015.     

Hybrid wideband dual‐cylindrical circularly polarized dielectric resonator antennas excited with S‐shaped microstrip feed for sub‐6 GHz frequency range

In this article, a hybrid microstrip fed dual‐cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna (dual‐CDRA) has been proposed for the sub‐6 GHz band application with a wide circular polarization band. The proposed hybrid microstrip feed cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna utilizes an S‐shaped microstrip feed line to excite fundamental HE_11δ like mode and hybrid mode in dual‐CDRAs. The presented antenna structures are acting as monopole antenna separately with 48.75% (3.88‐6.38 GHz) bandwidth whereas both radiators called dual‐CDRAs enhances the bandwidth up to 93.06% (2.16‐5.92 GHz) in addition with an axial ratio bandwidth of 15.2% (3.52‐4.1 GHz). The proposed antenna is applicable for WiMAX (3.4‐3.69 GHz), and WLAN application of 802.11d and 8.02.11e IEEE standard. For validation of simulated results, an antenna prototype has been fabricated and experimentally verified. A good agreement between simulation and measured results are obtained. The simulation results have been carried out by using Ansys HFSS 14.0 version software.     

Circularly polarized slot antenna array with sequentially rotated feed network for broadband application

This article presents a novel circularly polarized sequentially rotated slot antenna array (CPSSAA) designed to operate at a frequency of 5.5 GHz. This antenna is suitable for communication applications such as WLAN/WiMAX. Method of feeding is based on sequential rotation with seven quarter‐wavelength transformers. In this case, the elements with 200 Ω impedance could be replaced by other elements with different input impedance. Reducing the elements input impedance, maximum power can be transferred to the elements. Because the lower losses in transmission line occur in presence of lower impedance, the 3 dB axial‐ratio bandwidth of the CPSSAA extends to ～1.3 GHz. The CPSSAA was designed to operate over the frequency range between 4.5 and 6.4 GHz corresponding to an impedance bandwidth of 34.86% for VSWR < 2. Acceptable agreement between the simulation and measured results validates the proposed design. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:358–363, 2015.     

Dual‐band circularly polarized dielectric resonator antenna for wireless applications

This letter investigates an integrated antenna configuration for WLAN/WiMAX applications. The proposed composite antenna configuration is simply the grouping of ring dielectric resonator along with reformed square‐shaped slot antenna. Three significant characteristics of proposed article are: (1) aperture act as magnetic dipole and excite HE_11δ mode in ring dielectric resonator antenna; (2) reforming of square aperture generates orthogonal modes in ring DRA and creates CP in lower frequency band; (3) annular‐shaped Microstrip line along with reformed square aperture creates CP wave in upper frequency band. With the purpose of certifying the simulated outcomes, prototype of proposed structure is fabricated and tested. Good settlement is to be got between experimental and software generated outcome. Experimental outcomes show that the proposed radiating structure is operating over 2 frequency bands that is, 2.88‐3.72 and 5.4‐5.95 GHz. Measured 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth in lower and upper frequency band is approximately 9.52% (3.0‐3.4 GHz) and 5.85% (5.64‐5.98 GHz), respectively. These outcomes indicate that the proposed composite antenna structure is appropriate for WLAN and WiMAX applications.     

Wideband circularly polarized dielectric resonator antenna coupled with meandered‐line inductor for ISM/WLAN applications

A new meandered‐line inductor fed wideband circularly polarized rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with partial ground plane has been developed in this work. Meandered‐line inductor feed and partial ground plane are used for generation of orthogonal modes, hence circular polarization (CP) in DRA. By controlling the length of meandered‐line inductor, three different CP DRA have been designed for different wireless applications such as Wi‐MAX and WLAN/ISM 2400 band. Distribution of electric field inside rectangular DRA shows that all three antenna having TE_11δ mode. Finally, a lower frequency band application at 2.4 GHz (ISM) called here as Proposed Antenna, has been considered for fabrication. This designed antenna shows measured ?10 dB input impedance bandwidth of 20.67% and 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 27.95% in broadside direction. All these three CP antennas (Antenna‐1 to Proposed Antenna) are showing stable gain and right hand circular polarization in broadside direction.     

Compact microstrip‐via‐fed wideband circularly polarized antenna with monofilar spiral stub for C‐band applications

A wideband circularly polarized printed antenna is proposed and fabricated, which employs monofilar spiral stubs and a slit in the asymmetrical ground plane which is fed by an asymmetrical microstrip feedline using a via. The CP operation is realized by embedding an inverted‐L shaped strip and a modified ground plane and can be markedly improved by loading monofilar spiral stubs connected to the asymmetric feedline by means of a via. A parametric study of the key parameters is made and the mechanism for circular polarization is described. After optimization, the impedance bandwidth is approximately 3.6 GHz (4.4‐8 GHz) and the 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth is approximately 3.3 GHz (4.7‐8 GHz), which represent fractional bandwidths of approximately 58.1% and 52%, respectively. Therefore, the proposed antenna is suitable for circular polarization applications in C (4‐8 GHz) band. Compared with other recent works, the simpler structure, wider axial ratio, impedance bandwidths, and more compact size are the key features of the proposed antenna.     

A coaxial probe fed wideband circularly polarized antenna using unequal and adjacent‐slided rectangular dielectric resonators for WLAN applications

In this article, a coaxial probe fed wideband circularly polarized antenna has been designed and investigated using unequal and adjacent‐slided rectangular dielectric resonators radiating in broadside direction (Φ = 0°, θ = 0°). Wi‐Fi wireless network use radio signal either in 2.4 or 5 GHz band. Owing to high rush in 2.4 GHz band, the proposed antenna is designed for 5 GHz (5.15‐5.825 GHz) WLAN band. The proposed design uses fundamental orthogonal modes and excited in two individual rectangular dielectric resonators to achieve wide axial‐ratio bandwidth (below 3 dB). Measured input reflection coefficient (below ?10 dB) and axial ratio bandwidth (below 3 dB) of 26.07% (5.27‐6.85 GHz) and 26.85% (5.32‐6.97 GHz) has been attained, respectively, in this proposed antenna. The measured far‐field patterns such as gain and radiation patterns are showing consistent performance throughout the working band.     

A dual‐band and wideband omnidirectional circularly polarized antenna based on VO2

In this article, a dual‐band and wideband omnidirectional circularly polarized (CP) antenna based on the vanadium dioxide (VO₂) is investigated. The operating bandwidth of such an antenna can be regulated by altering the outside temperature (T), which is attained by the insulator‐metal transition of VO₂. The omnidirectional CP antenna is based on a loop antenna‐dipole model, which is composed of four tilted metal and VO₂ resonant units that are loaded around a cuboid and a feeding network for broadening bandwidth. The simulated results show that when T = 50°C (State I), the 10‐dB impedance bandwidth is 45.7% (1.67‐2.66 GHz), and the 3‐dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth is 40% (1.9‐2.85 GHz). When T = 80°C (State II), the 10‐dB impedance bandwidth is 13.8% (1.62‐1.86 GHz), and the 3‐dB AR bandwidth is 21.8% (1.68‐2.09 GHz). In order to further characterize the concept of the proposed antenna, the related parameters of such an antenna are studied using simulation software HFSS.     

Wideband omnidirectional circularly polarized antenna with offsetting slots and vertical strips

A wideband omnidirectional circularly polarized (CP) antenna is proposed in this paper. The antenna is comprised of two slotted square patches which are connected by four vertical metal strips at the edges and a simple feeding probe in the centre. Loop currents can be yielded on the patches when rotation‐symmetrically offsetting slots are cut. By combining the two orthogonal fields radiating from the loop and the feeding probe, omnidirectional circular polarization is obtained in the azimuth plane. One group of slots are cut to verify the CP performance and two groups of slots are cut to further broaden the operating bandwidth. Measured results show that the proposed antenna with a small size of 40 × 40 × 10 mm³ obtains an effective bandwidth of 22% (2.1–2.62 GHz) for |S₁₁| < ?10 dB and axial ratio < 3dB. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:675–680, 2015.     

Compact wideband circularly polarized horn antenna with tapered slot‐coupled feeding for Ku‐band applications

A compact wideband circularly polarized (CP) horn antenna with slot‐coupled feeding structure at Ku band for satellite communication is devised. The proposed design is based on a square aperture horn antenna with two orthogonal ridges, which is fed by nonuniform curved slot along the diagonal of the horn on the bottom cavity. And in order to improve the impedance matching, a staircase typed ridge is connected the feeding probe as a matching network. Moreover, two orthogonal ridges are excited with a tapered slot coupled by the staircase ridges via feeding probe. Wideband CP performance is achieved with an overall physical dimension of 9 mm × 9 mm × 14 mm (0.045λ₀ × 0.045λ₀ × 0.07λ₀ at frequency of 15 GHz). It is experimentally demonstrated that the proposed antenna achieves: a wide 10‐dB return loss bandwidth of about 2.4 GHz, a 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 1 GHz, and a peak gain of 6.5 dBi.     

Epsilon‐shaped circularly polarized strip and slot‐loaded ultra‐wideband antenna for Ku‐band and K‐band

A compact epsilon‐shaped (ε) ultra‐wideband (UWB) antenna for dual‐wideband circularly polarized (CP) applications has been investigated in this article. It consists of a stepped stub loaded modified annular ring‐shaped radiator and modified CPW ground plane. The ground plane is loaded with two semicircular notches and a spiral‐shaped slot. The impedance bandwidth (IBW) is 97.02% (10.4‐30 GHz) along with an overall footprint of 20 × 20 mm². The fractional axial ratio bandwidth (3‐dB ARBW) for two wide bands is 38.50% (13.30‐19.64 GHz) and 6.45% (26.25‐28.00 GHz), respectively. The proposed antenna is left‐hand circularly polarized with a peak gain of about 5.09 and 5.14 dB in both 3‐dB ARBW bands. The proposed antenna is dominating other reported CP antenna structures in terms of number of CP bands, 3‐dB ARBW, IBW, peak gain, and dimensions.     

Planar circularly polarized X‐band array antenna with low sidelobe and high aperture efficiency for small satellites

A planar broadband circularly polarized (CP) X‐band array antenna with low sidelobe and high aperture efficiency is presented for small satellite applications. The array design is composed of 4 × 4 broadband CP stacked patch elements, which are fed by a feeding network consisted of unequal series‐parallel power dividers to achieve the low sidelobe and high aperture efficiency. The final prototype with overall size of 100 mm × 100 mm × 3 mm (2.73λ₀ × 2.73λ₀ × 0.082λ₀ at 8.2 GHz) was fabricated and measured. The antenna has a broadband characteristic with |S₁₁| < ?10 dB bandwidth of 15.9% (7.52‐8.82 GHz) and 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 11.95% (7.63‐8.60 GHz). Also, it achieves an excellent broadside CP radiation with a gain of 17.2‐20.03 dBic, a sidelobe level of <?20 dB, and aperture efficiency of 65% to 97.5%. With these features, the proposed antenna is a good candidate for high‐speed data downlink onboard small satellites (MiniSat, MicroSat, NanoSat, and CubeSat).     

A novel millimeter‐wave dual‐band circularly polarized dielectric resonator antenna

In this article, a novel dual‐band circularly polarized (CP) dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) for millimeter‐wave (MMW) band is presented. The rectangular dielectric resonator with layered truncated corners is excited by a microstrip‐coupled cross‐slot. CP radiations in the lower band are realized by utilizing two quasi‐TE₁₁₁ modes operating at 21.7 GHz and 23.8 GHz, while CP radiations in the upper band are obtained by exciting a quasi‐TE₁₁₃ mode at 28.2 GHz. The dual‐band DRA is fabricated and measured. Due to the higher order mode, the average gain of the DRA in the upper band is about 3 dB higher than that in the lower band. The measured impedance bandwidths (|S₁₁| < ?10 dB) are 17.0% (20.5‐24.3 GHz) and 15.2% (26.1‐30.4 GHz), while the measured axial ratio (AR) bandwidths (AR < 3 dB) are 12.8% (21.2‐24.1 GHz) and 5% (27.4‐28.8 GHz). In addition, the peak gain values are 5 and 8 dBic.     

Dual‐band circularly polarized aperture‐coupled stack antenna with fractal patch for WLAN and WiMAX applications

This article presents a novel circular polarized (CP) aperture coupled stack antenna for wireless local area network and worldwide interoperability for microwave access dual‐band systems. The compact stack antenna consisted of square fractal patch, aperture couple, feed line and the perturbation. The square patch is constructed with the complementary Minkowski‐island‐based fractal geometry. By way of adjusting the relevant parameters, we can obtain the dual‐band responses at 3.5 and 5.25 GHz respectively. The CP of each band are presented. The measured 10 dB return loss impedance bandwidth are 270 MHz (7.5%) for 3.5 GHz band and 450 MHz (8.6%) for 5.25 GHz band. The 3 dB axial ratio bandwidths for each bands are 1.4 and 0.76%, the polarization of radiation patterns are both left‐hand CP, and the antenna power gain are 2.84–3.1 and 0.16–2.2, dBic respectively. The proposed antenna is successfully simulated and measured with frequency responses, radiation patterns and current distributions. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:130–138, 2014.