Dual-band Dielectric Resonator Antenna with

Different Bandwidth
Suparna Ballav Susanta Kumar Parui
Dept. of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering Dept. of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology
Howrah, India. Howrah, India.
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—In this paper, a dual-band antenna (one is designed to couple electric energy from the microstrip line to
narrowband and another one is wideband) has been proposed the DRA via aperture. RDRA is operating in fundamental
using fundamental and higher order modes of a rectangular mode TE111 at 3.00 GHz for narrowband response (bandwidth
dielectric resonator antenna (RDRA). The proposed RDRA of 5.08%) and in higher order modes (TE113+ Two hybrid
operates at 3 GHz for narrowband operation (BW = 5.08%) and
modes) for frequency range 5.20 GHz - 6.37 GHz for
gives the wideband performance for the frequency range of 5.20
GHz - 6.37 GHz (BW = 20%).Dielectric waveguide model is used wideband response (bandwidth of 20%).The paper is
to compute the resonance frequency of two radiating mode TE111 organized as follows. The theoretical analysis of radiating
and TE113 of RDRA.TE111 mode is responsible for narrowband modes for design of dualband RDRA is discussed in section II.
response and two hybrid mode combine with TE113 gives the The antenna configuration and simulation results including S11
wideband response. The antenna offers a peak gain of 2.15 dBi at performance, radiation plot and gain performance are given in
3 GHz and 6.54 dBi at 6.26 GHz. section III. All parametric analysis is given in IV. Finally, a
conclusion is drawn in section V. All studies regarding the
Keywords—RDRA,dualband, higher order mode, wideband. performance characteristics were carried out using
I. INTRODUCTION commercially available high frequency structure simulator
(HFSS).
Narrow band antennas are designed to operate at a fixed
resonance frequency. Common narrow band antennas
available commercially are dipole, loop, microstrip patch or II. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
Yagi-Uda antenna [1-3].For various demanding applications The rectangular DRA has 3 dimensions (length, width, and
fields such as in astronomy, cognitive radio, medical devices height), which helps to determine the resonant frequency of
(MRI imaging), narrow band antennas are used [4]. An required modes. In this section, the Dielectric wave guide
antenna is considered to be wideband antenna if its operational model (DWM) is used to determine the dimensions l, w, and h
bandwidth exceeds 15% of the center frequency. As per of the dual-band rectangular DRA operating at higher order
applications, there are different demands for wideband modes.The configuration of the aperture-coupled RDRA with
antennas, such as small size, same radiation pattern over the length (l), width (w), and height (h) placed on a ground plane
entire operational bandwidth etc. is shown in Fig.1.The y-directed rectangular aperture which
Since the first introduction of Dielectric Resonator as Antenna acts as a horizontal magnetic dipole is placed beneath the
by Long et al. [5] in 1983, it has been received considerable DRA centrally. Using the DWM model, the resonance
attention over the years [6- 7].Interest on Dielectric resonator frequency of the ܶ‫ܧ‬௣௤௥ mode is given by [7]:
antennas (DRAs) have been enlarged day by day due to their
ܿ
attractive features such as small size, low loss at high ݂௢ ൌ ට݇௫ ଶ ൅ ݇௬ ଶ ൅ ݇௭ ଶ
frequency, high-temperature tolerance, high radiation ʹߨ ξߝ௥
efficiency etc. Availability of different shape of DRAs like
cylindrical, rectangular, hemispherical, elliptical, pyramidal, Where
triangular etc. with various material characteristics also added ݇௫ ଶ ൅ ݇௬ ଶ ൅ ݇௭ ଶ ൌ ߝ௥ ݇଴ ଶ (2)
an extra advantage for DRA research. Again DRA supports
different modes resonating at different resonance frequencies. ‫ߨ݌‬
݇௫ ൌ (3)
All these advantages are the reason behind the substitution of ݈
௥గ
DRA with the conventional dualband antenna for high ݇௭ ൌ (4)
ଶ௛
frequency operation [8-9].In this paper, an aperture coupled
rectangular DRA (RDRA) is excited in its fundamental mode
and higher order mode for dualband (one narrowband and ௞೤
‫݇ݓ‬௬ ൌ ‫ ߨݍ‬െ ʹ –ƒିଵ ቐ ቑ (5)
other wideband) operation. A 50ȍ microstrip line has been ටሺఌೝ ିଵሻ௞బ మ ି௞೤ మ

978-1-5386-0646-9/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

in which݇௫ , ݇௬ , and ݇௭ are denoted as the wave numbers along The RDRA under consideration has the dielectric constant
the x-, y- and z-directions respectively.݇଴ is the free-space (ߝ௥ௗ ) =10 and loss tangent (–ƒ ߜ) = 0.002and has dimension
wave number corresponding to the resonant frequency.All of of length (l) = width (w) =18.5 mm and height (h) =15 mm.
the subscripts‫݌‬ǡ ‫ݍ‬ǡ ‫ ݎ‬ofܶ‫ܧ‬௣௤௥ , must be odd numbers for a Arlon AD270 substrate of dielectric constant of 2.7 and loss
centrally fed rectangular aperture as boundary condition not tangent of 0.0023 with݈௦௕ ൌ Ͷͷ,‫ݓ‬௦௕ ൌ Ͷʹ and ݄௦௕ ൌ
permits those resonant modes. ͲǤ͹ͻis used to design the feeding network and mounting
the RDRA. A 50ȍ microstrip line of width ‫ݓ‬௠ ൌ2.13 mm and
TABLE I length (݈௠ ൅ ݈௦ ) = 26.5 mm is used as feedline. A rectangular
RESONANCE FREQUENCIES OFଵଵଵ AND ଵଵଷ MODES aperture (݈௔ ൈ  ‫ݓ‬௔ ൌ ͳʹ ൈ ʹǤ ͷ݉݉ଶ ) is cut in the ground
plane to couple the energy from the microstrip line to the
Resonant Frequency(GHz) dielectric resonator. The height of the RDRA has been
Resonant optimized to get one narrowband response for fundamental
Mode Calculated Simulated
TE111 mode and the wideband response is obtained by merging
two hybrid modes with the higher order TE113 mode.
݂௥ሺ஽ௐெሻ ݂௥ሺுிௌௌሻ
ܶ‫ܧ‬ଵଵଵ 3.45 3.00

ܶ‫ܧ‬ଵଵଷ 6.37 6.26

From literature [10] we have found that the fundamental

modeሺଵଵଵ ) has broadside radiation patterns that is the
fields being maximum in the normal direction of the antenna
plane (݅Ǥ ݁ߠ ൌ Ͳ). To obtain dualband response and similar
broadside radiation patterns in both operating bands, the
higher-order modesሺ୮୯୰ ሻ with ‫ ݌‬ൌ ͳǡ ‫ ݍ‬ൌ ͳǡ ‫ ݎ‬ൌ ʹ݊ ൅ ͳ
have to be investigated, where is݊ an integer. We have
consideredଵଵଵ ,ଵଵଷ modes for our design purpose. By
solving the transcendental equations given in equations (1-5)
numerically using a programming code in Matlab, we have Fig. 2.Simulated S11 plot of the dualband RDRA
estimated the resonance frequencies of those two modes for a
fixed dimension of RDRA. Calculated and simulated (HFSS) S11 plot of the proposed design is shown in the Fig. 2.The
resonance frequencies forଵଵଵ ,ଵଵଷ modes are given in RDRA resonates at 3GHz with an impedance bandwidth of
TABLE I. 5.08% gives the narrowband response and gives wideband
III. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION performance for the frequency range of 5.20 GHz-6.37 GHz
with an impedance bandwidth of 20%.

Fig. 3.Simulated electric field distributions at (a) f = 3.00 GHz (b) f=6.26 GHz
Red: high intensity fields

Fig. 1.Geometry of the dualband RDRA (a) Side View (b) Top view

978-1-5386-0646-9/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

From the electric field distribution as shown in the Fig.3 we for the variation in gain in the upper band as mentioned in
can easily conclude that the RDRA has been properly excited [10].
inܶ‫ܧ‬ଵଵଵ mode at 3 GHz andܶ‫ܧ‬ଵଵଷ mode at 6.26 GHz.
IV. PARAMETRIC STUDY
A. Effect of RDRA height
In this section, parametric analysis has been carried out to
find the optimal height (h) of RDRA to get one wideband
response.Fig.6 shows the variation of reflection coefficient
with change in height of RDRA. The parameter h is varied
between 12 mm to 15 mm keeping all others dimension fixed.
It can be observed that the effect of variation of h on lower
band is negligible whereas significant change has occurred on
upper band. After optimization, we have considered h=15 mm
for final design to obtain both narrow and wideband response.
The higher order TE113 mode is merged with two hybrids
modes for h=15 mm gives the wideband response for the
upper band.

Fig. 4.Radiation pattern of the dualband RDRA at

(a) f = 3.0GHz (b) f = 6.26 GHz

The radiation pattern of the RDRA for those two modes is

given in Fig.4.The peak gains both the E- plane and H- plane
have been simulated as 2.15 dBi at 3 GHz and 6.55 dBi at 6.26 Fig. 6.Simulated S11 plot for different height (h) of RDRA
GHz in broadside direction (݅Ǥ ݁ߠ ൌ Ͳ) and co-to-cross pol
isolation is less than 20 dB in each plane. B. Effect of extended length of microstrip line
The microstrip line is extended by a length ݈௦ beyond the
aperture such that good impedance matching can be realized.
The variation of S11 with ݈௦ is shown in Fig.7.

Fig. 5.Gain Vs Frequency plot for upper band

Fig.5 demonstrates the gain of the RDRA versus frequency for

upper band. The overall gain varies between 3dBi and 7.36
dBi for the frequency range of 5.28-6.36 GHz in upper band.
Fig. 7.Simulated S11 plot for different values of ݈௦
For higher order mode there is more than one equivalent
magnetic dipole along the height of the RDRA. The
occurrence of more than one magnetic dipole is responsible From Fig.7 we have found that variation of ݈௦ improve the
matching for both bands but does not change the resonance

978-1-5386-0646-9/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

frequencies significantly. So for final design we use ݈௦ =5.5 mm [3] S. V .Shynu and M. J. Ammann. "A printed CPW-fed slot-loop antenna
with narrowband omnidirectional features." IET microwaves, antennas
for which minimum S11 is less than -15 dB in both bands. & propagation,vol.3,no.4,pp. 673-680, 2009.
[4] Zivkovic, Irena, and Klaus Scheffler. "A new inovative antenna concept
V. CONCLUSION for both narrow band and UWB applications." Progress In
Electromagnetics Research ,vol.139,pp. 121-131, 2013.
A RDRA exited by aperture coupling technique is presented
[5] S. Long , Mark McAllister, and Liang Shen. "The resonant cylindrical
for both narrowband and wideband applications.By dielectric cavity antenna." IEEE Transactions on Antennas and
appropriately varying the RDRA geometry dualband response Propagation,vol.31,no.3,pp.406-412, 1983.
is obtained and impedance bandwidth of upper band becomes [6] K. M. Luk and K. W. Leung, Dielectric Resonator Antennas, U. K.:
wideband. The proposed design may be useful in developing Research Studies Press, 2003.
[7] A. Petosa, Dielectric Resonator Antenna Handbook, Norwood: Artech
antennas for broad range of applications such as MRI imaging, House Inc., 2007.
cognitive radio, WLAN etc. [8] Khan, Aftab Ahmad, et al. "Dual-band MIMO dielectric resonator
antenna for WiMAX/WLAN applications." IET Microwaves, Antennas
& Propagation,vol.11,no.1,pp. 113-120, 2017.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT [9] X.S. Fang and K. W. Leung. "Designs of single-, dual-, wide-band
The authors would like to acknowledge the valuable support rectangular dielectric resonator antennas." IEEE Transactions on
Antennas and Propagation,vol.59,no.6,pp.2409-2414,2011.
from MHRD, Govt. of India
[10] Pan, Yong-Mei, Kwok Wa Leung, and Kwai-Man Luk. "Design of the
millimeter-wave rectangular dielectric resonator antenna using a higher-
REFERENCES order mode." IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propag.,vol.59,no.8,
pp.2780-2788,2011.
[1] A. Huda Majid, et al. "A compact frequency-reconfigurable narrowband
microstrip slot antenna." IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation
Letters,vol.11,pp.616-619, 2012.
[2] N. Sergey Makarov and Vishwanath Iyer. "A narrowband patch antenna
with a dielectric patch." Antennas and Propagation Society International
Symposium, AP-S 2008. IEEE, 2008.

978-1-5386-0646-9/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE