Design and Analysis of Wideband Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA)

Abstract

The thesis gives a sense of the freedom provided by dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) and their possible advantages compared to the traditional low-gain antennas like monopole and patch antenna. At first the thesis covers the analysis on simple shaped DRA like hemispherical, cylindrical and rectangular, and presents the design equations for predicting the resonant frequency and radiation Q-factor. A brief review of coupling theory and more common feeding methods are then surveyed. Various bandwidth enhancement techniques like the reduction of Q-factor by loading effect, modification in feeding element and DRA shapes, multiple DRAs, and hybrid antennas are also covered. In the end, using few of the above techniques, three wide band (Impedance Bandwidth above 20%) antennas based on rectangular and cylindrical shapes, one operating in C-band (4 – 8 GHz) and the other two in X-band (8 – 12 GHz) are designed and simulated on CST Microwave Studio.