Design of Dielectric Resonator Antenna Using Dielectric Paste

Abstract

In this publication, the use of a dielectric paste for dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) design is investigated. The dielectric paste can serve as an alternative approach of manufacturing a dielectric resonator antenna by subsequently filling a mold with the dielectric paste. The dielectric paste is obtained by mixing nanoparticle sized barium strontium titanate (BST) powder with a silicone rubber. The dielectric constant of the paste can be adjusted by varying the BST powder content with respect to the silicone rubber content. The tuning range of the dielectric constant of the paste was found to be from 3.67 to 18.45 with the loss tangent of the mixture being smaller than 0.044. To demonstrate the idea of the dielectric paste approach, a circularly polarized DRA with wide bandwidth, which is based on a fractal geometry, is designed. The antenna is realized by filling a 3D-printed mold with the dielectric paste material, and the prototype was found to have an axial ratio bandwidth of 16.7% with an impedance bandwidth of 21.6% with stable broadside radiation.

Standing-Wave Feeding for High-Gain Linear Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA) Array

“…A four-element standing-wave DRA array was fabricated (Figure 11a) using 3D printing, which is a promising technique for antennas at microwave ranges [43,44]. Two small arms were included in each dielectric element to ensure accurate alignment.…”

Wideband mm-Wave Hemispherical Dielectric Resonator Antenna with Simple Alignment and Assembly Procedures

“…On the other hand, a DRA represents a suitable alternative due to the absence of ohmic losses and attractive radiation characteristics that can be achieved through appropriate combination of the resonator dimensions and the relative permittivity, as well as a suitably chosen feeding technique [7]. Therefore, mmwave single DRAs, as well as arrays, have been reported in several studies over the last few years [8][9][10][11][12][13]. However, DRA alignment and assembly represent key challenges at mm-wave frequencies since any marginal misalignment between the DRA and feeding network can have a significant impact on the antenna's performance [14,15] due to the shorter wavelengths and the physically smaller antenna size.…”