International Journal of Electrical and

Electronics Engineering Research (IJEEER)

ISSN(P): 2250-155X; ISSN(E): 2278-943X
Vol. 4, Issue 6, Dec 2014, 1-8
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

FABRICATION AND ANALYSIS OF HYBRID DIELECTRIC RESONATOR ANTENNAS

FOR WIDEBAND APPLICATION
SHAILASHREE S, S. L. MALLIKARJUN & P. M. HADALGI
Department of PG Studies and Research in Applied Electronics, Gulbarga University, Gulbarga, India

ABSTRACT
In this paper, a novel method for increasing the bandwidth of an antenna is presented. When a hybrid dielectric
resonator (HDR) with h1 (thickness=0.3cm) is placed on the center of the radiating patch, it is seen that the impedance
bandwidth of the antenna increases 20.36 times more compared to conventional antenna. More improvement is seen as
thickness increases from 0.3cm to 0.9cm. The dielectric material is made by mixing two materials viz., Calcium Carbonate
and Magnesium sulfate in the ratio of 2:3 so the name hybrid. The bandwidth and radiation performance of the antenna is
studied by increasing the thickness of the dielectric resonator and it is observed that, by increasing the thickness, the
bandwidth is increasing affecting the radiation pattern and gain. Experimentally measured results and design concepts are
presented and discussed. These antennas may find application in modern communication system and in radar systems like
SAR.

KEYWORDS: HDRA, Microstrip Antenna, Bandwidth, HPBW, SAR

INTRODUCTION
Wireless communication has been developed widely and rapidly in the modern world during last decades.
The future development of the personal communication device will aim to provide image, speech and data communication
at anytime and anywhere around the world. So, present time is witnessing a very rapid growth of wireless technology.
To increase access, communication terminals must meet the requirements of multi-band or wide band to sufficiently cover
the possible operating bands and for broader connectivity. Wireless technology has also revolutionized the field of
information technology by making use of high speed internet and data transfer wire free via mobile gadgets. The existing
wireless systems need the antenna structure to cover the various applications with fewer or preferably with a single
antenna.
In satellite and radar communication applications, microstrip antennas have attracted much interest due to their
small size, light weight, low cost on mass production, low profile and easy integration with other components. However
one difficulty in using microstrip patch antennas is, their narrower bandwidth compared to that of other microwave
antennas. In general, regular shape patch antennas have been extensively analyzed but these antennas cannot be applied in
every application. In addition, simple patch antenna geometries of regular shape in general, resonate only at a single
frequency and their bandwidth is also very poor (2 to 3 %). With the recent advancements in satellite and radar
communications, the demand for broad band and multi band patch antennas was realized. Looking at inherent properties of
patch antennas, these requirements forced the workers for modification in patch antenna geometries. For this reason in
recent years, there has been a great deal of research on ways to overcome the bandwidth problem of microstrip patch
antenna. In application in which increased bandwidth is needed for operation of two or more separate sub-bands, a valid
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Shailashree S, S. L. Mallikarjun & P. M. Hadalgi

alternative to broadening of the total bandwidth is the use of dual or multi-frequency microstrip antennas. [1]
The disadvantage is the excitation of surface waves that occurs in the substrate layer. Surface waves are undesired
because when a patch antenna radiates, a portion of total available radiated power becomes trapped along the surface of the
substrate. It can extract total available power for radiation to space wave. Therefore, surface wave can reduce the antenna
efficiency, gain and bandwidth. [2]
Recently, introduction of Dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) made a significant break-through in the
improvement of microstrip antennas characteristics. DRA is energized by placing the material on the radiating patch of
microstrip antenna; this disturbs the shield current distribution which influences the input impedance and current flow of
the antenna. [3]
Many shapes of DRA have been studied for single element microstrip antenna such as rectangle, square,
semi-sphere [4-6]. Here the study is made by changing the thickness of rectangular DRA, however not many have realized
it by mixing two types of dielectric materials and can be called as hybrid dielectric resonator antennas (HDRA).
This paper discusses the influence of rectangle shape DRA towards the improvement of impedance bandwidth and
radiation properties by using hybrid technique.

ANTENNA CONFIGURATION
The proposed antennas are designed using low cost glass epoxy material having dielectric constant r = 4.2 and
thickness h = 0.166 cm. Figure 1 shows the geometry of HDRA. A optimized rectangular HDR of dimension Ldr= 2.2cm.
(0/3.8),Wdr = 2.8 cm. (0/3), h1dr= 0.3cm. (0/283.3) with dielectric constant

in the range of 8.2-9.2 is placed on the

rectangular microstrip patch of dimension L =1.38 cm and width W = 2.24 cm. A 50 microstrip feed line with
Lf = 0.61 cm. and Wf = 0.32 cm. with quarter wave transformer with length Lt = 0.72 cm. and width Wt = 0.82 cm. is taken
in terms for impedance matching. At the tip of microstrip feed line, a 50 coaxial SMA connector is connected for feeding
microwave power. If the dimensions of the DR are chosen such that Ldr, Wdr>>hdr, then the simple relation for hdr in terms
of resonance frequency fo is given as;

Figure 1: Antenna Geometry

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.9638

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

Fabrication and Analysis of Hybrid Dielectric Resonator Antennas for Wideband Application

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The experimental study is carried out by varying the thickness of HDR as h1, h2 and h3, where h1 is 0.3 cm, h2 is
0.6 cm and h3 is 0.9 cm. HDR is placed at the center of the rectangular patch in order to achieve maximum impedance
bandwidth. The impedance bandwidths for the proposed antennas are measured from 4 to 18 GHz frequencies.
The measurements are taken on Vector Network Analyzer (Rohde & Schwarz, German make ZVK Model No. 1127.8651).
Figure 2 shows the reflection coefficient versus frequency graph of HDRA with thickness h1. Figure 3 shows the reflection
coefficient versus frequency graph of HDRA with thickness h2 and Figure 4 shows the reflection coefficient versus
frequency graph of HDRA with thickness h3. From these figures the impedance bandwidth is calculated by using the
equation:

where

and

are higher and lower cut-off frequencies of the band, respectively, and

is the center frequency.

From Figure 2, 3 and 4 it is observed that HDRA with h1 offers single wide band (BW1) at 10.19 GHz, with a
magnitude of 6790 MHz (59.48%) which is 20.36 times more as compared to conventional microstrip antenna 140 MHz
(2.92%). The minimum reflection coefficient is found to be -55.22 dB.
Similarly, from the Figure 3, it is observed that HDRA with h2 is also resonating for single wide band (BW2) at
10.16 GHz, with a magnitude of 6860 MHz (60.07%). When compared to HDRA with h1, the impedance bandwidth of
HDRA with h2 is 1.009 times more and 28.73 times more when compared to conventional microstrip antenna. The minimum
reflection coefficient of this antenna is found to be -31.24 dB.

Figure 2: Reflection Coefficient versus Frequency Graph of HDRA with Thickness h1

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Shailashree S, S. L. Mallikarjun & P. M. Hadalgi

Figure 3: Reflection Coefficient versus Frequency Graph of HDRA with Thickness h2

Figure 4: Reflection Coefficient versus Frequency Graph of HDRA with Thickness h3

Further, from the Figure 4, it is seen that HDRA with h3 is also resonating for a single wide band (BW3) at
10.03 GHz, with a magnitude of 8350 MHz (77.85%). When compared with earlier resonators, the impedance bandwidth is
1.30 times and 1.29 times more respectively and 26.66 times more when compared to the conventional microstrip antenna
and the minimum reflection coefficient for this antenna is found to be -28.95 dB.
The VSWR of the proposed antennas is also measured using VNA and are found to be 1.004 for HDRA with
thickness h1, 1.056 for HDRA with thickness h2 and 1.076 for HDRA with thickness h3.
The X-Y plane co-polar and cross-polar radiation patterns of the proposed antennas are measured at their resonating
frequencies and are shown in Figures 5 to 7. From the radiation pattern the half power beam width (HPBW) is calculated
and are found to be 900 and 1100 respectively for HDRA with h1 and h2, but for HDRA with h3 HPBW is not shown as it is
showing omni-directional pattern.

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.9638

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

Fabrication and Analysis of Hybrid Dielectric Resonator Antennas for Wideband Application

Figure 5: Radiation Pattern of HDRA with h1 at 10.19 GHz

Figure 6: Radiation Pattern of HDRA with h2 at 10.16 GHz

Figure 7: Radiation Pattern of HDRA with h2 at 10.03 GHz

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Shailashree S, S. L. Mallikarjun & P. M. Hadalgi

To find the gain, the power transmitted (Pt) by the pyramidal horn antenna and the power received (Ps) by
proposed antenna is measured separately. Gain of antenna under test (GT) in dB is calculated using the formula: [7]
(GT) dB = (Gs) dB + 10log (Pt /Ps)
Where, Gs is the gain of pyramidal horn antenna. From the analysis obtained gain of the proposed antennas are
11.73 dB, 12.56 dB and 6.20 dB respectively. When compared with the gain of HDRA with h1, the gain of DRA h2 has
improved. This shows that gain of the antenna can be improved my increasing the thickness from 0.3 cm to 0.6 cm.,
whereas the gain of HDRA with h3 is decreased and this is due to the omni-directional radiation pattern.
Further, as HDRA with h3 gives maximum bandwidth among the proposed antennas, its variation of input
impedance is shown in Figure 8. It is seen that the input impedance has multiple loops at the center of Smith chart that
validates its wideband operation.

Figure 8: Smith Chart of HDRA with h3

CONCLUSIONS
From the study, it is clear that the proposed antennas are quite simple in design and fabrication and good in
enhancing the impedance bandwidth. A wide bandwidth is obtained by increasing the thickness of dielectric resonator placed
at the center of rectangular microstrip patch. The experimental results show that among the proposed antennas, HDRA with
h3 offer a bandwidth of 77.85% with omni-directional radiation characteristics at the resonating frequency. The proposed
antennas are useful for modern broadband wireless communication systems and radar applications such as SAR.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt of India, New Delhi for sanctioning Vector
Network Analyzer under the FIST Programme to the Department of Applied Electronics, Gulbarga University, Gulbarga.

REFERENCES
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K. L. Wong. (2003), Compact and broadband microstrip antennas. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.9638

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 3.0

Fabrication and Analysis of Hybrid Dielectric Resonator Antennas for Wideband Application

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Shailashree, S., & Mallikarjun, S. L., (2014) Design, Fabrication and Analysis of Wideband High Gain Dielectric
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