Aperture Coupled Dielectric Resonator Antenna Embedded in a Secondary Substrate for Mechanical Firmness

Abstract

An aperture coupled rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (RDRA) is proposed where high permittivity radiating element is embedded on a comparatively low permittivity secondary substrate material (here FR4 is used). Proposed dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is accurately excited in fundamental mode TE111 for efficient broadside radiation. All the existing DRAs are placed on ground plane using adhesive which is not suitable for practical application. The proposed design can be considered as a promising solution of mounting of DRA on the ground plane with good mechanical firmness. Since the RDRA is embedded on FR4 substrate, it can be withstand very high pressure and vibrating condition which is the main practical limitation of existing DRA technology. The effect of embedding the radiating DRA on secondary substrate is studied here in details. A prototype of single antenna element is designed, fabricated and measured to validate the simulation results. Further, a 2×2 antenna array with such antenna element is designed at the centre frequency of 6.684 GHz for obtaining higher directive gain. The array offers an impedance bandwidth of 4.94% and a maximum gain of 13.4 dBi at the operating frequency. A good agreement has been obtained between the measured and simulated results.