A 3-D Meandered Probe-Fed Dual-Band Circularly Polarized Dielectric Resonator Antenna

A dual-band circularly polarized (CP) dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) designed on multi-layer substrates is proposed. An asymmetric C-shaped metallic strip is also incorporated into the upper side of the top substrate in the proposed design. The hexagonal dielectric resonator (DR) is excited by the proposed 3-D meandered probe, which generates multiple orthogonal TE-modes. It is found that the lower CP band arises due to the pair of fundamental modes of the hexagonal DR. In the upper CP band, pairs of higher broadside and even modes of the hexagonal DR are combined with a CP band that is induced by the asymmetric C-shaped metallic strip to yield a wide 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW). A prototype of the proposed DRA is fabricated for experimental verification. The antenna exhibits a measured -10 dB reflection bandwidth of 56.43% (2.15⁻3.84 GHz). The far-field measurement shows measured 3 dB ARBWs of 7.56% (2.29⁻2.47 GHz) with a peak gain of 5.6 dBic and 16.47% (3.12⁻3.68 GHz) with a peak gain of 7.84 dBic in the lower and upper bands, respectively.