Bandwidth-Enhanced Low-Profile Magneto-Electric Dipole Antenna With Shorting Parasitic Elements

Abstract

This paper presents a low-profile magneto-electric (ME) dipole antenna with an enhanced impedance bandwidth realized by the loading of shorting parasitic elements. The antenna contains a horizontal planar electric dipole antenna, a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation= LaTeX >$\\Gamma $ </tex-math></inline-formula>-shaped shorted patch antenna, a pair of parasitic L-shaped shorted patches, and a direct feed. By loading of the parasitic L-shaped patches such that they are shorted to the ground, the proposed antenna attains a significant bandwidth enhancement while maintaining excellent broadside radiation characteristics. An antenna prototype with a low profile of only <inline-formula> <tex-math notation= LaTeX >$0.11\\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> was fabricated and tested (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation= LaTeX >$\\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the free-space wavelength referring to the center frequency). The antenna achieves a measured impedance bandwidth of 75.64% (1.34–2.97 GHz) for a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of less than 2. Within the operating band, the measured gain ranges from 6.23 to 8.49 dBi. Additionally, stable radiation patterns on both E- and H-planes with a high front-to-back ratio of more than 20.5 dB are achieved.