Stuart A. Long

The resonant cylindrical dielectric cavity antenna

An experimental investigation of the radiation and circuit properties of a resonant cylindrical dielectric cavity antenna has been undertaken. The radiation patterns and input impedance have been measured for structures of various geometrical aspect ratios, dielectric constants, and sizes of coaxial feed probes. A simple theory utilizing the magnetic wall boundary condition is shown to correlate well with measured results for radiation patterns and resonant frequencies.

An experimental investigation of electrically thick rectangular microstrip antennas

The electromagnetic properties of electrically thick rectangular microstrip antennas were investigated experimentally. Antennas were fabricated with different patch sizes and with electrical thicknesses ranging from 0.03 to 0.23 wavelengths in the dielectric substrate. The resonant frequencies were measured and compared to existing formulas. The bandwidth was calculated as a function of electrical thickness and the antenna radiation patterns were measured.

Microstrip patch designs that do not excite surface waves

Two variations of a circular microstrip patch design are presented which excite very little surface wave power. Both of the designs are based on the principle that a ring of magnetic current in a substrate (which models the patches) will not excite the dominant TM/sub 0/ surface wave if the radius of the ring is a particular critical value. Numerical results for radiation efficiency and radiated field strength from a ring of magnetic current are shown to verify this basic design principle. The proposed patch designs are chosen to have a radius equal to this critical value, while maintaining resonance at the design frequency. The designs excite very little surface-wave power, and thus have smoother radiation patterns when mounted on finite-size ground planes, due to reduced surface-wave diffraction. They also have reduced mutual coupling, due to the reduced surface-wave excitation. Measured results for radiation patterns and field strength within the substrate are presented to verify the theoretical concepts. >

A dual-frequency stacked circular-disc antenna

The dual-frequency behavior of a pair of stacked circular-disc printed-circuit antennas is investigated experimentally. The input impedance is measured as a function of the sizes of the discs with emphasis placed on the values of the two resultant resonant frequencies.

Resonant frequency of a circular disc, printed-circuit antenna

The resonant frequency is obtained in analytical form for a planar, circular disc antenna which is etched on a printed-circuit board so that the low-profile antenna is separated from the ground plane only by a thin layer of dielectric material. The formula is found to have an error of less than 2.5 percent when compared with experimental data.

Coplanar waveguide excitation of dielectric resonator antennas

The circuit and radiation properties of a cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna excited by a coplanar waveguide feed are investigated. The coupling between the feed and the radiator was measured as a function of the position, dielectric constant, and height of the cylinder. The radiation patterns and resonant frequencies were also measured. These measured results are found to be in good agreement with theoretical calculations. >

Dual-band reactively loaded microstrip antenna

A previously derived theory is applied to a microstrip antenna with a reactive load to produce a dual-band radiator. A model consisting of a rectangular patch radiator loaded with a variable length short-circuited coaxial stub was investigated experimentally. Comparisons of theoretical predictions and experimental data are made for the impedance and resonant frequencies as a function of the position of the load, the length of the stub, and the characteristic impedance of the stub.

Mutual coupling between reduced surface-wave microstrip antennas

An investigation of the mutual coupling between reduced surface-wave microstrip antennas is presented and compared with that for conventional microstrip antennas. Numerical results are presented from a theoretical analysis of the mutual coupling along with confirming experimental results. It is shown that for electrically thin substrates, the space-wave coupling, not the surface-wave coupling, is predominant for typical element spacing, for both the conventional and reduced surface-wave antennas. In addition, the mutual coupling behavior is examined using an asymptotic analysis, which demonstrates how the coupling falls off much faster with patch separation for reduced surface wave antennas compared to conventional microstrip patch antennas.

The dependence of the input impedance on feed position of probe and microstrip line-fed patch antennas

The impedance of a rectangular patch antenna fed by an inset microstrip transmission line was measured for various feed positions. The dependence found was then compared to theoretical predictions both for this geometry and for the similar case of an inset coaxial probe feed.

An investigation of stacked and embedded cylindrical dielectric resonator antennas

Various multisegment cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna geometries are considered including stacked, core-plugged, and embedded stacked. Results show impedance bandwidths up to 68.1% compared to 21.0% for a homogeneous DRA with the same size and resonant frequency.