Reduced mass printed Quasi-Yagi antennas

A broadband Quasi-Yagi antenna with 50% mass reduction is proposed and demonstrated. Dielectric material is removed from a conventional printed Quasi-Yagi antenna between the reflector and dipole arms. Additional material is removed around the dipole arms and parasitic director element. Compared to a conventional design, antenna gain is 0.7 dB lower on average over the 3-3.5 GHz operating band. The -10 dB impedance bandwidth is reduced by <;10% while meeting return loss requirements over the band of interest. The antenna element is planned for use in an array configuration for an S-band direction finding sensor intended for mass constrained unmanned vehicles. To the authors' knowledge, this work is the first investigation of a mass reduction technique for printed Quasi-Yagi antennas.