A Circularly Polarized Cylindrical Dielectric Resonator Antenna Using a Helical Exciter

A novel circularly polarized cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna excited by an external tape helix is presented. The helix is fed by a coaxial line through a small hole on a finite size ground plane. The configuration offers a compact and easy to fabricate feeding network providing a 3 dB axial-ratio bandwidth of 6.4%. A prototype of the proposed configuration is fabricated and measured. Measured and simulated return loss, axial-ratio, radiation pattern, and realized gain are presented and discussed together with design guidelines.