Novel and simple design of multi layer radial line slot array (RLSA) antenna using FR-4 substrate

This paper presents a simple and novel type of linearly polarized radial line slot antenna (RLSA) which has been developed using FR-4 substrate and dielectric 5.4. The radial-line slot array (RLSA) is prospective antenna for point to point communications due to its greater performances achieved as well as mass production opportunities by using of printed circuit technology like for microstrip patch antennas. The RLSA antennas proposed for outdoor WLAN point to point application The WLAN is based on the IEEE 802.11a standard and the operating frequency range is the upper UNII band (5.725-5.875) GHz. The frequency range is use for point to point microwave link. Prior to this, various researches have been conducted on conventional RLSA antenna using lower dielectric material such as honeycomb (epsiv
_r
=1.1) or polypropylene (epsiv
_r
=2.3). But in simulation it shows that, using higher dielectric it is possible to reduce the size of antennas. Typically the point to point system uses standard parabolic dish antenna. However the uses of these antennas have some disadvantages such as aperture blockage. In contrast to commonly used parabolic antenna the RLSA antenna differs as low-profile, low-weight, and more-aesthetic one. The RLSA antenna fabricated using FR-4 presented here has additional advantages like convenient to fabricate and massive production opportunity. This factor is achieved by employment of a printed-circuit technology for fabrication of antenna slotted aperture due to its small-sized. In this paper, the development of linearly polarized radial line slot antenna (RLSA) with experimental performance is presented. Some experiments have been conducted to validate the performance.