Miniaturized shark-fin rooftop antenna with integrated DSRC communication module for connected vehicles

This work presents a compact shark-fin rooftop antenna combined with the dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) module for automotive applications. The proposed antenna is constructed by two short tapered monopoles and one cylindrical cavity resonator to achieve small size, light weight and low profile characteristics. Good impedance matching and omni-directional radiating properties of the proposed antenna are verified in the DSRC frequency band. The measured peak gain and efficiency of the antenna mounted on a large metallic plane are 4.5 dBi and 50% at 5.875 GHz. The proposed antenna is connected to the DSRC communication module consisting of transceiver, power amplifier, low-noise amplifier, and single-pole double-throw switch. The holistic DSRC communication system is embedded into the shark-fin radome and mounted on the rooftop of a vehicle to experimentally validate the usefulness of the connected vehicle application.