Simple Dual-Polarized Filtering Antenna With Enhanced Bandwidth for Base Station Applications

In this article, a simple dual-polarized antenna with filtering responses and enhanced bandwidth is proposed for base station applications. The antenna concludes three parts: dipole elements, baluns, and a ground plane, which is the same as that of a widely used traditional base-station cross-dipole antenna. By employing only two parasitic elements without using very complicated circuits, the proposed dual-polarized antenna achieves not only filtering response but also widened bandwidth. Each parasitic element produces one transmission zero at higher frequency for the polarization it is associated with, while the other parasitic element produces another transmission zero at lower frequency band for the perpendicular polarization. The two introduced radiation nulls near the passband edge are also controllable. The working mechanism for achieving filtering responses is given. To demonstrate the idea, a simple dual-polarized filtering base-station antenna element is fabricated. The proposed antenna obtains 63% (1.68-3.23 GHz) impendence bandwidth with voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) less than 1.5. The antenna also features good isolation of more than 32 dB and stable beamwidth variation of less than ±5°. The measured gain within working band is around 8.5 dBi, while the radiation suppression level in stopband is 13 dB.