Investigation of dielectric resonator antennas for L-band communications

An investigation of rectangular Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRA) for use in mobile communications applications was undertaken at L-Band frequencies (1–2 GHz). Techniques were developed to improve the performance of probe fed DRA. The resonant frequency was reduced by 40% by grounding the edge of the DRA opposite the feed probe. Inserting a low dielectric constant material between the DRA and the ground plane increased the impedance bandwidth by 84%. A four element array of DRA has been developed which uses three of the DRA as parasitic elements to tilt a dual polarized radiation pattern by 45° from broadside towards the horizon. At an angle of 20° in elevation the difference in E and H-plane magnitudes was reduced from 7.5 dB for a single element to 2.5 dB for the parasitic array.