Conclusions: We developed an analog circuit to simulate a

function of the human-visual peripheral processes for motion

perception. The circuit is simple and it has good regularity. It
can be used to build two-dimensional analog VLSI networks
for detecting motion.

H. LI
C:H. CHEN

3rd September 1990

is low (%30) and this makes the structure a good candidate

for an antenna element which combines the advantages of
aperture coupling with the significant high frequency potential
of DR antennas.
G e o m e t r y and configuration. The physical configuration of the
structure is as shown in Fig. 1, where the slot in the ground
side vlrw

Computer Science, College of Engineering

Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409

exploded 3 - 0 view

References

c., and FRIEDMAN,

M. P. (Eds.): Handbook of perception, Vol. V, Seeing(Academ1cPress, New York, 1975)
JAIN, R.: Extraction of motion information from peripheral processes, Digital Image Processing and Analysis, 2, pp. 491-501
R. N., and HERSHENSON,
M.:The psychology of visual per3 HABER,
ception(Rinehart and Winston Press, New York, 2nd edn., 1980)
c., LUO,and MEAD,
c.: Computing motion
4 HUTCHINSON, 1.. KOCH,
using analog binary resistive networks, IEEE Computer, March
1988, pp. 52-63
K.: Large-swing CMOS buffer amplifier, IEEE Trans.
5 NAGARAJ,
on Solid-state Circuits, 1989, 24, ( 1 ) . pp. 181-183
6 MAHOWALD,
M.A.,and MEAD, c.: Silicon retina, in MEAD, c. (Ed.).
Analog VLSI and neural systems (Addison Wesley, Reading, MA,
USA, 1989)
K.: Large-swing CMOS buffer amplifier,IEEE Trans.
7 NAGARAJ,
on Solid-State Circuits, 1989.24, (I), pp. 181-183
8 TAYLOR, 1. G.: A silicon model of vertebrate retinal processing,
Journal of Neural Networks, 1990,3, pp. 171-178
9 TWEED,D. B., and VILIS,
T.:The superior colliculus and spatiotemporal translation in the saccadic system, Journal of Neural Networks, 1990.3, pp. 75-86
10 ULLMAN,
s.: Analysis of visual motion by biolopcal and computer
systems, IEEE Computer, August 1981, pp. 57-69
1 C A R ~ M I I F , E.

Fig. 1 Physical configuration ofantenna

For the feedline substrate, E~ = 10-2
For the DR, E~ = 10.8, h = 1.27mm

plane provides for the coupling from the feedline at the

bottom to the DR on the top. Aperture lengths between 0.35
and 0.4cm were used and the aperture width was kept small
(%,1/20). A set of three resonators, for which E, = 10.8, height
h = 0.127cm, with three different diameters (d = 0,635, 1.016
and 1.27cm), was used. The above dimensions were selected
to provide resonant frequencies in the range of interest
(between ICb20GHz). In view of the geometry and method of
excitation, the main mode excited for this configuration will
be the hybrid electromagnetic mode HEM,,. T o obtain an
estimate of the resonant frequency, we assume an infinite, perfectly conducting, ground plane and use is made of the
formula

f,,, = {co/2nJ(&,)JC(3.682/6) + (@h)211

DIELECTRIC RESONATOR ANTENNA USING
APERTURE COUPLING

(1)

The feedline substrate has a thickness of 0.0635 cm and E, =

10.2. The line extends beyond the slot about 1/4 to provide a
tuning stub.

Indexinq terms: Microwave antennas. Dielectric resonators

~

~~

A practical antenna configuration for use at microwave and

millimetre wave frequencies is investigated. 11 consists of a
circular cylindrical dielectric resonator fed by a microstrip
feedline through a coupling aperture in the ground plane
between them. Several elements, with different physical
parameters, operating between 14 and 16GHz were constructed and tested. Experimental results confirm the effective
and practical performance of the antenna structure.

Introduction: Cylindrical dielectric resonators (DR) of high

dielectric constant have been widely used as elements in
microwave circuits. Recently, more attention has been focused
on the study of their applications as radiators at high freq~encies,-~as they can offer some advantages over patch
antennas in terms of low ohmic loss and wider bandwidth. It
was shown in Reference 2 that the dielectric resonator
antenna can be an efficient and practical radiator. However, a
coaxial probe feed, which is normally difficult for practical
implementation at high frequencies, was used. A microstrip
feedline configuration was considered, and strong coupling
around 2.7 Ghz was demonstrated. R e c e n t l ~ a, ~configuration
that used a half-split resonator operating around 6 G H z has
been reported, and the excitation was by means of a vertical
probe conductor protruding inside the resonator.
In this paper, a new antenna configuration that comprises a
cylindrical DR fed through aperture-coupling is investigated.
This new feed mechanism which was proposed by Pozar, and
whose practicality at high frequencies for patch antennas was
recently demonstrated,6 offers several advantages and is suitable for MMIC applications. Furthermore, with aperture
coupling to the cylindrical resonator, the hybrid mode
HEM,ia is excited. Under the above conditions the Q-factor
E L E C T R O N I C S LETTERS

22nd November 1990

Vol. 26

Results: Measurements were performed using the different resonators and aperture sizes to determine the coupling conditions, impedance characteristics of the structure and the
radiation patterns. Simultaneously, modal analysis6 to study
the coupling conditions and the construction of an equivalent
circuit that would be useful to the designer were pursued.
Although this analysis did not yield expressions that are
amenable to calculations, mainly because of the lack of a
closed form expression for the applicable radiation Q-factor, it
provided insight for determining the parameters used for the
experimental results that are reported here.
Fig. 2 shows the return loss for a structure with the shown
dimension, and a strong coupling at 14,088 GHz is noticed. As
expected, the resonant frequency of 14,088GHz is less than
the theoretically predicted value for this structure which is
0

-1 0

z
-n-20

- 30
12 0

frequency GHz

16 0

Fig. 2 Measured S , , against frequency for antenna

La, = 3.75mm
DR centred over aperture
d = 10-16mm

No. 24

201 5

18.71 GHz. Similar ratios of the measured t o predicted resonant frequency for the other two resonators were obtained. The
bandwidth over which the return loss is less than lOdB is
about 5.5%. No attempt was made t o adjust the length of the
Ai4 matching stub to optimise the bandwidth or to examine its
effect on the resonant frequency. The impedance characteristics for this structure showed a near exact match for the 50R
feedline at the resonant frequency.
The degree of coupling and the resonant frequency, for a
fixed aperture length, vary as expected with the diameter of
the resonator. The impedance characteristics for three different resonators are shown in Fig. 3. The trend in the data,
1

critical effect on the coupling. This behaviour fits with the

nature of both the feed structure and the field configuration of
the excited HEM,,, mode.
Radiation measurements performed on several elements
confirm that the antenna does indeed have the anticipated
radiation pattern that is generally typical of this type of
antenna. However, the E plane pattern is found to he highly
oscillatory in nature and this behaviour has been related to
diffraction from edges of the finite ground plane* used with
this type of antenna. Radiation results obtained from numerical computations which we performed on the measured
antennas, using the moment method, confirmed this oscillatory trend.
The results presented here establish the feasibility of this
antenna type, which combines the advantage of aperture
coupling with the high frequency potential of dielectric resonators, and is suitable for M M I C applications.
Acknowledgments: The assistance provided by the Department
of National Defence (CRAD-ARP-FUHDI to Y. M. M .
Antar) is gratefully acknowledged.
J. T. H. ST. MARTIN
Y. M. M. ANTAR
Department of Elertrical and Computer Engineering
Royal Military College ofCanada

1st October 1990

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

A. A. KlSHK

Department of Electrical Engineering

University of Mississippi. MS 38677, USA
1

A. ITTIPIBOON
M. CUHACI

pq

Fig. 3 Impedance characteristics for three centred DR ronfigurations

using the same aperture

L,, = 3.5 mm
(i) d = 6.35 mm resonant frequency = 15.22GHz
(ii) d = 10.16mm resonant frequency = 14.44GHz
(iii) d = 12.70mm resonant frequency = 13.72GHz

Communications Research Centre

PO Box 11490, Station H,Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

References

which is in agreement with eqn. 1, shows that for this aperture

length and resonator height, there is a DR with diameter
somewhere between 0.635 and 1.016cm that would provide a
perfect match.
It was found that the impedance characteristics depend on
the positioning of the resonator centre with respect to the
aperture. Fig. 4 shows results for three different values of x,
where x is the displacement of the DR centre away from the
connector along the feedline direction. For x = 0.25, a perfect
match was obtained at f = 14.12GHz. Displacement of the
resonator in the orthogonal direction did not have the same

KAJFEZ, D., and

House, 1986)

w., LONG, s. A., and SHEN, L. c.: The resonant

cylindrical dielectric cavity antenna, IEEE Trans., 1983, AP-31,
pp. 406-412
KRANENBURG, R. A., and LONG, s. A: Microstrip transmission line
excitation of dielectric resonator antennas, Electron. Left., 1988,
24,pp. 1156-1157
MONGIA, R. K . : Half-split dielectric resonator placed on metallic
plane for antenna applications, Electron. Lett., 1989, 25, (i),
pp.
162-165
mmR, D. M . : Microstnp antenna aperture-coupled to a microstrip
line, Electron. Lett., 1985,21, (2).pp. 49-50
ITnPiBOON, A., OOSTLANDER, R., and ANTAR, Y. M. M.: Modal expansion method of analysis for slot-coupled microstrip antenna, Electron. Lett., 1989,25, (ZO),pp. 1338-1340
s T . - w R n N , J . T. H . : Aperture coupling of circular cylindrical
dielectric resonator antenna. MEng Thesis, Royal Military
College of Canada, Kingston, Canada, 1990
KISHK, A. A., AUDA, H. A., and AHN, B. c . : Accurate prediction of
radiation patterns of dielectric resonator antennas, Electron. Lett.,
1987.23, (25).pp. 1374-1375

3
4
5

6
7

GUILLON, P.

(Eds.): Dielectric resonators (Artech

M C A L L I S ~ R , M.

5 V . DC-12GHz InP/lnGaAs HBT AMPLIFIER

Indexing term. Amplifers
An InP/lnGaAs HBT cascode amplifier operating from a
single 5 V power supply is described. The circuit has a DC
gain of 17.2dB and a -3dB frequency point of 12.3GHz.
This results in a gain-bandwidth product in excess of
90GHz. The frequency response of the amplifier remains
constant if the power supply voltage is as low as 4V.

Fig. 4 Impedance characteristics

d = 12-7mm
L

=375mm

displacement of the DR centre from the aperture along the

feedline axis
xk

201 6

In the past several years 111-V compound semiconductor HBT

devices and circuits have shown excellent high speed performance.
Despite the fact that AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs have

ELECTRONICS LETTERS

22nd November 1990

Vol 26

No. 24