Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium 2005, Hangzhou, China, August 22-26 137

Study of Broadband Dielectric Resonator Antennas

Qinjiang Rao and Tayeb A. Denidni

Institute National of Research and Science, Canada
Abdel R. Sebak
Concordia University, Canada

Abstract
This article briefly reviews broadband design techniques in dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs). The
attentions focus on a type of DRAs that can offer multi-resonant frequencies and these frequencies can be
mergered into a broad band.
Index Terms - dielectric resonator antenna, broadband, multi-frequencies.1

I. Introduction
Dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) have attracted broad attentions in various applications due to their
attractive features in terms of high radiation efficiency, light weight, small size and low profile [1]-[4]. Over
last decades, various bandwidth enhancement techniques have been developed for DRAs. An overview on these
techniques has also reported in [4], where these techniques were classified into three broad categories: Lowering
the inherent Q -factor of the resonator; using external matching networks; and combine multiple dielectric
resonators.
In this article, recent broadband designs of dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) are briefly reviewed. The
attentions are focused on a type of DRAs that can offer multi- resonance frequencies and these frequencies
can be mergered into a broad band. In order to effctively review design techniques, DRAs in this article are
also categorized into three types, but unlike in [4], DRAs here are classed in terms of their components, such
as a single DRA, multi-DRAs and a hybrid DR with other resonators, respectively. Especially for the hybrid
resonator structures, they were not mentioned in [4] for they are newly developed. By using the present way,
this article is expected to offer antenna designers more direct design choice and guidance. In order to achieve
the above objective, this article first overviews several special features of DRAs showing their mechanism and
potentials of multi-frequencies, and further broadband operation, and then a survey and a collection of several
scattered papers are presented , and finally discussions and conclusions are given.

II. Advantages of DRA

DRAs have many attractive features that can provide aborad design flexibility in multi- frequency or further
broadband operation. These features mainly include the followings:
1) A DRA is a resonance structure, various modes can be excited and each mode has its radiation charac-
teristics depended on its shape, dielectric material and feed structure. For example, as shown in Fig. 1, the
T E01δ mode of an isolated cylindrical resonator radiates like a magnetic dipole oriented along its axis and the
T E01δ mode radiates like an axial electric dipole. This gives a clue that a DR with a slot feed may result in a
hybrid structure.

Figure 1: Nature of radiation of different modes of an isolated cylindrical DR.

 138 Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium 2005, Hangzhou, China, August 22-26

2) A DRA can be excited by various feeds, such as probes, slot, microstriplines, dielectric image guides,
coplanar lines and waveguide slot. These excitation methods can accommodate a variety of design restrictions
or requirements.

Figure 2: Some geometries used in dielectric resonator antennas.

3) A DRA can be fabricated in various shapes, as shown in Fig. 2 , they may be rectangular, cylindrical,
hemispherical, etc., which allows more flexibility in antenna design.
4) A wide range of permittivity values can be used ( from about 6 to 100). With the above characteristics,
broadband design of DRAs become possible.
The next section summaries current broadband design techniques in terms of a single DRA, multi-DRAs
and hybrid DR with other resonators. With this clue, several examples are also presented with addressing their
advantages and disadvantages.

III. Broadband Design of DRAs

3.1. A Single DRA
A single DRA is here defined as one DRA made of only a kind of dielectric material but with various shapes.
In order to feed a single DRA to operate at dual or multi- frequencies, and further to be mergered into a
broadband, one must let it be excited at least at two different modes by using suitable DR geometries. With
referring to various geometries, one approach is to remove portions from a regular shaped DRA [2]. Another
approach is to modify geometry so as to obtain various shapes, such as a truncated tetrahedron [5], spilt
cylinder [6]. The above approaches mainly concerning DRA geometries have some advantages. For example,
these approaches can keep DRA in a single volume and compact size. Thus the modified geometries have more
design parameters, better performance can be obtained by optimizing these parameters. However, since the
excited modes are very sensitive to the dimensions of the DRA, more design parameters may also increase
difficulty in designs. In addition, due to the high hardness of DRA materials, re-shaping geometry of a DRA
is not easy in fabrication. Recently a simple cylindrical DR provides broadband operation by mergering two
different modes in a mode family [7], it has a simple shape and a single volume but it needs very precise
dimensions that leads to dual modes in a mode family, which increases significantly the difficulty in simulations
and fabrications.
3.2. Two or Multi- Dielectric Resonators
Two or multi- resonators are defined as those having different sizes with the same or different dielectric
materials, they may be loaded or separated from each other. The excited modes in the resonators may be the
same or not. For the same modes, the corresponding radiation performances have a good agreement. For the
different modes, similar patterns can also be obtained after choosing suitable parameters.
With the above approach, an earlier design is a pair of slot coupled-DRAs [8]. The proposed structure
consists of two rectangular dielectric resonators that are displaced near the two edges of a single slot on a
ground plane. Since the two DRAs have the same shape and material but the different sizes, it may be possible
to get the same resonance modes but with the different resonance frequencies. The advantage of this approach
is that each resonator can be tuned more or less-independently, allowing for a great deal of design flexibility, this
reduces the complexity in a trial design. The disadvantage lies in the added real-state required, which increases
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium 2005, Hangzhou, China, August 22-26 139

the size of antenna and may preclude some of these configurations from being used in an array environment.
There is also one alternative approach proposed for the combination of two dielectric resonators together as if
one resonator is loading the other one. For example, a dielectric resonator is stacked on the top of the other
[9]-[12], or a smaller size dielectric resonator is inserted into another lager size dielectric resonator [13], [14] In
this approach, the combined two dielectric resonators can usually operate at the same modes or at the different
modes.

c b

d
L
wt

wc

wg

-5

-10

-15
S11 [dB]

-20

-25
d =10 mm
d= 15 mm
d= 18 mm
-30

-35
3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4.0 4.2
frequency [GHz]

Figure 3: A hybrid resonator antenna consisting of a pair of dielectric resonators and a radiating T-shaped strip.

Although these approaches represent efficient solutions for getting compact size, there are however certain
drawbacks. For instance, they require a composite structure, which can result in more difficult in independently
tuning of each frequency. In addition, due to the high hardness of dielectric materials, it is not easy to re-shape
DRAs. Since they require additional real-estate, the increased insertion loss and the degraded radiation eciency
may be occurred.
 140 Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium 2005, Hangzhou, China, August 22-26

3.3. Hybrid Dielectric Resonator with Other Resonators

A types of antennas is considered as the combination of a dielectric resonator with other resonators, such
as a microstrip patch, a slot, and individual radiator in the hybrid structure are designed to radiate at two
separated bands. If the two bands are close to each other, a hybrid resonator can offer broadband operation.
This technique is previously employed in aperture coupled microstrip antennas [15], [16].
Recently hybrid resonator antenna techniques have also been used in dielectric resonator antennas, such as
a dielectric-resonator-on-patch antenna [17]. In this structure, the power coupling from the microstrip line to
the two radiators requires two layer substrates, which increases the size and the complexity of the antenna.
Other alternative designs were carried out by using the combination of a dielectric resonator with a strip or a
slot radiator. The most improvement for these designs is that the structures use only a substrate layer. For
instance, a CPW feed T-shaped strip is used to feed a pair of rectangular DRAs as shown in Fig. 3 [18] or a
microstrip fed rectangular slot is employed to feed a rectangular slot [19]. Although the proposed antenna in
[19] displays high front-back ratio and asymmetry in the E- plane radiation patterns from both the DR and the
slot, further improvements may be obtained by designing the slot to resonate at the upper frequency band, and
the DR and the slot are excited at their centers.
Hybrid resonator antennas have advantages in terms of low profile and compact size, but usually due to
interactions among resonators, the expected resonance frequencies for individual resonance component require
more cut and trial processes in simulations and measurements.

IV. Discussion and Conclusion

A review on broadband DRA techniques is briefly presented in this article. These bandwidth enhancement
techniques are based on multi-frequency resonance and they are classified into three categories according to their
physical structures: a single DR, multi-DRs and a hybrid resonator with other resonators. Since broadband
DRA designs have been being a current topic, and a lot of interest have been reported through paper work
from many researchers, it is impossible to collect all these papers. However, based on our search available
techniques nowadays can be fell into the above three categories. Therefore, the bandwidth enhancement tech-
niques mentioned in this article can offer antenna designers wide choice flexibility and design guidance for the
implementation of broadband DRAs.

REFERENCES
1. Long, S. A., M. W. Mcallister and L. C. Shen, “The Resonant Cylindricaldielectric Cavity Antenna,”
IEEE Trans Antennas Propagat., Vol. AP-31, 406-412, 1983.
2. Petosa, A., A. Ittipiboon, Y. M. M. Antar, D. Roscoe and M. Cuhaci, “Recent Advances in Dielectric
Resonator Antenna Technology,” IEEE Antennas and Prop-agation Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 3, 35-48, 1998.
3. Mongia, R. K. and P. Bhartia, “Dielectric Resonator Antennas - A Review and General Design Rela-
tions for Resonant Frequency and Bandwidth,” Internaional Jour-nal of Microwave and Millimeter-Wave
Computer-Aidel Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 3, 230-247, 1994.
4. LuK, K. M. and K. W. Leung, “Dielectric Resonator Antennas,” Research Studies Press LTD., 2002.
5. Kishk, A. A., “Wide-Band Truncated Tetrahedron Dielectric Resonator Antenna Excited by a Coaxial
Probe,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 51, 2913-2917, 2003.
6. Kishk, A. A., A. W. Glisson and G. P. Junker, “Bandwidth Enhancement Foro Split Cylindrical Dielectric
Resonator Antennas,” Progr. in Electromagnetics Research, PIERS, Vol. 33, 97-118, 2001.
7. Chair, R., A. A. Kishk, K. F. Lee, “Wideband Simple Cylindrical Dielectric Resonator Antennas,” IEEE
Microwave and Wireless Component Letters, Vol. 15, No. 4, 241-243, 2005.
8. Fan, Z. and Y. M. M. Antar, “Slot-Coupled DR Antenna for Dual-Frequency Operation,” IEEE Trans
Antennas Propagat., Vol. AP-45, 306-308, 1997.
9. Kishk, A. A., X. Zhang, A. W. Glisson and D. Kajfez, “Numerical Analysis of Stacked Dielectric Resonator
Antenna Excited by a Coaxial Probe for Wideband Appli-Cations,” IEEE Trans Antennas Propagat., Vol.
AP-51, 1996-2005, 2003.
10. Pliakostathis, K., D. Mirshekar-Syahkal, “Stepped Dielectric Resonator Antenna for Wideband Applica-
tions,” in Proc. IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium Digest, USA, 2004.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium 2005, Hangzhou, China, August 22-26 141

11. Al Sharkawy, M. H., A. Z. Elsherbeni, C. E. Smith, “Stacked Elliptical Dielectric Resonator Antennas
for Wideband,” in Proc. IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium Digest, USA,
2004.
12. Chair, R., A. A. Kishk, K. F. Lee, C. E. Smith, “Broadband Aperture Coupled Flipped Staired Pyramid
and Conical Dielectric Resonator Antennas,” in Proc. IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Interna-
tional Symposium Digest, USA, 2004.
13. Kishk, A. A., “Experimental Study of Broadband Embedded Dielectric Resonator Antennas Excited by
a Narrow Slot,” IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 4, 79-81, 2005.
14. Ong, S. H., A. A. Kishk and A. W. Glisson, “Wideband Disc-Ring Dielectric Resonator Antenna,” Mi-
crowave.Opt. Tech. Lett., Vol. 35, No. 6, 425-428, 2002.
15. Crog, F. and A. Papiernik, “Large Bandwidth Aperture Coupled Microstrip Antenna,” Electron. Lett.,
Vol. 26, No. 16, 1293-1294, 1990.
16. Rao, Q., T. A. Denidni and R. H. Johnston, “A Novel Feed for a Multi-Frequency Hybrid Resonator
Antenna,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters., Vol. 15, No. 4, 238-240, 2005.
17. Esselle, K. P. and T. S. Bird, “A Hybrid-Resonator Antenna: Experimental Results,” IEEE Trans An-
tennas Propagat., Vol. 53, No. 2, 870-871, 2005.
18. Rao, Q., T. A. Denidni, A. R. Sebak and R. H. Johnston, “Experimental Investigation on Improving
Impedance Matching of a CPW Fed Low Permittivity Dielectric Resonator Antenna,” Journal of Electro-
magnetci Wave and Applications., Vol. 53, 21-29, 2005.
19. Buerkle, A., K. Sarabandi and H. Mosallaei, “Compact Slot and Dielectric Resonator Antenna with Dual-
Resonance, Broadband Characteristics,” IEEE Trans Antennas Propagat., Vol. 53, No. 3, 1020-1027, 2005.