IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO.
3, MARCH 2012
Fig. 9. Normalized beam scan radiation pattern for the mode combination of
0
TM (0.49 W, 90 ) + TM (0.16 W, 0 ).
corporating additional number of SMA connectors and by controlling
the phase between them. The discrete beam scan performance of the an-
tenna was studied by employing the control of the amplitude and phase
of the combined modes. The practical implementation of this antenna
will requires feed network. However, tradeoffs between phase array an-
tenna and the proposed single layer antenna element can be made. The
control of the feed network can be realized using digital signal pro-
cessing or Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) controls and atten-
uators for the power controls. These are matter of future studies and will
be reported in future. The prototype of the antenna was fabricated and
measured for both the impedance matching and radiation patterns. The
results are in acceptable agreement. This single layer multimode patch
antenna with linear and circular polarizations can find applications as ra-
diating elements in multi-channel radars requiring multiple phase cen-
ters and satellite tracking and communications requiring circular polar-
izations, respectively. Further, the antenna can be miniaturized to meet
the inter-element spacing without suffering from grating lobes by using
multimode dielectric resonator antenna (DRA), which is under inves-
tigation at San Diego State University. Then this could be configured
as an array to achieve higher gain performance with enhanced beam
scan performance. These radiating elements can also help in reducing
the number of radiating elements in a phased array to achieve the beam
scan performance in comparison to a conventional phased array an-
tenna, which are the subject for future study.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors also thank anonymous reviewers for their valuable com-
ments which helped in improving the quality of the communication.
REFERENCES
[1] R. Garg, P. Bhartia, I. Bahl, and A. Ittipiboon, Microstrip Antenna De-
sign Handbook. Boston, MA: Artech House, 2001.
[2] J. L. Volakis, Antenna Design Handbook. New York: McGraw Hill,
2006.
[3] A. A. Kishk and L. Shafai, “The effect of various parameters of circular
microstrip antennas on their radiation efficiency and the mode excita-
tion,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. AP-34, no. 8, pp. 969–976,
Aug. 1986.
[4] S. K. Sharma, L. Shafai, B. Balaji, A. Damini, and G. Haslam, “In-
vestigations on multimode microstrip patch antenna and phased arrays
providing multiphase centres,” in Proc. IEEE Antennas and Propaga-
tion Society Int. Symp., Washington, DC, Jul. 2005, vol. 1, pp. 326–329.
[5] A. Helaly, A. Sebak, and L. Shafai, “Phase centre movement in linear
phased array antennas,” in Proc. IEEE Antennas and Propagation So-
ciety Int. Symp. Merging Technologies Digest, May 7–11, 1990, vol. 3,
pp. 1166–1169.
0018-926X/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE
1605
[6] Z. A. Pour and L. Shafai, “A novel feeding structure for stacked circular
microstrip antenna operating at higher order modes,” in Proc. IEEE An-
tennas & Propagation Society Int. Symp., Albuquerque, AZ, Jul. 2006,
pp. 1499–1502.
[7] Z. A. Pour and L. Shafai, “Control of phase center and polarization in
circular microstrip antennas,” in Proc. IEEE Antennas & Propagation
Society Int. Symp., Albuquerque, AZ, Jul. 2006, pp. 1441–1444.
[8] T. Q. Tran and S. K. Sharma, “Performance of single layer multi-
mode microstrip patch antenna with reconfigurable radiation patterns,”
in Proc. IEEE Antennas & Propagation Society Int. Symp., Charleston,
SC, Jun. 1–5, 2009.
[9] R. F. Harrington, Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields. New
York: Wiley, Sep. 2001.
[10] “Ansoft Corporation,” High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) v
11.
Segmented Hemispherical DRA: New Geometry
Characterized and Investigated in Multi-Element
Composite Forms for Wideband Antenna Applications
Debatosh Guha, Bidisha Gupta, Chandrakanta Kumar, and
Yahia M. M. Antar
Abstract—Hemispherical dielectric resonator antenna (HDRA) is
reinvestigated by splitting it into four uniform quarters, which indeed
generates a new DRA shape, proposed to call as “quarter-Hemispherical
DRA” (q-HDRA). An innovative idea, gathered by the authors through
their previous investigations, has been employed to investigate four-ele-
ment q-HDRA resonating with dominant and first higher modes over a
large impedance bandwidth (S 10 dB) and producing improved
monopole-like radiation pattern. The improvement has been described
in terms of uniformity and symmetry in the radiation patterns obtained
consistently over the entire operating bandwidth. No degradation or
compromise in impedance bandwidth is observed. For this purpose, the
new DRA unit (q-HDRA) has been characterized using simulated and
measured data. Prototypes of single and multi-element q-HDRA have
been measured and compared with some earlier versions. Unlike earlier
one, consistently symmetric monopole-like radiation from a four element
q-HDRA has been demonstrated.
Index Terms—Composite DRA, dielectric resonator antenna, monopole-
DRA.
I. INTRODUCTION
Hemispherical shaped dielectric resonator (DR) is one of the most
basic geometries explored so far as dielectric resonator antenna (DRA)
[1] and few active researchers have been contributing on its various
aspects, e.g., [2]–[7]. In hemispherical DRA (HDRA), two resonating
modes, namely TE111 and TM101 , cause radiation as horizontal mag-
Manuscript received May 14, 2011; revised September 07, 2011; accepted
September 14, 2011. Date of publication December 16, 2011; date of current
version March 02, 2012.
D. Guha is with the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of
Calcutta, Kolkata 700 009, India (e-mail: dguha@ieee.org).
B. Gupta is with the ETE Department, Girijananda Chowdhury Insti-
tute of Management and Technology, Guwahati 781017, India (e-mail:
gupta_bidisa@yahoo.co.in).
C. Kumar is with the ISRO Satellite Centre, CMG, Bangalore 560017, India
(e-mail: kumarchk@ieee.org).
Y. M. M. Antar is with the Electrical Engineering Department, Royal Military
College of Canada, Kingston, ON K7K 7B4, Canada (e-mail: antar-y@rmc.ca).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are avail-
able online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2011.2180345
1606 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 3, MARCH 2012
Fig. 1. Hemispherical DRA and its variants obtained through symmetrical
subsections: (a) hemispherical DRA (HDRA), (b) HDRA bisected to form
half-HDRA (h-HDRA), (c) HDRA bisected twice to form quarter-HDRA
(q-HDRA).
netic dipole along broadside and vertical electric monopole over om-
nidirectional symmetric pattern, respectively. A variant of HDRA was
introduced and characterized by Guha and Antar in [8], where they
symmetrically bisected a HDRA and called the geometry as half-Hemi-
spherical DRA (h-HDRA) as shown in Fig. 1(a)–(b). The h-HDRA is
asymmetric in shape and as such results in asymmetric modal fields
when excited with a coaxial probe touching its flat surface [8, Fig. 2(a)].
First two modes (TE111 and TM101 ) take identically symmetric field
distributions when two h-HDRA elements are placed face-to-face [8,
Fig. 2(b)]. Guha and Antar exploited this interesting feature in two-el-
ement h-HDRA [8] to generate monopole-type radiations over 35%
impedance bandwidth (S11 < 010 dB). Their structural asymmetry
resulted in asymmetry in their radiation patterns. Present investiga-
tion is partially aimed to alleviate this shortcoming in an innovative
way. In here, quarter of a hemisphere is conceived as the smallest
DRA unit, which can be obtained by symmetrically bisecting a half-
HDRA (Fig. 1(c)). We propose this to call as quarter-HDRA or simply
“q-HDRA.”
In this communication, the q-HDRA is investigated with twofold ob-
jectives: (i) to characterize probe-fed q-HDRA unit (Fig. 2) and (ii) to
explore its four-element composite configuration (Fig. 3(c)) as a wide-
band monopole type DRA having perfectly symmetrical radiation pat-
Fig. 2. Proposed q-HDRA excited by a vertical probe: (a) Top view, (b) cross-
sectional view.
Fig. 3. Top views probe-fed DRAs of different configurations: (a) two-element
q-HDRA: new configuration to be studied, (b) single h-HDRA [8], (c) four-ele-
ment q-HDRA: new configuration to be studied, (d) two-element h-HDRA [8].
terns. Some elementary results, obtained using [9], were reported by
the authors for the first time in [10]. In here, detailed insight and com-
parative studies based on experimental results are furnished. Prototype
for each configuration has been realized and the measurements are exe-
cuted employing identical feeding mechanism. Two resonant modes in
a four-element composite structure have been successfully exploited.
Superiority compared to half-HDRA [8] in terms of uniformity and
symmetry in radiation patterns over the entire bandwidth has been ex-
perimentally demonstrated.
II. SINGLE Q-HDRA
A. The Configuration
A dielectric hemisphere of radius 20 mm and relative permittivity
10 (Fig. 1(a)) was symmetrically bisected in [8] to form two pieces of
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 3, MARCH 2012 1607

Fig. 6. Measured and simulated S versus frequency of the prototype shown

Fig. 4. Simulated S versus frequency for probe-fed single q-HDRA. a =
in Fig. 5. Parameters as in Fig. 5.
20 mm, d = 1:25 mm, " = 10, ground plane with 90 mm diameter.

Fig. 5. Fabricated Single q-HDRA placed on 70 mm diameter ground plane.

a = 20 mm, " = 10; l = 11:6 mm, d = 1:25 mm.

h-HDRA (Fig. 1(b)). In here, each piece of h-HDRA is further bisected

to obtain quarter of a HDRA as indicated in Fig. 1(c). Probe-fed con-
figuration of a quarter hemispherical DRA (q-HDRA) is depicted in
Fig. 2, which indeed is the primary unit for the present study.

B. Impedance and Radiation Characteristics

Basic characteristics of a probe-fed q-HDRA are examined using
simulated results [9]. Fig. 4 shows the input S11 due to the dominant
mode in a q-HDRA for varying probe length. Significant dependence
is apparent and l = 11 to 12 mm appears to be the optimum choice.
The first resonance occurring around 3.5 GHz exactly corroborates the
dominant mode resonance in h-HDRA ([8], Fig. 3) and its simulated
electric field (E-field) distributions reveal HEM11 -like mode.
A prototype realized from Eccostock’s HiK dielectric rod with "r =
10 is shown in Fig. 5. SMA probe-fitted circular brass plate is used as
the ground plane, diameter being closely equal to 0 , i.e., the resonant
wavelength of the DRA. The DRA prototype is fixed on the plate using
tiny glue drops at its boundary. It is measured using Agilent’s E8363B
network analyzer and an automated anechoic chamber. Measured S11
versus frequency response is shown Fig. 6 indicating single resonance
around 3.4 GHz. Simulated results also corroborate the measured plot.
Measured and simulated radiation patterns of the q-HDRA prototype
are shown in Fig. 7. Measured curves are found to closely agree with
the simulated patterns. The structure is asymmetric in ' = 0 plane
and as such the broadside radiation caused by HEM11 -like mode ap-
pears asymmetric in nature. But that in ' = 90 plane is perfectly
symmetric. Relative to the peak gain, measured cross-polarized radia-
tion is found to be about 20 dB down in E-plane and 14 dB in H plane.
Fig. 7. Measured and simulated radiation patterns of single q-HDRA obtained
at f = 3:5 GHz: (a)  = 0 : XZ plane, (b)  = 90 : YZ plane. Parameters as
in Fig. 5.
III. TWO ELEMENT Q-HDRA
A two-element q-HDRA, shown in Fig. 3(a), resembles single ele-
ment h-HDRA (Fig. 3(b)) introduced in [8]. Indeed this section is aimed
to provide a comparative study between the characteristics of these two
similar configurations. The prototype is shown in Fig. 8 and its mea-
sured data are compared in Figs. 9 and 10 with those reported in [8] for
identical DRA and feed parameters.
Fig. 9 compares measured S11 values against frequency and reveals
exactly the same impedance bandwidth caused by two adjacent modes,
namely HEM11 -like mode and TM101 -like mode. It is important to
note that, the impedance response show in Fig. 9 is different from that
1608 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 3, MARCH 2012

Fig. 8. Prototype of two-element q-HDRA on the ground plane used in Fig. 5.

a = 20 mm, l = 11 6: mm, d = 1 25
: mm, g =09
: mm, " = 10.

Fig. 10. Measured radiation characteristic (gain versus theta) of two-element

q-HDRA compared with those due to single element h-HDRA [8]. (a)  =0 ,
(b) = 90 . Parameters as in Fig. 8.

Fig. 9. Measured S versus frequency plot of two-element q-HDRA com-

pared with that due to single element h-HDRA [8]. q-HDRA and h-HDRA pa-
rameters as in Fig. 8.

due to single q-HDRA (Fig. 6). In Fig. 9, like single h-HDRA [8],
TM101 -like mode appears very close to HEM11 -like mode and pro-
duce wide impedance bandwidth. Multiple resonant modes were ex-
amined using real and imaginary parts of the input impedance in ([8],
Figs. 3, 4, and 7) and those were finally identified as HEM11 -like and
TM101 -like modes through modal field configurations ([8], Figs. 5 and
6), and as such they are not repeated here.
Resulting radiation characteristics are compared in Fig. 10, which
rather bear some interesting information. Measured patterns for both
the antennas are identical over ' = 0 plane. But over ' = 90 plane,
present configuration provides considerably improved gain. The reason
behind this is the DRA structures themselves. In composite q-HDRA,
both the modes are symmetric in either segment, which is not obtained
in a single h-HDRA unit.
Both the structures are symmetric over ' = 90 plane and hence
the resultant vertical E-fields radiate symmetrically producing null at
 = 0 . But in ' = 0 plane, the structures are asymmetric and the
modal fields radiate along broadside with a tilt towards 45 –50 .
IV. FOUR-ELEMENT Q-HDRA
A. The Configuration
Four q-HDRA elements are arranged surrounding a vertical probe
as shown in Fig. 3(c). Sharp ridge of each element touches the probe.
This composite configuration is better visualized from the photograph
p
shown in Fig. 11. Lateral separation between two adjacent elements
is d= 2. Such arrangement ensures uniform excitation of the modal
Fig. 11. Prototype of four-element q-HDRA placed on the ground plane used
= 20
in Fig. 5. a mm, l = 11 6: mm, d = 1 25
: mm, g =09
: mm, " = 10
.
fields in each DRA element. The configuration in Fig. 3(c) may be con-
sidered as a close approximation of Fig. 3(d), both being used to recon-
struct an equivalent hemispherical DRA unit. Fig. 3(d) indeed depicts
a two-element h-HDRA investigated in [8] as a broadband monopole
DRA. In Fig. 3(d), one DRA is directly excited and the other one is
electromagnetically coupled. But in the proposed four-element config-
uration, each element is directly in contact with the feeding probe and
gets equally excited.
B. Measured and Simulated Results
Prior to fabrication, the tolerance of the probe parameters has
been examined. Probe length varying from 12 mm to 13 mm with
diameter varying over 1 mm to 1.25 mm appears to be the optimum
choice. In Fig. 12, measured S11 of the prototype is compared with
the simulated data. Close agreement between them is revealed. About
26% bandwidth is revealed by the measured data. This is indeed the
contribution of two closely spaced resonant modes. Dominant, i.e.,
HEM11 -like mode in each element resonates near 3.5 GHz (Fig. 6)
and TM101 mode in an identical HDRA resonates near 4 GHz ([8],
Fig. 6). These two closely spaced resonances, pictorially examined
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 3, MARCH 2012
Fig. 12. Measured S compared with simulated data for four-element
q-HDRA. Parameters as in Fig. 11.
Fig. 13. Simulated electric fields in composite four-element q-HDRA. Param-
eters as in Fig. 11. (a) f = 3 GHz, (b) f = 4 GHz.
in Fig. 13, are responsible for producing wide impedance bandwidth.
Simulated field portrays in Fig. 13 remarkably look identical resulting
in uniform monopole-like radiations over the entire bandwidth.
This centrally fed four-element q-HDRA (Fig. 3(c)) apparently looks
similar to the four cylindrical DRA (CDRA) explored by these authors
in [11]. Dominant mode resonance in composite configuration has been
exploited to yield monopole-like fields in both the configurations; but
their feeding mechanism along with the principle of wideband opera-
tion is completely different. Unlike the present one, in [11] the feeding
probe, covered by a dielectric cylinder, resonates itself as an electric
monopole and helps in widening bandwidth.
The radiation patterns obtained at two different frequencies are pro-
vided in Fig. 14. Two different planes have been chosen to furnish mea-
sured data along with the simulated predictions. Very close agreement
is revealed. Primary radiation is vertically polarized and shows very
symmetric and uniform patterns at both the frequencies and both the
planes of investigation. About 2 to 2.5 dBi peak gain is experimentally
demonstrated. Measured cross-polarized radiations are also provided
and they are relatively weak in ' = 0 plane. The plane represented by
‘' = 0 ’ passes through the dielectric-air- dielectric interface (Fig. 3),
but that represented by ' = 45 plane passes through the DRA body
and makes the difference in cross-polar components. However, 10 to
20 dB isolation between co- to cross-polarized components is apparent
from the measured data.
This four-element q-HDRA is actually an improved version of
two-element h-HDRA (Fig. 3(d)) and therefore a direct comparison
would help one to understand the relative performances. This is pro-
vided through Figs. 15 and 16 using simulated results. Fig. 15 reveals
identical input impedance characteristics for both the configurations.
Two frequencies are chosen to compare their radiation patterns across
1609
Fig. 14. Measured and Simulated radiation patterns of four-element q-HDRA.
(a) f = 3:1 GHz, (b) f = 3:51 GHz. Parameters as in Fig. 11.
Fig. 15. Simulated S versus frequency plot of four-element q-HDRA com-
pared with that due to two-element h-HDRA [8]. Each DRA segment touches
the probe. Parameters as in Fig. 11.
' = 0 and 90 planes, as depicted in Fig. 16. Indeed ' = 90
plane makes no difference from ' = 0 plane for composite q-HDRA
(Fig. 3(c)) and this is revealed from the plots in Fig. 16. Compared to
composite h-HDRA (Fig. 3(d) with g = d), q-HDRA shows improved
gain near some particular frequencies and particular planes, otherwise
being comparable. The change is marginal near 3.7 GHz, but around
3.3 GHz, the gain improves by 2–3 dB, particularly in ' = 90 plane.
This improvement is caused by relatively better symmetry in the
composite q-DRA structure.
So far we have dealt with composite q-HDRA where all four DRA el-
ements (#1–#4 in Fig. 3(c)) are made of identical material with same "r
value. One may be curious to know about the change in its impedance
and radiation characteristics if small change in "r value for individual
element is made. Wide variation in "r value would not be feasible since
"r determines the resonant frequencies in each element. One set of
representative results based on simulated data is presented in Fig. 17.
For this study, we have considered "r1 (for element #1) = "r3 (for
element #3) = 10 and "r2 (for element #2) = "r4 (for element
#4) = 12, and all other parameters as in Fig. 11. Matching of input
1610 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 3, MARCH 2012

In here, ' = 45 and 135 represent two orthogonal planes symmet-
rically passing through the DRA bodies (Fig. 3(c)) and ' = 0 and
90 indicate the planes passing through the DRA-air-DRA interfaces.
The uniformity of the pattern is found to be greatly affected along with
considerable degradation in peak gain values.

V. CONCLUSION
Above investigations indicate that using smaller units in a composite
DRA configuration is always a better option, but definitely at the cost
of critical machining of the DRAs and expenses involved. This may
be overcome in mass processing employing proper dice during man-
ufacturing the DRA units. Four-element q-HDRA is free from earlier
shortcomings like asymmetry and nonuniformity in radiation patterns.
The composite DRA may be applied where monopole like antenna is
needed to operate over a wide bandwidth, typically up to 30%. Com-
posite q-HDRA is much more compact compared to a conventional
monopole antenna having its one third impedance bandwidth.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are thankful to A. Banerjee, a member of this research
Fig. 16. Simulated radiation patterns of four-element q-HDRA compared with
group, for her unstinted help and cooperation.
those due to two-element h-HDRA [8]. Each DRA segment touches the probe.
Parameters as in Fig. 11. (a) 3.3 GHz, (b) 3.7 GHz. —— four-element q-HDRA; REFERENCES
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Fig. 17. Simulated radiation characteristics of four-element q-HDRA with "

(for element #1) = " (for element #3) = 10; " (for element #2)= "
(for element #4) = 12 . (a) 2.9 GHz, (b) 3.4 GHz.

impedance is affected and shows about 20% bandwidth. But most sig-
nificant change is observed in its radiation patterns, shown in Fig. 17.