INVITED
PAPER
Dielectric Resonator Antennas:
From the Basic to the Aesthetic
Basic characteristics and low-cost integration design advances in dielectric
resonator antennas are discussed, and the use of glass blocks as a decorative
technique for these antennas is presented.
By Kwok Wa Leung, Fellow IEEE , Eng Hock Lim, Member IEEE , and
Xiao Sheng Fang, Student Member IEEE
ABSTRACT | This paper explains the basic characteristics of
dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs), with emphasis on the
effect of the form factor on their resonance (operating)
frequencies. It is followed by discussions on their recent
developments in higher order mode, circularly polarized,
dual function, and transparent designs over the last few years.
The idea of using glass DRAs as decoration antennas is
proposed and demonstrated for the first time.
KEYWORDS | Circular polarization; dielectric resonator anten-
nas (DRAs); glass antennas; higher order modes
I. INTRODUCTION
Dielectric resonators (DRs) [1] have been used as high-Q
elements in microwave filter and oscillator designs since
the 1960s. To provide high Q-factors, they normally have
relatively high dielectric constants of more than 20.
Although the magnetic-wall assumption has been used to
analyze DRs [1], it is well known that in reality an
electromagnetic field can leak out from a DR, leading to
radiation loss that decreases the Q-factor. Discussions of
DR radiation can date back to the 1930s [2] and were
subsequently found in the 1960s [3], [4]. Nevertheless,
Manuscript received October 17, 2011; revised January 16, 2012; accepted January 20,
2012. Date of publication April 3, 2012; date of current version June 14, 2012.
This work was supported by a GRF grant from the Research Grants Council
of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project 116911) and the
National Natural Science Foundation of China under Project 60928002.
K. W. Leung and X. S. Fang are with the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves and
Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon,
Hong Kong (e-mail: eekleung@cityu.edu.hk).
E. H. Lim is with the Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul
Rahman, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur 53300, Malaysia.
This paper has supplementary downloadable materials available at http://
ieeexplore.ieee.org., provided by the author. The material is a video demonstrating
an application of the swan DRA on a wireless video system. Contact
eekleung@cityu.edu.hk for further questions about this work.
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JPROC.2012.2187872
0018-9219/$31.00 Ó 2012 IEEE
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applications of DRs were limited to (non-radiating)
microwave circuits until Long et al. systematically
studied the radiation characteristics of different DRs
[5]–[7]. The studies were motivated by an observation
that carrier frequencies of modern wireless systems had
gradually progressed upward to the millimeter-wave
region, where efficiencies of metallic antennas can be
reduced significantly due to the skin effect. In contrast,
DR antennas (DRAs) are purely made of dielectric
materials with no conductor loss, making them very
suitable for millimeter-wave systems.
Although DRAs received attention originally for milli-
meter-wave applications, they are also widely investigated
at microwave frequency or even radio frequency (RF). It is
because DRAs are volume devices that offer designers more
degrees of freedom than 2-D-type antennas (e.g., micro-
strip antennas) or 1-D-type antennas (e.g., monopole
antennas). Other advantages of DRAs include their small
size, light weight, low cost, ease of excitation, and relative
wide bandwidth (BW) as compared with microstrip
antennas.
Since the original work of Long et al. [5] was reported,
many researchers have explored this antenna and numer-
ous papers have been published on this subject. Thus far,
there have been two research books [8], [9] on DRAs and
several excellent review papers [10]–[13]. The most recent
review paper has just been published in 2010 [13],
providing a very comprehensive historical review and
extensive literature survey on DRAs. As a result, this paper
is not to provide another general review of DRAs but rather
to discuss their basic characteristics and some of their
recent developments over the past few years. The
organization of the paper is as follows. Section II explains
the basic properties of DRAs, with emphasis on how the
resonance frequency is affected by the shape and aspect
ratio of a DRA. Section III discusses new design techniques
Vol. 100, No. 7, July 2012 | Proceedings of the IEEE 2181
 Leung et al.: Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic
Fig. 1. Configuration of a slot-coupled rectangular DRA. The slot
of length L and width W is printed on the ground plane of the
microstrip feedline with a width of Wf .
using higher order modes of DRAs. Section IV discusses
recently developed circularly polarized (CP) DRAs,
including both broadside- and endfire-mode designs.
Section V addresses the development of dual-function
DRAs. Section VI presents a new class of DRA, namely
transparent DRAs that are made of glass. Section VII presents
for the first time the idea of using glass DRAs as decoration
antennas. Two decoration DRAs are demonstrated and their
measured return loss, radiation patterns, and antenna gains
are presented. Finally, Section VIII concludes this paper.
II. B AS I C CHARACT E RIS TI CS OF DRAs
DRAs can be excited with different feeding schemes [8],
such as coaxial probe, coupling slot, microstrip line,
coplanar waveguide, conformal strip, dielectric image
guide, or metallic waveguide. An example of a slot-coupled
rectangular DRA with a microstrip feedline is shown in
Fig. 1. This excitation method is perhaps most popular
among various feeding schemes because it allows direct
integration of the antenna with a microwave circuit.
Furthermore, it isolates the antenna from the circuit by
virtue of the ground plane, avoiding the need for drilling a
hole in a DR as required by the probe-fed method. Also,
matching the DRA is very easy by simply varying the slot
length ðLÞ and the microstrip stub length ðLs Þ.
In general, a DRA is operated in its fundamental
broadside or endfire mode. The former can be obtained by
exciting the DRA with a displaced probe or a slot as shown
in Fig. 1. In this case, the DRA radiates like a magnetic
dipole with its maximum radiation fields being normal to
the ground plane. Radiation fields of the latter are similar
to those of an electric monopole. This mode can be excited
by axially feeding the DRA with a coaxial probe. Theoret-
ically, its radiated E-field is maximum along the ground
plane direction, but practically it has a tilting angle due to
the finite-ground-plane effect. For brevity, however, only
fundamental broadside modes are considered in this
section.
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Fig. 2. Geometries of different DRAs. (a) Rectangular DRA.
(b) Cylindrical DRA. (c) Hemispherical DRA ðDh ¼ 2aÞ.
DRAs of different shapes and aspect ratios have similar
basic characteristics. Some studies were performed to
determine the optimum aspect ratio for the BW [14], [15].
However, little or no studies have been carried out to
examine, for a given volume, the effects of the shape and
aspect ratio on the resonance frequency. Here, the effects
are discussed using the rectangular, cylindrical, and
hemispherical DRAs (Fig. 2), which are excited in their
y
fundamental broadside TE111 , HEM11 , and TE111 modes,
respectively. It has recently been found [15] that, for a
rectangular DRA with "r ¼ 12, the optimum ratio Dr =D0r
that maximizes its BW is 0.92, which roughly corresponds
to a square cross section. For simplicity, a square cross
section is used here, i.e., Dr ¼ D0r . To ease the following
discussion, Dr , Dc , and Dh are generally referred as base
dimensions.
Usually, either approximate models or numerical
methods are used to determine the resonance frequencies
of rectangular and cylindrical DRAs. It is because these
DRAs have edge-shaped boundaries that make it difficult
to obtain their closed-form Green’s functions. The
dielectric waveguide model (DWM) [14] has been widely
admitted for evaluating the resonance frequencies of
rectangular DRAs. For cylindrical DRAs, their resonance
frequencies can be calculated using the following engi-
neering formula [10]:
"    2 #
6:324 Dc Dc
f0 ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 0:27 þ 0:36 þ 0:02 ;
"r þ 2 4h 4h
Dc
0:4   6: (1)
4h
The result (1) is based on a formula that was obtained by
curve-fitting the data generated using a method-of-
moments code [16]. Although the DWM and (1) are not
exact solutions, they are generally accurate enough for
practical designs and are therefore used in our study. The
hemispherical case is simplest because its closed-form
Green’s function is available. In this paper, the resonance
frequency of the hemispherical DRA was obtained by
solving the TE-mode characteristic equation [17].
 Leung et al.: Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic
Fig. 3. Resonance frequencies of the rectangular and cylindrical
DRAs as functions of Dr and Dc , respectively, for "r ¼ 8; 15, and 25.
The ratio values of d=Dr ; h=Dc for keeping a fixed volume of
V0 ¼ 20 cm3 are also given.
The effect of the aspect ratio on the resonance
frequency is examined first. To do this, the length Dr of
the rectangular DRA is varied while maintaining the same
volume by adjusting the aspect ratio d=Dr . Similarly, the
diameter Dc of the cylindrical DRA is varied without
changing the volume by changing its aspect ratio h=Dc . The
hemispherical DRA, however, is not considered here
because its volume cannot be fixed when Dh is varied. In
this study, the volumes of the rectangular and cylindrical
DRAs are both arbitrarily set at V0 ¼ 20 cm3 , which is the
volume of a rectangular DRA (Dr ¼ 30 mm, d ¼ 22.2 mm)
resonating at 2.4 GHz. Fig. 3 shows the resonance
frequencies of the rectangular and cylindrical DRAs as
functions of Dr and Dc , respectively. A shorter range of Dc is
used due to the constraint of 0:4  Dc =ð4hÞ  6 in using (1).
The ratios of d=Dr ; h=Dc that keep V0 unchanged are given
along the curves of "r ¼ 8, and these ratios also applies to
the cases of "r ¼ 15 and 25. The result of the rectangular
DRA is discussed first. With reference to the figure, the
higher is the dielectric constant, the lower is the resonance
frequency, which is a basic characteristic of DRA. From the
figure, it can be observed that the resonance frequency of the
rectangular DRA can be very different for different aspect
ratios although the volume remains unchanged. It shows that
Table 1 Comparison of Resonance Frequencies and BWs Between Rectangular ðf0r Þ, Cylindrical ðf0c Þ, and Hemispherical ðf0h Þ DRAs at
the Same Volume (V0 ¼ 20 cm3 ) and Base Dimensions (Dr ¼ Dc ¼ Dh ¼ 42.43 mm) for Different "r
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the volume is not a determining factor for the resonance
frequency. It can also be observed from the figure that for
each "r , the lowest resonance frequency is found at
d=Dr  0:6, which can be used as a reference for designing
the smallest rectangular DRA.
For the cylindrical DRA, it can be observed from Fig. 3
that its resonance frequency is generally lower than that of
the rectangular DRA. Also, as Dc is varied, the change of
the resonance frequency is much smaller than for the
rectangular case. For "r ¼ 8, the average frequency
difference between the rectangular and cylindrical DRAs
was found to be 9.54% over the ranges of 28 mm 
ðDr ; Dc Þ  48 mm. The average differences are signifi-
cantly reduced to 5.15% and 2.91% when "r ¼ 15 and 25,
respectively. This is an interesting result because it shows
that their resonance frequencies will approach each other
as "r increases when they have the same volumes and base
dimensions ðDr ; Dc Þ. It can be observed from Fig. 3 that the
resonance frequency of the cylindrical DRA also has a local
minimum as Dc is varied. The local minimum is found at an
aspect ratio of h=Dc  0:65, which can be used as a
reference for minimizing the antenna size.
Next, the resonance frequency and BW of the hemi-
spherical DRA is compared with those of the rectangular
and cylindrical DRAs at the same volume (V0 ¼ 20 cm3 )
and base dimensions (Dr ¼ Dc ¼ Dh ¼ 42.43 mm). Table 1
shows the results for "r ¼ 8; 15, and 25. With reference to
Table 1, the resonance frequencies of the rectangular and
hemispherical DRAs are consistently the highest and
lowest among the three cases, respectively, whereas that of
the cylindrical DRA lies between the two. The frequency
deviations of the cylindrical and hemispherical DRAs with
respect to the rectangular case are also given in the table.
As can be observed from the table, the frequency
deviations decrease with an increase of "r , which can be
expected from the result of Fig. 3. However, it is noted that
the deviation decreases much faster for the cylindrical
DRA than for the hemispherical DRA. This is due to the
fact that the geometry of the former is much closer to that
of the rectangular DRA than for the latter.
The BWs of the DRAs can be estimated using
s1
BW ¼ pffiffi (2)
sQ
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 Leung et al.: Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic
Fig. 4. Resonance frequencies of the rectangular, cylindrical, and
hemispherical DRAs as a function of DRA volume for "r ¼ 8; 15,
and 25. Their base-to-height ratios are all equal to 2.
where s is the maximum acceptable voltage standing wave
ratio (VSWR) of an antenna and Q is the Q-factor of the
antenna. In this paper, a common value of s ¼ 2 is chosen,
which corresponds to a return loss of 9.54 dB. The Q-factors
of the rectangular and cylindrical DRAs were calculated
using the formulas available in [9], while that of the
hemispherical DRA was found using a formula given in
[18]. With reference to the table, the BWs of the DRAs
decrease with an increase of "r for all of the three cases, as
expected. It can be found that for each "r , the BWs of the
rectangular and hemispherical DRAs are the widest and
narrowest among the three cases, respectively.
Fig. 4 shows the resonance frequencies of the rectan-
gular, cylindrical, and hemispherical DRAs as a function of
volume for "r ¼ 8; 15, and 25. The base-to-height ratios of
the three DRAs are set to be Dr =d ¼ Dc =h ¼ Dh =a ¼ 2,
which is the only possible ratio for the hemispherical DRA.
With reference to the figure, the resonance frequency
decreases monotonically with an increase of the volume, as
expected. It can also be observed from the figure that the
resonance frequencies of the three DRAs are quite close to
one another, especially when the dielectric constant is
relatively high ("r ¼ 15; 25).
III . DRA DESIGNS US ING HIGHER
ORDE R MODES
In principle, a source can excite infinitely many DRA
modes, but investigations of DRAs have often been focused
on their fundamental modes only. Recently, higher order
modes of DRAs have been used in different DRA designs.
Fig. 5 shows the internal E- and H-fields of the funda-
mental TEx111 mode and higher order TEx113 and TEx115 modes
of a grounded rectangular DRA. It should be mentioned
that the TEx112 and TEx114 modes are not included here
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Fig. 5. E-field (lines) and H-field (dots and crosses) inside the
rectangular DRA. (a) Fundamental TEx111 mode. (b) Higher order TEx113
mode. (c) Higher order TEx115 mode.
because they are eliminated by the ground plane. In this
section, designs of wideband/dual-band, millimeter-wave,
and high-gain DRAs using their higher order modes are
discussed.
A. Wideband and Dual-Band DRAs
Wideband and dual-band antennas are extensively used
in modern wireless systems, attracting huge research
efforts on these topics. In general, a wideband antenna can
be obtained from a dual-band design when the two bands
are close enough to merge together. Therefore, a general
problem is to design dual-mode antennas. A direct
approach of designing a dual-mode DRA is to introduce a
second resonator such as a second DR [19]–[22] or a slot
[23]–[26], at the cost of increasing the antenna complex-
ity. Another approach is to make use of the resonance of
the excitation slot [27], but this may affect the DRA
matching. These problems can be avoided by using the
higher order mode approach.
As mentioned above, a wideband antenna can be
obtained by merging the bands of a dual-band antenna.
Using this approach, Chair et al. [28] obtained impedance
BWs of more than 23% by merging the HEM 11
ð0 G  G 1Þ and HEM11 ð1 G  G 2Þ modes of cylindrical
DRAs. Li and Leung [29] designed a wideband rectangular
y y
DRA by using its TE111 and TE113 modes, obtaining a wide
impedance BW of over 40%. Young and Long [15] revisited
these two types of wideband DRAs and made a comparison
between them. The dimensions of all these dual-mode
DRAs were determined using the time-consuming trial-
and-error method. Recently, Fang and Leung [30] used the
DWM model to obtain engineering formulas that deter-
mine the dimensions of dual-mode rectangular DRAs.
Through the analysis, it was also found for the first time
that the ratio of the two frequencies cannot be larger than
3, which is the limitation of this approach. An improved
formula was later obtained by using the covariance matrix
adaptation evolutionary strategy (CMA-ES) [31]. The idea
has been successfully extended to the cylindrical [32] and
hemispherical [33] DRAs, making their dual-mode designs
very easy and straightforward.
 Leung et al.: Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic

B. Millimeter-Wave DRAs
At RF and microwave frequencies, it is usually
desirable to reduce the antenna size and tremendous
efforts have been paid on this. However, it is not the case
at millimeter-wave frequencies because antennas in this
band can be too small to be fabricated precisely. This is, in
fact, a general concern in the microwave community [34].
For example, a 35-GHz cylindrical DRA with "r ¼ 10 has a
radius of 1.25 mm and a height of 1.1 mm only [35],
whereas a 40-GHz rectangular DRA has dimensions of as
small as 1.91  0.635  1.91 mm3 [36]. The size of a 94-GHz
DRA is even tinier [37]. Obviously, realizing these small
antennas can be a practical problem. Although using a
lower dielectric constant can increase the size and BW of
the DRA, the dielectric constant cannot be too low or the
DRA mode may be poorly excited with strong cross-
polarized fields [38].
To mitigate the size problem at millimeter-wave Fig. 6. (a) Equivalent magnetic dipoles inside the DRAs with the
frequencies, Pan et al. [39] investigated designs of slot- presence of the ground plane. (b) Equivalent magnetic dipoles
coupled rectangular DRAs using their higher order modes. after using image theory with the ground plane removed.
Various TEpqr modes (p; q; r are mode integers) of the
rectangular DRA were studied, and design curves that
determine its dimensions are given. It is shown [39] that
shown in Fig. 5, higher order modes have additional E-field
with "r ¼ 10, the DRA surface area and volume for the
y loops inside the DRA when compared with the fundamen-
TE115 mode can be 3.9 and 7.4 times larger than for the
y y tal mode. These E-field loops can be modeled by a set of
TE111 mode, respectively. When the TE119 mode is used,
magnetic dipoles depicted in Fig. 6(a). Fig. 6(b) shows the
the surface area and volume increase to 6.4 and 14.4 times
y equivalent magnetic dipoles after using image theory. It
of those for the TE111 mode, respectively. Clearly, using a
should be mentioned that the magnitude of the resultant
higher order mode can increase the antenna size, making
magnetic dipole is doubled at z ¼ 0 due to the superpo-
the DRA more tolerant of fabrication errors. It is also
sition of the original and imaged dipoles.
shown [39] that for a given fabrication error, the frequency
To compromise the beamwidth with sidelobes, the
shift of a higher order mode DRA is less than that of a
separation between two magnetic dipoles is chosen as
smaller rectangular DRA excited in its fundamental mode.
s ¼ 0:40 [42], where 0 is the wavelength in air. As a
A design guideline for minimizing the frequency shift is
result, the heights of the three DRAs excited in the TEx111 ,
provided in [39]. It is worth mentioning that some works
TEx113 , and TEx115 modes are roughly 0 =3, 0 =2, and 0 ,
have recently been done on integrating millimeter-wave
respectively. Three prototypes with "r ¼ 10 were fabricat-
DRAs with substrate integrated waveguides [40], [41].
ed and tested. Table 1 summarizes the design dimensions
Results show that the radiation efficiency of these DRAs
and the measured antenna gains.
can be over 80%.
With reference to Table 2, the gains of the TEx113 and
x
TE115 modes are 8.2 and 10.2 dBi, which are 2.7 and 4.7 dB
C. High-Gain DRAs higher than that using the fundamental TEx111 mode,
Recently, higher order modes have been used to design respectively. It was found through simulation that the gain
high-gain DRAs [42]. This approach has distinct advantages can further be increased to 13.7 dBi by using the TEx117
over other gain-enhancement techniques [12], [43]–[45] mode, but the DRA may then be too tall for practical
in that it requires only a simple structure and a small area, applications. Recently, it has been found that a high-gain
which are attractive features for modern wireless systems. DRA can also be obtained by backing it with a backing
The idea was demonstrated using rectangular DRAs. As cavity [46].

Table 2 DRA Dimensions and Measured Antenna Gains of Three Prototypes

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 Leung et al.: Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic

IV. RECENT CIRCULARLY proposed placing the printed hybrid coupler beneath the
POLARIZED DRAs DRA to save the footprint of the coupler. This underlaid-
Initial studies of DRAs were concentrated on linearly coupler method was used to design the compact CP hollow
polarized (LP) designs. As compared with LP systems, CP rectangular DRA [59], with the hybrid coupler completely
systems are less affected by the problems of antenna placed inside the hollow region of the DRA. The measured
misalignments and propagation effects. In 1985, Haneishi AR BW of this CP DRA can be as wide as 33.8%.
and Takazawa [47] designed the first CP DRA by truncating To further increase the AR BW, the DRA can be excited
two opposite corners of a rectangular DRA. Different CP by four sequentially rotated feeds. Massie et al. [60] de-
DRAs were subsequently studied by Mongia et al. [48] and signed a CP cylindrical DRA using this feeding method and
Drossos et al. [49], and a rigorous survey for CP DRAs has obtained a wide AR BW of more than 36%. Pan et al. [61]
been conducted in [13]. All CP DRAs were excited in their used a pair of underlaid hybrid couplers to feed a rectan-
broadside radiation modes (e.g., [50]–[62]) until the first gular DRA sequentially, obtaining a wide measured AR BW
omnidirectional endfire CP DRA has been reported of 27.7%.
recently [63]. Both the broadside and endfire CP DRAs The dual-mode method as discussed in Section III can
are discussed in this section. also be used to design wideband CP DRAs. By merging the
fundamental TE111 and higher order TE113 modes of a
rectangular DRA, Li et al. [62] obtained a wide measured
A. Broadside CP DRAs (3-dB) AR BW of 20% (AR BW is 37% when using the
Basically, feed networks of broadside CP DRAs can be 4-dB criteria). Fang and Leung [32] designed a wideband
divided into two categories, namely single and dual feeds. CP cylindrical DRA by combining its HEM11 ð0 G  G 1Þ
The former has a simpler feed network, but it normally and higher order HEM11 ð1 G  G 2Þ modes. It has a
results in a narrow 3-dB axial ratio (AR) BW of 3%–4% wide measured AR BW of 24.7%. The dual-mode method
for "r  10. In the last few years, significant efforts have can, of course, be used to design dual-band CP DRAs, as
been paid to increase the AR BW of singly fed DRAs. also demonstrated in [32].
Sulaiman and Khamas [50] proposed feeding a rectangular
DRA with a square spiral strip, obtaining a wide measured
B. End-Fire Omnidirectional CP DRAs
AR BW of 14%. However, relatively narrow BWs of 3.4%
Fig. 7 shows a photo of the first omnidirectional CP
and 4.2% have been found when applying similar feeding
DRA [63], which was designed for 2.4-GHz wireless local
methods to hemispherical [51] and cylindrical [52] DRAs,
area network (WLAN)-band applications (2.40–2.48 GHz,
respectively. Lu et al. [53] studied a wideband CP hollow
3.3% BW). With reference to the photo, a slot is fabricated
rectangular DRA. Its feeding strip is displaced to excite
y on each sidewall of the DRA to generate CP fields. The
orthogonal TEx111 and TE111 modes for the generation of
rectangular DRA is centrally fed by a coaxial probe located
CP fields. This CP DRA has a measured AR BW of 12.4%.
at its bottom face, exciting its fundamental end-fire TM
Pan and Leung [54] excited the trapezoidal DRA with an
mode that radiates omnidirectionally. This idea was
inclined slot and obtained a wide AR BW of 21.5%. A hybrid
inspired by the work of Chu et al. [64], where slots are
CP antenna that combines microstrip and DR elements was
studied [55], which has a measured AR BW of 10%.
Much wider AR BWs can be obtained by using the dual-
feed approach, at the expense of increased feed-network
sizes. In this approach, a hybrid coupler is often used to
generate two quadrature feeding signals, with the two feed
points displaced at 90 from each other. This feeding
method can easily increase the AR BW from 3%–4% of
the single-feed case to more than 10%. Simeoni et al. [56]
designed a dual-feed CP supershaped DRA and obtained a
very wide AR BW. The supershaped DRA is made of
polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which has a low dielectric
constant of "r  2:8. Since PVC can be obtained and
machined easily, it greatly facilitates fabrications of DRAs.
However, relatively strong cross-polarized fields are
obtained because of using a low "r [38]. Sometimes a
simple T-junction splitter instead of a hybrid coupler is
used to provide the quadrature signals. Zou and Fumeaux
Fig. 7. Photo of the first omnidirectional CP DRA with "r ¼ 15
[57] applied the T-junction splitter to design a thin CP (unit: millimeter). The DRA is centrally fed by a coaxial
cross-shaped DRA of high permittivity ð"r ¼ 50Þ. This CP probe located at its bottom face, with the probe length
DRA has a measured AR BW of 13.2%. Lim and Leung [58] and radius being 12.4 and 0.63 mm, respectively.

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 Leung et al.: Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic

DRA was proposed to provide an additional function of

Fig. 8. Photo of the wideband omnidirectional CP DRA with
"r ¼ 15 (unit: millimeter). Each strip is supported by a foam spacer.
The DRA is centrally fed by a coaxial probe located at the
bottom of the hollow region, with the probe length and
radius being 19 and 0.63 mm, respectively.
packaging [66], [67]. In [67], the packaging function is
demonstrated by covering an amplifier with a hollow
rectangular DRA. Inner conducting surfaces are used to
isolate the amplifier from the DRA, therefore they do not
interfere with each other. The second dual-function DRA
is reported in [68], where the DRA is used as the load of an
oscillator circuit. In designing the oscillator, a 50-
resistive load is initially used, which is then replaced by the
matched DRA. It is shown that when a solid DRA is used,
the DRA oscillator (DRAO) can provide a phase noise of
65 dBc/Hz at 100-kHz offset, and 103 dBc/Hz at 5 MHz.
The phase noise can be improved to 101.5 dBc/Hz at
100-kHz offset by using a hollow DRA [68]. In each case,
typical DRA radiation patterns have been obtained, showing
that the effect of the oscillator circuit on the radiation field is
negligible.
For many years, DR filters and DR antennas have been
designed separately because of their different Q-factor

fabricated on the top face of a cylindrical DRA to obtain

broadside CP fields. To minimize the tilting of the radiated
fields, the ground plane of the DRA should be made as
small as possible. As a result, the flange of the SMA
connector is used as the ground plane, with no external
ground plane.
The AR BW of the omnidirectional CP DRA can be
widened by exciting a second CP mode, which can be
obtained by introducing a conducting strip in each slot [65].
Fig. 8 shows a photo of the wideband prototype that
was designed to operate in the 3.5-GHz WiMax band
(3.40–3.70 GHz, 11.3% BW). To match the AR BW, the
impedance BW is also widened by introducing a hollow
region at the center of the DRA, as shown in the photo.
Fig. 9 compares the return loss and ARs between the
original and wideband omnidirectional DRAs. As can be
observed from the figure, the impedance BWs of the
original and wideband designs are about the same (23%),
but the measured AR BW of the wideband DRA (25.4%) is
much wider than that of the original DRA (7.3%). It was
found that the original and wideband designs have very
similar radiation patterns, therefore only those of the
wideband version are included here for brevity. Fig. 10
shows the radiation patterns of the wideband design at
3.4 and 3.8 GHz [65]. It was found that the yz-plane
radiation patterns are similar to the xz-plane results, which
is expected due to the symmetry of the structure.

V. DUAL-FUNCTION DRAs
Since the interest of compact systems is deeper than ever,
it has been a trend to develop dual-function or even multi-
functional devices for modern wireless systems. This idea Fig. 9. Return loss and AR of the original and wideband
is becoming popular because it can also help reduce the omnidirectional DRAs as a function of frequency.
overall system loss and cut the cost. The first dual-function (a) Return loss. (b) AR. Data from [63] and [65].

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 Leung et al.: Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic

Fig. 10. Measured and simulated radiation patterns of the wideband omnidirectional CP DRA [65]. (a) 3.4 GHz. (b) 3.8 GHz.
Straight line: simulated (2.44 GHz); dotted line: measured (2.46 GHz).

requirements; a high Q-factor is usually required for a filter

to reduce the insertion loss, whereas a low Q-factor is
normally needed for an antenna to enhance its radiation.
Recently, a breakthrough has been made in developing the
third dual-function DRA [69], [70] that simultaneously
serves as the resonant element of a filter design. The basic
principle is that different DR modes of different Q-factors
are excited for the antenna and filter parts. The idea has
been demonstrated using a cylindrical DRA [69], [70].
Since the TE01 mode of the cylindrical DRA has a relatively
high Q-factor, it is used for the filter part. Another DR
mode, the HEM11 mode, has a relatively low Q-factor and
is therefore used for the antenna part. The fields of these
two modes are practically orthogonal to each other,
enabling independent designs and tunings of the two parts.
Later, the same idea was used to design a DRA that also
performs as a high-Q resonant cavity, with its Q-factor
being as high as 2700 [71], [72]. In [71] and [72], the DRA
was enclosed in a box that shields the resonating TE01
mode without affecting the radiating TM01 mode. Based on
this idea, a triple mode design using a single DR was also
realized [73].
VI. T RANS PARE NT DRAs
Glass has been widely used in our daily life, such as
windows, windshield, containers, decorations, etc. It can
also be used as a substrate for a patch antenna [74], but in
this case the radiation mainly comes from the conducting
patch, not from the glass. Also, since metallic patches are
not transparent, conducting transparent films instead of
metallic patches are usually used to obtain a totally
transparent structure. This sacrifices the antenna efficien-
cy because conducting transparent films have much higher
losses than metallic patches.
In general, the dielectric constant "r of DRAs should be
higher than a certain value, say "r > 5, to obtain good
polarization purity. For glass, it is generally assumed that
its refractive index is 1.5, giving a dielectric constant of
2.25. This value is rather low for DRA designs especially
when good polarization purity is required. It may be the
reason why glass was not considered for DRA designs.
However, it was generally overlooked that this dielectric
constant was measured at optical frequencies instead of
microwave frequencies, although a "r of 8.7 was reported

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 Leung et al.: Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic

Fig. 11. Photos of glass DRAs. (a) Solid hemispherical and rectangular
glass DRAs. (b) Hollow glass hemispherical DRA used as a light cover.
The LED passes through the coupling slot and penetrates into the
hollow region of the DRA.

Fig. 12. Configuration of the slot-coupled swan DRA

for window glass at 1 GHz [74]. Recently, a "r of 7 was
measured for glass at 2 GHz [75] and this value is sufficient
for DRA designs. Fig. 11(a) shows a photo of transparent
hemispherical and rectangular DRAs made of K-9 glass
(Pyrex), with "r ¼ 7. A number of K-9 glass samples from
different sources were measured at 2 GHz. It was found
that their "r ’s fall in the range 6.2–7.0, and between
6.5 and 7.0 in most of the cases [76].
Since these DRAs are transparent, they can be put on
solar panels without blocking any light. It has been found
[75] that putting the hemispherical glass DRA on a solar
panel can increase the output voltage and current of the
solar panel. It shows that the glass hemispherical DRA can
simultaneously serve as a focusing lens, giving another
dual-function DRA. The glass rectangular DRA can be used
instead if the focusing effect is not wanted [75].
With the rapid development of wireless communica-
tions, a huge number of indoor antennas have been
installed on the ceilings of many offices and shopping
malls. In general, the indoor antenna and lighting system
are separately installed on the ceiling. It will greatly
simplify the installation process and cost if they can be
integrated together. As mentioned in [75], the glass DRA
can also be used as a light cover. To demonstrate this idea,
a hollow hemispherical glass DRA was fabricated. The
antenna part is excited by a coupling slot, through which a
power LED is inserted into the hollow region of the DRA
[33]. Fig. 11(b) shows the system when the LED is on. It
was experimentally found that the DRA performs almost
the same regardless the presence of the LED. It was also
experimentally found that virtually the lighting and
antenna parts do not affect each other because they are
operating in totally different frequency regions. It is worth
mentioning that the idea can be applied to street lights and
traffic lights as well. This greatly facilitates building
wireless networks in a city because street and traffic lights
are part of its infrastructure, requiring no extra time or
cost to construct outdoor mounting poles for antennas.
Moreover, since light covers are parts of the lighting
(unit: millimeter). (a) Side view. (b) Front view.
(c) Back view. (d) Top view.
systems, the antennas will blend in with the street and
traffic lights without affecting the city’s appearance. This is
especially important when there are psychological con-
cerns about radiation.
VI I. DECORATION DRAs
Crystal and glass wares have been widely used at homes
and offices for decorating purposes. As compared with
glass, lead crystal is composed of 24%–30% of lead
oxide, causing it to have a higher refractive index that
makes it sparkle when cut at sharp angles. It is also the lead
oxide that makes crystal heavier but softer than glass. Since
crystals are basically glass, it is believed that it can also be
used for DRA designs. In other words, beautiful crystal and
glass wares or artworks can be employed as antennas. This
is useful when standalone or visible antennas are not
wanted. The latter is a practical concern especially when
the antenna is in close proximity to people.
To demonstrate the idea, a glass swan and a glass apple,
made of K-9 glass, were bought from the commercial market
and measured at our antenna lab. Both of them have a planar
Fig. 13. Configuration of the slot-coupled apple DRA
(unit: millimeter). (a) Side view. (b) Top view.

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 Leung et al.: Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic
Fig. 14. Measured reflection coefficients of the slot-coupled swan
and apple DRAs as a function of frequency.
Fig. 15. Measured radiation patterns of the swan DRA at 1.8 GHz.
Fig. 16. Measured radiation patterns of the apple DRA at 2.25 GHz.
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bottom surface, enabling them to rest on a circuit board
stably. The slot-coupled method is used to excite them
(see Fig. 1 for the feed network and the following symbols).
Fig. 12 shows different views of the swan DRA, along with it
dimensions in millimeter. The swan DRA is fed at the
midpoint of its length [130 mm in Fig. 12(d)], with a
coupling slot of L ¼ 32 mm and W ¼ 2 mm. The microwave
substrate has a dielectric constant of 2.33, a thickness of
1.57 mm, and a size of 14  14 cm2 . A 50- microstrip
feedline with a width of Wf ¼ 4.7 mm and a stub length
of Ls ¼ 10 mm is printed to energize the slot. The apple
DRA is shown in Fig. 13. Similar to the swan DRA, the
apple DRA is fed at the center of its bottom by a coupling
slot of L ¼ 25 mm and W ¼ 2 mm, with Ls ¼ 9 mm. The
same type of substrate is used, but the substrate size is
reduced to 5  5 cm2 in this part because the apple DRA
is much smaller and simpler than the swan DRA.
 Leung et al.: Dielectric Resonator Antennas: From the Basic to the Aesthetic

gain levels were obtained using traditional DRAs [31], [53],

[59]. Also, these gains are much higher than that of a slot
antenna. These facts verify that the resonances are caused
by the glass DRAs, not by the feeding slots. A video
demonstrating an application of the swan DRA on a
wireless video system is available on IEEE Xplore.

Fig. 17. Measured antenna gains of the slot-coupled swan and
apple DRAs as a function of frequency.
In the following results, the reflection coefficients
were measured using an HP8510C vector analyzer, while
the radiation patterns and antenna gains were measured
using a Satimo Starlab System.
Fig. 14 shows the measured reflection coefficients of
the swan and apple DRAs. With reference to the figure, the
swan and apple DRAs resonate at 1.83 and 2.25 GHz,
respectively. The BW (jS11 j  10 dB) of the swan DRA is
31.6% (1.57–2.16 GHz), which coincidentally covers the
useful DCS (1.71–1.88 GHz) and PCS (1.85–1.99 GHz)
bands. The large air region between the wings of the swan
DRA forms an effective air gap that should contribute to
this wide BW [77]–[80]. For the apple DRA, a measured
BW of 13.5% (2.08–2.38 GHz) is found. The frequency
band can be shifted upward or downward to useful ones by
manufacturing a smaller or larger glass apple, respectively.
Fig. 15 shows the measured radiation patterns of the
swan DRA and typical broadside radiation patterns are
observed. This result can be expected when a DRA is
centrally fed by a coupling slot. For both the E- and H-plane
patterns, the copolarized fields are stronger than the cross-
polarized fields by more than 20 dB in the boresight
direction ð ¼ 00 Þ. Fig. 16 shows the measured radiation
patterns of the apple DRA. Again, broadside radiation
patterns are observed, as expected.
Fig. 17 shows the measured antenna gains of the swan
and apple DRAs. With reference to the figure, the
maximum gains of the swan and apple DRAs are 7.4 dBi
(1.84 GHz) and 6.88 dBi (2.2 GHz), respectively. Similar
VI II . CONCLUSION
Basic characteristics of DRAs have been discussed, along
with their recent developments in higher order mode, CP,
dual-function, and transparent designs. The idea of using
glass DRAs as decoration antennas has also been pre-
sented and demonstrated for the first time. These topics,
however, are not the only ones that should be researched
further; there are other very attractive topics that
numerous researchers and engineers have been working
on, such as ultrawideband DRAs, reconfigurable DRAs,
diversity DRAs, to name a few.
Traditional DRA fabrications require tailor-made molds
and high-temperature ovens. These may not be available in
university or research laboratories, where lots of novel ideas
have been generated. This has been a barrier of developing
DRAs to some extent. But in recent years, low-loss,
machinable composite materials with loss tangents less
than 0.005 have been available, making fabrications of
different DRAs possible by just using a computer numerical
control (CNC) or even simple lathe and milling machines.
This greatly facilitates researches of DRAs and will certainly
accelerate their developments. Although the dielectric
constant of composite material is currently up to 15, it is
believed that, with the efforts of material scientists, higher
dielectric constants for machinable composite materials can
be commercially available in the future.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the DRA is
attractive not only for wireless communications but also
for sensor designs, extending its applications to medical
areas. For example, the DRA has recently been used for the
design of a breast cancer sensor due to its distinct
advantages [81]. With the rapid increase of research and
development activities of DRAs, it can be anticipated that
more interesting and useful DRA designs will be explored
and reported. h
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the reviewers for
useful comments.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Kwok Wa Leung (Fellow, IEEE) was born in Hong
Kong in 1967. He received the B.Sc. degree in
electronics and the Ph.D. degree in electronic
engineering from the Chinese University of Hong
Kong, Hong Kong, in 1990 and 1993, respectively.
From 1990 to 1993, he was a Graduate
Assistant with the Department of Electronic Engi-
neering, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In
1994, he joined the Department of Electronic
Engineering at City University of Hong Kong,
Kowloon, Hong Kong, as an Assistant Professor. Currently, he is a
Professor and an Assistant Head of the Department. From January to
June 2006, he was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Electrical
Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, State College. His
research interests include RFID tag antennas, dielectric resonator
antennas, microstrip antennas, wire antennas, guided wave theory,
computational electromagnetics, and mobile communications.
Prof. Leung was the Chairman of the IEEE AP/MTT Hong Kong Joint
Chapter for 2006 and 2007. He was the Chairman of the Technical
Program Committee, 2008 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference, Hong
Kong; the Co-Chair of the Technical Program Committee, 2006 IEEE
TENCON, Hong Kong; and the Finance Chair of PIERS 1997, Hong Kong.
He was an Editor for HKIE Transactions and a Guest Editor of IET
Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation. Currently, he serves as an
Associate Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION
and received Transactions Commendation Certificates twice in 2009 and
2010 for his exceptional performance. He is also an Associate Editor for
the IEEE ANTENNAS WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS. He was appointed as a
Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society
for 2012–2014. He received the International Union of Radio Science
(USRI) Young Scientists Awards in 1993 and 1995, awarded in Kyoto,
Japan and St. Petersburg, Russia, respectively. He received the Depart-
mental Outstanding Teacher Awards twice in 2005 and 2010. He is a
Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE).
Eng Hock Lim (Member, IEEE) was born in
Selangor, Malaysia. He received the B.Sc. degree
in electrical engineering from the National Taiwan
Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, in 1997, the
M.Eng. degree in electrical and electronic engi-
neering from Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore, in 2000, and the Ph.D. degree in
electronic engineering from City University of
Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, in 2007.
Since 2008, he has been an Assistant Professor
in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His current
research interests include dielectric resonator antennas, microstrip
antennas, multifunctional antennas, and microwave components.
Xiao Sheng Fang (Student Member, IEEE) was
born in Jieyang, Guangdong Province, China, in
1986. He received the B.Eng. degree in electronic
engineering from Sun Yat-Sen University,
Guangdong, China, in 2008. He is currently work-
ing towards the Ph.D. degree at City University of
Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
His research interests include dielectric reso-
nator antennas and passive radio-frequency (RF)
components.

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