Design and Analysis of Rectangular Dielectric

Resonator Antenna for Wireless Application

#1
Arunava Mukhopadhyay , #1Saptarshi Hazra , #1Soumayan Dutta, #1Malay Gangopadhyaya
#1
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Institute of Engineering and Management (IEM)
Kolkata, India

Abstract— In this paper, the design of a rectangular primary structure for designing a DRA [3]. Rectangular
dielectric resonator antenna (RDRA) with microstrip DRAs are much easier to construct from the point of view
line feed is proposed along with the corresponding of degree of freedom for choosing any two of the three
return loss characteristics and the radiation dimensions by proper variation by keeping the other one
performance in far-field region in C-band of microwave constant and thus to get a better flexibility [5].
frequencies using finite element method (Ansoft High
Frequency Structure Simulator). With proper choice of
other parameters, the dielectric material with dielectric II. DESIGN AND CONFIGURATION OF ANTENNA
constant value lying in the range from 10 to as high as
100, direct us to achieve the desired resonant frequency As per the objective of the paper, the aforesaid feeding
of 5.5 GHz. Here, to attain a better return loss and technique is used for a resonant frequency of 5.5 GHz, with
radiation efficiency, we have implemented few some modifications in the structure, such as covering the
approaches like modification of the microstrip feed top surface of the DRA with a finite conductivity sheet.
arrangement and the RDRA structure. And the benefits of modifications are hereby studied by
simulating the RDRA structure without the finite
Keywords—Ansoft High Frequency Structure Simulator conductivity sheet upon it [1].
(HFSS); Dielectric Resonator Antenna; Microstrip-line Following the Dielectric Waveguide Model (DWM) [3,
coupling, Finite Conductive Sheet.
6,7], the equations below are used to find the dimensions of
the RDRA.
I. INTRODUCTION For a rectangular DRA with dimensions a (length), b
(width) > d (height),
For the last few years, the dielectric resonator antenna
(DRA) is being used quite significantly for high frequency Hx = (kxkz/jωµ0)sin(kxx)cos(kyy)sin(kzz) (1)
wireless communication applications [1]. The Dielectric Hy=(kykz/jωµ0)cos(kxx)sin(kyy)sin(kzz) (2)
Resonator Antennas have many advantages one of them
Hz={(kx +ky )/jωµ0}cos(kxx)cos(kyy)cos(kzz)
2 2
(3)
being no use of any metallic component as radiator. This
Ex=kycos(kxx)sin(kyy)cos(kzz) (4)
results in practically negligible Ohmic loss due to
Ey=-kxsin(kxx)cos(kyy)cos(kzz) (5)
conduction [1]. Moreover, the DRAs come in very small
packages in terms of dimensions. It is much light weight, Ez =0 (6)
low profile and also very cost-effective. DRAs offer high
where:
radiation efficiency, flexible feeding arrangements, simple
geometry and compactness. As compared to other
microstrip antennas, DRAs have much better impedance kx2 +ky2 +k z2=ε r ko2 (7)
bandwidth and also support waves are not supported [1]. kz tan (kzd /2) =√(εr -1)ko 2 - kz2 (8)
The resonance mode depends completely upon the
geometry of the structure, feeding arrangements and the The normalized frequency [6, 7] of RDRA can be found as
choice of materials. The fields of the mode are not to be
confined within the resonator and therefore, it can be easily F = (2πafo√ εr)/c (9)
fed to produce high efficiency radiation [2, 3]. Different
DRA modes can be excited using different popular We have used Matlab to find out the required parameters
excitation techniques such as microstrip line, microstrip for designing the structure of the RDRA.
slot, co-axial probe, co-planar waveguide etc. [4]. All
possible simple three dimensional geometric shapes such as For better and improved performance of the RDRA, the
rectangle, cylinder, hemisphere etc. can be taken as the open surface of the antenna, that is the only surface

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touching the substrate neither horizontally
perpendicularly, is designed as a finite conductivity.
Microstrip line Coupling:
The most widely used and originally ideated method of
microstrip line coupling to excite the RDRA to a desired
frequency is to place the microstrip line on a dielectric
substrate of finite length. The DRA is placed on the
microstrip line leaving a finite length from the open end of
the line [8].
For the antenna to resonate at 5.5 GHz frequency, a
structure of RDRA with dimension 7x10x3 mm3, made of a
dielectric material of εr value of 10.2 is initially placed
upon a 50∧ microstrip line of uniform width (before
fringing) of 1.2 mm with proper amount of fringing at the
front portion of the latter, for getting good impedance
matching. On a ground plane of dimension 90 x 90 mm2
the substrate of thickness 1.27 mm and εr value of 10.2 is
placed. The side view and the top views of the structure are
shown in Fig. 1, fig. 2 (a) and fig.2 (b) respectively.
33 mm DRA
1.27 mm Substrate
Ground Plane
Fig. 1. Side view of RDRA with microstrip line feed
3 mm
10 mm
1.2 mm
7 mm
90 mm
33 mm
90 mm
Fig. 2 (a). Top view of microstrip line fed RDRA
Instead of following the conventional method of
constructing the microstrip line-feed from its open end, the
method of fringing has been implemented here. In this
method, a small rectangular fringing is made at the open
terminal end of the microstrip line feed in order to achieve
better coupling.
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nor In case of co-axial probe feed [9, 10], the required RDRA
dimensions in order to achieve resonance at 5.5 GHz, are
found to be as follows:
(20 x 20 x 5) mm3, placed on a finite ground plane of size
(90 x 90) mm2 and a substrate of (90 x 90 x 1.27) mm3. The
dimensions of the probe are:
Radius of inner cylinder: 0.8 mm.
Radius of outer cylinder: 1.6 mm.
20mm 20mm
20 mm
20mm 20 mm 90 mm 90 mm
90 mm 90 mm
3 mm
Fig. 2 (b). Side view of RDRA with co-axial probe feed
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
Firstly, the RDRA has been simulated for the microstrip
line feed exclusively, with finite conductive sheet placed
upon the RDRA structure. The corresponding return loss,
radiation pattern, input impedance plot and the three
dimensional radiation pattern are shown in Fig. 3 to Fig. 6
respectively.
εr = 10.2
Secondly, the RDRA has been analyzed with the same
microstrip line feed, removing the finite conductive sheet
placed previously upon the RDRA structure. The
corresponding return loss and input impedance plots are
depicted in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8.
Finally, the microstrip line feed is replaced with a co-axial
probe feed with the finite conductive sheet replaced upon
the RDRA structure, with dimension (20 x 20x 5) mm3.
The corresponding return loss and input impedance plots
are given in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 respectively.
 1. Microstrip Line Feed with Finite Conductive
Sheet upon RDRA

Fig. 5. Input Impedance Variation Plot of RDRA with Finite Conductive

Sheet

Fig. 3. Return Loss Characteristics of RDRA with Finite Conductive Sheet

It has been observed that by optimization of the dimensions

of the RDRA only, the return loss could be lowered to as
much as close to -23 dB. Fig. 6. Three Dimensional Radiation Pattern Obtained for microstrip line
coupling

2. Microstrip Line Feed without Finite Conductive

Sheet upon RDRA

Fig. 7. Return Loss characteristics of RDRA without finite

Fig. 4. Radiation Pattern of the RDRA with Finite Conductive Sheet conductive sheet

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 Fig. 10. Input Impedance Variation Plot of RDRA with Finite Conductive
Sheet

Fig. 8. Input Impedance variation plot of RDRA without finite

IV. CONCLUSION

The three different aforesaid cases of RDRA are studied

and the important results are tabulated below in Table I.
3. Co-axial Feed with Finite Conductive Sheet
upon RDRA

TABLE I. STUDY OF EXPERIMENTAL DATA

Resonating RDRA Feeding

Frequency Dimensions technique RDRA Parameters
(theoretical)
Resonating
Microstrip Frequency 5.500
Line with (practical) GHz
finite (fr)
conductive
(7 mm x10 sheet upon Return Loss -22.48 dB
mm x 3 mm) RDRA at fr
Resonating
5.5 GHz Microstrip Frequency 8.800
Line without (practical) GHz
finite (fr)
conductive
-20.2500
sheet Return Loss
dB
at fr

Co axial Resonating
Fig. 9. Return Loss Characteristics of RDRA with Finite Conductive
(20 mm x20 probe feed Frequency
Sheet mm x 5 mm) with finite (practical) 5.200
conductive (fr) GHz
sheet upon
RDRA

-24.5506
Return Loss
dB
at fr

As we can observe, placing the finite conductive sheet upon

the RDRA has reflected convincingly better result to provide
good resonance at the desired frequency with microstrip line
feed and gives S11(dB) value of -22.48 dB. However, to

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obtain the resonance at 5.5 GHz frequency using co-axial
probe feed, the whole structure of the RDRA needs to be
refined and re-configured. In this case, the dimensions of the
RDRA are altered and the corresponding changed values are
tabulated above.
As has been observed from the plots, it is evident that the
input impedance parameter (Z11) variation with respect to
frequency does not obey any fixed mathematical relation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are thankful to the department of Electronics
and Communication Engineering of Institute of
Engineering and Management for providing help and
support to carry out the work. They are also thankful to
their beloved parents for supporting their activities in every
stage of life.
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