IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO.
4, APRIL 2011
Rectangular Dielectric Resonator Antennas
With Enhanced Gain
Aldo Petosa and Soulideth Thirakoune
Abstract—Rectangular dielectric resonator antennas were designed to
operate at high-order modes to achieve enhanced gain. A simple model was
developed to predict the radiation patterns of the higher-order modes. Pro-
totypes designed at 11 GHz showed gains of up to 5 dB above those obtained
by the fundamental mode.
Index Terms—Dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs).
I. INTRODUCTION
The design flexibility offered by dielectric resonator antennas
(DRAs) makes them attractive alternatives to other low-gain antennas
such as microstrip antennas or dipoles [1], [2]. They also maintain a
high radiation efficiency, even at millimeter-waves frequencies due to
the lack of surface wave losses and minimal conductor losses. DRAs
can be designed from various shapes of dielectric material. Rectan-
gular shapes are often selected due to their fabrication simplicity and
improved degrees of freedom compared to other basic shapes such as
cylindrical or hemispherical. Rectangular DRAs have typically been
excited in the lowest order mode TEx 11 (or TEy11 ), 0 <   1, which
radiate like an x-directed (or y-directed) short magnetic dipole, with
typical gains of about 5 dBi, when placed on a large ground plane.
Several methods have been proposed to enhance the gain of DRAs
without resorting to arraying elements together using a feed network.
Stacking DRAs on top of each other has been primarily used as a
method to increase impedance bandwidth [3]–[7]. In some of these
cases, however, stacking can also improve the directivity of the DRA
with enhancements of up to about 3 dB above that of a single DRA.
The use of a shallow pyramidal horn with a height of 0.15 times the
free space wavelength () and a square aperture of dimensions 1:22
1:2 has been shown to increase the gain of a DRA to nearly 10 dBi
[8]. Placing a circularly polarized DRA within a circular cavity was
shown to increase the gain to over 13 dBic for a cavity diameter of
approximately 2 and height of 0:5 [9], [10]. Finally, the use of a
thin (0:25g , where g is the guided wavelength) dielectric superstrate
placed about 0:5 above the DRA has been shown to enhance the gain
up to 16 dBi for a square superstrate with dimensions of 3:2 2 3:2
[11]. Most of these techniques require a significant increase in surface
area, which may not be available for applications such as portable wire-
less communications devices.
The higher-order modes of rectangular DRAs have already been
used in multi-mode operations to enhance the impedance bandwidth
[12]–[14]. However, no thorough study has yet been carried out to de-
termine the enhancement in directivity that can be achieved by exciting
higher-order modes. Recently, the use of higher-order modes was pro-
posed for enhancing the gain of rectangular DRAs [15] where finite
difference time domain (FDTD) simulations showed that gains of up
Manuscript received May 11, 2010; revised June 29, 2010; accepted August
30, 2010. Date of publication February 04, 2011; date of current version April
06, 2011.
The authors are with the Advanced Antenna Technology Lab, Communica-
tions Research Centre Canada, Ottawa, ON K2H 8S2, Canada (e-mail: aldo.
petosa@crc.gc.ca; soulideth.thirakoune@crc.gc.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.2011.2109690
0018-926X/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE
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1385
Fig. 1. Geometry of a rectangular DRA.
to 10 dBi could be achieved. In [15], the dielectric waveguide model
was also used to analyze these higher modes and a simple model was
proposed for predicting the radiation patterns. However, an error in the
model was made in [15] which is corrected in Section II of this ar-
ticle. Section III presents a recommended procedure for designing the
higher-order mode DRAs. The experimental results of three prototype
designs are then shown in Section IV. A summary and brief discussion
conclude the communication.
II. DIELECTRIC WAVEGUIDE MODEL
Rectangular DRAs have been modeled as truncated dielectric
waveguides in order to predict their resonant frequencies and radiation
Q-factors [16]. For a rectangular DRA having a dielectric constant of
"r and dimensions of w, h(= b=2) and d and mounted on a perfect in-
finite ground plane, as shown in Fig. 1, the resonant frequency fmn of
the TEmn
x mode can be predicted using the following transcendental
equation:
kx tan k2x d = ("r 0 1) kmn
2 0 k2 (1)
x
where
kmn = 2fcmn ; ky = m w ;
kz = n b and kx2 + ky2 + kz2 = "r kmn
2
and c is the speed of light. The E- and H-fields for the various
modes within the DRA can be approximated using the equations in
Appendix A.
When the DRA is mounted on a ground plane, the even modes in
the z-direction (i.e., n = 2N; N = 1; 2; 3; . . .) will be short-cir-
cuited and only the odd modes (n = 2N + 1) can exist. Fig. 2(a)
depicts the normalized Hx -fields, using (A4), for the fundamental and
two higher-order modes in the rectangular DRA. This field configura-
tion within the DRA can be approximated by a set of short magnetic
dipoles, separated by a distance s, as shown in Fig. 2(b), which can then
be used to predict the far-field radiation patterns. (Note that the modes
with m > 1 and n = 1 are not of interest, since they produce a broad-
side null in the radiation pattern.) The spacing, s, between the magnetic
dipoles of the higher-order modes will affect the radiation pattern of
the DRA and can, to a certain extent, be controlled by the aspect ratio
of the DRA. Fig. 2(c) shows the final model used to predict the radia-
tion patterns of the DRAs, where image theory is used to remove the
ground plane. The double arrow for the short magnetic dipole located
at z = 0 indicates that it has twice the amplitude of the other dipoles.
(This was neglected in the model developed in [15]). Fig. 3 shows the
normalized far-field patterns of the DRA operating in the fundamental
1386 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 4, APRIL 2011

Fig. 2. H -field configuration and radiation model for the DRA (a) H-Fields.
(b) Radiation model. (c) Radiation model (using image theory).

TEx11 mode (the “x” superscript is suppressed henceforth) and the

higher-order modes TE13 and TE15 , based on the radiation models
in Fig. 2(c) where simple array theory is used and the effects of mutual
coupling between dipoles are ignored. The higher-order modes show a Fig. 3. Normalized patterns based on the dielectric waveguide model with s =
significant narrowing of the beam width, indicating an increase in di- 0:4.
rectivity over the DRA operating in the fundamental mode. A spacing
of s = 0:4 offers a good compromise between the beamwidth and
sidelobe levels. For a DRA operating in the TE15 mode, the required
height to achieve this spacing is h  .

III. DESIGN PROCEDURE

To verify the predictions of the model, DRAs were designed to res-
onate in the TE11 , TE13 and TE15 modes, henceforth referred to
as (m; n) = (1; 1), (1,3) and (1,5), respectively, all at approximately
11 GHz.
Since rectangular DRAs have two degrees of freedom, there is no
unique set of dimensions for a given resonant frequency and dielectric
constant. This is one of the advantages of rectangular DRAs since the
designer has significant flexibility in choosing the aspect ratio to suit Fig. 4. DRA designs (dimensions in mm).
the intended application. For this study, the following design approach
was taken. The dielectric constant was first selected to be "r = 10. This
was chosen partially based on material availability and also to main- approximately 11 GHz. The resulting dimensions for the three DRAs
are shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 5 shows the simulated normalized jHx j-field of the DRA oper-
tain a reasonable impedance bandwidth. (Higher dielectric constants
would result in more compact designs but with narrower bandwidth.)
Next the height of the DRA was chosen to be approximately =3, =2 ating in the (1,5) mode at 11 GHz. The modes are approximately spaced
and  for the (1,1), (1,3) and (1,5) modes, respectively. This was done s = 11:9 mm apart which corresponds to 0:44 at 11 GHz. The sep-
so that the spacing between the higher-order modes would be approx- aration between modes can be somewhat controlled by adjusting the
imately s = 0:4. Since there is still one degree of freedom, a further aspect ratio of the DRA.
constraint was placed such that w = d. (This choice was somewhat
arbitrary and other w=d ratios could just as easily have been selected. IV. MEASURED RESULTS
Having a square cross-section does, however, somewhat simplify the Three DRA prototypes were fabricated from a low-loss microwave
fabrication process.) The values for w and d were determined by sub- material having a dielectric constant of "r = 10 and a loss tangent of
stituting h and "r into (1) and trying different values for w and d in tan  < 0:002. Each DRA was mounted on a 150 mm 2 100 mm
an iterative fashion until the desired resonant frequency was arrived ground plane and excited using a microstrip line through an aperture-
at. Models using these initial dimensions were then analyzed using a coupled slot, as shown in Fig. 6. The value of the stub length s in Fig. 6
commercial finite difference time-domain (FDTD) software package was adjusted to match each individual DRA. The value of s was 3 mm
and were adjusted somewhat to obtain the desired number of modes at for DRA1 and DRA2 and 6 mm for DRA3. The measured magnitude

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 4, APRIL 2011 1387

Fig. 5. Simulated j H j fields of DRA 3 at 11 GHz.

Fig. 8. Normalized patterns of DRA 1 ( m = 1; n = 1).

Fig. 6. Geometry of the microstrip-fed aperture.
The normalized patterns for the three DRAs are shown in Figs. 8–10.
For all three DRAs, the measured cross-polarization levels were 20 dB
or more below the peak co-polarization levels. In each figure, the radi-
ation pattern obtained from the simple dielectric waveguide model is
overlaid. The agreement between the simple radiation model and the
measured H-plane patterns is very close. There is some discrepancy in
the E-plane patterns due to scattering from the finite size ground plane
edges, which is not accounted for in the simple radiation model. Never-
theless, this simple model is a good predictor of the radiation patterns
resulting from exciting higher-order modes of the rectangular DRA.
The gain (the sum of the measured realized gain plus the mismatch
loss) for the three DRAs is plotted as a function of frequency in Fig. 11.
The gains for all three DRAs peak at 11 GHz, with values of 5.5, 8.2
and 10.2 dBi, for the (1,1), (1,3) and (1,5) modes, respectively.

V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The higher-order modes of a rectangular DRA were used to pro-
duce radiation patterns with enhanced gain. Based on the field con-
figurations within the DRA obtained from the dielectric waveguide
model, the radiation patterns were predicted using an array of short
magnetic dipoles, whose number depends on the mode being excited
within the DRA. This model predicts that a rectangular DRA operating
in a higher order mode will radiate a more directive pattern. In addi-
tion, by adjusting the aspect ratio of the rectangular DRA, some degree
of pattern control is possible for the case of the higher order modes.
(This is not true for the fundamental mode, which radiates like a single
short magnetic dipole, independent of the aspect ratio of the DRA.)
Comparisons of the predicted patterns to the normalized measured pat-
terns showed good agreement, especially in the H-plane, where the
Fig. 7. Measured j S j of the DRA prototypes. effects of the finite ground plane (not considered in the model) are
negligible. Measured patterns from fabricated prototypes showed that
gains of up to 10.2 dBi were achieved for a DRA operating in the
of the reflection coefficient (jS11 j) for each of the three DRAs is shown (m = 1; n = 5). The advantage of this approach for enhancing
in Fig. 7. gain compared to some of the other cited techniques lies in the smaller

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1388 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 4, APRIL 2011

Fig. 11. Gain of the DRA prototypes.

Finally, it should be noted that although this investigation focused

Fig. 9. Normalized patterns of DRA 2 ( m = 1;n = 3).
on rectangular DRAs, the excitation of the appropriate higher-order
modes in DRAs of other shapes such as cylindrical, should also result
in enhanced gain performance.
APPENDIX
Approximation of the E- and H-fields in a rectangular DRA based
on the dielectric waveguide model

Ex = 0 (A1)
Ey = Akz cos (kx x) cos (ky y) sin (kz z)
sin (ky y) cos (kz z) (A2)

Ez = 0 Aky cos (kx x) cos sin (ky y) cos (kz z)

(ky y) sin (kz z) (A3)
2
+ kz cos (k x) sin (ky y) cos (kz z)
Hx = A jk2yf
2

mn
x
cos (ky y) sin (kz z) (A4)

Hy = A j 2f sin (kx x) cos ((kky yy)) cos

kx ky sin (kz z)
sin (kz z) (A5)
mn y

Hz = A j 2kf
x kz
mn
sin (kx x) cos (ky y) sin (kz z)
sin (ky y) cos (kz z) (A6)

where the upper functions are chosen when the corresponding values
of m or n are odd and the lower when m or n are even. A is an arbitrary
constant of proportionality.

Fig. 10. Normalized patterns of DRA 3 ( m = 1;n = 5).
area requirements, which is an important consideration for many ap-
plications such as mobile wireless communications, where space lim-
itations are of major concern. The maximum achievable gain attain-
able by exciting these higher-order modes will be determined primarily
by physical constraints and practical limitations. For example, simula-
tions show that exciting the (1,7) mode of a rectangular DRA increases
the directivity to 13.7 dBi. However, such a DRA designed at 11 GHz
would require a height of 90 mm, which would probably find very lim-
ited practical applications.
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[6] A. A. Kishk, “Directive Yagi-Uda dielectric resonator antennas,” Mi-
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[7] K. W. Leung, K. Y. Chow, K. M. Luk, and E. K. N. Yung, “Offset
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Design of a Microstrip Monopole Slot Antenna
With Unidirectional Radiation Characteristics
Chien-Jen Wang and Te-Liang Sun
Abstract—A design procedure for a wideband planar unidirectional an-
tenna is presented based on the monopole slot antenna. Owing to the addi-
tional capacitance contributed by a stub-protruded feedline and two sym-
metrical stubs at the slot edge, the impedance-matching condition is im-
proved; meanwhile, the resonance frequency of the monopole slot antenna
is significantly shifted down, and an improvement in impedance bandwidth
is achieved. By modifying the width of the ground plane, connecting one
metallic finger at the upper right corner, and etching two asymmetrical slits
feedline printed on the other side of the monopole
in the ground plane as reflectors, the radiation directivity of the monopole
slot antenna can be enhanced. The proposed antenna achieves a measured
97.4% bandwidth for S 10 dB at the center frequency of 2.31 GHz,
better than 10 dB front-to-back ratio.
Index Terms—Corrugated grating structure, front-to-back ratio,
monopole slot antenna, protruded stub.
I. INTRODUCTION
Owing to planar geometry, wide impedance bandwidth and simple
structure, the monopole slot antenna receives much attention in the
field of wireless communication systems. A quarter-wavelength open
Manuscript received March 03, 2010; revised September 01, 2010; accepted
September 01, 2010. Date of publication January 31, 2011; date of current ver-
sion April 06, 2011. This work was supported in part by the National Uni-
versity of Tainan and National Science Council, Taiwan, under Grants NSC
96-2221-E024-001 and 99-2221-E024-001.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Uni-
versity of Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan. (e-mail: cjwang@mail.nutn.edu.tw).
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.2011.2109682
0018-926X/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: National Institute of Technology Patna. Downloaded on December 07,2020 at 14:42:16 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
1389
slot cut in the finite ground plane and fed by a microstrip transmission
line, a wide impedance bandwidth and bi-directional radiation are
provided [1]. Several different slot shapes were introduced to generate
additional resonances so that bandwidth enhancement was achieved
[2]. Furthermore, the occupied area of the antenna was decreased.
In [3], a pentagon-shape slot was etched as a radiator on the ground
plane, and a feeding line with a pentagon stub was used. This antenna
demonstrates a superior ultrawideband (UWB) impedance bandwidth.
A multiband monopole slot antenna utilized in wireless wide area net-
work (WWAN) application was studied in [4]. By using a step-shaped
microstrip feedline to electromagnetically couple the power into three
monopole slots, three resonant modes were excited. The proposed
antenna is promising as an internal antenna in the thin-profile laptop
computer. Due to the monopole topology [5], co-polarized radiation
patterns of the monopole slot antenna at different frequencies look
omni-directional. By placing a back metal plate as a power reflector
below a printed open-slot antenna, a back-lobe level was reduced and
unidirectional radiation characteristics in free space were achieved [6].
In this communication, we etched two slits of different lengths in
the ground plane of the monopole slot antenna in order to decrease
the back-lobe. Techniques such as adding one finger stub at the upper
right corner and changing the ground geometry are also utilized to en-
hance the front-to-back (F/B) ratio of the co-polarized radiation in the
operated band. A stub-protruded feeding structure and two identical
rectangular stubs inserted into the radiated region are used in order to
improve the impedance matching condition.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
Fig. 1 shows the schematic configuration of the unidirectional
monopole slot antenna with the F/B ratio of up to 10 dB over the
operated bands. The design parameters of the proposed antenna after
the optimization process are listed in Table I. FR-4 is used as a sub-
strate with the dielectric constant of 4.4 and the thickness of 0.8 mm,
respectively.
The proposed antenna is composed of a quarter-wavelength open
rectangular slot etched in the ground plane, a microstrip stub-protruded
feedline, two slits of different lengths etched in the ground plane and
a finger stub connecting at the upper right corner of the ground plane.
A protruded stub of width Fw = 4:5 mm and length FL1 = 11 mm is
connected to a 50-
slot. At the slot edge, two rectangular stubs are applied to form an in-
ternal capacitance for good impedance-matching condition. The geom-
etry of the ground plane is varied in order to modify the radiation pat-
terns. In our experiment, Gx2 is tuned from 35 mm to 65 mm when
Gx1 is fixed at 35 mm. Similarly to utilize the corrugated grating struc-
ture near the slot antenna [7], in order to achieve good reduction of the
back-lobe, two slits of different lengths are etched in the left part of the
ground plane. The lower slit is uniform, and the upper slit is rippled.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In our study, the finite element method (FEM) commercial software
used is the high frequency structure simulator (HFSS) from Ansoft Cor-
poration. Fig. 2 shows the comparison of simulated reflection coeffi-
cients (S11 ) of the three cases of the monopole rectangular-slot an-
tenna, which are the conventional monopole slot antenna with a uni-
form feedline one with a stub-protruded feedline and the other with a
protruded feedline and two stubs at the slot edge. Due to the protruding
element at the end of the feeding line, the coupling between the feed-
line and the slot edge increases, resulting in frequency reduction of the
lower resonance so that the impedance bandwidth effectively increases.
Similar to the technique of adding a parasitic capacitance at the feedline