monopole antenna (Fig.

Ib) with one step change width, printed on Duroid substrate with dielectric constant E, = 2.2 k 0.02 and thickness f = (0.8 0.02) mm in the range 100-700MHz. It must be noted that the shortening ratio p is defined as: p = 100 x (hJ2 - L)IL where h, is the guided wavelength for a simple resonant monopole (Fig. l a ) . The optimisation of widths of lines leads to a shortening ratio (p) of 48% when L , = L, with W,IW,2 = 125 and W , equals the diameter of the coaxial inner conductor (0.4mm) ~51. The second example shows -the input impedance against frequency (Fig. 3) for a triangular monopole (Fig. IC). This structure has been investigated experimentally by Nesic [2]. In this Letter the monopole is considered as the association of five equal sections ( L , = hJ20). Once more, the comparison between theory and experiment validates the result. A smaller shortening ratio p of 30% is obtained.

LEBBAR, H., HiMDi. M., and DANIEL, I.P.: Analysis and optimization of reduced printed monopole. IEEEIAP-S. Symp. and URSI Meeting, 1993, (Michigan), pp. 1858-1861

Analysis of aperture coupled rectangular dielectric resonator antenna

S.M. Shum and K.M. Luk
Indexing ferms: Dielectric resonators, Dielectric-loaded antennas
A rectangular dielectric resonator (DR) antenna fed by a microstrip line through an aperture on the ground plane is analysed using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The calculated return losses were compared with experiment and reasonable agreement was obtained. The effects of the slot width on the return loss are also studied.

Fig. 4 Variation of input impedance, in range I+GHz, against frequency (Fig.I d )

X measured

0 this method W = 21.207mm. L , = 10.24mm. L2 = 15.36mm

The third example considered is a linear plus triangular cap monopole (Fig. IC). The theoretical and experimental results are in excellent agreement (Fig. 4). A shortening ratio p of 40% is achieved.

Conclusion: Theoretical results using the transmission line method show a good agreement with experimental measurements for the various printed monopole antenna shapes. Shortening ratios p equal to 48, 40 and 30% have been obtained. This simple method is well suited for investigating and designing more complicated monopole structures, and is not time consuming.
0 IEE 1994 Electronics Letters Online No: 19941191

Introduction: Dielectric resonators (DRs) can be used as efficient radiators at millimetre wave frequencies. The DR antenna is characterised by small size, no conductor loss and flexible excitation mechanism. DRs can have various shapes. Compared to other DR shapes such as cylindrical or hemispherical, rectangular DRs are easier to fabricate. Rectangular DR antennas have previously been studied [I-31. However, most of the previous work concentrated on the radiation characteristics of the rectangular D R antennas and only experimental results on the input impedance have been reported [I, 21. An aperture-coupled hemispherical DR antenna has been analysed using the method of moments (MOM) [5]. The magnetic field Green function due to equivalent magnetic current in the slot has been derived using the mode matching method. However, if the geometry contains many edge-shaped boundaries, as in the case of the rectangular DR antenna, it becomes much more difficult to evaluate the modal coefficients. In [6], the input impedance of a cylindrical DR antenna excited by an aperture slot was computed. The analysis method is based on the surface integral equation formulation for bodies of revolution coupled to arbitrary objects. Nevertheless, the application of a similar technique to analyse the rectangular DR antenna is much more complicated than in the cylindrical case. With advances in computer technology, direct methods such as the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method become feasible for dealing with complicated geometry. As will be shown later, the formulation of the present problem using the FDTD method is much simpler than that of the case of using the MOM. A similar technique for analysing aperture-coupled rectangular DR antennas has been reported in [3]. However, only a sinusoidal source was used and only far field results obtained. In this Letter, the FDTD method with pulse excitation is used to calculate the frequencydependent return loss of an aperture coupled rectangular DR antenna, such that only a single computational cycle is required ~41.

19 September 1994

rectangular

H. Lehhar, M. Himdi and J. P. Daniel (Laboratoire Structures

Rayonnantes, URA CNRS 834, UniversitP de Rennes I, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France)

References
LEBBAR, H., HIMDI, M.. and DANIEL, J.P.: Transmission line analysis of printed monopole, Electron. Lett., 1992, 28, (14). pp. 1326-1327 2 NESIC.A., and RADNOVIC. I.: Experimental study of the new printed antenna URS,, Radio Science Meeting, 1993, (Michigan), p. 21 3 CO, SI.: Slot line an dielectric substrate, IEEE Trans., 1969, 17, (IO), pp. 768-778 4 HIMDI, M., and DANIEL, J.P.: Analysis of microstrip linear slot antenna using lossy transmission line model, Electron. Lett., 1992, UI, (6), pp. 598400

il

.......

line

a top view

side view

130(111

Fig. 1 Geometry of aperture coupled rectangular dielectric resonator

antenna Theory: The geometry of the DR antenna is shown in Fig. 1. The rectangular DR is placed symmetricab with respect to a slot on an infinite ground plane. A microstrip line running on the other side of the dielectric substrate is used to excite the DR through the

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slot. owing to symmetry. only hall o t the structure needed to be included in the calculation. The structure has been divided into twu s c p m x d t c c v m p u ~ ~ t k m doni*in>. d Onr- domaiii cmtainz the rectangular D R and the other contains the microstrip linc circuit. BY doing S O , the two compuiatiooal domains c m have diriercnt sizes and the ovcrall computer memory caii be aa\,ed. The absorbing boundary conditions (ABCs) uted in the FIITD analysis have been derived by Mur [7]. For the computational domain containing the microstrip line. first-order Mur ABCs with super-absorption [8] have been applied on the \valls terminating the domain in the longitudinal direction. The use of the superabsorption algorithm greatly reduces the reflection from thesc walls. Only first-order Mur ABCs have been applied at the side walls because the super-absorbing boundary algorithm does not work in these cases. For the computational domain containing the rectangular DR. second-order Mur ABCs havc been applied at all the terminating walls. The excitation used in the simulation is a Gaussian pulse and has the form E ( [ )= exp[-(I - 4JV77, wherc I,, is the dclay and T determines the pulse width. The pulse is applisd at the input port of the microstrip line starting from time I = 0. The finite-difference equations are then employed in a leapfrog time-stepping scheme to calculate the electromagnetic fields in the computational domains [9]. The values of the reflected wave and the incident wave at the input port are recorded at each time step. The reflection coeffcient r at a reference plane is determined from the ratio of the Fourier transform of the reflected wave and the Fourier transform of the incident wave.

6 5 frequency, GHz

Fig. 3 C~ilcrrlaredarid ineusurd S,, mugnirude for differenr slot widths

e, =
~~

IO. u = 14.3mm. h = 25.4mm. d = 26.1mm, L = 20mm. L , = 18mm. e,, = 2.31, W, = 4.8mm and /I = 1.6mm

-.

W = l.YX8mm W = 1.325mm W = 0.662mm

Cbncliisions: The analysis of aperture coupled rectangular dielectric resonator antennas using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method produces reasonable results when compared with measurement. The return loss of the antenna can be increased by adjusting the slot width.
Arknon./rdprn~nt: This project is supported by the CPHK Strategic Research Grant.

C IEE 1994
.KIecrrnni<s1~errer.r Online No: 1YY4lIYS

15 A u ~ u s t1994

S . M. Shun1 and K . M. Luk (Depurnllmr o/ Elrwronic Engineering, <'it) Polrrrdmic of Hang Kong. 83 TUC C/iw Avenue. Kolduun, Honp
KiinX)

References wcALLIsltK. M w.. LOSF. s A , and C O N W A Y , CI L.: 'Rectangular dielectric resonator antenna'. Elecfron. L e t t . , 1983, 19, pp. 218-219 ITTIPIBOON. A , M O N G ~ AR . K., ANTAR. Y.M.M.. BHARTIA. P , and VlIHACI M : 'Aperture fed rectangular and triangular dielectric resonators for use as magnetic dipole antennas', Electron. Lett., 1993. 29. pp. 2001 -2002 F.SSF.LLE. K P : 'FD-TD analysis of rectangular dielectric resonator antcnnas'. URSl Radio Sci. Meet.. Program and Abstr., 1994, p. 420 SIIUM. K P.. and L U K . K.M.: 'Analysis of aperture coupled rectangular dielectric resonator antenna using the FDTD method'. URSl Radio Sci. Meet., Program and Abstr., 1994, p. 41Y LFING.K w. LAI. K Y A , I ~ I K . K M . and LIN. D : 'Input impedance of aperture coupled hemispherical dielectric resonator antenna', E l w t r o u L m , 1993. 29, pp. 1165-1167 J U N K E R . F P. K I S H K . A.A.. and GLISSON.A.W : 'Input impedance of an aperture coupled dielectric resonator antenna'. lEEE Antennas and Propagat. Society Int. Symp. Dig., 1994. Vol. 2 . pp. 748-751 M U R . ci : 'Absorbing boundary conditions for the finite-difference approximation of the time-domain electromagnetic-field equations', I E E E Trnns.. 1981, EMC-23, pp. 377-382 M E I . K K . and t A N G . J : 'Super-absorption-A method to improve absorbing boundary conditions'. IEEE Trans., 1992, AP-40, pp. 1001-101 0 Y E E . K S.: 'Numerical solution of initial value problems involving Maxwell's equations in isotropic media'. IEEE Trans., May 1966, AP-14. pp. 3 0 2 ~ 307

6 5 frequency, GHz

Fig. 2 Culculuted and meusured S , , riiugnitude ugoimr /rrguoii.i.

E, =

IO, a = 14.3mm. h = 25.4mm. d = 26.lnim. L = 2Omm. M = 2.65mm. L , = 18mm. E,, = 2.31. W, = 4.Xmm and 1.6mm
~

calculation measurement

Results: The analysis technique mentioned i n the preceding Section is applied to study an aperture couplcd rectangular DR antenna. The parameters of the DR are: u = 14.3mm. h = 25.4mm, d = 26.lmm and E, = IO. The space steps used are 111- = 0.662mm, Ay = 0.662mm and A: = 0.533mm. and the time step used is At = Ips. The sizes of the two computational domains are 120 A x x 40 AV x 20 Az (microstrip part) and 50 A.Y x 50 Aj, x 100 Az (DR part,) respectively. The slot length L and the slot width U' have been adjusted in the numerical calculations to achieve impedance matching. The excited resonant mode has been found to be a hybrid mode, with approximately one variation in thc I. 1 , and 1 directions. To verify the numerical results. a rectangular DR with the same dimensions, fed by a slot coupled to a microstrip line. was measured using an HP8510C network analyser. Both the numerical and the measured results of the return loss are shown in Fig. 2. From the Figure, it can be seen that the agreement betuecn the two results is reasonable. The difference between the calculated resonance frequency (3.XGHr) and measured resonance frequency (3.92GHr) is -3%. The discrepancies in the results arc mainly due to the use of fixed space steps which are unable to match all of the antenna dimensions. Furthermore. the tolerance of the E, of the D R used in the experiment is unknown which may also cause errors. The calculated return loss as a function of frequency for different slot widths is shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen that the return loss increases with slot width. In general, both the slot length and the slot width can be adjusted to achieve impedance matching.

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