BROADBEAM DIELECTRIC RESONATOR ANTENNA

Abstract

A dielectric resonator antenna and a dielectric resonator antenna array. The dielectric resonator antenna includes a ground plane, a dielectric resonator element operably coupled with the ground plane, and a feed network operably coupled with the dielectric resonator element for exciting the dielectric resonator antenna. The dielectric resonator element includes a first portion with a first shape and a second portion with a second shape different from the first shape. The dielectric resonator antenna, when excited, is arranged to provide wide half-power beam-widths in both E-plane and H-plane.

Claims

1. A dielectric resonator antenna, comprising: a ground plane; a dielectric resonator element operably coupled with the ground plane, the dielectric resonator element including a first portion with a first shape and a second portion with a second shape different from the first shape; and a feed network operably coupled with the dielectric resonator element for exciting the dielectric resonator antenna; wherein the dielectric resonator antenna, when excited, is arranged to provide wide half-power beam-widths in both E-plane and H-plane.

2. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 1, wherein the dielectric resonator antenna, when excited, is arranged to provide: a half-power beam-width of larger than 90° in the E-plane; and a half-power beam-width of larger than 90° in the H-plane.

3. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 2, wherein the dielectric resonator antenna, when excited, is arranged to provide: a half-power beam-width of larger than 110° in the E-plane; and a half-power beam-width of larger than 110° in the H-plane.

4. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 3, wherein the dielectric resonator antenna, when excited, is arranged to provide: a half-power beam-width of about 120° to about 130° in the E-plane; and a half-power beam-width of about 120° to about 130° in the H-plane.

5. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 1, wherein the first portion has a first dielectric constant and the second portion has a second dielectric constant different from the first dielectric constant.

6. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 1, wherein the first portion is made of a first material and the second portion is made of a second material different from the first material.

7. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 1, wherein the first portion and the second portion are integrally formed.

8. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 7, wherein the dielectric resonator element is additively manufactured.

9. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 1, wherein the dielectric resonator element is rotationally symmetric.

10. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 1, wherein the first portion is arranged between the second portion and the ground plane.

11. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 10, wherein the first shape is in the form of a cylinder.

12. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 10, wherein the second shape is in the form of a truncated spheroid.

13. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 10, wherein the second shape is in the form of a hemi-spheroid.

14. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 10, wherein the first shape is in the form of a cylinder with a radius; and the second shape is in the form of a regular truncated spheroid, the spheroid has a major axis length and a minor axis length, the minor axis length is substantially the same as the radius.

15. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 14, wherein the second shape is in the form of a hemi-spheroid directly connected with the cylinder to form the dielectric resonator element.

16. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 1, wherein the dielectric resonator element is mounted on the ground plane.

17. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 1, wherein the feed network comprises a slot in the ground plane, wherein in plan view the slot is within a footprint of the dielectric resonator element.

18. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 17, wherein the slot has a cross-shaped cross section.

19. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 17, wherein the slot has a rectangular cross section.

20. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 17, wherein in plan view the slot is arranged centrally within the footprint of the dielectric resonator element.

21. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 17, further comprising a PCB substrate with an outer surface with a conductive layer, and the ground plane is provided by the conductive layer.

22. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 21, wherein the feed network further comprises a microstrip feedline arranged on an outer surface of the PCB substrate opposite the conductive layer.

23. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 1, wherein the ground plane has a size of at least λ.sub.o×λ.sub.o, where λ.sub.o is a wavelength in air at a center frequency of an operation band of the dielectric resonator antenna.

24. A dielectric resonator antenna array, comprising: a ground plane; a plurality of dielectric resonator elements arranged on the ground plane, each of the plurality of the dielectric resonator elements including, respectively, a first portion with a first shape and a second portion with a second shape different from the first shape; and a feed network operably coupled with the dielectric resonator elements for exciting the dielectric resonator antenna array; wherein dielectric resonator antenna array, when excited, is arranged to provide angle scanning in both E-plane and H-plane.

25. The dielectric resonator antenna array of claim 24, wherein the dielectric resonator antenna array is a phased antenna array.

26. The dielectric resonator antenna array of claim 24, wherein the feed network comprises a plurality of sub-networks each associated with a respective dielectric resonator element.

27. The dielectric resonator antenna array of claim 24, wherein the first portion is made of a first material and the second portion is made of a second material different from the first material.

28. The dielectric resonator antenna of claim 24, wherein the plurality of dielectric resonator elements are additively manufactured.

29. A communication device comprising the dielectric resonator antenna of claim 1.

30. The communication device of claim 29, wherein the communication device is a wireless communication device adapted for 5G wireless operations.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0041] Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

[0042] FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a dielectric resonator antenna in one embodiment of the invention;

[0043] FIG. 1B is a side view of the dielectric resonator antenna of FIG. 1A;

[0044] FIG. 1C is a top view of the dielectric resonator antenna of FIG. 1A;

[0045] FIG. 2 is a graph showing simulated reflection coefficient and peak gain of the dielectric resonator antenna of FIG. 1A;

[0046] FIG. 3A is a plot showing simulated radiation pattern of the dielectric resonator antenna of FIG. 1A in the E-plane at to GHz;

[0047] FIG. 3B is a plot showing simulated radiation pattern of the dielectric resonator antenna of FIG. 1A in the H-plane at to GHz;

[0048] FIG. 4A is a graph showing simulated beam-scanning result of a dielectric resonator antenna array in the E-plane at to GHz in one embodiment of the invention;

[0049] FIG. 4B is a graph showing simulated beam-scanning result of the dielectric resonator antenna array (same as the one in FIG. 4A) in the H-plane at to GHz in one embodiment of the invention; and

[0050] FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a method for making a dielectric resonator antenna in one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0051] FIGS. 1A to 1C show a dielectric resonator antenna too in one embodiment of the invention. The dielectric resonator antenna too, when excited, is arranged to provide wide half-power beam-widths in both E-plane and H-plane.

[0052] Referring to FIGS. 1A to 1C, the dielectric resonator antenna too includes a dielectric resonator element 102 mounted on a rectangular (squared) printed circuit board (PCB) substrate 104. The PCB substrate 104 is a double-sided PCB substrate with conductive layers 104A, 104B on upper and lower surfaces. The PCB substrate 104 has a side length L.sub.g, a side width L.sub.g and a thickness t. The middle layer of the PCB substrate 104 (the layer other than the upper and lower conductive layers 104A, 104B) has a dielectric constant ε.sub.rs. The upper conductive layer 104A provides a ground plane for the antenna too. The dielectric resonator element 102 is mounted and operably connected with the ground plane. The ground plane has a size 2λ.sub.o×2λ.sub.o, where λ.sub.o is a wavelength in air at a center frequency of an operation band of the dielectric resonator antenna too.

[0053] The PCB substrate 104 also provides a feed network 106 operably coupled with the dielectric resonator element 102 for exciting the dielectric resonator antenna too. The dielectric resonator antenna too is a slot-coupled antenna. The feed network 106 includes a rectangular slot 108, with a width w.sub.s and a length l.sub.s, etched in the ground plane, and a 50-Ω rectangular microstrip line 110 (feedline) with a width of w.sub.f. The microstrip line 110 provides the bottom conductive layer 104B of the PCB substrate 104.

[0054] The dielectric resonator element 102 consists of an upper portion 102A and a lower portion 102B of different shapes and different dielectric constants. The lower portion 102B is arranged between the upper portion 102A and the ground plane. The lower portion 102B is cylindrical (e.g., a cylindrical dielectric block) with a radius b and a height h.sub.1. The lower portion 102B is made of a material (e.g., ceramic material) with a dielectric constant ε.sub.r1. The upper portion 102A is a hemi-spheroidal (prolate spheroidal) with a major axis length a and minor axis length b (the major and minor axes are with respect to the spheroid). In other words, the minor axis length of the upper portion 102A is the same as the radius of the lower portion 102B. Because of this, and the upper and lower portions 102A, 102B are directly connected with each other, the contour of the dielectric resonator element 102 is generally smooth. The dielectric resonator element 102 in FIG. 1A has rotationally symmetry. The upper portion 102A is made of a material (e.g., ceramic material) with a dielectric constant ε.sub.r2 different from the dielectric constant ε.sub.r1. The dielectric resonator element 102 can be additively manufactured using an additive manufacturing machine, e.g., 3D printed using a 3D printer. A 3D printer is a known device so will not be described here.

[0055] As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1C, in plan view, the rectangular slot 108 and the rectangular microstrip line 110 are generally perpendicular to each other. The rectangular slot 108 is within a footprint of the dielectric resonator element 102, generally centrally within the footprint of the dielectric resonator element 102.

[0056] In this embodiment, the broad beam dielectric resonator antenna too is arranged for operation in the X-band. Using ANSYS HFSS, an antenna prototype with the following values of parameters are obtained: ε.sub.r1=10, ε.sub.r2=5, a=4.5 mm, b=12 mm, h.sub.1=3.2 mm, l.sub.s=6 mm, w.sub.s=0.5 mm, w.sub.f=1.82 mm, ε.sub.rs=3.55, L.sub.g=60 mm, and t=0.8 mm.

[0057] FIG. 2 shows the simulated reflection coefficient and realized peak gain of the antenna too of FIGS. 1A to 1C with the above-specified parameters. As shown in FIG. 2, the antenna too has a simulated to dB impedance bandwidth of 12.3% (9.34-10.56 GHz). The simulated realized peak gain varies between 5.4 and 6.2 dBi across the impedance passband.

[0058] FIGS. 3A and 3B show the simulated normalized 2D radiation patterns of the antenna too in the E-plane and the H-plane respectively at to GHz. In the E-plane, the simulated co-polar field is stronger than its cross-polar field by more than 30 dB. In the H-plane, the co-polar field is stronger than the cross-polar field by at least 25 dB. FIGS. 3A and 3B also show that the antenna has a wide 3-dB (half-power) beamwidths in both the E-plane and the H-plane. The 3-dB beamwidths are about 125° in the E-plane and about and 124° in the H-plane.

[0059] A dielectric resonator antenna array can be made based on the dielectric resonator element in FIGS. 1A to 1C. The dielectric resonator antenna array includes the ground plane, multiple dielectric resonator elements arranged in an array and mounted on the ground plane, and a feed network (e.g., sub-networks each associated with a respective dielectric resonator element). In one example, the dielectric resonator antenna array includes 64 dielectric resonator elements (e.g., the dielectric resonator elements 102) arranged in an 8×8 phased array. FIGS. 4A and 4B show the beam-scanning results in the E-plane and H-plane at to GHz for such an 8×8 phased array.

[0060] As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, the phased antenna array shows wide-angle scanning ability in the both E-plane and H-plane—it can scan from −75° to +75° with 3-dB gain fluctuation. This result demonstrates the performance of the wide-angle scanning phased antenna array.

[0061] FIG. 5 is a method 500 for making the dielectric resonator antenna in one embodiment of the invention. The dielectric resonator antenna can be the dielectric resonator antenna too in FIGS. 1A to 1C. The method 500 begins in step 502, in which a computer model (e.g., CAD drawing) of the dielectric resonator element is created. Then, in step 504, the computer model is loaded or otherwise accessed by (e.g., stored) a 3D printer, and the 3D printer processes the computer model. The 3D printer may be a fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer, which can produce the element using one or more materials (e.g., ceramics). Subsequently, in step 506, the 3D printer produces the dielectric resonator element based on the computer model. A dielectric resonator element is be formed. After the dielectric resonator element is formed, in step 508, the dielectric resonator element is operably connected to a feed network and a ground plane to form a dielectric resonator antenna. In one example, the dielectric resonator element is mounted on a PCB substrate in step 508. The method 500 in FIG. 5 can also be used to simultaneously make multiple dielectric resonator elements. The method 500 in FIG. 5 can also be used to make a dielectric resonator antenna array, such as the one described with respect to FIGS. 4A and 4B.

[0062] The dielectric resonator antenna and the dielectric resonator antenna array of the above embodiments can be used in communication devices, such as wireless communication devices adapted for 5G wireless operations.

[0063] The dielectric resonator antennas in the above embodiments are compact and can be used in small-sized communication devices. The dielectric resonator antennas have simple structures and have high radiation efficiency, with wide 3-dB beamwidths in both two principle planes. The dielectric resonator antennas in the above embodiments do not require complex auxiliary components (although these can be used), such as metallic walls or PIN diodes which tend to make the antennas suffer bulky size or high loss. The dielectric resonator antennas, in particular its dielectric resonator element(s) can be made easily, and simply, using additive manufacturing techniques. The dielectric resonator antennas have simple feed network and can be easily applied to the antenna array designs. The dielectric resonator antenna arrays of the above embodiments are particularly adapted for use as wide-angle beam scanning phased antenna arrays.

[0064] It will also be appreciated that where the methods and systems of the invention are either wholly implemented by computing system or partly implemented by computing systems then any appropriate computing system architecture may be utilized. This will include stand-alone computers, network computers, dedicated or non-dedicated hardware devices. Where the terms “computing system” and “computing device” are used, these terms are intended to include any appropriate arrangement of computer or information processing hardware capable of implementing the function described.

[0065] It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as broadly described. Various possible options or alternatives have been non-exhaustively provided throughout the specification. The specifically described embodiments of the invention should therefore be considered in all respects as illustrative, not restrictive.

[0066] For example, the dielectric resonator element(s) can be made into different shape(s), form(s), dimension(s), etc., other than those illustrated. The dielectric resonator element(s) can be made with different materials with different dielectric constants, other than those illustrated. The dielectric resonator element(s) can be formed with two portions or more than two portions, of different shapes, sizes, forms, materials, dielectric constants, etc. The dielectric resonator element(s) need not be made with ceramic materials. The shape(s), form(s), dimension(s), etc., of the ground plane can vary. The shape(s), form(s), dimension(s), etc., of the feed network can vary. For example, the slot of the feed network can be cross-shaped, T-shaped, etc. The antenna can be a circularly polarized antenna, not necessarily a linearly polarized antenna as illustrated. The dielectric resonator element(s) can be made using any 3D printing techniques or made using conventional tooling/molding methods. The ground plane need not be provided by a PCB substrate. The feed network need not be a slot-feed network but can be a feed network for a different form. In the embodiments that the PCB substrate is used, the PCB substrate can take different forms, with one or more conductive layers (copper, etc.), and the dielectric constant ε.sub.rs of the substrate can be of any value. The values of the illustrated parameters can be different, dependent on applications.