A Novel Half Hemispherical Dielectric Res- Onator Antenna with Array of Slots for Wideband Applications

A novel half Hemispherical Dielectric Resonator Antenna (HDRA) with an array of slots has been designed. The dielectric material used is Rogers TMM10, which is a ceramic thermoset polymer composite material having a dielectric constant of εr = 9.2. Periodic holes lower down the Q factor of the antenna and hence enhance the impedance bandwidth. The measured value of the 10 dB bandwidth is close to 1 GHz (∼17.74%). The mode investigated is a TM101 like mode. Further, the effect of increasing the probe length on the resonance and the radiation pattern is also studied. As the probe length is increased, a shift in the resonant frequency is observed and the Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA) behaves as a monopole antenna loaded with the DRA. The experimental results confirm that a wide bandwidth of 1.3 GHz (∼29%) with a high gain of 7.2 dBi can be obtained. The radiation pattern of such an antenna is directive in nature.