A Novel Compact Three-Port Dielectric Resonator Antenna with Reconfigurable Pattern for WLAN Systems

Abstract—Splitting a cylinder dielectric resonator into four uniform quarters generates a new dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) shape, which is named a quarter volume of cylinder dielectric resonator antenna (QVCDRA) in the paper. On the basis, a novel compact three-port dielectric resonator antenna with reconfigurable radiation pattern is presented for WLAN systems at 5.2 GHz. A −10 dB impedance bandwidth of 16.20%, covering the frequency range from 4.75 GHz to 5.54 GHz, is obtained with an isolation of lower than −19 dB. The structure consists of three QVCDRAs that arrange evenly around Z axis, and as a result possesses the advantage of compact structure, wide impendence band and reconfigurable radiation patterns. The volume of the proposed three-port DRA without ground plane is only 0.0216λd (λd is the dielectric wave length at the central operation frequency). The proposed antenna is analyzed in detail. Antenna prototype is fabricated and tested. The simulation and test results are in good agreement.