Broadband eight-element dielectric rod antenna array using the simple micro-strip slot feeding
An 8-element broadband novel antenna array based on the dielectric rod using a very simple micro-strip slot feeding technique in Ku-band (12–18 GHz) is proposed. The proposed dielectric rod array is designed to obtain enhanced gain in the specified frequency band using the compact size element as compared to that of the single dielectric rod. It is observed that for a single dielectric rod, the radiating rod should be ∼5λ 0 long in order to obtain the gain of ∼15 dBi. Additionally, the side lobe levels and the fluctuation in gain also start increasing with an increase in the dielectric rod length. To this end, the proposed dielectric rod array appears to be the optimum choice as it uses only 1.25λ0 long rods and provides a measured peak gain of 19 dBi with the minimum gain fluctuation and the side lobe levels over the operating bandwidth. The proposed array possesses the impedance bandwidth of ∼40% which is comparable to the single-element antenna bandwidth. The structures are simulated using the HFSS, to optimise various parameters. Finally, the eight-element antenna array is fabricated based on the optimised parameters and the testing is carried out in the anechoic environment.
