Compact wideband circularly polarized rectangular dielectric resonator antenna with dual underlaid hybrid couplers

A compact wideband circularly polarized rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with dual underlaid hybrid couplers is investigated for the first time. As no extra footprint is needed for the couplers, the proposed antenna is very compact. The dual hybrid couplers are connected to generate four quadrature signals that are fed to four sequentially rotated excitation strips stuck on the four side walls of the DRA. It is found that the 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth of the proposed antenna can be as wide as 27.7%. The reflection coefficient, radiation pattern, and antenna gain of the proposed antenna are studied, and reasonable agreement between the measured and simulated results is observed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.