A Compact Cavity-Backed Tri-Band Antenna Design for Flush Mount GNSS (L1/L5) and SDARS Operations

Abstract

This letter presents a unique compact cavity-backed tri-band antenna design for supporting simultaneous Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) ( L 1/ L 5) and Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS) operations in a rooftop flush mount configuration. The cavity dimensions are 100 mm in diameter and only 9.35 mm in depth to meet a specific automobile manufacturer's physical dimension requirement. The achieved half-power realized gain bandwidths at L1, L5, and SDARS bands are 85, 54, and 250 MHz, respectively. This design consists of a bottom feeding board, a top GNSS board, and a middle SDARS board. All three boards are connected using vertical wires. The left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) SDARS element is a C-line coupled circular patch element that is excited via a novel traveling-wave proximity-coupling method that maximizes the passage of the out-of-band signals. The right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) dual-ring GNSS element is excited after the SDARS element using two orthogonal tapered-width proximity probes which are connected to two microstrip lines with different lengths for producing 90° phase difference at 1.4 GHz. The entire antenna assembly is connected to a single subminiature version A (SMA) connector. The design specifications and operating principles of the proposed antenna are discussed along with comparisons between the simulation and measurement performance obtained from a fabricated prototype.