Dielectric resonator based multiport antenna system with multi-diversity and built-in decoupling mechanism

Abstract

In this article, an eight-element, sixteen port dielectric resonator (DR) based double sided multi-port antenna is presented, which supports the unique dual-directional pattern diversity feature. The orientation of the double-sided dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is one of the novel features of the proposed antenna. Four cylindrical dielectric resonator antennas (cDRAs) are placed at the top of the substrate, and each top cDRA is excited with the help of two orthogonally placed coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed conformal microstrip lines. In the same manner, the other four cDRAs are placed at the bottom of the substrate, and each cDRA is fed via conformal strip lines. The proposed antenna works in between 5.4 GHz and 6.0 GHz. Several isolation techniques (polarization diversity, pattern diversity, and separation between the antenna elements) within the antenna elements are approached to improve the antenna performance. As a result, without using any isolation improvement technique, the proposed structure achieves 17 dB of isolation between the ports, which makes the proposed radiator unique. The similarity in simulated and experimental outcomes confirms that the designed 16-port multi-port antenna system is suitable for Wireless LAN applications.