Developing Wideband Dual-Circularly Polarized Antenna With Simple Feeds Using Magnetoelectric Dipoles

Abstract

A novel wideband magnetoelectric (ME) dipole antenna with dual circular polarization and unidirectional radiation is proposed in this letter. The proposed antenna is based on two perpendicular sub-ME dipoles realized by four V-shaped patches and four V-section columns, and each of them is composed of an electric dipole and a magnetic dipole in parallel. Fed by two simple Γ-shaped feeds, 90° phase difference between the electric dipole and the magnetic dipole in each of the sub-ME dipoles is achieved, hence the dual-circularly polarized radiation is generated. Wide impedance bandwidth is obtained in virtue of the two kinds of dipoles being excited simultaneously. The 3 dB axial-ratio (AR) bandwidth is enlarged by optimizing the V-section columns and a circular cavity. Besides, the port isolation is apparently enhanced by adding slits on the patches and elaborating different spacings between each feed and its two-sided columns. Measured results show that the proposed antenna has many appealing properties, such as a unidirectional radiation pattern, an impedance bandwidth (reflection coefficients ≤-10 dB and port isolation ≥ 10 dB) of 51.1% and a 3 dB AR bandwidth of 41.9%.