A Compact Espar Antenna with Planar Parasitic Elements on a Dielectric Cylinder

Qing HAN
Brett HANNA
Takashi OHIRA

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E88-B    No.6    pp.2284-2290
Publication Date: 2005/06/01
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 10.1093/ietcom/e88-b.6.2284
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on 2004 International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation)
Category: 
Keyword: 
Espar,  dielectric,  direction finder,  genetic algorithm,  miniaturization,  

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Summary: 
This paper presents a technique for designing a dielectric Electronically Steerable Parasitic Array Radiator (Espar) antenna to achieve miniaturization of the conventional Espar antenna. The antenna's size is reduced by immersing the central active element in a dielectric cylinder, mounting the surrounding planar parasitic elements at the circumference of the cylinder, and decreasing the radius of the ground skirt to that of the parasitic elements. An example of a polycarbonate (εr = 2.9 + j0.006) Espar antenna operating at 2.484 GHz is optimised by using a genetic algorithm in conjunction with an FEM-based cost function. The designed antenna generates a half-power beam width of 78and a main lobe that elevates at an angle of only 5from the horizontal plane. The designed antenna is also fabricated and measured. Good agreement between the measurement and simulation results is obtained. We reduce the size of the designed Espar antenna to 1/8 the size of its conventional counterpart while achieving a 12improvement in half-power beam width.