A novel microstrip-fed multi-segment dielectric resonator antenna

This paper investigates a novel multi-segment dielectric resonator antenna (DRA). The antenna consists of a thin segments of different permittivity material bonded to the underside of a rectangular dielectric resonator segment. The multi-segment DRA element is excited by a microstrip line. The permittivity and thickness of the segments are used to concentrate the fields of the micro-scrip line and enhance the coupling from the line to the dielectric resonator segment. Experimental results are presented on a two-segment DRA consisting of a thin segment of high permittivity bonded to a dielectric resonator segment of low permittivity. Without the high permittivity segment, coupling from the microstrip line to the DRA is quite weak, achieving a return loss of only 5 dB. With the high permittivity segment, a maximum return loss of 24 dB was achieved with a 10 dB return loss bandwidth of 17%.