Wideband stair-shaped dielectric resonator antennas

Wideband stair-shaped dielectric resonator antenna (DRAs) are designed. Wide bandwidths are achieved with one-step or two-steps stair geometries. Cricular and square cross-sections are discussed with two different excitation methods: coaxial feed and aperture coupled. The DRAs are designed in the X-band. An impedance bandwidth (S₁₁<-10 dB) of 54.3% is obtained with the two-steps stair-shaped DRA. The antennas have broadside radiation patterns in all cases across the matching band. In addition, embedding the base into another dielectric material reduces the size of the stair-shaped DRA. Simulation results are compared with measurements and reasonable agreement is obtained