Investigation and development of wideband antenna gain enhancement techniques
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Abstract
The far-field gain of an antenna relies on its physical dimensions, often posing a challenge for achieving higher gain without increasing size. We address this issue by exploring innovative design strategies to enhance the gain of both, horn and patch antennas without increasing their physical dimensions. In horn antenna, for every dBi of gain increment, the flare length and aperture area should increase by 20% and 10%, respectively. External lens classes, such as gradient refractive index, concave, or Fresnel, are used to improve gain by ≤ 2 dBi, but at the cost of a volumetric increase by 75%. We propose the integration of a hollow dielectric loading (HDL) within the flare section of the horn antenna. Furthermore, we designed a wideband modified split ring resonator (MSRR) for a rectangular patch antenna (RPA). The shape and position of the HDL are optimized using an evolutionary algorithm to obtain the maximum gain from a conical corrugated horn antenna (CCHA) at boresight. The optimized design yielded a total volume 40% smaller than traditional horn while achieving 3.5 dBi peak gain improvement in the operating frequency range. We also observed an improvement in the electric field by 24% while retaining parity in the impedance bandwidth. A 3D-printed prototype of the optimized CCHA and the HDL is fabricated and measured. The measured and simulated results demonstrated good agreement with a maximum difference of 4%. The MSRR faces the limitation of transmitting over a narrow band of frequencies, thereby restricting their capacity to enhance the antenna's gain to a limited range of frequencies. Investigating the impact of MSRR dimension variations on incident waves, particularly focusing on magnetic field and induced current changes, leads to a broader impedance bandwidth. Utilizing CST simulations and a genetic algorithm for optimization, we design and manufacture both wideband (WB) and narrowband (NB) MSRRs. The optimized MSRR impressively broadens the impedance bandwidth, achieving a remarkable 5 dBi peak gain improvement when placed atop the RPA.
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Introduction -- Background -- Dielectric loading for gain enhancement of horn antennas -- Wideband metamaterials for gain enhancement of patch antennas -- Future work -- Conclusion
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M.S. (Master of Science)