A Wideband Circularly Polarized Cross-Dipole Antenna

Abstract

This letter introduces a wideband circularly polarized (CP) cross-dipole antenna fabricated on a double-layered printed circuit board (PCB) substrate for 2.45-GHz ISM band wireless communications. Unlike conventional cross-dipole antennas, the proposed cross dipole is designed with wide open ends such that both impedance and axial-ratio (AR) bandwidths are enhanced. In addition, to excite the CP radiation effectively, a curved-delay line providing an orthogonal phase difference among the cross-dipole elements is attached at the corners of the sequentially rotated elements. By choosing a proper radius of the curved-delay line, a wide input impedance of the antenna can be realized. The antenna is center-fed by a 50- Ω coaxial cable and is placed above a square reflector to obtain a directional CP radiation pattern. With the advantage of centered feed, symmetric CP radiation patterns can be achieved across the entire operating bandwidth. Simulated and measured results confirm the proposed antenna produced good CP characteristics. An impedance bandwidth (for VSWR ≤ 2) of about 50.2% (1.99-3.22 GHz) and the 3-dB AR bandwidth of about 27% (2.30-2.9 GHz) around the center frequency of 2.45 GHz were measured. The antenna has an average CP gain of 6.2 dBic across the operating bandwidth and the maximum gain of 6.8 dBic at the center frequency. The size of antenna is 0.45λ×0.45λ×0.24λ.