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5428 IEEE TRANSACTIONS on antennas and PROPAGATION, vol. 60, no. 11, NOVEMBER 2012 REFERENCES H. A. Wheeler, "The radiation resistance of an antenna in an infinite array or waveguide," 1948. L. Stark, "Microwave theory of phased array antennas--A review," 1974.
5428 IEEE TRANSACTIONS on antennas and PROPAGATION, vol. 60, no. 11, NOVEMBER 2012 REFERENCES H. A. Wheeler, "The radiation resistance of an antenna in an infinite array or waveguide," 1948. L. Stark, "Microwave theory of phased array antennas--A review," 1974.
5428 IEEE TRANSACTIONS on antennas and PROPAGATION, vol. 60, no. 11, NOVEMBER 2012 REFERENCES H. A. Wheeler, "The radiation resistance of an antenna in an infinite array or waveguide," 1948. L. Stark, "Microwave theory of phased array antennas--A review," 1974.
5428 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO.
11, NOVEMBER 2012
REFERENCES [1] H. A. Wheeler, The radiation resistance of an antenna in an innite array or waveguide, Proc. IRE, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 478487, Apr. 1948. [2] L. Stark, Microwave theory of phased array antennasA review, Proc. IEEE, vol. 62, no. 12, pp. 16611701, Dec. 1974. [3] R. J. Mailloux, Phased array theory and technology, Proc. IEEE, vol. 70, no. 3, pp. 246291, Mar. 1982. [4] M. Tian, D. P. Tran, and L. P. Ligthart, Aperture admittance and matching technique of dielectric lled waveguide antennas, presented at the Eur. Microwave Conf., Madrid, Spain, Sep. 1993. [5] J. J. Lee and R. S. Chu, Aperture matching of a dielectric loaded cir- cular waveguide element array, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 37, no. 3, Mar. 1989. [6] R. Chernobrovkin et al., Wide-band antenna array, presented at the Eur. Microwave Conf., Amsterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 2008. [7] M. N. M. Kehn and P. S. Kildal, Miniaturized rectangular hard waveg- uides for use in multifrequency phased arrays, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 100109, Jan. 2005. [8] S. Hrabar, Miniaturized open-ended radiator based on waveguide lled with uniaxial negative permeability metamaterial, presented at the IEEE Antennas Propag. Society Int. Symp., Washington DC, Jul. 2005. [9] A. R. Lopez, Wideband dual-polarised element for a phased array an- tenna, Wheeler Laboratory, Hazeltine Corporation, Greenlawn, NY, 1974, Tech. Rep. No. AFAL-TR-74-000. [10] S. J. Foti and M. W. Shelley, An experimental wideband polarisation diverse phased array, Proc. Military Microwaves, no. 7, pp. 263271, Jul. 1990. [11] E. D. Jersey, Imaginary Smith Chart for evanescent-mode structures, Electron. Lett., vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 9394, Jan. 1980. [12] P. Ludlowand V. Fusco, Matching evanescent open-ended waveguide antennas using the Imaginary Smith Chart, presented at the Eur. Conf. Antennas Propag., Rome, Italy, Apr. 2011. [13] P. Ludlow and V. Fusco, Recongurable small-aperture evanescent waveguide antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 12, pp. 48154819, Dec. 2011. [14] Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave Studio 2010 [On- line]. Available: www.cst.com [15] E. G. Magill and H. A. Wheeler, Wide-angle impedance matching of a planar array antenna by a dielectric sheet, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. AP-14, no. 1, pp. 4953, Jan. 1966. Low-Cost, Microstrip-Fed Printed Dipole for Prime Focus Reector Feed Mohmamad Qudrat-E-Maula and Lotfollah Shafai AbstractA low cost printed dipole antenna is proposed as a feed for prime focus reectors. Its geometry is arranged such that the two dipole arms are on opposite sides of a dielectric substrate, fed by a microstrip line. A printed dipole-reector is placed parasitically in front of the radiating dipole arms to make its radiation backward, toward the microstrip line. This allows mounting the feed centrally on a parabolic reector from its apex, eliminating the needs for supporting struts. The feed antenna offers an impedance bandwidth of 16.5%, when printed on a substrate of dielec- tric constant 2.5, and an overall dimension of 60 60 1.58 at 3 GHz. Its impedance bandwidth is enhanced up to 29.1% by modifying the feed line. The pattern symmetry and cross-polarization of the antenna are improved by slightly changing the arms length. Its performance on a small available deep dish, with and , is experimen- tally calculated at 3 GHz, and overall efciency of 55% is measured. For further verication, a second feed for operation at 6 GHz is also designed and veried on the same reector, providing the same level of efciency. Index TermsMicrostrip fed, prime focus reector, printed dipole an- tenna, reector feed. I. INTRODUCTION Reector antennas are used in terrestrial and satellite communica- tions due to their high gains and simplicity of geometry. In these an- tennas, the performance depends primarily on the feed, as the reector geometry is xed. In prime focus reectors, the feeds are normally waveguide feed horns or coaxial waveguides [1], [2], located at the focal point of the main reector. However, the presence of the feed assembly can increase the reector blockage and worsen the radiation patterns and gain. The struts that support the feed can also deteriorate the side lobe and the cross-polarization levels. One possible solution to these problems is the rear-radiating feeds such as the splash plate feed [3], [4], ring feed [5], [6], cup feed [7], and hat feed [8], [9]. However, they also suffer from limitations specic to their geometry. Microstrip antennas have simpler geometries, smaller size, and light weight. Furthermore, they are also easier to integrate with electronics and are readily adaptable to hybrid and monolithic integrated circuit fabrication techniques at microwave frequencies [10]. Therefore, ear- lier attempts have been made to design microstrip based antennas as reector feeds, to benet from their salient features as indicated above [11], [12]. However, the selected designs provided broadside radiation patterns, which required conventional strut supports, with large aper- ture blockage. In this communication we present the design of a printed dipole feed, with a dipole-reector for operation at 3 GHz. In the antenna design, we follow [13][16] except that the antenna main beam is directed back- ward, toward the feed transmission line, for backward radiation. There- fore, it can be mounted on a parabolic reector, directly from its apex, Manuscript received December 02, 2011; revised April 16, 2012; accepted May 18, 2012. Date of publication July 11, 2012; date of current version October 26, 2012. The authors are with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Manitoba, MB R3T 5V6, Canada (e-mail: shafai@ee.umanitoba. ca). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this communication are avail- able online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TAP.2012.2208170 0018-926X/$31.00 2012 IEEE IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2012 5429 using a simple rod support, thereby eliminating the need for strut sup- ports and their blockage. Hence, the overall reector-feed mounting system is simple and low cost to implement. The simulation and analysis for the presented feed antennas are per- formed using the 3-D full wave simulator Ansoft HFSS [17], a nite element method based simulation software. To conrm the simulation results, a prototype feed antenna is fabricated and experimentally tested for its bandwidth and performance on a parabolic reector. The avail- able reector was a deep dish with , and has a small diam- eter of . For further verication, a second feed for operation on 6 GHz was also designed, and experimentally veried on the same reector. It provided a similar performance. II. DESIGN OF THE PROPOSED FEED ANTENNA The geometry and co-ordinate system of the proposed feed antenna are shown in Fig. 1. The antenna is designed for operation at 3 GHz and is printed on a substrate with metallization on both sides. The two arms of the dipole antenna act as a driver element, which is fed from a microstrip line through a two parallel strips transmission line. The arms of the dipole are located at the end of this transmission line, placed on either face of the substrate in a complementary manner, which creates 180 phase difference between the arms, providing the correct feed to the antenna. The length of the printed dipole, i.e., the driver length , which is basically half wavelength, is chosen through numer- ical simulation. It is found numerically to be about 0.4 , indicating that the substrate effective permittivity is about 1.56. The width of the dipole arm, is chosen approximately to be one-tenth of a wave- length based on iteration process to achieve good radiation patterns and impedance bandwidth. The metallization on the bottom plane is a truncated ground plane, and behaves like a director element for the antenna. It is called a trun- cated ground plane because its width , perpendicular to the mi- crostrip feed transmission line, is reduced to less than 4 times the width of the microstrip line. The length of the ground plane can be set to any length as long as the impedance of the line matches a 50 impedance. The dipole-reector is placed parasitically on the upper face of the substrate opposite to the ground plane. The main goal of designing the dipole-reector is to direct the radiation backward, toward the mi- crostrip feed line. Its length is set slightly larger than the driver length, similar to Yagi antenna case. Its width is chosen approximately to be one-tenth of a wavelength based on iteration process to achieve good radiation patterns and impedance bandwidth. The separation between the driver element and dipole-reector ele- ment is set approximately to one twentieth of the wavelength. This selection is based on the coupling nature between the dipole-reector and driver element. The feeding structure consists of a microstrip line on one side of the substrate and truncated ground plane on the other side, both connecting to two arms of a parallel strip transmission line that feeds the dipole, as shown in Fig. 1. Using this simplied feeding structure, the length of the feed transmission line and consequently, the feed losses are re- duced; although, the length should be carefully selected as it affects the radiation patterns of the feed antenna. The width of the microstrip line is set for the characteristics impedance of a 50 [18], based on the substrate thickness t, and relative permittivity . III. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULT The feed antenna is designed for operation at 3 GHz. Its design pa- rameters are given in Table I, which were selected after several simula- tions and iterations. The results of this study are carried out using An- soft HFSS version 12. The antenna is also fabricated in the laboratory Fig. 1. Geometry and co-ordinate system of a microstrip fed printed dipole antenna (feed) with a reector. (a) reector and feed front view with enlarged feed cross section, (b) reector and feed side view, (c) feed 3 D view (d) feed top view. on an Arlon Diclad substrate with a thickness of 1.58 mm, dielectric constant of 2.5, loss tangent of 0.0022, and an area of 60 60 . Fig. 2(a) shows the HFSS simulated of the antenna in solid line, and measured in dashed line. The simulated band- width is from2.78 to 3.28 GHz, which means the impedance bandwidth is 16.5%and the measured bandwidth is from2.81 to 3.28 GHz corresponding to impedance bandwidth of 15.4%. Therefore, for both cases the results are very close to each other and the antenna pro- vides a very good impedance matching at 3 GHz, validating the design. To conrm the backward radiation mechanism, which requires higher gain in the backward than forward direction , the 5430 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2012 TABLE I FINAL DESIGN PARAMETERS OF THE FEED ANTENNA SHOWN IN FIG. 1 simulated surface current distributions are illustrated in Fig. 2(b). The surface currents on the dipole arms and dipole-reector are in opposite directions at 3 GHz, and as in Yagi antennas their phase relationship results in the peak radiation away from the dipole-reector. The measured results for the E- and H-plane radiation patterns of the feed have not been included because of the back radiation proper- ties of the feed. However, the simulated radiation patterns in HFSS at the center frequency of 3 GHz are shown in Fig. 2(c). With this feed, the supporting rod that mounts it on a parabolic reector is illuminated by the feed, causing scattering. In this study the supporting rod was a semi-exible cable with an SMA connector, as described later in the experimental study. Simulation studies were also done with this sup- port structure connected to the feed, and compared with those of the feed alone. The difference between the two was found to be negligibly small, and did not affect the reector antenna performance noticeably, and omitted here for brevity. As expected, the H-plane radiation pat- tern has wider beamwidth than the E-plane one, which is the nature of dipole type antennas. The peak cross-polarization level of the feed at the 45 plane is and the back lobe level is . Fig. 2(c) shows that the main beam is not fully symmetric about the axis. This could be a sign that the microstrip feed line radiates, which also contributes to high cross-polarization. Some improvement in the pattern symmetry and reduction of cross-polarization are achieved later by adjusting the dipole arms. To conrm the results in general, another feed antenna was designed for operation at 6 GHz. The and the radiation patterns at that fre- quency conrmed the validity of the design, but results are omitted here for brevity. IV. IMPROVING FEED ANTENNA PERFORMANCE Further improvements in the antenna performance were achieved by adjusting its parameters as discussed below. A. Broadening Impedance Bandwidth The impedance bandwidth of the original antenna is about 16.5%. To improve its impedance bandwidth, the microstrip feed line is care- fully modied so that its impedance is matched with the dipole arms. In the original dipole design, one side of the microstrip feed line was Fig. 2. Performance of the feed antenna. Antenna parameters: , , , , , , , . , and . (a) , (b) current distribution, (c) simulated radiation patterns at 3 GHz. connected to the SMA connector of the coaxial cable, whose character- istics impedance was 50 . The other side of the microstrip feed line was connected to the dipole arms whose characteristics impedance was higher than 50 . In the modied design, the width and length of the microstrip line were modied so that its impedance matched that of the dipole arms. In the original design, the entire width of the microstrip line is set at 4.2 mm based on characteristics impedance of 50 . In this modied design, the microstrip line has two parts. The rst part, which IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2012 5431 Fig. 3. Modied microstrip feed line case. (a) Microstrip line parameters, (b) , (c) input impedance. The other antenna parameters are the same as men- tioned in Table I. is connected to the SMA connector of the co-axial cable, has a length and width of 10 mm and 4.2 mm respectively, for the characteristics impedance of 50 . The second part, which is connected to the dipole arms has a length and width of 33 mm and 1 mm respectively, and acts as an impedance transformer to match the characteristic impedance to that of the dipole arms. The width of the transmission line, which is connected between the ground plane and other dipole arm is also mod- ied and set to 1 mm. Fig. 3(a) shows the layout of the modied microstrip feed line. Fig. 3(b) shows that, for the modied feed line case, the bandwidth is from 2.85 to 3.82 GHz. That means 29.1% impedance bandwidth is achieved in this case. Fig. 3(c) shows the Smith chart corresponding to the input impedance of the two cases. For the mod- ied feed line case, the matching section has moved the impedance loop to the centre of Smith chart, so the entire loop is within a constant , indicating a broadband . The E- and H-plane patterns are unchanged with the modied feed line and therefore are omitted for brevity. Fig. 4. Feed antenna with unequal dipole arms. Antenna parameters are the same as mentioned in Table I, except and . (a) geometry, (b) radiation patterns at 3 GHz. B. Improving Pattern Symmetry The original antenna is symmetric about the x-z plane which should give symmetrical E-plane radiation patterns. However with the pres- ence of the transmission line, the co-polarization patterns of the an- tenna are not symmetric at the principal planes, which also cause higher cross-polarizations at the 45 plane. To improve the E-plane pattern symmetry for co-polarization, the lengths of the dipole arms are made unequal, but keeping the total dipole length the same. Using this tech- nique, a good symmetry is found for co-polarization patterns, which also improves the cross-polarization level at 45 plane. This technique is a useful solution, and does not change the overall structure of the antenna. Fig. 4(a) shows the left and right dipole arms, with unequal lengths, connected through the microstrip line. The width of the dipole arms is the same as the original case. With the change of the dipole arms lengths, now the symmetry about the x-z plane is slightly changed and the center point of the dipole-reector is also adjusted accordingly. The radiation patterns of the modied antenna at 3 GHz are shown in Fig. 4(b). As shown in the gure, the E- and H-plane co-polar patterns are more symmetrical compared to the original case. The cross-polar- ization level is also lower than the original case and it is at 45 plane, which is about improvement from the original case. The is unchanged with this case and therefore omitted from study. 5432 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2012 Fig. 5. Computed feed efciency of a symmetrical parabolic reector as a func- tion of its subtended angle. The efciency is calculated using the feed radiation patterns at 3 GHz. Fig. 6. The microstrip fed printed dipole on a 45 cmreector with a focal length of 11.25 cm. The feed is connected to a semi rigid coaxial cable RG 402 and is mounted centrally on the reector by foam. V. FEED PERFORMANCE WITH A PARABOLIC REFLECTOR ANTENNA The performance of the feed on a parabolic reector antenna is in- vestigated following the established methods in [19], [20]. The results for the gain factor, i.e., the overall efciency, of the reector are shown in Fig. 5, which excludes all the losses. It indicates a peak efciency of 78% with a reector having an aperture angle of 67.5 , corresponding to an f/D of 0.375. This should be compared with 82% efciency of theoretical feeds, as discussed in [19]. Fig. 5 also shows that the feed efciency drops to 65%, for a deeper reector with , or aperture angle 90 . In the antenna laboratory a small 45 cmparabolic reector was avail- able, which had an f/D of 0.25. Its focal length was 11.25 cm, which is slightly larger than one wavelength at 3 GHz. The dipole feed was connected to an RG 402 semi rigid cable with an outer diameter of 3.6 mm, and mounted on the reector through a central hole on the para- bolic reector without any strut support, as shown in Fig. 6. The measured radiation patterns of the reector are shown in Fig. 7, indicating a gain of 20 dBi at 3 GHz, which includes the feed mismatch and external feed line losses. This corresponds to an overall efciency of 50.3%. Excluding these losses the actual reector gain increases to 20.4 dBi, which corresponds to an efciency of 55%, at the feed input after the SMA connector. Thus, compared to Fig. 5, the measured ef- ciency is lower than the calculated efciency of 65%, by about 10%. This difference can be attributed to a few factors, inherent in the feed and measurement. The microstrip feed has metallization and dielectric Fig. 7. Measured radiation patterns of the reector-feed antenna at 3 GHz. Re- ector diameter and focal length are 45 mm, and 11.25 cm. Feed parameters are: , , , , , , , . , and . TABLE II GAIN, LOSSES AND EFFICIENCY OF THE FEED ANTENNA WITH A 45 CM REFLECTOR AT THREE DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES losses, which were calculated to be about 0.3 dB. The feed line also ra- diates the cross-polarized eld, which is not included in the measured gain. In addition, the reector focal length of is too small at 3 GHz. Thus the reector is at the near eld distance of the feed, causing some phase errors. Table II shows the analysis of the reector gain, and magnitude of various losses. Finally, it should be noted that we have veried the feed performance on a deep dish with an f/Dof 0.25, which from Fig. 5 gives a theoretical efciency of 65%. To improve the efciency we either need a reector with f/D of 0.375, which from Fig. 5 gives a higher efciency of 78%. Or, use an appropriate reector with an elliptical aperture shape. We did not have access to such reectors to verify the feed performance for higher efciencies. VI. CONCLUSION In this communication, a very simple microstrip fed printed dipole antenna was presented as a feed for prime focus reectors. It achieved 16.5% impedance bandwidth at 3 GHz and provided good radiation characteristics with wider H-plane patterns then the E-plane patterns. The feed antenna was further modied by including an impedance matching section in series with the feed transmission line to achieve 29.1% impedance bandwidth. The pattern symmetry was improved and cross-polarization level was decreased by by making the dipole arm lengths unequal. Based on the radiation characteristics of the feed, the reector pro- vided radiation with elliptical beam shape (the E-plane pattern was slightly wider than the H-plane pattern). With a 45 cm parabolic re- ector, having f/D of 0.25, the measured efciency including all losses IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 60, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2012 5433 was 50.3%. Excluding the losses external to the feed and the peak ef- ciency was found to be 55%, which corresponds to 65% theoretical efciency, calculated using the feed radiation patterns. For further eval- uation, a second feed for operation at 6 GHz was also designed, fab- ricated and used with the same reector. The measured patterns and efciencies were similar and omitted for brevity. As the feed produces elliptical beamshapes, it is suitable as a feed for illuminating a reector with elliptic aperture shape. Note also that as Fig. 5 shows, the feed is more suitable for a reector with larger f/D of 0.375. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank C. Smit for the fabrication of the antenna and B. Tabachnick for the antenna radiation pattern measure- ments. REFERENCES [1] A. D. Olver, P. J. B. Clarricoats, A. A. Kishk, and L. Shafai, Microwave Horns and Feeds, ser. 39. London, U.K.: Institute of Electrical Engi- neers, 1994. [2] P. J. B. Clarricoats and A. D. Olver, Corrugated Horns for Microwave Antennas. London, U.K.: Peter Peregrinus, 1994. [3] G. L. James and D. P. S. Malik, Towards the theoretical design of splash-plate feeds, Electron. Lett., vol. 11, no. 24, pp. 593594, 1975. [4] P. Newham, A high efciency splash plate feed for small reector antennas, in Proc. IEEE Antennas Propag. Int. Symp., 1985, pp. 420423. [5] P.-S. Kildal and S. A. Skyttemyr, Dipole-disk antenna with beam-forming ring, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 529534, 1982. [6] C. C. Cutler, Parabolic-antenna design for microwaves, Proc. IRE, vol. 35, no. 11, pp. 12841294, 1947. [7] G. T. Poulton and T. S. Bird, Improved rear-radiating waveguide cup feeds, in Proc. IEEE Antennas Propag. Int. Symp., Mill Valley, CA, 1986, vol. 1, pp. 7982. [8] P.-S. Kildal, The hat feed: A dual-mode rear-radiating waveguide an- tenna having low cross polarization, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 35, no. 9, pp. 10101016, 1987. [9] J. Hansen, A. A. Kishk, P.-S. Kildal, and O. Dahlsjo, High perfor- mance reector hat antenna with very low side lobes for radio-link ap- plications, in Proc. Antennas Propag. Soc. Int. Symp., 1995, vol. 2, pp. 893896. [10] D. M. Pozar and D. Schaubert, Microstrip Antennas: The Analysis and Design of Microstrip Antennas and Arrays. London, U.K.: Institute of Electrical Engineers, 1994. [11] P. S. Hall and C. J. Prior, Microstrip feeds for prime focus fed reector antennas, Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., vol. 134, no. 2, pp. 185193, 1987. [12] A. A. Kishk and L. Shafai, Optimization of microstrip feed geometry for prime focus reector antennas, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 445451, 1989. [13] N. Kaneda, W. R. Deal, Y. Qian, R. Waterhouse, and T. Itoh, A broad- band planar quasi-Yagi Antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 50, no. 8, pp. 11581160, 2002. [14] G. Zheng, A. A. Kishk, A. W. Glisson, and A. B. Yakovlev, Simplied feed for modied printed Yagi antenna, Electron. Lett., vol. 40, no. 8, pp. 464466, 2004. [15] G. Zheng, A. A. Kishk, A. B. Yakovlev, and A. W. Glisson, A broad band printed bow-tie antenna with a simplied feed, in Proc. Antennas Propag. Society Int. Symp., CA, Jun. 2004, vol. IV, pp. 40244027. [16] A. A. Eldek, A. Z. Elsherbeni, and C. E. Smith, Wideband modied printed bow-tie antenna with single and dual polarization for C and X-band applications, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 30673072, 2005. [17] Ansoft HFSS Version 12 [Online]. Available: http://www.ansoft.com [18] C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1997. [19] S. Silver, Microwave Antenna Theory and Design. London, U.K.: Peter Peregrinus Ltd., 1984. [20] P.-S. Kildal, Factorization of the feed efciency of paraboloids and Cassegrain antennas, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. AP-33, no. 8, pp. 903908, 1985. Radiation by a Slotted Conducting Elliptic Cylinder Coated by a Nonconfocal Dielectric Biglar N. Khatir and Abdel R. Sebak AbstractThe characteristics of a slot antenna on a perfectly conducting elliptic cylinder coated by a nonconfocal dielectric are investigated ex- perimentally. Tow prototypes of non-coated and dielectric-coated elliptic slot antennas are designed, fabricated, and tested. The simulations and measurements results of non-coated and nonconfocal coated slot antennas are compared and discussed. It is found that the radiation patterns due to coating material become more directive. Index TermsElliptic cylinder, experiment, nonconfocal coated, slot an- tenna. I. INTRODUCTION Wireless communications technology is one of the most rapidly growing elds. An antenna is a key element that makes wireless communications possible. One of the most popular antennas is the slot antenna which is widely used in many wireless systems such as radar and satellite communications, space vehicles, aircrafts, missiles, and in standard desktop microwave sources for research purposes Depending on the application, slot antennas are mounted on bodies which have different shapes. The slotted elliptic cylinder is an attractive geometry because of some advantages including extra design parameters and for some applications where the elliptic cylinder provides a useful model for the mounting body. Generally, slot antennas mounted on aircrafts, space shuttles, and missiles are coated by materials for different purposes. For example, the slot antenna on the space shuttle is covered by heat-shielding tiles. In some applications, the coated materials can protect slot antennas from the oxidations or damages. Also, the electromagnetic properties of (loaded and coated) materials can be used to further control the ra- diated power as an extra design parameter. Therefore, extensive inves- tigations are reported about the characteristics of slotted antennas on elliptic [1][10] cylinders loaded and/or coated by confocal or noncon- focal [9], [10] materials. The number of design parameters increases when the coating is nonconfocal including uniform and non-uniform coating of the slot antenna. Some related experimental works are also reported in which the cylindrical slot antennas are fabricated and tested [11][15]. However, for those antennas the slots are mounted on rectangular or circular cylinders. In this communication, we introduce a slot antenna in which the slot is mounted on an elliptic cylinder with an extra degree of de- sign parameters. In particular, design, fabrication, and testing of the non-coated and dielectric-coated elliptic cylinder slot antennas are pre- sented. The simulations and measurements results of these antennas are compared and discussed. The proposed antennas are very useful in several aerospace and military communication systems and in xed stations for personal and beacons communication services where, for Manuscript received March 03, 2012; revised June 02, 2012; accepted July 02, 2012. Date of publication July 11, 2012; date of current version October 26, 2012. The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal QC, Canada (e-mail: bnksoft@sympatico.ca; abdo@ece.concordia.ca). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this communication are avail- able online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TAP.2012.2207938 0018-926X/$31.00 2012 IEEE