Ultra-Wideband Ceramic-Based Dielectric Resonator Antenna Array For Radar Applications

Abstract

This paper reports the design and application of a ceramic-based ultra-wideband (UWB) dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The proposed 8×1 DRA array covers the frequency band of 2.5-6 GHz with an 83% impedance bandwidth. The DRAs are excited with a trapezoidal patch at the front face to achieve wider bandwidth. The peak realized gain varies from 12 to 14 dBi with 95% efficiency over the operating band. A pair of transmit and receive antenna arrays is utilized in a UWB frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar for remote sensing applications. The isolation between the two antenna arrays is more than 45 dB while weighing only 255 gm with a footprint of 250×100 mm2. The antennas arrays are used to collect data to generate synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images for developing algorithms to estimate soil moisture and snow thickness.