3D-printed heterogeneous isotropic–anisotropic dielectric resonator for singly fed dual-band circularly polarised antennas

Abstract

The design of three-dimensional (3D)-printed heterogeneous ceramics exhibiting isotropic and anisotropic dielectric permittivities at microwave frequencies is studied for dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) applications. The heterogeneous ceramics are engineered by using periodic structures made up of subwavelength unit cells filled with zirconia ceramic and air. Ceramic stereolithography (CSLA) allows the 3D printing of a one-piece ceramic block mixing isotropic and anisotropic dielectric regions. In order to demonstrate the possibility of exploiting such 3D-printed ceramics, a singly fed dual-band circularly polarised DRA is presented. To achieve circular polarisation at both bands, the relative permittivity of the dielectric resonator is locally controlled by introducing anisotropic dielectric regions. The 3D-printed DRA is finally measured, and its results agree well with the simulations.