Dielectric Resonator Antenna Mounted on Cylindrical Ground Plane for Handheld RFID Reader at 5.8 GHz

Dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) mounted on cylindrical ground plane is investigated for handheld RFID reader applications at 5.8 GHz. The simplicity of the structure makes it practical in terms of cost, space, and ease of fabrication. The radiation characteristics of the antenna in free space and in the presence of a proposed compact reader device model and human hand are calculated. The antenna is circularly polarized and exhibits peak gain of 7.62 dB at 5.8 GHz with high front to back ratio of 15.5 dB. Using the same reader device model, a sequentially feeding 2×2 DRA array mounted on the same cylindrical ground plane is used for RFID reader antenna at 5.8 GHz. The array introduces high gain of 9.36 dB at 5.8 GHz with high front to back ratio of 10.48 dB. The 2×2 DRA array elements exhibit circular polarization over a frequency band of 1.1 GHz. The axial ratio is 1.1 dB at 5.8 GHz. The proposed reader model is simple and has a small size compared with that in the case of planar ground plane. The results are calculated using the finite element method (FEM) and compared with that calculated using the finite integral technique (FIT).