A Wideband Magneto-Electric Dipole Antenna

A new wideband magneto-electric dipole antenna composed of a horizontal bowtie electric dipole and a vertically oriented folded shorted patch antenna is designed. The antenna is excited by a stair-shaped probe feed without the need of an additional balun. A prototype was fabricated and measured. Results show that an impedance bandwidth of 95.2%, with <formula formulatype="inline"> <tex Notation="TeX">${\rm SWR}\leq 2$</tex></formula> from 1.65 GHz to 4.65 GHz, was achieved. Stable radiation pattern with low cross polarization, low back radiation, nearly identical E- and H-plane patterns and an antenna gain of 7.9 <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$\pm$</tex></formula> 0.9 dBi was found over the operating frequencies.