Multi-band, wide-beam, circularly polarized, crossed, asymmetrically barbed dipole antennas for GPS applications

This communication presents a multi-band, circularly polarized (CP), wide beamwidth, highly efficient antenna for use in global positioning systems (GPS). The primary radiating elements are two crossed printed dipoles, which incorporate a 90° phase delay line realized with a vacant-quarter printed ring to produce the CP radiation and broadband impedance matching. To achieve multiple resonances, each dipole arm is divided into four branches with different lengths, and a printed inductor with a barbed end is inserted in each branch to reduce the radiator size. An inverted, pyramidal, cavity-backed reflector is incorporated with the crossed dipoles to produce a unidirectional radiation pattern with a wide 3-dB axial ratio (AR) beamwidth and a high front-to-back ratio. The multi-band antennas have broad impedance matching and 3-dB AR bandwidths, which cover the GPS L1-L5 bands.