Planar quasi-isotropic antenna for drone communication

Abstract

In this article, a planar antenna with quasi-isotropic radiation pattern is proposed for applications in drone communication. The proposed antenna consists of top-loaded monopole and slotted loop antennas. The top-loaded monopole provides a monopole-like radiation pattern with a planar profile. To compensate for nulls in the monopole radiation pattern, a slotted loop antenna is added. Therefore, when two radiation patterns are combined, a quasi-isotropic pattern is achieved with a low profile thickness of 7.2 mm. The performance of the proposed antenna is verified by simulation and experimental results. The antenna's 10-dB impedance bandwidth is in the range of 2-2.4 GHz. The quasi-isotropic radiation pattern is verified from both simulation and measured results.