Compact differential‐fed dipole antenna with wide bandwidth, stable gain and low cross‐polarisation

A novel differential‐fed dipole antenna with compact size is proposed and investigated. The size of the antenna is only 0.8 λ 0 × 0.8 λ 0 × 0.13 λ 0 (where λ 0 is the free‐space wavelength at the centre frequency). By utilising a pair of complementary sources, the antenna achieves good unidirectional radiation performances. The antenna has an impedance bandwidth of 38.5% for SWR < 2 from 1.63 to 2.4 GHz. The boresight gain ranges from 7.8 to 9.6 dBi. The cross‐polarisation level is lower than −25 dB while the front‐to‐back ratio is above 12 dB across the operating frequency band. Moreover, the antenna is simple structured and easy to be fabricated.