Design of Wideband Dual-Polarized ME Dipole Antenna With Parasitic Elements and Improved Feed Structure

A wideband dual-polarized antenna is proposed for base station applications. The proposed antenna is composed of two folded and hollowed out magnetoelectric dipoles placed crosswise, as well as a box-shaped reflector, the overall size is 0.97? x 0.97? x 0.27?. Two Gamma-shaped probes with a gradual change in size are used to excite the antenna. By adding parasitic elements to the feeding structure and box-shaped reflector, wide operating bandwidth from 1.59 to 3.65 GHz is realized, where the standing wave ratio is less than 2 and the fractional bandwidth is up to 78.6%. Meanwhile, stable radiation pattern, high front-to-back ratio, and steady boresight gain can also be seen over the whole band. Prototype is fabricated and the measured results verify that the proposed antenna could be a competitive candidate in base station applications.