In this paper, we proposed a new wideband circularly polarized cross-fed magneto-electric dipole antenna. Different from conventional cross-dipole or magneto-electric dipole antennas, the proposed simple geometry realizes a pair of complementary magnetic dipole modes by utilizing the two open slots formed between the four cross-fed microstrip patches for achieving circular polarization and high stable gain across a wide frequency band. No parasitic elements are required for extending the bandwidths; therefore, both the radiation patterns and in-band gain are stable. The simulated field distributions demonstrated the phase complementarity of the two pairs of magnetic and electric dipole modes. A parametric study was also performed to demonstrate the radiation mechanism between the electric and magnetic dipole modes. The radiating elements are realized on a piece of double-sided dielectric substrate fed and mechanically supported by a low-cost commercial semirigid cable. The overall thickness of the antenna is about 0.22λo at the center frequency of axial ratio bandwidth. The measured results show a wide impedance bandwidth (|S11| < -10 dB) of 70.2% from 2.45 to 5.10 GHz. The in-band 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth is 51.5% from 3.0 to 5.08 GHz. More importantly, the gain of the antenna is 9.25 ± 0.56 dBic across the 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth.
Keywords: circular polarization; cross-fed; magneto-electric dipoles; stable high gain; wideband.