A vehicular rooftop, shark-fin, multiband antenna for the GPS/LTE/cellular/DSRC systems

A shark-fin rooftop multiband antenna for the automotive industry is proposed. The antenna system receives Right Hand Circularly Polarized (RHCP) satellite signals for the Global Positioning System's (GPS) L1-Band and Vertically Linearly Polarized (VLP) signals for the Long Term Evolution (LTE), the cellular frequencies, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) and the Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) system. A ceramic patch antenna element was used for the GPS signals and a printed monopole utilizing printed ground sleeve technique for the cellular and LTE signals. A study of four potential DSRC antenna elements to determine the appropriate antenna element location within the antenna cover to obtain optimum performance is also presented and discussed in detail. The antenna module was measured on a 1-meter diameter ground plane and on a vehicle roof model. The design and measurements results are presented and discussed below.