Patent 7623085 was granted and assigned to Lockheed Martin on November, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An artificial dielectric antenna structure for reducing the mass and insertion loss of an antenna is provided. The artificial dielectric antenna structure includes a plurality of layers of dielectric material. Each layer of dielectric material has a dielectric constant. The artificial dielectric antenna structure further includes a plurality of spacing layers interposed between the plurality of layers of dielectric material. Each of the plurality of spacing layers has a dielectric constant lower than the dielectric constant of any of the plurality of layers of dielectric material. The artificial dielectric antenna structure may be disposed within a horn antenna. The artificial dielectric antenna structure may alternately be disposed upon a transmission medium to form a dielectric resonator antenna.