A pattern-reconfigurable, flexible, wideband, directive, electrically small near-field resonant parasitic (NFRP) antenna is presented. The antenna consists of a pair of Egyptian axe dipole (EAD) near-field resonant parasitic (NFRP) elements, together with a pair of shaped metallic strips that act as the driven element and are fed by a coaxial cable. These NFRP and driven elements are designed to achieve compactness. Two pairs of p-in (PIN) diodes are integrated into the driven element to enable the pattern-reconfigurability. The antenna has two switchable directive end-fire states, each pointed in direct opposition to the other. Examples of the evolution of the antenna are used to illustrate its operating principles. A prototype of the optimized design operating in a frequency range centered at 1.8 GHz was fabricated and measured. The simulated and experimental results are in good agreement. The antenna exhibits a wide, ~13.1 % impedance bandwidth and a ~4.42 dBi peak realized gain in both pattern-reconfigurable states while maintaining its electrically small size: ka ~ 0.94. The flexibility of this antenna is demonstrated under different bending conditions by mounting it on cylinders with several different radii and the results confirm that its performance characteristics are maintained under all of them. Index Terms-Electrically small antennas, end-fire radiation, flexible, near-field resonant parasitic antennas, pattern reconfigurability, wideband. I. INTRODUCTION ith the continuing advances in integrated circuit (IC) technology, radio frequency (RF) front-ends are making

A vertically polarized, low-profile, compact, near-field resonant parasitic (NFRP) antenna with pattern-reconfigurability is demonstrated. The antenna has three dynamic end-fire states facilitated with only three p-in (PIN) diodes. The radiation pattern in each state covers more than 120° in its azimuth plane and, hence, it achieves beam-scanning that covers the entire azimuth plane. The antenna height and transverse size are, respectively, only 0.048 λ 0 and 0.1 λ 0 2. Measured results, in good agreement with their simulated values, demonstrate that the antenna exhibits a ~11% fractional impedance bandwidth and a ~6.6 dBi peak realized gain in all three of its pattern-reconfigurable states. Stable and high peak realized gain values are realized over its entire operational band surrounding 2.22 GHz.

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