A new pattern‐reconfigurable antenna with the function of 360° wide‐beam scanning and main beam direction finely‐adjustable

Abstract

A new pattern‐reconfigurable antenna with the function of 360° wide‐beam scanning and main beam direction finely‐adjustable is proposed in this letter. The antenna consists of a central feeding disc which surrounded by four snowflake radiators on the top layer of the FR4 substrate. PIN diodes are placed between the disc and each snowflake patch for realizing the wide‐angle beam steering of the antenna. By controlling the four PIN diodes on the top layer, main beam can be switched in four directions with about 90° steps in the H‐plane (17°, 106°, 197°, and 287°).The bottom layer of the substrate includes a ground plane with eight rectangular ring slots. Eight PIN diodes installed on each slot are used to further control the beam direction of the antenna. By controlling the states of the PIN diodes on the bottom layer, the main beam of the proposed antenna is capable to deflect rightward or leftward about 10° on the basis of the original four states. The simulated and measured results show that the antenna operates well at 3.64–3.88 GHz under 12 states and achieves good performance with flexible pattern reconfigurability in 12 directions. The proposed antenna could be applied in 5G wireless communication systems.

A wideband planar pattern reconfigurable antenna for IEEE 802.11ac WLAN applications

“…In addition, the antennas in Reference 9,10 have more complex feeding networks and more PIN diodes due to the integration of the phase shifter structures. The proposed antenna has a wider band, width than those in Reference 10,13–15, and narrower bandwidth than those in Reference 11,12. The antennas in Reference 11,12 is with defective ground plane resulting in poor directivity and low gain.…”

“…(2) Antenna array integrated with switches in feeding network. [11][12][13][14][15] Each antenna element has a tilted radiation pattern and is arranged at different position on the substrate. The antenna array is fed by one port with multiple feeding strips linking between the port and the antenna elements.…”

“…The techniques used in the literatures can be summarized as follows: (1) Antenna array integrated with phase shift structures in feeding network forming phased array antenna 9,10 Pattern reconfiguration is obtained by tuning the phase shifts between antenna elements. (2) Antenna array integrated with switches in feeding network 11–15 . Each antenna element has a tilted radiation pattern and is arranged at different position on the substrate.…”

A pattern reconfigurable antenna applied for automobile 5G communication

“…Finally, a comparison between this work and other RPR antennas applied for 5G communication is summarized in Table 3. In Reference 12, the proposed RPR antenna has four beams and each of the beam can be adjustable slightly in three states in its own direction. Similarly, radiation pattern of an RPR antenna designed in Reference 15 can cover both azimuth and elevation plane and realize beam‐steering pattern.…”

“…Nevertheless, these RPR antennas mentioned above still cannot be applied for automobile communication. In Reference 12, an RPR antenna with a 360 degree wide beam is proposed. Also, a flexible RPR antenna for 5G is designed in Reference 13.…”