An artificial magnetic conductor loaded, polarization reconfigurable circular patch array antenna

Abstract

A low‐profile polarization reconfigurable circular patch array antenna is presented in this article. It is illustrated that by introducing two reverse arrangement diodes in every concentric ring patch, the direction of current on the surface of the antenna can be switched flexibly, by controlling the operating states of the diodes. Thus, the polarization of the proposed array antenna can be switched in either left hand circularly polarization or right hand circularly polarization. The introductions of artificial magnetic conductor decrease the profile of the proposed antenna. The performances of the proposed antenna were validated by the prototype processing. The measurement results show that the proposed antenna has a 16.3% impedance bandwidth and a 6% 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth. It exhibits a 9.5 dB broadside gain in the CP band. The profile of the proposed antenna is 46.9% lower than the previous design. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulation results. And it has potential applications in S‐band satellite communications.