Wideband Pattern- and Polarization-Reconfigurable Antenna Based on Bistable Composite Cylindrical Shells

Abstract

This paper presents a wideband pattern-and polarization-reconfigurable antenna based on bistable composite cylindrical shells. This antenna, which includes seven radiating metal strips, uses bistable anti-symmetric glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite cylindrical shells as the substrate to achieve reconfigurability without the need for redundant structures or semiconductor devices. This bistable GFRP substrate has two stable cylindrical configurations: extended structure and coiled-up structure. Therefore, by transforming the configuration, the radiation patterns of the proposed antenna are changed, and simultaneously, the polarization is switched between left-handed circular polarization (LHCP) and right-handed circular polarization (RHCP). A prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated and measured. The measured results indicate that the antenna can operate in the frequency range from 2.3 to 3 GHz in the two configurations. The proposed antenna can be utilized as the payload of a satellite.INDEX TERMS Wideband, pattern-reconfigurable antenna, polarization-reconfigurable antenna, bistable cylindrical shells.

Pattern reconfigurable antenna with specified main lobe deflection and stable bandwidth by using bistable composite laminates

“…The bandwidth of the Yagi-Uda antenna in [20] decreased from 420 to 380 MHz with the transformation between the two stable configurations. Vivaldi antenna in [22] decreased its bandwidth from 4.3 to 3.7 GHz. The relative bandwidth of VHF band printed dipole antenna decreased from 15.97% to 13.1% when switching from an expended state to an unexpanded state in [23].…”

“…However, these actuators usually require additional energy to maintain the desired spatial distribution, and their low reliability and high complexity make the application challenging, especially under harsh conditions. Recently, novel materials have been introduced in the field of antenna design, including liquid dielectric materials [16], graphene [17], and bistable composite materials [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Among these, bistable composite laminates have drawn considerable attention in reconfigurable antenna design.…”

“…At present, the existing studies on pattern reconfigurable antennas with bistable substrate primarily focus on antennas with omnidirectional/directional [18,19,23] or directionaldeflection pattern reconfigurability [20][21][22]. For instance, Hu et al [18] utilized the glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) as the substrate to design a microstrip rectangle patch array, with the reconfiguration from the omnidirectional pattern to the directional one.…”

“…In [21], a pattern reconfigurable Yagi-Uda antenna with bistable composite laminates was designed, deflecting the main lobe by 114 • . Zhang et al [22] designed a wideband pattern-and polarization-reconfigurable antenna based on GFRP substrate. By transforming between two stable configurations, the main lobe of the radiation pattern was altered by 80 • , and its polarization was also reconfigured.…”

“…The bandwidth reduction will result in signal distortion and potential frequency conflicts in the crowded spectrum. This is a common issue in current research [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. For example, the microstrip patch array antenna in [18] exhibited a bandwidth decrease from 67 to 62 MHz and its resonant frequency shifted from 2.314 to 2.445 GHz.…”