A Wideband E‐plane Pattern Reconfigurable Antenna with Enhanced Gain

A novel method of steering antenna beam in its E‐plane is introduced and a design of wideband pattern reconfigurable antenna with enhanced gain is proposed in this paper. A bowtie antenna is used as the driven radiator, and two parasitic bowtie‐shaped microstrip stubs with two diodes are loaded beside each arm of the driven radiator. With the introducing of a low profile artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) beneath the bowtie radiator, unidirectional radiation pattern can be obtained. By altering the working states of the diodes, the main beam of the antenna can be switched in its E‐plane. The biasing circuit of the antenna is simple and easy to be implemented. The prototype of the antenna is fabricated, and good agreement can be observed between the simulated and measured results. Compared to other pattern reconfigurable antennas, the proposed antenna has advantages of a wide operating band, ability of beam switching in E‐plane, and high gain. These advantages makes it a good candidate for the wireless communication systems.     

Millimeter‐wave antenna with wide‐scan angle radiation characteristics for MIMO applications

A three‐element quasi Yagi‐Uda antenna array with printed metamaterial surface generated from the array of uniplanar capacitively loaded loop (CLL) unit‐cells printed on the substrate operating in the band 25‐30 GHz is proposed. The metamaterial surface is configured to provide a high‐refractive index to tilt the electromagnetic (EM) beam from the two dipole antennas placed opposite to each other. The metamaterial region focuses the rays from the dipole antenna and hence increases the gain of the individual antennas by about 5 dBi. The antenna elements are printed on a 10 mil substrate with a center to center separation of about 0.5 λ ₀ at 28 GHz. The three‐element antenna covers 25‐30 GHz band with measured return loss of 10 dB and isolation greater than 15 dB between all the three ports. The measured gain of about 11 dBi is achieved for all the antenna elements. The three antenna elements radiate in three different directions and cover a radiation scan angle of 64°.     

A low‐profile antenna with circularly polarized reconfigurable and omnidirectional radiation patterns

A low profile circularly polarized (CP) antenna with reconfigurable polarization is designed and presented, which can radiate omnidirectional patterns that can be switched between left‐hand circularly polarized (LHCP) and right‐hand circularly polarized (RHCP). A pair of arc‐shaped complementary dipoles is acted as reconfigurable elements by bridging four pin diodes at the dipole arced arms. A meander phase shift line is employed to connected the arc dipole arms and plate cavity to adjust the phase relationship of two sources. The proposed antenna exhibits the omnidirectional radiation pattern by combining six identical elements placed in a circular array configuration. 24 p‐i‐n diodes are exploited to six elements, by manipulating the dc bias voltage across the diodes, the polarization state of the antenna can be switched. The patterns of the antenna are similar to that of a dipole, but its size is only about Φ0.87 × 0.029λ₀ at 5.8 GHz. The overlapped bandwidth of measured 3‐dB axial ratio (AR) and 10‐dB return loss is 5.724‐5.87 and 5.738‐5.91 GHz for two polarization states, which are right on the target of ISM band. It can be well adapted to medical diagnosis systems.     

A printed dual‐band dipole filtenna with flexible frequency ratio and improved band‐notched performance

A printed dual‐band dipole filtenna with flexible frequency ratio and improved band‐notched performance is proposed. It consists of a driven dipole and three parasitic elements. For the driven dipole with short and long arms, a radiation null is found between two passbands, which achieves a band‐notched filtering characteristic. Two parasitic elements are introduced to enhance the passband bandwidth and an additional parasitic element is utilized to improve the band‐notched performance. In addition, the characteristics of the proposed design including flexible frequency ratio, independent controllable operating frequency, and controllable band‐notched bandwidth have also been demonstrated. A filtenna prototype is fabricated and tested. Measured results show that a fractional bandwidth of 21.1% and 18.1% is obtained in the lower and upper passbands, respectively. The measured efficiency is 84% in the lower band and 74% in the upper band but the efficiency sharply decreases to about 13% within the notched band.     

Reconfigurable ultra‐wideband monopole antenna with single‐, dual‐, and triple‐band notched functions

A miniaturized ultra‐wideband (UWB) monopole antenna with reconfigurable multiple‐band notched performance is demonstrated. By modifying the shape of the patch and the ground plane, the UWB operation is achieved. The first and second band‐notches are respectively generated by etching a rectangular slot with open ends and a U‐shaped slot in the patch, and the third band‐notch is produced by loading a C‐shaped parasitic element beneath the patch. To realize the reconfigurable band‐notched functions, four PIN diodes are inserted in three band‐rejected structures. The antenna has a compact dimension of 30 mm × 26 mm. It can switch between a UWB state and several band‐notch states by alternating the states of the diodes. Also, good radiation patterns are obtained.     

Low‐profile omnidirectional circularly polarized antenna based on substrate integrated waveguide technology

A substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) circularly polarized (CP) antenna with omnidirectional radiation in the azimuthal plane is proposed. The antenna consists of five identical end‐fire CP antenna elements in a pentagonal array configuration, which is loaded on a circular substrate. Each element contains an H‐plane horn antenna in SIW structure and a printed dipole antenna. Five parasitic curve elements are introduced to improve the omnidirectional property of the antenna. Combined with complementary dipoles theory and SIW technology, prototype antenna is designed, fabricated and measured. With a low profile of 0.024λ₀, the antenna has a 10‐dB return‐loss impedance bandwidth of 4.08% (2.4～2.5 GHz) and a 3‐dB axial‐ratio (AR) bandwidth of 5.76% (2.36～2.50 GHz). The antenna works well in the 2.45 GHz ISM band, with good cross‐polarization and excellent omnidirectional property.     

Printed monopole antenna with tunable band‐notched characteristic for use in mobile and ultra‐wide band applications

A tunable band‐notch printed monopole antenna is presented, exhibiting a wide impedance bandwidth from 1.5 to 5.5 GHz with good impedance matching (VSWR ≤ 2) and a tunable rejected frequency band from 2.38 to 3.87 GHz. The band‐notching is achieved by adding an inner chorded crescent element within a driven element of a similar shape. By varying the value of the varactor, which is placed between the inner and outer arcs, the desired variable rejected can be obtained. Simulated and measured results show wide impedance bandwidth with a tunable band notch, stable radiation patterns, and consistent nearly constant gain. The antenna is suitable for mobile and portable applications. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:403–412, 2015.     

A dual‐band dual‐mode microstrip Yagi antenna with quasi‐end‐fire radiation

A dual‐band dual‐mode microstrip Yagi antenna with quasi‐end‐fire radiation patterns is proposed in this paper. It consists of five radiating patches driven by a single slot‐loaded patch placed in the middle. Meanwhile, two slot‐loaded parasitic patches are symmetrically located on two sides of the driven patch, respectively. In the lower band, the five patches involved resonate at TM₀₁ mode. While in the upper band, all the patches resonate at TM₀₂ mode. In order to ensure quasi‐end‐fire radiations in the both bands, four slots are symmetrically etched around the strongest surface currents of each patch resonating at TM₀₂ mode. As a result, the resonant frequency of TM₀₂ mode is decreased dramatically, while the resonant frequency of TM₀₁ mode almost remains unchanged. With these arrangements, the separations between any two of the adjacent patches at their centers satisfy the requirements in design of the microstrip Yagi antenna in both bands, so as to realize the dual‐band dual‐mode microstrip Yagi antenna on a single‐layer substrate. Finally, an antenna prototype is fabricated and tested. The measured results reveal that the dual operating bands of 2.76~2.88 and 4.88~5.03 GHz for |S₁₁| < ?10 dB are satisfactorily achieved. Most importantly, the proposed antenna can indeed realize the quasi‐end‐fire radiation patterns in dual operating bands.     

A reconfigurable multiband rhombic shaped microstrip antenna for wireless smart applications

This article proposes a reconfigurable multiband rhombic shaped microstrip antenna (RMRS‐MSA) up to 20 GHz based on wireless smart applications. In this article radio frequency (RF) PIN diodes are loaded with microstrip feed line on radiating patch for frequency switching. It has a rhombic shaped copper loaded radiating patch. This radiating patch has two more connected rhombic patches inside with a 1 mm gap named as radiating patch 1 and radiating patch 2. These rhombic shaped radiating patches are enclosed with a square parasitic patch for achieving directional radiation pattern. A prototype of reconfigurable multiband rhombic shaped reconfigurable MSA is fabricated using a 30 × 30 mm² on FR‐4 substrate with a dielectric thickness of 1.6 mm. The proposed RMRS‐MSA is designed, fabricated, and experimentally validated. The experimental report at center frequency 5.21, 9.41, 10.46, 12.69, 14.39, and 17.09 GHz have reflection coefficients of ?16.89, ?25.54, ?24.86, ?28.62, ?26.80 and ?43.02 dB, respectively, when all diodes are OFF. Similarly, when all diodes are ON, at center frequency 14.57 and 15.18 GHz have reflection coefficients of ?26.15 and ?28.99 dB, respectively. The measured and simulated results agree well. The proposed antenna is more suitable for C, X, and Ku band‐based applications.     

Compact planar frequency reconfigurable multiple‐input‐multiple‐output antenna with pattern and polarization diversity characteristics for WiFi and WiMAX standards

A compact planar frequency reconfigurable dual‐band multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna with high isolation and pattern/polarization diversity characteristics is presented in this article for WiFi and WiMAX standards. The MIMO configuration incorporates two symmetrically placed identical antenna elements and covers overall size of 24 mm × 24 mm × 0.762 mm. Reconfiguration of each antenna element is achieved by using a PIN diode which allows antennas to switch from state‐1 (2.3‐2.4 GHz and 4.6‐5.5 GHz) to state‐2 (3.3‐3.5 GHz and 4.6‐5.5 GHz). In state‐1, the configuration offers isolation ≥18 dB and 20 dB in lower band (LB) and upper band (UB) respectively; whereas, in state‐2, isolation ≥21 dB and 20 dB in LB and UB respectively is achieved. The same decoupling circuit provides high isolation in dual‐band of two states, which makes overall size of the proposed design further compact. The antennas are characterized in terms of envelope correlation coefficient, radiation pattern, gain, and efficiency. From measured and simulated results, it is verified that the proposed frequency reconfigurable dual‐band multi‐standard MIMO antenna design shows desirable performance in both operating bands of each state and compact size of the design makes it suitable for small form factor devices used in future wireless communication systems.     

A reconfigurable microstrip cross parasitic antenna with complete azimuthal beam scanning and tunable beamwidth

In this article, a reconfigurable cross parasitic antenna is proposed to achieve complete azimuthal beam scanning and tunable beamwidth in the E‐ and H‐plane. The antenna consists of a square‐shaped driven element and four size‐tunable parasitic elements placed on each side of the driven element. Each tunable parasitic element is composed of a hexagonal slot loaded with two varactor diodes. The tunable parasitic element shows dual‐resonance behavior and hence its effective electrical size can be controlled with respect to the driven element. The radiated beam of the cross antenna is continuously scanned in the elevation plane from θ = 0° to 10.8°, 0° to 32.4°, and 0° to 40° in ? = (0°, 180°), (45°, 135°, 225°, 315°), and (90°, 270°) planes, respectively. Moreover, the 3‐dB beamwidth of the cross antenna is continuously tuned from 65° to 152° and from 64° to 116° in the E‐ and H‐plane, respectively. The antenna shows good impedance matching in all the operating modes with ?10 dB bandwidth from 2.43 to 2.47 GHz. A prototype of the antenna is fabricated to experimentally verify the simulated reflection and radiation characteristics.     

Compact frequency reconfigurable triple band notched monopole antenna for ultrawideband applications

A compact ultra‐wideband (UWB) reconfigurable microstrip fed monopole antenna having size of 0.22 λ₀ × 0.28 λ₀ × 0.005 λ₀ with switchable frequency bands is presented. Triple band notched characteristics are achieved by inserting two stubs at top of radiator and one slot in between the radiator and microstrip feed line. Proposed antenna achieves reconfigurability with three PIN diodes at strategic positions to obtain eight different operational modes. In one of the operational modes, antenna operates in the entire UWB (3‐14 GHz) with fractional bandwidth of 127.5%. Two stubs are used to notch two frequency bands worldwide interoperability for microwave access (3.3‐3.6 GHz/WiMAX) and C‐band (3.7‐4.2 GHz). T‐shaped slot is also inserted to notch wireless local area network (5.725‐5.825 GHz/WLAN) frequency band. Proper biasing of PIN diodes is done by using suitable chip inductors and capacitors. Proposed antenna exhibits stable radiation patterns with average gain of around 3 dBi. Simulation and measurement results are in good agreement. Proposed antenna is suitable for on‐demand band rejection of parasitic bands coexisting in UWB.     

Novel planar reconfigurable circularly polarized complementary antenna for unidirectional end‐fire radiation

In this article, a novel planar reconfigurable circular polarization (CP) complementary antenna for unidirectional end‐fire radiation is proposed. Its radiator is the combination of a shorted quarter wavelength patch and an electric dipole, which provide the vertical and horizontal polarizations, respectively. By adding a 90° phase delay line, the proposed antenna radiates CP electromagnetic waves in the unidirectional end‐fire direction. Four p‐i‐n diodes are also inserted at joints of the electric dipole and the phase delay lines, and two orthogonal CP states, left‐hand (LH) and right‐hand (RH) CPs, can be switched. In order to reduce the number of DC bias lines, electric dipole arms on both sides of the substrate are connected by metal via‐holes, which simplifies the DC bias lines. The proposed antenna at 2.45 GHz is designed and fabricated. Its measured impedance bandwidth with |S₁₁| < ?10 dB and 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth are 2.1% and 10.7%, respectively. Additionally, its maximum half power beamwidth in xoz plane is 196°. Reasonable agreement between the measured and simulated results validates the polarization reconfigurability of the proposed antenna.     

A novel pattern‐reconfigurable grid array antenna

This article presents the design of a grid array antenna with pattern reconfigurable ability. Discussion of various factors that affect the radiation pattern is presented. Interdigital structure, which serves as short radiation line of grid array antenna is then introduced to reconfigure radiation pattern. Change of main beam direction is realized via state change of PIN diodes loaded in interdigital structure and variation of feed point. The scanning angle varies from ?33° to +38° and the average gain is about 10 dBi. The proposed antenna was fabricated and measured. Measured results show the proposed antenna possesses good beam‐scanning characteristics and has potential value in long‐distance power supply for various passive nodes.     

Integrated Vivaldi antenna for UWB/diversity applications in vehicular environment

This article presents the design of a three‐port diversity antenna capable of producing three‐directional radiation pattern for vehicular communications. The proposed antenna consists of three uncorrelated Vivaldi antennas that are interconnected and developed on a single printed circuit board. Unlike many other antennas reported for the vehicular environment, the proposed antenna offers ultra‐wideband characteristics with end‐fire radiation pattern leading to high realized antenna gain. The integrated antenna has a footprint of 65 × 40 × 1.6 mm³ and offers 6 GHz impedance bandwidth extending from 5 to 11 GHz. The port‐to‐port isolation is greater than 20 dB within the operating bandwidth. Furthermore, the diversity performance of the proposed three‐port antenna system is evaluated and presented. The calculated envelope correlation coefficient, diversity gain, and mean effective gain are well above the minimum requirement. The prototype antenna is fabricated and the experimental results are presented.     

A dipole‐type millimeter‐wave antenna with directional radiation characteristics

A dipole‐type millimeter‐wave (mm‐wave) antenna with directional radiation characteristics is presented. A radiating patch structure composed of a dipole‐type radiation patch and a rectangular‐shaped parasitic patch are initially investigated to achieve a wider bandwidth. To further improve the operating bandwidth and to realize a directional radiation characteristic, this radiating patch structure is top‐loaded above a conducting cavity‐backed ground structure, which has a low profile (thickness of 3 mm). The measured results show that the proposed mm‐wave antenna can achieve a wide 10‐dB bandwidth of 51.3% (29.6‐50.0 GHz) and stable gain across the desired frequency range. Furthermore, good directional characteristics over the entire mm‐wave frequency band with a compact antenna size of 0.64λ_40GHz × 0.91_λ40GHz × 0.43_λ40GHz are also realized. Hence, it is suitable for many small size wireless mm‐wave systems.     

A state‐of‐art review on band‐notch characteristics in UWB antennas

Ultra‐wideband technology has experienced a rapid growth over the last decade for its contribution in different sectors of human society. Printed antennas are considered as preferred platform for implementing this technology because of its alluring characteristics like light weight, low cost, ease of fabrication, integration capability with other systems, etc. Antennas developed for ultra‐wideband applications are desired to have notch characteristics for avoiding interference with other existing radio communication systems. The techniques related to design and developments of printed band‐notched antennas are continuously upgraded for improving the antenna performance. In this article, a comprehensive review has been carried out on ultra‐wideband antennas with band notch characteristics proposed in around last decade. The band notched UWB antennas available in the literature have broadly been classified into five different categories based on their notch characteristics like single band‐notch, dual band‐notch, triple band‐notch, quad/multiple band‐notch, and reconfigurable/tunable band‐notch, respectively. This review exercise may be helpful for beginners working on ultra‐wideband band‐notched antennas and also such a review process is not available in the open literature to the best of author's knowledge.     

A high‐gain dual‐band directional/omnidirectional reconfigurable antenna for WLAN systems

A high‐gain dual‐band antenna for the wireless local area network system is presented in this article. Two symmetrical linear arrays can be dynamically reconfigured that could switch radiation pattern with a switchable feed circuit between direction and omnidirection. The antenna can also be used for a pattern diversity antenna for the multiple‐input–multiple‐output communication systems. The design process for the antenna system is given, and the parameters and characteristics of the antennas are achieved by the method. Measured return losses, isolation, and radiation patterns are in good agreement with the simulated ones, which illustrates that the method is valid and the antenna system can be integrated with pattern reconfigurable and pattern diversity applications. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2008.     

Gain enhanced multipattern reconfigurable antenna for vehicular communications

This article presents the design and implementation of a high‐gain tunable dual‐band pattern reconfigurable antenna for vehicular communications. The proposed antenna consists of a slotted patch loaded with a double‐side FSS acting as superstrate. The proposed slotted antenna operates at 2.45 and 3.5 GHz and the frequency tuning over the dual‐band is accomplished by employing a varactor diode for tuning the center frequency from 2.41 to 2.62 GHz and from 3.38 to 3.65 GHz at lower and upper frequency bands, respectively. To obtain pattern reconfiguration, the slotted patch is divided into four regions by using two diagonal lines of vias. By properly choosing the excitation port combinations, 14 different radiation patterns are realized with a maximum realized gain of 8.4 and 7.9 dB. Further enhancement of gain is achieved using frequency‐selective surface (FSS) screens which act as a partially reflecting surface. The unique feature of this design is to provide reflection coefficient with high reflectivity in two predetermined frequency ranges. The prototype antenna is fabricated and the measurement results are reported. The experimental results show that the prototype antenna with FSS offers tunable dual‐band with beam reconfigurable properties.     

Multiband multiple‐input multiple‐output antenna with high isolation for future 5G smartphone applications

A multiband high‐isolation multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna using balanced mode and coupled neutralization line (NL) is presented in this article. The balanced modes of dipole and loop antennas, which leads to good isolation intrinsically are used for the 8 × 8 MIMO in the LTE bands 42 (3400‐3600 MHz)/Chinese 5G band (3300‐3400 and 3400‐3600 MHz). The unbalanced mode of loop antennas, which optimized by decoupling structure are designed for the 4 × 4 MIMO in the LTE band 40 (2300‐2400 MHz). Therefore, the eight‐antenna array is formed by four dipole elements and four loop elements. The simulated and measured results show that the proposed antenna can cover 2300 to 2400 and 3300 to 3600 MHz, with reflection coefficient better than ?6 dB and isolation higher than 15 dB. Good radiation performance and low envelope correlation coefficient can also be obtained. Specific absorption rate of user's hand is also discussed in this article.