Search

A quantity called available directivity is defined for a radiating structure in terms of its characteristic mode content. It is shown how its maximum value can be evaluated when a certain number of such modes are considered to be excited with appropriate modal excitation coefficients. The achievable directivity is found by constraining the associated quality factor. This provides a more precise way of determining the prospective directivity of a structure than the usual estimates in terms of the spherical wave modes related to the smallest sphere enclosing the structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel polarization-reconfigurable planar antenna is presented. The antenna consists of an electronically reconfigurable polarizer integrated with a printed slot. By changing the states of the p-i-n diodes on the polarizer, the linearly polarized (LP) waves radiated by the slot can be converted into either right-hand circularly polarized (RHCP) or left-hand CP (LHCP) waves. The polarizer contains 16 unit cells arranged as a $4\times 4$ array. The antenna radiates RHCP waves if the p-i-n diodes on the top side of the polarizer are switched ON, while LHCP waves are radiated if the p-i-n diodes of the bottom side of the polarizer are switched ON instead. The physical mechanisms of the antenna are discussed and the parametric study is carried out by full-wave simulations. To verify the concept, one prototype at 2.5 GHz is designed, fabricated, and measured. Good agreement between the measured and simulated results is obtained. The antenna achieves a gain ≥8.5 dBic in both RHCP and LHCP with an aperture efficiency of 70%. Advantages of the proposed design include electronically reconfigurable polarizations for RHCP or LHCP, low profile, low cost, high isolation between the dc bias circuit and RF signals, high power handling capability, and easy extension to large-scale arrays without increasing the complexity of the dc bias circuit. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an electronically polarization-reconfigurable CP antenna with a single-substrate polarizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A triband antenna with high gain and low profile is proposed. This antenna is based on the concept of Fabry–Perot cavity antenna (FPCA) and three resonances are obtained by employing two frequency selective surface (FSS) layers. Two FSS layers lead to two resonant frequencies by making each FSS layer satisfy the resonant condition of Fabry–Perot cavity. The third resonant frequency is obtained by exploiting the combined effects of the two FSS layers together. The operating principle of this proposed antenna is explained and the achievable frequency range is investigated. It is shown that the proposed method enables all three resonant frequencies to be independently tuned within certain frequency range. Because of the 0° reflection phase of the combined-FSSs, the present antenna has a low profile. To verify the design concept, one C-/X-/Ku-band FPCA is designed, fabricated and tested. Experimental results agree well with the simulated results. High gain with good impedance matching in three bands is obtained, which reaches a peak gain of 13.4 dBi at 5.2 GHz, 18.9 dBi at 9.7 GHz, and 20 dBi at 14.6 GHz. The overall height of the proposed antenna is approximately 0.36 wavelength at its lowest operating frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a novel sequentially rotated patch array antenna with dual circular polarizations (CP). The present design has the advantages of compact size, simple feed networks, low cross polarization, and high isolation. The radiating elements are dual linearly polarized (LP) equilateral triangular patches with hybrid feeds. The vertical polarization (VP) of the patch antenna is obtained by using an aperture-coupled feed and the horizontal polarization (HP) is obtained by using a proximity feed. These two feeds are orthogonally positioned and are printed on different PCB layers, which leads to the high isolation between these two ports and facilitates the design of the feed networks. The array antenna consists of six such dual-LP triangular patches sequentially rotated by 60 ^\circ and fed by separated feed networks. Since LP antenna elements are used, the design of the feed network is much simplified. Through sequentially varying the feeding phase by \pm 60^\circ, dual circular polarizations are obtained. The operation principle of the array antenna is also analytically explained in this paper. To verify the design concept, one dual LP equilateral triangular patch and one dual CP equilateral triangular patch array resonating at 10.5 GHz are designed, fabricated, and tested. There is a good agreement between the simulation and measurement results, both of which show that the array antenna exhibits high port isolation and good circular polarizations with low cross polarization at different planes. The proposed design technique can be applied to the design of dual CP array antennas operating at other frequency bands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A wideband and dual-polarization antenna array with high efficiency and high isolation is proposed. In order to achieve the desired performance, a wideband radiating element and a full-corporate waveguide feed network are employed in the design. In particular, ${{E}}-plane waveguides are utilized for the feed-network configuration so as to suppress wave leakage between adjacent layers when the antenna is fabricated via conventional machining techniques. The operational mechanism is presented and a \text16 \times \text16 antenna array is tested for verification. Experimental results show that the bandwidths of VSWR < \text2.0 for both of the polarizations are about 17.1% (12.45–14.78 GHz) and the isolation between the two polarization ports is better than 39.5 dB. In addition, more than 70% antenna efficiency with higher than 29.4 dBi gain is achieved over the operational bandwidth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]