A multi‐mode pattern reconfigurable antenna with wide beam coverage and its application to dual‐polarized wide‐angle scanning phased array

Abstract

In this paper, radiation patterns of a single-layer microstrip antenna, which can be switched to operate under dual TM11 modes of a circular patch and a TM21 mode of a concentric annular shorted ring patch, is investigated and presented. Broadside and monopole-like patterns under multi modes are combined to broaden the antenna main-beam coverage. Besides, based on the current distributions of these modes, several slots are etched to realize antenna miniaturization. The miniaturized pattern reconfigurable antenna with a joint wide beam is applied to a dual-polarized 5 × 5 planar array, which can scan its main beam from −60° to 60° in both orthogonal planes with a gain fluctuation less than 3 dB. In addition, the array is synthesized with the convex optimization approach to obtain low sidelobe level in its wide-angle scanning range, validated by a full-wave simulation study followed by the experimental verification.