A shared aperture antenna with reconfigurable pattern by common and differential modes

Abstract

AbstractIn this letter, a compact pattern‐reconfigurable (PR) antenna for indoor communication is proposed, which can provide one conical, one broadside, and two tilted patterns. The proposed antenna comprises a shared radiation patch with two highly isolated ports and a reconfigurable feeding network. By activating each port independently, a dipole mode with broadside pattern and a monopole mode with conical pattern are acquired, respectively. Meanwhile, inspired by the theory of common and differential modes, two tilted patterns toward and are realized by combining dipole and monopole modes. As a result, four‐type reconfigurable patterns can be obtained. To realize reconfigurability, a functional reconfigurable feeding network is designed with innovation. The proposed antenna is fabricated and measured. The measured overlapped −10 dB impedance bandwidth is 3.28–3.71 GHz (12.3%), and the peak radiation efficiency is superior to 82.7%. The experimental results indicate that the proposed PR antenna has a wide bandwidth and stable radiation patterns, which exhibits attractive potential for fifth‐generation indoor communication in sub‐6 GHz.