A Wideband Reconfigurable Dielectric Resonator Antenna With Polarization and Pattern Diversities

Abstract

This paper presents a wideband reconfigurable dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with radiation pattern and polarization reconfiguration capabilities for modern wireless communications. Radiation modes, HEM <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11δ</inf> mode and TM <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">01δ</inf> mode of the DRA element are used for the polarization and space diversity. By electronically controlling the state of PIN diodes inserted on a reconfigurable microstrip feeding network, the DRA can generate three linear polarizations (LP), two orthogonal circular polarizations (CP) with reconfigurable broadside and conical beams. Moreover, to obtain a wide overlapped bandwidth, a centre-loaded metal post is introduced that helps to improve the impedance matching of the TM <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">01δ</inf> mode significantly. A prototype of the antenna is simulated, fabricated and measured for demonstration. The proposed antenna is a promising candidate for many wireless systems due to its wideband and good radiation performances.