Beam-steerable filtering patch antenna with wide-stopband suppression and stable radiation characteristics

Abstract

A method of designing beam-steerable patch antennas with wide stopband suppression is proposed in this article. The wide stopband suppression characteristic is realized by designing suitable parallel coupled lines and open-circuited stubs. The beam steering characteristic is achieved by using a driven patch and two pairs of metal walls vertically placed on both sides of the driven antenna. By controlling the different states of the switching PIN diodes loaded between metal walls, the stable beam steering characteristic can be obtained over the entire operating bandwidth. An experimental antenna is designed and manufactured to validate the approach. The beam steering angles of the simulation and measurement results are ±30°. Moreover, in the three proposed operating states, the out-of-band suppression from 2.6 GHz to 10 GHz is more than 16 dB. The proposed antenna can achieve the characteristic of both wide stopband suppression and beam steering. In addition, the proposed antenna is able to maintain good impedance characteristics during beam steering and maintain stable beam over the entire operating bandwidth.