Pattern Reconfigurable, Low-Profile, Vertically Polarized, ZOR-Metasurface Antenna for 5G Application

Abstract

A novel miniaturized, aperture-shared, vertically polarized (VP), zeroth-order resonance (ZOR)-based, metasurface antenna with pattern reconfigurability is proposed for sub-6 GHz fifth-generation (5G) application in this article. By exploring an aperture-shared ZOR metasurface with only four p-i-n diodes, the proposed pattern reconfigurable metasurface radiator can be operated at nine radiation states (one omnidirectional beam and eight scanning beams with 45° step). This novel reconfigurable ZOR metasurface is analyzed by equivalent circuit, array theory, and field distribution. To validate the proposed working principles and design guidelines, this VP metasurface-based pattern reconfigurable antenna with a low profile of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.05\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is fabricated and measured. It exhibits an 11.5% overlapped −10 dB impedance bandwidth (3.40–3.8 GHz, well covering B42/B43 LTE bands) and a 4.5 dBi peak gain in different radiation states. With the advantages of a miniaturized size (low profile), broadband, flexible pattern switching capacity, good radiation performance, and simple design, it is well poised for space-limited sub-6 GHz microcell applications.