Polarization and Pattern Reconfigurable Cuboid Quadrifilar Helical Antenna

Abstract

A novel cuboid quadrifilar helical antenna (QHA) with polarization and pattern reconfigurabilities is presented. The proposed antenna consists of a reconfigurable radiator and a switchable feeding network. The radiator combines two individual QHAs in a cuboid, which can be alternatively activated. The feeding network provides switchable quadrature excitations to the radiator. By controlling the p-i-n diodes on the radiator and the feeding network, four working states including both polarization and pattern agilities are achieved. The polarization of the antenna can be switched between two orthogonal circular polarizations, and the radiation pattern can be changed between broadside and backfire modes. A prototype designed to operate at 0.9 GHz band is developed and measured. The measured results validated that the antenna achieved the four working states with stable wide-beam radiation patterns. Moreover, the proposed antenna obtained wide impedance and axial-ratio bandwidths (36.2% and 22%, respectively) in a compact size ( $0.26\lambda _{0}\times 0.26\lambda _{0}\times 0.25\lambda _{0}$ ). The proposed antenna which has attractive electrical characteristics can be applied to various wireless communications, e.g., RFID readers, subway, and railway communications.