Wideband Multi-polarization Reconfigurable Antenna based on Non-uniform Polarization Convert AMC Reflector

Abstract

A novel design of wideband multi-polarization reconfigurable antenna is proposed, based on a non-uniform polarization convert artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) reflector. The proposed antenna consists of a radiator element and an AMC reflector. Firstly, a modified polarization convert AMC reflector is designed. The non-uniform AMC reflector causes an enhancement of 3 dB axial ratio (AR) performance. Secondly, a wideband linearly polarized monopole antenna is presented as the main radiator, utilizing the broadband characteristic of a C-shaped monopole. The polarization reconfigurability of the proposed antenna can be achieved by properly rotating the AMC reflector, which can be switched between linear polarization (LP), left-hand circular polarization (LHCP), and right-hand circular polarization (RHCP). A prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated and experimented with to validate the theoretical performance. The measured results show a -10 dB impedance bandwidth of 42.7% and 44.4% for LP and CP modes, respectively, and a 3 dB AR bandwidth of 20% for CP modes. In addition, the measured peak gain reaches 8 dBi/dBic. A good agreement is shown between the simulation and measurement, pointing to the good performance of the proposed antenna.