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A monopole antenna with dual (linear/circular) polarization reconfigurability for X-band applications is presented in this paper. The antenna consists of a bent arm cross-shaped (BACS) slot created on the inverted triangular staircase fractal (ITSF) shaped patch. Two PIN diodes are embedded on the opposite side of the horizontal arm of the BACS slot for electronic switching between two different polarization states. By varying the biasing conditions of PIN diodes, the measured antenna’s 3 dB axial ratio (AR) operational band for left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) is observed from 9.88 GHz to 11.06 GHz, whereas linear polarization (LP) is achieved from 7.95 GHz to 12.64 GHz. The measured peak gain of the antenna is 5.71 dBi, whereas the average peak gain is obtained as 4.97 dBi. The size of the antenna is $1.57\mathrm {\lambda }_{\mathrm {g}}\times 1.25\mathrm {\lambda }_{\mathrm {g}}$ where, $\mathrm {\lambda }_{\mathrm {g}}$ is guided wavelength at the lowest cutoff frequency, 7.95 GHz. The proposed monopole antenna’s progressive design steps, an equivalent lumped circuit model analysis, and a comparative study between electromagnetic (EM) simulation and measured results are carried out to validate the antenna’s performance.

Polarization reconfigurable antennas at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies are important technologies for 5G and beyond wireless communications systems. This article presents an mm-wave multi-linear polarization (LP) reconfigurable antenna. It employs a resonant TM510-mode air-filled cavity as the base, and a circular array of slots is uniformly etched on its top surface to provide a rotationally symmetrical “excitation” for the multi-LP antenna. An upper substrate printed with engineered patch layers is introduced above the slots for an in-phase high-gain composition, and it is mechanically rotated to facilitate the multi-LP reconfiguration. Each slot radiation is separately monitored and analyzed by using single-slot cavity models. A final multi-LP antenna that can switch among five LP states at mm-wave band was constructed. To overcome the classic high sidelobe problem associated with circular arrays, a modified bottom layer is introduced to the multi-LP antenna. The measured overlapped bandwidth of the optimized multi-LP antenna ranges from 28.58 to 28.99 GHz. For all of the five LP states, the simulated and measured sidelobe levels are −13 and −10 dB, respectively. The measured realized gains are varied from 15.5 to 16.8 dBi in the overlapped operating bandwidth. This is the first time to report an mm-wave multi-LP reconfigurable antenna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A circularly-polarized-reconfigurable patch antenna based on fluidic control method is proposed in this paper. A liquid dielectric, ethyl acetate, is introduced to change the substrate of a patch antenna from homogeneous to inhomogeneous. Two orthogonal fundamental transverse magnetic (TM) modes are excited with a 90° phase difference in order to produce circularly polarized (CP) radiation. Then, the polarization of the proposed patch antenna is switchable between left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) through the injection of the liquid dielectric to different channels in the substrate. For demonstration, the proposed antenna is designed at 2.4 GHz for radio frequency identification (RFID) application. According to the measured result, the proposed circular-polarization-reconfigurable patch antenna has a stable circularly polarized (CP) gain of 8 dBic and an efficiency of 90 % across the effective frequency band. Additionally, the measured overlapped impedance bandwidth of two polarization state is from 2.24 to 2.52 GHz which can fully cover the measured overlapped 3-dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth from 2.38 to 2.43 GHz.

This paper presents a novel polarization-reconfigurable antenna based on the combination of circularly polarized (CP) modes, which is capable of changing its polarization states among arbitrary linear polarizations (LPs), left-handed circular polarization (LHCP) and right-handed circular polarization (RHCP). A truncated square patch with two isolated aperture-coupling feeds is used as radiation element operating at 2.45 GHz, which can operate in two orthogonal CP modes with low crosstalk. By exciting one of the two feeding microstrip lines, LHCP or RHCP mode can be independently generated. Meanwhile, by simultaneously exciting the two feeding microstrip lines with identical amplitudes but with different initial phases, LP mode with polarization plane oriented in any desired azimuth direction can be obtained. The simulated and measured peak gain of the proposed antenna remains at about 6.8 dBi at 2.45 GHz and the impedance matching bandwidth ranging from 2.25 to 2.60 GHz is fully overlapped for all the polarization states. Experimental results show a good performance of the proposed antenna.

In this paper, a penta-polarization reconfigurable antenna with mushroom-type metamaterial loading is proposed, which can operate in x-direction linear polarization (x-LP), y-LP, 45°-LP, left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right-hand circular polarization (RHCP). In order to realize polarization reconfigurability, a dual-port dual LP mushroom antenna excited by crossed H-shape slot is designed by characteristic mode analysis (CMA). Through shifting the states of PIN diodes on the reconfigurable feeding network, the amplitude and phase distributions of two ports of the dual LP antenna can be dynamically controlled and the five polarization modes can be achieved. A prototype with a profile of 0.06λ0 at 5.2 GHz (λ0 is the operated wavelength in free space) is simulated and measured. The measurement results exhibit a wide impedance bandwidth over 33.2% for LPs and over 38.7% for CPs. In addition, the measured axial ratio bandwidths are 28.0% for LHCP and 30.3% for RHCP, and the maximum measured boresight gains of all modes are higher than 8.2 dBi. The simulated and measured results verify that the proposed antenna can achieve a balance between low-profile and broadband on the basis of penta-polarization reconfigurability. The proposed antenna can be applied to polarization diversity and C band satellite communication.

Based on characteristic mode theory (CMT), a quad-polarization reconfigurable antenna with suppressed cross polarization is proposed in this article. The proposed antenna is composed of the radiator, excitation units, and feeding network. A square conductive slab (SCS) is used as the main radiator, which is designed elaborately by characteristic mode analysis (CMA). Different modes of the radiator are stimulated selectively by four groups of balanced inductive exciters (BIEs) to realize horizontal polarization (HP), vertical polarization (VP), left-hand circular polarization (LHCP), and right-hand circular polarization (RHCP). Two p-i-n diodes are embedded into the feeding network to switch the excitation states of the four groups of BIEs, thereby achieving quad-polarization reconfiguration. More importantly, a novel method exploiting the CMA is adopted for achieving low cross polarization. By means of introducing the orthogonal mode, the cross-polarization component of the fundamental mode can be canceled out by the co-polarization component of the orthogonal mode, which greatly reduces the cross polarization from −10 to −40 dB in the two principal planes. The measurement results demonstrate that the quad-polarization agility and a cross-polarization level around −30 dB under all polarization states are achieved simultaneously, verifying the functionality and reliability of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a novel helical antenna made of pure water. The water helical antenna is realized by replacing the metallic arm of a conventional helical antenna with a plastic tube of circular cross section filled with pure water. The axially symmetric TM01 mode is excited along the water arm and accounts for the wave propagation and radiation. Circular polarization (CP) is achieved by choosing a proper dimension of the water helix. The measured results show that the proposed water helical antenna has an overlapping impedance bandwidth ($\vert \text{S}_{11}\vert < -10$ dB) and an axial ratio (AR) bandwidth from 1.27 to 2.13 GHz, or 50.6% fractional bandwidth. A water helix antenna with polarization reconfigurability is also designed and demonstrated. The measured results show that the proposed helix antenna exhibits polarization-reconfigurable capability over a wide frequency band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A linearly polarized (LP) wave with an arbitrary polarization plane is generated by combining left-handed circularly polarized (LHCP) and right-handed circularly polarized (RHCP) waves radiated from a dual-circularly polarized patch antenna. The polarization plane of the LP wave is continuously controlled by changing the phase difference between the LHCP and RHCP waves by using variable phase shifters composed of a quadrature hybrid and varactor diodes. Experimental results show that the polarization plane rotates continuously from −95° to 107° with a cross-polarization discrimination kept better than 22 dB in the boresight direction at 5.2 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a Fabry–Pérot resonator antenna (FPRA) with a metamaterial-loaded cavity is presented. The proposed antenna preserves the simplicity from single resonant cavity and linearly polarized (LP) feed. A 3-D-printed all-dielectric metamaterial structure with hybrid locally periodic patterns is placed between the superstrate and the ground plane. The loaded metamaterial provides a new configuration for achieving self-generated circular polarization (CP) for the FPRA. Owing to the fact that the generation of CP relies solely on the anisotropy of the metamaterial, independent control of the axial ratio (AR) and directivity becomes possible, thus avoiding potential tradeoffs to be made between the AR bandwidth and the directivity increment. In addition, further polarization agility between CP and LP states can be obtained by employing different angular rotations of the metamaterial with respect to the feed antenna. The proposed concept is verified through a design example carried out at around 10 GHz showing an overlapped impedance and AR bandwidth of 6.7% (from 9.6 to 10.27 GHz). The design considerations are given with the help of performing the ray-tracing analysis. The agreement between the measurement and full-wave simulation justifies the validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel multi-linear polarization (multi-LP) reconfigurable unidirectional circular patch antenna is proposed, which can switch among four LPs at every 45° rotation. The patch antenna is fed in the center and shorting posts are used to excite TM11 mode with LP. By controlling the connections between the four shorting posts and the ground plane using p-i-n diodes, four reconfigurable polarization states at \phi =0 ^\circ , \phi =45 ^\circ , \phi =90 ^\circ , or \phi =135 ^\circ can be realized. The size of this antenna is about $0.57\lambda \times 0.57\lambda \times 0.07\lambda $ at 2.45 GHz. It can be easily fabricated and has a simple biasing network. The measured overlapping impedance bandwidth for different polarizations under the condition |\text{S}11| \leq -10 dB is from 2.33 to 2.50 GHz, which agrees well with the simulated one. Moreover, the antenna maintains stable radiation patterns and the measured realized gains range from 5.3 to 5.9 dBi. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A novel partially reflective surface (PRS) antenna is proposed, which can electronically alter its polarization between linear polarization, left-hand circular polarization (CP), and right-hand CP. The antenna consists of a shorted annular patch antenna as the source, a PRS structure to enhance the gain, and a reconfigurable Wilkinson power divider as the feed network. Four p-i-n diodes are inserted into each branch of the power divider to change its electrical length. By switching the p-i-n diodes ON and OFF, a phase difference of 0°, 90°, or −90° can be realized at the two output ports of the feed network, hence enabling the antenna to radiate either a linearly polarized signal or left/right-handed circularly polarized signal. A prototype antenna with the biasing network is designed, fabricated, and measured. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results is achieved. Measurement results show that the proposed antenna has an overlapped 10-dB impedance bandwidth and 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth of 4.7–5.36 GHz (13.1%). The average realized gains are $\sim 9$ dBi/dBic, which remain reasonably stable for different polarizations. The proposed antenna outperforms most of the reported polarization reconfigurable antennas for its wide bandwidth and relatively high gain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A novel polarization-reconfigurable mechanism based on a polarization-rotation artificial magnetic conductor (PRAMC) structure is proposed. A new polarization-reconfigurable antenna is designed by combining a PRAMC-based multipolarized dipole antenna with a RFIC switch-based network, in which three polarization states of right-handed, left-handed circular polarization (RHCP, LHCP) and +45^\circ linear polarization (LP) can be realized by controlling the dc bias of the switches accordingly. The multipolarization antenna is well designed for offering three polarization states. A large 3-dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 15.5%, a wide 3-dB AR beamwidth for CP states and a large cross-polarization isolation of more than 50 dB for LP state together with a broad impedance bandwidth of 20.5% are obtained. A switch network is used to generate three feeding modes, and the performance of the RF-integrated circuit (RFIC) switches is experimentally verified. A prototype of the proposed polarization-reconfigurable antenna is fabricated and tested. Good agreements between the measured and simulated results are observed, which indicates good performances of the proposed antenna. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This communication introduces a polarization reconfigurable wideband circularly polarized (CP) antenna, which consists of four radiating arms connected to a reconfigurable feeding network. The four radiating arms excited by the feeding network are able to generate wideband CP waves with bidirectional radiation patterns in free space. In order to increase the gain and obtain a broadside radiation pattern, the proposed antenna is placed above a metallic reflector with the distance of quarter wavelength at the center frequency. In addition, polarization reconfigurability is realized by utilizing PIN diodes in the feeding transmission lines such that left-handed circular polarization (LHCP) and right-handed circular polarization (RHCP) modes can be selectively excited by controlling the on/off states of the PIN diodes. The proposed antenna exhibits a wide impedance bandwidth of 80% and an overlapped axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 23.5% for both modes. The antenna gain is stable across the operating bandwidth with the peak gain of 4.8 dBic. The antenna has a wide AR beamwidth of 90°. The presented work is suitable for GPS, CNSS, or RFID applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces a polarization reconfigurable wheel-shaped antenna with wide bandwidth and conical-beam radiation pattern. A wideband circular-monopolar patch surrounded by eight reconfigurable coupling loop stubs can generate conical-beam radiation patterns with different polarizations. This polarization reconfigurable characteristic is realized by controlling PIN diodes on the coupling loop stubs. The center-fed circular patch operates with the vertically-polarized conical-beam radiation and the coupling loop stubs radiate the horizontally-polarized wave propagation. With choosing proper magnitudes and phase differences between the two orthogonal radiations from the monopolar patch and the loop stubs, a circularly-polarized conical-beam radiation can be obtained. In addition, the presence of a back reflector yields a wide axial ratio bandwidth, enhances the front-to-back ratio of the radiation pattern, and avoids EM interferences between DC biasing lines and the antenna. This proposed antenna can generate three types of polarizations with the conical-beam radiation pattern including vertical polarization, left-handed circular polarization, and right-handed circular polarization by controlling the PIN diodes. Measured impedance and axial ratio bandwidths are 28.6% (3.45 to 4.6 GHz) and 15.4% (3.6 to 4.2 GHz), respectively, for the two CP modes. The maximum CP gain is 4.4 dBic. Furthermore, a dual-band operation (3.35 to 3.44 GHz and 4.5 to 4.75 GHz) can be observed for the LP mode. The antenna can operate at the downlink of standard C band (3.625 to 4.2 GHz) for geostationary satellite communication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A design of stacked square-ring patch antennas with quadri-polarization diversity is proposed. The polarization switching is realized with a 1-to-4 reconfigurable feeding network composed of a quasi-lumped coupler and PIN diodes. The size of the feeding network is less than 0.01\lambda0^{2}, where \lambda0 is the free-space wavelength of the operating frequency. In addition, by controlling dc voltages, the operation of the feeding network can be varied among four different modes. The performances of the stacked patch antenna and the reconfigurable feeding network are respectively exhibited. A prototype that integrates the feeding network into the inner slot of the lower square-ring patch of the stacked patch antenna is designed and constructed. The prototype can provide dual orthogonal linear polarizations and dual orthogonal circular polarizations at 1.98 GHz. Details of the experimental results for the prototype are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]