Beam-switching antenna implemented by reconfigurable slots on cylindrical cavity.

A design for beam-switching antennas is proposed in this study. A cylindrical cavity with a reconfigurable conformal slot array distributed evenly along the middle of its side wall is presented. The reconfigurable feature of the slots is achieved by placing a diode switch across each slot. An integrated bias scheme is introduced for the diode switches to activate and disable the slots. By properly selecting the dimensions for the cavity and the number of activated slots, the optimum values for the gain and front-to-back ratio (FBR) of the antenna can be obtained. The gain value is further increased by adding a skirt-like structure to both the top and bottom of the cavity. A design example is presented with the operating frequency set at 5.8 GHz. The conformal array comprises 24 slots to provide a 15° resolution for main beam switching. The simulation results indicate that the design can offer an antenna gain up to 8.62 dBi and a FBR above 10 dB. These results and the corresponding radiation patterns have gone through experimental verification, from which good agreement is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]