Compact-Size Low-Profile Wideband Circularly Polarized Omnidirectional Patch Antenna With Reconfigurable Polarizations

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 64; no. 5; pp. 2016 - 2021
• Main Authors: Yuan-Ming Cai, Gao, Steven, Yingzeng Yin, Wenting Li, Qi Luo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.05.2016; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Broadband antennas; circular polarization; compact; low profile; Microstrip; Microstrip antennas; omnidirectional antenna; Patch antennas; PIN diodes; polarization reconfigurable; Slot antennas; Wideband; omnidirectional antenna; wideband; circular polarization; PIN diodes; low profile; Compact; polarization reconfigurable
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2016.2535502

A compact-size low-profile wideband circularly polarized (CP) omnidirectional antenna with reconfigurable polarizations is presented in this communication. This design is based on a low-profile omnidirectional CP antenna which consists of a vertically polarized microstrip patch antenna working in TM 01 /TM 02 modes and sequentially bended slots etched on the ground plane for radiating horizontally polarized electric field. The combined radiation from both the microstrip patch and the slots leads to a CP omnidirectional radiation pattern. The polarization reconfigurability is realized by introducing PIN diodes on the slots. By electronically controlling the states of the PIN diodes, the effective orientation of the slots on ground plane can be changed dynamically and the polarization of antenna can be altered between left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right-hand circular polarization (RHCP). The proposed antenna exhibits a wide-operational bandwidth of 19.8% (2.09-2.55 GHz) with both axial ratio below 3 dB and return loss above 10 dB when radiates either LHCP or RHCP waves. Experimental results show good agreement with the simulation results. The present design has a compact size, a thickness of only 0.024λ and exhibits stable CP omnidirectional conical-beam radiation patterns within the entire operating frequency band with good circular polarization.