Compact Wideband Pattern-Reconfigurable Antenna Based on Tapered Slot Antenna

Abstract

This letter presents a wideband planar pattern-reconfigurable antenna built on tapered slot antenna (TSA). The antenna is made up of four TSAs and a feeding unit which is composed of four microstrip lines with balun and four branches. By changing the states of eight PIN diode switches soldered onto the feeding unit and four PIN diode reflection switches bridged onto the patch slots, eight different radiation patterns spaced at 45 -degree intervals in the azimuthal plane can be obtained. The simulation results indicate that the devised antenna can achieve a -10 dB impedance bandwidth of 70.9% (2.84–5.96 GHz), with peak gain ranging from 3.02 to 5.74 dBi (3.26–5.96 GHz). In addition, the total efficiency is not less than 78%. The compact design measures $0.53 \lambda_{\min} \times 0.53 \lambda_{\min} \times 0.005 \lambda_{\min}$.