Pattern Reconfigurable Microstrip Antenna With Multidirectional Beam for Wireless Communication

In this communication, a compact pattern reconfigurable microstrip antenna with multidirectional beam is investigated. The proposed antenna has a simple structure and consists of an aperture feed microstrip antenna, two metal walls, and six p-i-n diodes. The metal wall connects to the ground plane by p-i-n diodes. By switching between different states of the p-i-n diodes, the proposed antenna can realize six radiation pattern modes, which are a narrow beamwidth pattern, a wide beamwidth pattern, and four directional patterns in the xoz plane and yoz plane. Meanwhile, the operating frequency band of the antenna is always in the bandwidth from 3.5 to 3.9 GHz. The cross polarization of the antenna in the whole modes is very low. The antenna is fabricated and measured to verify the design. The measured results are in good agreements with the simulated one. Owing to a novel design, good pattern reconfigurable characteristics of the proposed antenna have been obtained in the whole frequency band. It is a good candidate for the wireless communication system.