Linearly Polarized and Dual Polarized Magneto Electric Dipole Antennas With Reconfigurable Beamwidth in the H plane
Linearly polarized and dual polarized magneto electric (ME) dipole antennas with a dynamic beamwidth control in the H plane are presented. The design methodology uses tunable parasitic dipoles placed on the sides of a driven ME dipole along its H plane. Each parasitic dipole is loaded with a varactor diode to change the strength of the mutual coupling; therefore, the overall radiation pattern produced by the driven ME dipole and the two parasitic dipoles can be tuned. Two fully functional prototypes with more than 10% impedance bandwidths are developed and tested, demonstrating the H plane beamwidth with a continuously tuning range from 80deg to 160deg for the linearly polarized antenna and from 72deg to 133deg for either polarization mode of the dual polarized antenna. The radiation efficiencies are better than 80% in all states of operation for both antennas.
IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation